This is something I got into last year. I know of lot of people here prefer the shallow weedy ponds, but my confidence in this thing last year went sky high. I have never been a big advocate for spoons, but James Watson and Gerald Swindle were doing a lot of videos on this thing. Watson is big on using it around docks and Swindle on ledge and offshore fishing. They sparked my interest so I picked up a few in early 2018 and by middle of the summer if I was offshore I needed it on the deck. So on to a review of it and why I like it:
So I will start with what it is not. It is not a monster flutter spoon that will spook the entire lake. Its a 5" spoon and is a little more subtle than that. Having said that, you need to make sure you are on some active fish otherwise it will spook some fish, but not nearly to the extent of some monster spoons. It will catch quality and quantity. As is most River2Sea products this thing is beefy. It comes with high end terminal built to tow a truck. The treble hook is similar to the hooks you see on the Whopper Plopper. The shape of the spoon is made to make the bait continue to drift tail first. On the front of the bait you will notice a micro swivel which really helps with line twists which are one of the reasons I normally would not touch a spoon. This also comes with a stinger hook... and they did it right. The stinger hook it attached by braided line and it it tied to the nose of the bait. Not to the split ring, not to the swivel, to the nose of the bait so it really does not get tangled with the bait at all. The crazy thing is how many fish the stinger hook catches. When a fish goes to mouth it and they flare their gills they may not get the whole bait (especially smallmouth), but they do inhale that stinger hook. So many fish you catch you will find that the stinger is buried in the roof of their mouth or their lip and as they turned away the treble gets them outside the mouth.
Gear: I throw this on 15lb fluoro on a rod with a real soft tip. Spoons are known for losing fish so a parabolic rod is key to keeping them pinned. If you are going to target marinas, definitely go with heavier fluoro around pilings and cables. For colors I try to match the forage the best I can, but I pretty much stick to some type of chrome and some type of gold. I came home with raw thumbs a couple of evenings last summer with the chrome blue so I tend to reach for that first in clean water.
So what do I target? For me I have had massive success with this thing offshore when fish are schooling and chasing baitfish. If you see baitfish bubbling at the surface, this thing shines. It will catch all species of bass (and other predatory fish). The catch to this bait is when it lands, it lands tail first and will continue to drift away from you. In super deep water and large balls of bait they may not come all the way up to hit topwater, and sometimes crankbaits wont do it. Meanwhile the bait doesnt love the presence of the boat so getting in the middle of them and dropping on them will work, but only for a moment. This bait allows you to keep your distance. It is key to understand the depth you are fishing and know what you are trying to do. So if you see bait bubbling at the surface in 25 FOW you dont want to cast it right in the bait. It will spook the bait and the spoon will continue to drift past the bait. Ideally you want to cast shy of it, and thumb your spool as the spoon will drift into/just under the baitball. IF, and thats a big IF, it gets to the bottom give it a couple of hard snaps and let it flutter back down. You want it to fall freely, but control the slack as it will get hit on the fall.
For dock fishing you use the drift of the bait to your advantage. So deep docks or deep marinas are ideal for this. Pitch it at the dock and let it flutter further and further under the dock. It will get to places other baits cant. However, you will also be dealing with pilings, cables, etc so make sure you are prepared to lose a few.
Now these things arent cheap. They run about $10 a piece. So you could easily steal a lot of the features this thing brings to the table. You could be a cheaper spoon, add the swivel and stinger and get something close to this, but they did it right out of the box.
