Summer Spoon Fishing

by Steve Welch

A couple years ago I decided to make myself a better spoon fisherman. I put one in my hand and fished it all summer. I learned to fish several retrieves and different rigging techniques. No other bait mimics a falling baitfish better than a spoon.

The big picture came together once I started finding schools of bait on or near the lake bottom and concentrated on staying with the bait rather than worry if I was near fish.

Some days I cast along a deep channel and let my bait go to the bottom. I popped it off bottom and slowly reeled it back. Sometimes I only slightly popped it and others I jerked it four or five feet up and let it fall back to the bottom on a slightly slack line. You must stay in touch with the spoon or you will miss the strike.

There are days that I hover over baitfish and fish the spoon vertically, jigging it just enough to get a fish’s attention. Success requires good electronics and the ability to interpret what they show.

My boat is rigged to the nines with quality electronics. I have a Humminbird 997 side-imaging system on my dash so I can scan to each side of my boat and find schools of bait.

I have a Lowrance GPS/ depth finder with lake mapping on my dash to help me find river channels and sheer drop-offs. I have another Lowrance GPS/depth finder on the bow of my boat that shares the waypoints and info my Lowrance on my dash has stored in it. I am a big Lowrance man, so I still believe the down-looking Lowrance sonar is the best available unit.

I decided to master the art of the jigging spoon to make me a better white bass fisherman, but it also opened my eyes to how many other species key on this wounded baitfish imitator. I have caught huge blue catfish, channel catfish, and buffalo with this bait.

The idea was to keep in touch with the deep schools of whites if they should move down the channel or suspend out in deep water, as they tend to do.

I could throw the spoon a mile and whites couldn’t resist it free falling through the school towards bottom. I modified the bait a couple of years ago and it has become my go-to bait all summer.

I took a dressed treble hook or one decorated with some white buck tail and tied it about a foot above the spoon. That change has tripled my fish catches. If the whites aren’t hungry enough to eat the big 7/8-ounce spoon, they often pounce on the dressed treble hook.

Another odd thing happened. Huge buffalo love this tiny dressed treble hook. Yeah, that's right, buffalo on a lure. I have become very successful catching these huge fish, up to 40 pounds.

Clients actually ask me to switch from fishing for whites to vertical jigging for buffalo. It only takes a two-minute course on how to jig the spoon and you are ready.

We have had days of 25 fish when the smallest one was 15 pounds. Normally, we don't spend more than a couple hours doing this, as it is just a backup on a slow fishing day.

Once we get into hot weather, this pattern works every day. The fish have become so predictable that I brag I can get you one over 15 pounds in less than 10 minutes.

Clients have come to love this so much that my buddies give me a hard time for making money on a so-called trash fish. They call me the "Buffie King."

My clients love this so much that my how-to DVD and videos will soon include a white bass and buffalo combo. It should be available sometime this summer.

Anglers young and old, male or female, love the hard fight of a big fish, irregardless of the species. Believe me, these buffalo can fight. They can reel off 50 yards of line before you can turn them around. Man, they can jump! They can clear three feet of water. Kids go nuts for this and I have several kids who got the biggest fish of their life in my boat.

This probably will not work on every lake but Lake Shelbyville is full of big buffalo. You get out early in the morning during summer and they are sometimes "porpoising" like huge dolphins by the hundreds.

So for those of you who just want a tug on your line during the hottest months of the year, this really works and will get you through those dog days of summer.