Tips n' Tricks

Spoon Tactics

By Scott Baker-McGarva, Angler's West, Vancouver, B.C. Canada

Ask any experienced Steelhead Angler his or her favourite spoon and nine times out of ten the answer will be a Sterling Silver plate lure such as a Gibbs "Koho" or "Ironhead." It is a known fact among die-hard "Steelheads" (and Salmon fishers too) that Sterling Silver plate provides twice as much flash as nickel and therefore doubles the effectiveness of the lure being used.

This fact doesn't mean Anglers should promptly toss out everything but Silver plated lures from their lure boxes...other metallic finishes have a place as well, and savvy rods know this fact as well.

Recently, a former co-worker of mine and I hit the Thompson River (British Columbia) for a late season overnight trip. As we both work in the fishing retail trade, we were both well aware of the fact that the river was the lowest in years, had received a serious pounding in recent weeks by hoards of anglers, and finally, was being fished heavily with spoons by other rods...

The very low water conditions also meant that water clarity was as good as it gets, better than 10 feet of visibility to the angler surely meant that the fish could see twice that. These ultra-clear conditions allowed spoon fishers to cover twice as much water as the lures were twice as visible to the fish, and therefore could draw them from greater distances than normal. It is not unusual for Thompson fish to chase a spoon 10 to 20 feet to your feet!

However, our trip was late in the season, and spoons were not producing as well given how much we were using them. Even the usually spoon-stupid resident trout were shying away this year. After covering several known fish holding waters (and even having fish roll repeatedly in front of us) I decided to try a less flashy more shallow running spoon, a K-4 Wobbler in brass with a fire red stripe.

The K-4 is generally a spoon used in shallow tailouts, its tear-drop shape fishes shallower than the oval "Koho" or elongated "Croc." Thus I could use a slower retrieve and hang the lure in front of the fish longer, this "better look" might provide the trigger I needed.

In a nutshell, my plan was successful, in water already flogged by both other anglers and ourselves, I pulled two nice fish into less than 2 feet of water to take the K-4. The slower action and reduced flash didn't seem to spook the fish off and they had no problem aggressively chasing it into very shallow water. Further, this was after a normally productive Green Scale Koho #55 was shown to the same fish.

Angler's often overlook the older lure styles or finishes in favour of newer models without recognizing the fact that older style lures worked fine ten or twenty years ago! Well fish are often only four to five years old, so do they genetically know better? I doubt it...and, after all...When was the last time you tied on a Tee-Spoon? (Surely the most productive lure back in Steelheading heyday's in B.C.)