Spoon Fishing: Casting, Trolling, and Jigging with Spoons

The Oldest Lure Still Catches Fish

There's a story — probably true, possibly embellished — that spoon lures were invented when someone dropped a teaspoon overboard and watched a fish hit it before it reached the bottom. Whether or not that actually happened, the point stands: a curved piece of metal that wobbles and flashes has been fooling fish for well over 150 years, and it shows no signs of stopping.

Spoons work because they trigger two primal responses in predatory fish: the flash mimics a wounded baitfish reflecting light, and the wobble creates vibration that fish detect through their lateral line. You don't need to match a hatch or finesse a presentation. You just need to put metal in front of fish that are willing to eat.

Casting Spoons

Casting spoons are the most straightforward approach. Throw it out, reel it back. The lure does the work.

Eppinger Daredevle — The red-and-white Daredevle is one of the most recognizable lures in fishing history, and it still catches pike and bass exactly the way it did in 1906. The classic 1 oz size covers most situations, but they make everything from 1/4 oz panfish versions to 3 1/2 oz musky sizes. The thick stamped steel gives it a wide, slow wobble that pike find irresistible.

Acme Little Cleo — A hammered-finish spoon with a more erratic action than the Daredevle. The 2/5 oz gold Little Cleo is a trout and salmon staple on Great Lakes tributaries. Cast it upstream in a river, let it swing through the current, and hang on. The hammered surface throws light in unpredictable directions, which seems to trigger strikes in clear water.

Krocodile by Luhr-Jensen — Heavier, more compact, and casts like a bullet. The Krocodile gets deep fast, which makes it effective in rivers with strong current or when fish are holding near the bottom. Chrome/blue back is a great all-around finish.

The retrieve is simple: steady and slow enough to feel the wobble. Speed up or slow down until you find the sweet spot where the spoon has maximum side-to-side action without spinning. If it spins, you're reeling too fast. Add an occasional pause — spoons flutter on the drop, and that momentary vulnerability triggers following fish to commit.

Trolling Spoons

Trolling thin, lightweight flutter spoons behind a boat is one of the most effective methods for targeting suspended salmon and trout in open water. Unlike casting spoons, trolling spoons are typically thinner and lighter, designed to work at slow trolling speeds (1.5-2.5 mph) with a wide, lazy wobble.

Popular trolling spoons include the Michigan Stinger, Moonshine Lures, and Evil Eye. These are typically run behind a dodger or flasher to add additional attraction and impart extra action to the spoon.

Dodger vs. flasher combos — A dodger swings side to side without rotating and gives the trailing spoon a darting action. A flasher rotates 360 degrees and creates a different vibration pattern. Dodgers are more common for trout and kokanee; flashers are the standard for chinook salmon. The leader length between dodger/flasher and spoon matters — typically 6-18 inches for a dodger (shorter means more action) and 24-40 inches for a flasher.

Downriggers or diving planers get your trolling spoon to the target depth. In summer on the Great Lakes, chinook salmon might be 60-120 feet down in the thermocline. Without a downrigger, you're not getting there with a flutter spoon.

Color selection for trolling is a rabbit hole you can go down forever. General rules that hold up:

• •Bright, UV, and glow colors in deep or dark water
• •Natural baitfish patterns (alewife, smelt) in clear water on sunny days
• •Green and chartreuse in stained water
• •Two-tone spoons (dark back, bright belly) are versatile all-around performers

Jigging with Spoons

Spoons deserve special mention for jigging because of their versatility. A heavy casting spoon like a 3/4 oz Kastmaster doubles as a jigging spoon when dropped vertically. The tumbling, fluttering fall is inherently attractive.

For dedicated jigging, the Hopkins Shorty and Luhr-Jensen Crippled Herring are purpose-built. Heavy, compact, and designed to fall with maximum flash and vibration. Drop them to the bottom over deep structure — a lake trout reef, a deep bass point, a striper school on a river ledge — and work them with sharp upward snaps followed by a free-fall on slack line.

Weedless Spoons for Vegetation

Here's where spoons go where most hard baits can't. A weedless spoon with a single hook and a wire or nylon weed guard glides through thick vegetation that would foul any treble-hooked lure.

Johnson Silver Minnow — The gold standard for weedless spoons. Tip the single hook with a soft plastic trailer (a white or chartreuse grub works great) and reel it over lily pads, through emergent grass, and across matted vegetation. When a pike or bass blasts it out of the pads, it's one of the most violent strikes in freshwater fishing.

Eppinger Weedless Daredevle — Same great action as the original, with a built-in weed guard. Heavier than the Silver Minnow, so it works well in deeper weed beds.

The technique in heavy cover is a steady retrieve fast enough to keep the spoon on top of or just ticking through the vegetation. When you hit a pocket or open lane, pause and let it flutter down. Most strikes come during that pause or immediately after the spoon drops off a weed clump.

Metal Types and Finish

The metal a spoon is made from affects its weight, action, and durability.

• •Brass — Traditional spoon material. Heavy enough for casting distance, takes plating and paint well. Most classic spoons (Daredevle, Little Cleo) are stamped brass.
• •Steel — Lighter and springier. Steel spoons tend to have a faster, tighter wobble. Stainless steel resists corrosion in saltwater applications.
• •Tungsten — Dense and heavy for its size. Tungsten spoons are compact, sink fast, and are primarily used for ice fishing and deep jigging where getting to the bottom quickly in a small profile is critical.

Finish matters. Hammered finishes scatter light in multiple directions and are effective in clear water. Smooth polished finishes give a more consistent flash. Painted finishes offer specific color patterns but lose some flash. Chrome/nickel is bright and visible at distance; gold/brass is subtler and often outperforms chrome in stained or shallow water.

Target Species

• •Northern pike and musky — Born to eat spoons. Big Daredevles, Eppinger Husky Devles, and weedless spoons through vegetation. Pike are not subtle about hitting spoons — you'll know.
• •Trout and salmon — Casting spoons in rivers, trolling spoons in lakes. Little Cleo and Krocodile for river trout. Michigan Stinger and Moonshine for trolling Great Lakes salmon and steelhead.
• •Redfish — Gold Johnson Silver Minnow across shallow grass flats on the Gulf Coast. Redfish love a weedless spoon retrieved steadily just under the surface. The gold flash imitates a fleeing shrimp or baitfish.
• •Striped bass — Heavy jigging spoons (Hopkins, Stingsilver) dropped on schooling fish in deep water. When stripers are blitzing bait on the surface, a Kastmaster cast into the chaos and retrieved at medium speed draws aggressive strikes.

A simple habit that pays off: note which spoon finish and size produced on each trip. Over time, you'll build a mental (or logged — CatchVault works well for this) database of what works in your specific waters under different conditions. Spoon fishing is simple, but the details of color, size, and speed make the difference between occasional fish and consistent fish.