SPOON FEEDING
A versatile outlook on catching more fish on spoons.
By: Bill Schwartz

When someone talks about fishing lures today, Spoons are usually one of the last lures that will mentioned during their conversation. If the same talk had taken place 25 years ago, the discussion of Spoons would have been one of the first lures mentioned. In recent years with all the new advancements in fishing lures that have came along, one of the "old stand bys" sadly has taken a back seat. This has been the Spoon!

Out on the Great Lakes trolling with Spoon's for Salmon and Trout are a main diet through out the year and they’re tough to beat when your casting for pike. Being versatile with these presentations is a must in order to quickly find fish and their finicky feeding preference for the day (Or even hour of the day).

This is one of the main reasons that Slammer Tackle is proud to introduce it's newest lure to there top producing line up of fishing lures, the  Trophy series Large Game fish spoon!

Casting the weeds for giant Pike!
When taking your week long vacation in Canada where you'll be searching for that Northern Pike of your dreams I'll be willing to bet just about anything that the camp guide or resort owner will tell you to bring along a bunch of Spoon's. And why not, big Pike love them! That's why when my 10 year old son Cody and I head north on our father / son getaway fishing trip, this is one of the first lures he snaps onto his line. It's simple for him to use; easy to cast for long periods of time and by the end of the week his arms are usually sore from out fishing me. The new Trophy series large game fish Spoon from Slammer was made just for these situations. With its large, 5 inch silhouette that only weighs 5/8 of a ounce, makes it ideal for any young angler to cast all day long with medium action spinning gear. For this type of fishing I like to use a medium action St.Croix spinning rod model #PS60MF or #PS66MF with a spinning reel spooled up with 10 or 12 pound Trilene XT line. A ball bearing swivel can be used at the business end of your line but tying on a small light single strand wire leader is recommended. When searching for Northern Pike I will start by looking for any large weed beds or weed flat that have the presence of baitfish. Drift through the area by working from deep to shallow casting over the tops and looking for any pockets or edges that pike might be using as ambush points. Generally, on sunny days these weed beds will be loaded with hungry Pike looking for food and by fan casting them with Slammers Trophy spoons can be a deadly presentation. Make sure you vary the speed of your retrieve while casting to help trigger strikes. Colors that have been best are Firetiger, Blue / Speckle, Blue / Silver, Chartreuse / Green and Monkey Puke.

Deep water Lake Trout- Canadian Style
While you’re on your Canadian Pike fishing trip, don't forget about the fantastic lake trout fishing that most of the clear water fisheries have to offer. Early and late in the day you can have some great fishing for lake trout. Trolling flat lines off the back of your boat with the Trophy spoon can be one of the best ways to catch these deep water monsters. Anytime I get over to Andy Myers Lodge on Northwestern Ontario's Eagle Lake, I will always spend some time trolling the trout holes down on the lake’s "West arm"! Here, the trout and the baitfish can often be seen on your locator screen and can be "sitting ducks" when located. The real trick here is knowing the depth that your lure's are running at, and then being able to run your lure presentation just over the tops of the baitfish. Trial and error will be needed to figure this out and having a reel with a line counter will help to repeat the amount of line that your letting back out once you find the magic number. I like the Diawa SG27LC's spooled full of 17 pound Trilene XT on an 8-foot down rigger rod.

To start out, let out 50 to 70 feet of line and then snap on a 5 or 6 ounce Off shore snap weight to the line. Then continue to let out up to 150 feet or more depending on the depth of the fish on the locator screen. When running two rods (in Canada you’re allowed one line per person so you'll need a partner) try to stagger the depths until fish are found. From there, run a lighter snap weight using a longer line to also stagger the distance form the boat and the two lures. I like the boats trolling speed to be from 2.2 to 3.2 mph while I make  "S" turns with the boat. Our best colors have beenBlue / Silver, Blue Glow, Chartreuse / Green or Glow and Orange Glow.

A big part of this fantastic Laker fishing in Canada is the practice of catch and release. When a fish is hooked in deep water that you are planning to release, reel it up slowly so the fish can adjust to the depth changes. Cranking them up too quickly can give the fish the "bends" and make it impossible for a successful release.

Spoons off Down Rigger’s
One of the most popular ways of spoon fishing for Salmon and Trout out on the Great Lakes is to fish them off a down rigger. The down rigger will let you lower the Spoon down to where bait fish are located, and the Spoons ability to flutter at higher speeds will let you locate active fish. The first line that is to be let out will be the line off the down rigger ball's release (see the release manufacture's recommendation for attaching the line to the clip). The amount of line the lure will be set back from the ball will vary. If you'll be running multiple downriggers, shorter lead lengths might be needed to reduce tangles. If you'll be fishing deeper water (60 feet or more) often only a 10 or 15 foot lead will be enough. When running only one down rigger off your boat, running it back 20 to 25 feet will work. When stacking a line over a lower line with the use of a stacker clip, you will need a shorter lead off of the lower clip so that when you lower everything down, the bottom line doesn't swing up and tangle with the upper line. The stacked upper line can be run with a longer 20 to 30 foot lead. If you’re to be fishing shallower water (under 40 feet) there will be times that you might need a 60 to 100 foot long lead. When running multiple down riggers not only vary your depths up and down but with different lead lengths. On our normal two down rigger spread we will set the first down rigger ten feet lower than the second down rigger and both will have a stacker line 20 feet above the lower line. For example, we will set down rigger "one" at 70 feet down with a plain Trophy Spoon with a 10-foot lead. The stacker line will be at 50 feet down (20 above the low line) with a small dodger or Bechhold & Son fish catcher flasher 4 feet in front of the Trophy Spoon with a 30-foot lead. Down rigger "two" will be set 60 feet down with a dodger or flasher / spoon combo with a 15 foot lead. The stacker line will be set at 40 feet with a 20 to 25 foot lead. Here we are covering a zone from 40 foot to 70 foot down with 4 lures set every 10 feet and set back from 10 to 30 feet.  Experimenting with different setups and letting the fish tell you what they want will be the best way to find out what is working! Some of our best colors have been Rotten Banana, Any of the Blue colors we have to offer, Sliver Plum and Speckle Glow Plum.

Spoons off of Directional Divers
There will be times where we will run spoons off a Slide diver or a Dipsy Diver. When a hot zone or pattern is found with the downrigger spread, we will run multiple lines in the same zone with the use of the directional divers. Stacking the down rigger line too close together and flooding a zone might spook fish and will increase the odds for getting more tangle's. Running a directional diver off each side of the boat on a 2 or 3 out setting and letting the line out to the desired depth seems to work better. When trying to find that "hot zone" we will sometimes run 2 rods on each side of the boat with directional divers. The inside rods are our wire line Dipsy rods. This rod is an 8 1/2 foot Eagle Claw full roller rod model #SF404 that is fitted with a Diawa SG47LC line counter reel. It is spooled up with a minimum of 300 feet of 25 pound trolling wire with a mono backing. If you can, eliminate the mono backing and have the reel fully spooled with wire. If you ever get a tangle and need to strip off some line and retie you'll still be OK. This past year we had a fish hit with 120 feet of wire out and screamed non stop to 425 feet, where we could start to see the backing line. When we put some thumb pressure on the spool, hoping to slow the fish down a bit the line popped. The only alteration I did to the rod was replace the roller tip's with a Twilly tip from www.fishusa.com. The outside rods are 9 foot Dipsy rod's with line counter reels spooled that have been spooled with 50 pound Courland Spectron. Outside rods will have a Dipsy or Slide diver set at a 3 out setting with the inside rods a Dipsy Diver on a

1 1/2 out setting. Place the outside rods in a front rod holder set 90 degree's to the boat and tilted just up from being parallel to the water. The inside wire rod holder's will be parallel to the water and angled back slightly towards the back of the boat. Try to keep a minimum of 20 to 30 feet of line separation between the two rods on each side. If the outside rod is to be set with a 120 feet out have the inside rod set at 90 or 100 max. With the 1 1/2 setting on the Dipsy's and the thin wire line on the inside rod's, this set up will be running deeper, so running it farther back for more depth will not be needed.

Lead Core Line
There are times when the fish might be down rigger ball or Dipsy shy or just scattered through out the water column. Here is where adding a lead core line set to your spread might be useful. It is stealth and underused approach that might add a few more fish to you catch at the end of the day. The Lead Core set up I use is a Penn 309 reel that is first spooled with 250 feet of 25 pound mono. I then spliced in 10 colors of 27 pound Courtland Lead Core line. There might be times when you'll only want to have 5 or 7 colors however. Finnally, I’ll splice a 100-foot Fluorocarbon leader of 17-pound test and then tie on a ball bearing swivel. For a rod I have an 8 1/2-foot Diawa down rigger rod that has a little back bone to it. This set up can be run straight off the back of the boat or can be run off each side of the boat using in line planner boards. When running it for your side lines, let out all of the lead core line and then some of the monofilment line. Then clip on the planner board to the monofilment line and let out the set up off the side of your boat. Use an extra heavy clip (or Clips) if you run the Offshore brand board. If your going to be running one planner board off each side of the boat, you might want one side with 5 colors and the other side with 7 or 10 colors of lead core to vary the lure depth. When a fish hits, fight the fish and the board in, and then have one of your partners remove the board. Keep steady pressure on the fish at all times and slowly pump the rod while reeling. When running three lead core rods, have the rod that's off the back of the boat set up with ten colors. This rig will run deeper so when a fish is hooked off one of the outer lines, generally it will come up behind the boat during the fight and stay up over the rear lower lines until you can reel it in out of the way. With 10 colors lead line out look for you spoon to run in the 40 to 50 foot range depending on you boat speed. When extra depth is needed you can clip on a 2 or 3 ounce snap weight on the lead core line.

The only time you will have trouble running this type of set up is when you have a large crowd of boats working an area. Having lines out behind your boat four to five hundred feet (or more) with a lot of other boats around can be trouble. This set up is best used on weekdays when the lake is less crowded or when you’re off by yourself. The Trophy spoon can either be ran by itself or with a Bechhold & Son fish catcher flasher or small dodger 4 to 5 feet in front of it. Our best colors have been Blue / Sliver, Chartreuse /Green, Chartreuse / Glow and Speckle Glow Plum.

Spoons, when used correctly, can be one of the most effective ways to put fish in the boat day in and day out throughout the entire fishing season. With the multitude of colors that the Trophy spoon is available in, there will be one (or more) that the fish can't leave alone.