trolling with spoons

[martin]

I live on Lake Oahe in SD and am wondering if any of you out there pull spoons rather than plugs. Seems every boat out here is pulling shad raps or wally divers or some other lure. I'm thinking something different could be in order and am wondering what has worked, or hasn't worked. Most of our fish are in the 15" to 18" range and the smelt are back (finally). The fish will go deep this summer (50+ feet) and I do some fishing with leadcore. If you use spoons, what kind, size and color would you recommend? Any info would be appreciated.

[gilly8000]

Good question, I'm interested in seeing some replies on this also.

[pliers]

I pull spoons on Lake Erie regularly. The typical set up there is to drag them behind a bottom bouncer or off a downrigger. We use about 1.5 - 2" spoons. Stingers are popular. I personally like silver streaks.

[JK]

I troll spoons on Lake Erie with stingers and silver streaks, using dipsey's and snap weight's to get to the desired depth. Many different colors worked last year, but perch was my favorite. Here is a couple of websites that you can view the color selection at,

http://www.catchmorefish.com/

http://www.mistinger.com/

Hope this helps

Jeff

[Capt. Paul]

Have done a lot of spoon trolling on Erie and Saginaw Bay. Have used Stingers, Small Streaks, Northports and Pro Kings with success. Purples and greens seem to be the best colors. Have run these behind riggers, dipseys, and snap weights depending on the depth. Hope this helps.

[DUDE]

I would say try and match the size of spoon to the size of the bait fish they are feeding on. You said they are feeding on smelt, how big do the smelt run out there?? Here on lake erie the walleye in the summer time are feeding on smelt most of the time. Our smelt run from 3 to 6 inches. so we troll spoons that run in that range. I dont know if color is as important as the size and action of spoon. The stinger spoons paint jobs wear off after a few fish are caught on them, but the fish still seem to attack them after all paint is off. They do make some with copper backing or with silver backing, and that can be important. Some days you cant by a hit on the silver and there destroying the copper. Then some days its just the oposite. Hope you have success you could be starting a whole new trend out there....

[FisherJoe]

I've successfully used spoons in Saginaw Bay and Lake Erie. Downriggers are nice if it's deep enough, but my best luck has been running 3-ways with a plug (usually hot 'n' tot) on a 3 ft dropper and a small spoon on a 4 ft leader. Not exceptionally unusual to get two at a time.

[SUPERTROLLER]

The paint problems with the Stinger spoons has been rectified. They use a new paint or process and claim that they will now hold paint as well as can be expected. Toothy critters have a habit of scratching painted objects in my experience and sometimes the more scratches they collect the more desireable they become to the fish.

[chuck]

we use the 3 way with a spoon & wart,hot & tot or repel Crawfish on the other end. Takes a little getting use to but does work.
I also start out with small spoons then switch to larger ones.

[Tom (mich)]

As already mentioned, can't beat three ways with a crank on the bottom and spoon off the top. In addition to that already stated, let those baits out SLOWWWWWW, the crank has to dig just a little. If not, the crank will float and the spoon will sink and well - you'll be dragging a mess.

[Soggydog]

Fishing a spoon off of a three way is hard to beat. Like other posters have already stated the key is to use a deep diver that really digs for the bottom (Hot-n-Tot), and to let your line out slowly. The other key is to use the lightest spoon you can find, the small stinger spoon does very well. Good luck.

[BobB(MI)]

As with the others, I have used spoons with a varying degree of success. Seems like the big water - Saginaw and Erie - seems to do the best for me. We have been doing quite a bit of experimenting with different types run off of dipsys, small diving discs, downriggers, etc. Some days the fish hit within 10' of the downrigger ball and other times they would only hit when the spoon was back 100'.

I'd suggest getting a few of different sizes. The Fintail spoons sold through walleyecentral fit a niche between the stingers and the Silver Sreak minis. The metallic plated colors let you apply different colored decals (like witchcraft tape) to get a ton of variations. Seems like gold/red and copper/green worked on Erie last year with copper/yellow and nickel/blue or red combos working in Saginaw and closer to home.

Have fun experimenting. Let us know how you make out.

Bob

[FROGMAN]

Michigan Stinger offers two different sized spoons. A smaller version called the Scorpion, and the full sized model. There are times I have caught more fish on the smaller sizes, but as summer nears the full size spoons seem to produce a little better for me.

Stinger has many color patterns to choose from, and I have enjoyed the new "Baitfish" series they are producing.

Tight lines

Keith Segar
NPAA #260

[Airwave(OH)]

Keith just to clarify, Stinger offers actually 4 sizes. They have The Scorpion- The Standard- The Magnum and a 1/2 oz the size of the Scorpion. The Magnum is generally used for Salmon but I use it in the fall for the BIG eyes with very good success.

[Mike A]

I have had some interest in this as well and don't live anywhere near Erie but fish a lot on Sak in ND.

I do have spoons that I got from a guy in Michigan. In your post you describe a dropper from the 3 way. Is the dropper just a crank with a 3 foot leader???????

Thanks