11/08/15 Monte Ne report

[doohickey]

Put in the boat around 8:30am.  My neighbor was already out there and had caught a keeper striper jigging spoons.  I trolled with an umbrella rig on one side and a flicker shad on the other for a couple hours.  I caught a small striper and a bigger hybrid both on the umbrella rig using chartreuse grubs. 

I started jigging spoons around 11am and finally caught my first fish on a spoon (I've been trying this technique on and off all year).  Boy, what a fish it was.  I didn't have scales but I'd say it was about a 20lb flat-head catfish.  He bent my swivel and my spoon came loose, but thankfully he was already in the net. 

I caught another small striper on the spoon shortly after the cat.  My boat battery died on me so I had to call it an early day.   I still had a blast and we feasted on fried catfish for dinner.

[Dan the fisherman]

Thanks for the report.  I was trying to get out today.  Wasn't able too. But glad to hear people are catching them. 

[fisherofmen11]

Thanks for the report. I have not been out in a while but hope to this weekend. 

[Stump bumper]

Sounds like they are moving, that is good. Now if those shad will move into the back of the coves the fishing will really heat up. Glad you got a fish on a spoon, now if you play with different shapes and colors I think it will become one of your favorite lures. I have about 50 right now and 5 different colors and lots of different sizes and shapes. 

[doohickey]

@Stump bumper  I was using a silver/white spoon due to it being a sunny day.  What are your most productive colors for stained water on cloudy days?

[Blll]

Just so this transplanted yankee is clear, we are not talking about a "spoon" like a Daredevil for pike but rather a jigging spoon like a Kastmaster or Vibrato right?

[doohickey]

Jigging spoons are what I was using, specifically War Eagle jiggin' spoons.

[Champ188]

I know some very good spoon fishermen who really like the War Eagle cole slaw or solid chartreuse spoons on dark days, even in mostly clear water.

[Stump bumper]

11 hours ago, Blll said:

Just so this transplanted yankee is clear, we are not talking about a "spoon" like a Daredevil for pike but rather a jigging spoon like a Kastmaster or Vibrato right?

Bill the spoons you mentioned are more casting spoons. There are endless number of manufacturers of spoons and colors but I have narrowed the shapes and sizes to two I like on Beaver and that is a long narrow spoon for whites and walleye and a fatter shad shaped spoon for Stripers. Neither of these resemble the traditional bass jigging spoons that work well on LM and spots, not what I am after.

I have sat on whites and caught 30 of them with a long minnow shaped spoon and had a shad shaped spoon just hanging in the strike zone without touching the rod and had a 20lb striper hit the fatter spoon. I don't know why, just what I have seen and my experience.

One thing I have noticed about stripers is that round black dot you see on the side of threadfin should be on your spoon, I carry a sharpie for that.

I like the real image spoons at Cabela's but my favorites are made by an older German lady in Killeen Tx who is caring on her late husband's design under KT lures. HLS sells two models in the same color but there are many more on her web site. If you like them I encourage you to call her and tell her, she is a really nice lady and loves to talk about her late husband and the bait shop they used to run together. She no longer runs a store front and sometimes gets slow in her production since she works alone, but she makes one killer spoon.

I don't claim to know all about spoons, just they are may favorite way to fish for anything except blacks then I would say drop shot. Also don't overlook the cheap spoons at Academy, they are great around trees when you are going to loose a spoon $1.50 is not hard to swallow.

On weights I like the 1/2 oz for the action but over 30 feet I like the 1 oz so I can get back on the action faster.

 

 

 

[Stump bumper]

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