I am envious of those of you who can write well enough for these magazines(Sol,Todd,Vedder,FnP,Robbo,Reiter Rat,& others I don't know of). I am the worst writer ever and its cool you can write about something you like so much and have it published.

Middle fork of the Danni Ashe I presume...

I suffer a "flash flood" everytime I see a picture of that chick. Hottest broad on the face of the earth.

She's all right for sure. This is the only board appropriate pic I have of her.

I'd still have to go with my avatar chick.

You should see her in action. She's bi, but she only does girl/girl on film.

BTW: Neither of these pictures do her justice, you HAVE to see her naked.

AA- I gotta agree, I wouldn't mind going on a spooning trip down the south fork of the elisia cuthbert

Ok, I have just seen her naked and AA and Sol are correct to truly appreciate her you must see her naked.-T

Nekked AND in motion illustrates her hotttttness best.

Sol, would you mind sharing what your favorite spoons are, and in what weights, colors you carry? Also how about gear, rod and line for feb. march fish. Thanks.

I don't get too caught up in the spoon color or finish game like allot of guys. I mostly use chrome or nickel, or occationally half brass and half nickel or chrome. If you are motivated to hit some chick, are you really going to let the fact she is Oriental, Caucasian or European stop you? Doubtfull.

I think my go to spoon under most water conditions is the 2/3 oz. oval PenTac. Spoons in 2/5 are nice to have for spooning shallower tailouts, but I like to know I'm getting down and if I'm being too aggressive I just angle my cast a little more downstream. Occationally, on big, deep, or swifter runs I'll go to 3/4 oz., and on rare occation 1 oz. I like the Gibbs spoons in these heavyier weights.

In BC during September and October when it's not so cold I like to use 30 pound PowerPro. We make long casts and using braid to minimize stretch during hookset has yeilded a higher ratio of landed fish. When it's freezing I just use 20 pound mono. This last trip I used 20 pound Suffix and I think it's the best heavy mono I've used to date. Reels? Levelwind only if you want my opinion. And my favorite spoon rod for the last 10 years has been the GL2 STR1086C, although Lami is now making one I like better. Heavy in the butt and semi-sensitive in the tip with a nice parabolic arc is what I look for in a spoon rod.

Hope this helps.

BTW: I read Bill's spoon article last night. It's worth reading if you're a beginer. I think he just about has that article down to a cut-and-paste version that he reconstructs under a different tittle every year. I bet he's been paid for the same article a half-dozen times now.

I was talking to Zog last nite about his trip to the great white north, didn't get into spoon/color selection but I'm sure he was running his 2/5 to 2/3 oz. PenTac most of the time.

But, as for gear he was using the Lamiglas X10 MHC rated for 10-20 lb. test, screwed his beloved Bantam 201 SG on & loaded it with what must have been a minimal amount 17 lb. Stren hi-vis blue. Gotta get that chap a Bantam 351 so he can put more than 60 yards of line on.

He said he lost a few monsters who freight-trained the bank bound soul, leaving him with empty spool & smoking drag while the boat was gone, so back to the gear bag for more 17 lb. line.......ahhhh poor guy!!

Zog also stated it was his best trip north...EVER.

I'll leave the #'s of fish & the size of them to your imagination....


C/22

Can you say, "Easier than getting laid in a womans prison?"

I looked at his spoon one day. He was chucking a quarter-oz. Copper PenTac glued to a quarter-oz. half brass half nickel Pentac. Apparently he's a fan of women with multi-national bloodlines.

For us spoon newbies you got a photo of a PenTac spoon? Never heard of one.

I'll echo most of Sol's comments...good post...I find the selection of the spoon's finish to be, mostly, an exercise in personal preference of the angler, not the fish. That being said, I'm tossing either silver plated, silver/gold 50/50, or I stack a silver and gold one together. I do all of those with Rvrfshr spoons.

The other spoons, like Sol, that I use are Gibb's...but just the really heavy ones, as I have the lighter weights covered with the Rvrfshrs. Occasionally I'll toss a Ltl Cleo, too...those were my go-to spoons for years.

Depending on the size of the river I'm fishing, I either use a Lamiglass X96JC, a Lamiglass X10MTC, Lamiglass X10MHC, or the new Lamiglass XMG50 120 (10 foot, 8-17, and especially kick ass now that they come with cork handles from the factory).

Line is pretty simple for me...fifteen pound mono in most situations, seventeen or eighteen pound mono in the bigger or more extreme situations. If the water I'm fishing is shallow enough that I'll be fishing with what I would consider a pretty light spoon (1/4 oz to 1/3 oz), then I'll often drop down to 12 pound test...but I don't use those little spoons in the winter very often at all.

I also like to use a fairly visible monofilament line so that I can monitor the "pulse" in the "bow" in the line...I fished for two days with a guy from the board a couple of weeks ago who saw first hand what using a slack line approach with visible line can do for ya...six fish to one fishing the same water...you never feel the hit, you just see it in the line.

I do not like the action that braid gives spoons, so I don't use it for spoon fishing, and I don't have a problem getting the hook set even when I'm fishing huge rivers like the Thompson or Skagit, though I'll admit I've been known to set the hook while running backwards fifteen feet just to make sure! The thickness of the heavy mono allows the spoon to flutter around rather than swing on a tight line...more important for winter runs who like to see the lure fall in their face, less important for summer runs who will come up six feet and chase it twenty feet across the river.

I also agree that levelwinds are the only way to go...besides the accuracy in casting they allow, you can also wing 'em across the run without twenty feet of parabolic slack line ending up in the air, and allowing your $4 or $5 lure to nestle right into the rocks. Also, in deeper water, you can let 'em swing with the bail disengaged and feed it line as it goes, slowing the swing and allowing the spoon to get even deeper in the slot.

A lot of the above doesn't apply when talking about fishing for little summer runs around here...which I mainly use spinners for, anyway.

Like Tim said above, it ain't rocket science...but he was being a bit facetious about "huck it out and wait for something to yank on it!"...it does require a bit of an experienced feel, but once you get it and start hooking fish, it becomes second nature pretty quickly.

Go hear one of Bill's seminar talks about it...the information is even easier to understand than in his articles.

Fish on...

Todd

Here ya go.

BTW: I wish rvrfsr would die-cut 2/3 oz. spoons. Why not, Joe?

Great post Todd... but I'm wondering what you mean by "monitoring the 'pulse' in the 'bow'?" As a relitively new addict to spoon fishing I'm intrigued by this theory. Up untill now I've tried to maintain direct contact with the spoon and kept as little line 'bow' as possible. I guess I didn't figure it mattered much as long as the spoon was throbbing and swinging in the bottom foot or so of water. I have been seeing some success on salmon and trout with the 3/8oz. rvrfshr but have yet to sore-lip a steelie with a spoon. ~josh

What do you put on them for a ring and hooK?

I'll give it a go.... I like to hold my rod tip about chest high while my spoon is working downsteam, if you doing it right the line will have a "bow" or bit of slack dropping from the tip to water.... & slack line & rod tip SHOULD be pumping or "pluse".
Thump, thump, thump is what your looking for. You need to place yourself in the right spot streamside as the spoon is only going to work correctly across & downstream from you. Your going to want to get it to pass thru the holding water your looking @ downstream... that will = a fish, in a perfect world.

Hard-core spooners love reels with a direct-drive switch, if you have one you know how they work. For you others keep the reel in free spool with your thumb fast to the spool. This will allow you to FEED line to the spoon as it works downstream, you can feel when the spoon WANTS to go. Let it, a bit at a time. This will kill the LIFT that your going to want to stay away from, as it will pull your spoon up & away from the strike zone. When you get bit, hang on, clamp down on that spool & fight it out, sooner of later you will need to click over the reel handle to fire-up your drag.

Clear as mud??

For you new spooners do yourself a big favor & pick up 1 Gibbs Ironhead spoon, its a big oval spoon that weighs in @ 1/2 oz. even though the package sez 3/4 oz. Fish it thru a run with water moving @ a brisk walking speed & about 4-6' of depth.

That spoon WILL tell you if your doing it right, right now. Huge thumps...

C/22

"I wish rvrfsr would die-cut 2/3 oz. spoons."

Me, too...

C/22 covered it pretty good...picture this:

River is going left to right, good spoon water is slightly across and below you. Toss yer crap out and downstream anywhere from 20 to 45 degrees...even steeper down, if that's what it takes to hit the right water.

Do what it takes to get the spoon to the right depth...be it feed it bunch of line, mend the crap out of it, or just let it swing...whatever it takes.

Once it's in the "zone", the current either activates the spoon all by itself, meaning the spoon starts to wobble, or I activate it by either lifting the rod tip or reeling in a crank or three.

As the wobbling spoon is swinging across the current, the fairly thick mono line is being pushed by the current and a slight bow will develop in the line between the rod tip and the lure...the lure will not be facing directly upstream, but will be poining slightly towards you, following the bow in the line.

The throb of the spoon will be transmitted up the line to the rod, and you can see it in the rod tip and in the "bow" in the line...for light hits (they do happen), or intentional slack line fishing (like I was doing last week to get some sluggish fish to bite), you may not "feel" the hit in the rod, but will first see it in the bow...it might twitch, hop, or just stop throbbing when you know it is not sitting on the bottom.

That's the reason why I don't like to use braid...it's lack of stretch and thin diameter make it hard, if not impossible, to fish that way.

Fish on...

Todd