2. oumament angler J. T. Kenny rarely loses ENTER the VanDam Your Boat
......._ .........,..1 sweepstakes arid win Humminbird
a fish on a structure spoon because bass " electronics like KVD uses.
usually inhale the bait and get hooked in the
back of the mouth. However, fish weighing ing in a tournament on Lake Barkley
3 pounds or less can come unbuttoned, as they with her husband. T hey were fishing a
often grab the front of the spoon. Kenny solves the prob- main-river ledge with jigs and crankbaits
lem by placing a second hook on the spoon's nose. when a school of bass suddenly started
He attaches a barrel swivel to the spoon's lead split busring big shad on rap.
ring to reduce line twist, and then adds a No. 2 treble "I chucked a spoon to the school and
hook to the split ring. Most of smaller bass he lands hopped ir three to fo ur fee t under. the
are hooked on the nose treble. surface," she says. "I loaded the boat in
10 minures . My husband didn't have
time to fish because he was too busy net-
ring my bass."
Size Matters
even when other anglers were struggling. bass nabbed it before ir rur bottom ." Although Lake 'Fo rk Trophy Tackle
Fisherm en fo llowed him aro und in T he spoo n is now one of Ke nny's makes its Flutter Spoo n in three sizes,
hopes of getting a glimpse of the secret main structure lures. H is best experience Clark has never used anything but the
lure, and a local radio station even invit- with it was when he stop ped to fi sh largest, which measures 5 inches long and
ed him to go on the air and reveal the Kentucky Lake while traveling between weighs 1.3 ounces. She claims it's a reac-
bait. T h ey we re ti cked off wh en he to urnam ents. After marking a huge tion bait that triggers rhe biggest bass,
turned them down. school of fish over a roadbed 18 feet much l~e a deep-diving crank.
Spai ts was determined not to intro- fr o m the surface, he backed off and "It doesn't turn your arms to jelly the
duce the spoon until he got it just right: srarred casting a spoon ra them. way a big crankbait can , though ," she
Bes ides, he was having too much fun "I hooked a bass on every cast for the says. "And, you can fish a spoon deeper
catching monster bass. When he finally next 2)1, hours,» he says. "They weighed than any crankbait runs."
unveiled his Big Joe Spoon, Lake Fork from 1 ra over 8 pounds." Ke nny has settled on Strike King's
anglers quickly snatched them up. Soon, Clark carried some Lal{e Fork T rophy 5)1,-inch , I X-ounce, Sexy Spoon. Even
the lures were catching heavyweight bass Tackle spoo ns in her boat fo r months when bass are feeding on small baitfish,
across the country. before ~he finally cast one while comper- he believes it triggers bites from larger
Several other companies have since
come out with similar baits, and pros have
taken them onto the competi tive cir-
cuits- Mark Rose, of Marion, Arkansas,
Florida's J.T. Ke nny, and Tennessean
Dianna Clark, a standour on the W omen's
Bassmaster Tour, are three of them.
Rose discovered the lures' magic when
he fished a raurnament on Pickwick Lake
in Ocraber 2007. He fOWld a school on a
I 5-foot-deep mussel bar while casti ng
-~ ~ - -~
foo tball jigs and crankbaits; when he
started hopping a structure spoon over
dJ
~~~.
the bar, the strikes came hard and fast. #
"I couldn't believe what was happening," -
he says. "It was like fishing virgin water."
asspros J.T. . ~~~
When the four-day event was over, Kenny and Mark Rose . '. ~
Rose and his spoon claimed first place primarily fish structure spoons in relatively
and a $125,000 check. open water around shell beds. After casting past the bed, both
It was also in 2 00 7 th at o ne o f anglers let the spoon sink to bottom, then lift the lure by sweeping the
Kenny's friends gave him one of dle new rodtip from about 9 to 12 o'clock. They follow it back to bottom with
baits and encouraged him ra tty it. the rodtip to let it fall on slack line.
"I took one look ar mar shoehorn and
raid rum he was crazy," he says. "I finally
casr the bait to shut rum up and a 3-pOLU1d
36 • Fis hingClub .com North Ame rican Fishe rman

3. Strike King Lake Fork Joe Spa its' Big
Sexy Spoon Flutter Spoon Joe Flutter Spoon
This version has Talon claims its This slick spoon The original struc- You can get this A five-step painting
a bare 1/0 treble spoons have a super- comes in three ture spoon comes in spoon in any .of nine process that includes
haakand is durable finish that colors and three nickel or gold in two calor cambinatiQns, a durable clear caat
available in a wan't wear off. Its 4 sizes: 3-inch, sizes and in five sec- including Shattered sets this spaan apart.
5'j,-inch, 1'A-aunce 'A-inch, 1'j,-aunce 0.6-aunce; 4-inch, andary calars. The Glass Holagram. The It weighs 1 .ounce,
madel and a model sports aNa. 1 0.8-ounce; 5-inch, 5-inch madel weighs haaks are dressed measures 5 inches
4-inch, %auncer. haak; the 500 has a 1.3-aunce. $7.49; 1 .ounce; the 6 incher with tinsel. The 4- long and features a
Chaase from five 1/0. Bath are dressed (800) 408-2028. weighs 1'j, .ounces. inch model weighs % Na. 1 VMC treble
baitfish calors. with f/ashabau and Jae Spaits claims its .ounce; the 5-inch dressed with feathers
$6.99; (901) are available in 16 secret material weighs 1'1e .ounces. and f/ashabau. $5.75;
853- 1455. colars. $8.99; (409) allaws it to wabble $8.89 and $9.99; (512) 507-4148.
625-1261. better than the rest. (903) 589-8100.
$8; (903) 765-3398.
fish. He also likes the distinctive "whop- drops," Rose insists. hopping a spoon over the bottom, sh e
whop-whop" feel of the big spoon as it He relies on one basic presentation: also imparts shorter lifts than Rose and
flutters on the fall . He malces a long cast and lets the spoon Kenny, typically a foot or so:
Rose also relies mainly on the 5;;'-inch sink to the bottom on slack line. Then, Across the board, the pros prefer rela-
Sexy Spoon, but he also casts the 4-inch, he takes up the slack and sweeps his tively heavy line; Kenny and Rose go with
%-ounce size, if it better matches the rodtip from 9 to 12 o'clock. He follows 20-pound fluoro, and Clark prefers 15- to
baitfish bass are feeding on. the spoon back down with his rodtip to 17-pound Fluorohybrid line from Lake
Sexy Shad is his go-to color. If that give the lure the necessaty slack. Virtually Fork. Those choices allow the spoon to
doesn't fly, h e scrapes off the paint fo'r every strike h appens on the fall. sink quickly and reduce the chances of the
maximum flash. Along those lines, Clark "People think they won't detect the bait wrapping in the line between rips.
favors solid silver with dash of chartreuse. strike on slack line, Rose says. "But
"I throw silver 90 percent of the believe me, you will. Your line jumps a When And Where
time, " Kenny says. "On bright, sunny foot when a bass nails a spoon." A structure spoon excels from early
days, 1 tone down the flash by coloring Kenny also pulls the lure off bottom spring into the fall, when bass hold on
the concave side with a black marker." with a long rod sweep and lets it drop main-lake ledges, hump s and other
on slack line. He believes this lifts the structure. The most productive depth
Rock The Cradle spoon three to four feet, while Rose range is eigh t to more than 25 feet,
Getti ng the most from any spoo n thinks the spoon comes up eight feet or depending on the water clarity and other
means working it in such a way that it's more. The exact distatlce doesn' t matter, factors. Since a spoon is a sight-oriented
allowed to produce its inherent action. as long as the method woiles. bait, it doesn't work well in muddy
"You have to let it sink on a slack line C1at·k prefers to keep a tighter line on water. Three to four feet of visibility is
so it cradles (wobbles side-to-side) as it the fall so she Catl better feel bites. When ideal, claims Rose.
North American Fisherman FishingClub.com _ 37

4. "The posts pawn is when a spoon real-
ly shines," he says. "Righ t after the bass
finish spawning, they school on ledges
and gorge on shad."
/~
Rose favors gently sloping bottoms, hen fishing
humps and bars to fast drops. While
competing in a tournament at Ft.
W a spoon
t ' .... ,
/ /
along a ledge, tour-
Loudon Lake, Tennessee, he spooned
up several 4- and 5-pound largemouths
from a flat spot in a river bend that was
nament angler
Dianna Clark holds
.. --------- ---
------_/
.-"'--:--
~/
/
/
/
/
...-
-
her boat on the edge of ,/
/'
-
19 feet deep, where bass were holding
on a mussel bed.
the drop and casts
parallel to it, hopping the
~ -~------- / :/~( --
Incidentally, shell beds and spoons were bait back to the boat. This ~ ----~// .
---------
'. ",,/ //
-- - ----- --
made for each other. If you try to work approach keeps her spoon ~ .:::: --- ,...."./
one through stumps, brush piles or grass, ..--
its treble readily snags. The structure must
in the strike zone -
"../
~
throughout the retrieve.
have little or no cover, and a hard bottom
of gravel, sand, clay or shells.
"You can throw them over mussel
beds - and catch bass'--all day long
and never get hung up," Kenny says. cent of the time when she fishes offshore, ed several bass by hopping his spoon over
Believe it-he has caught shell-bed bass and a % or ~-Olmce B&M jig the rest of
- a 10-foot ledge that dropped into 35 feet
everywhere in the country, including the the time. She rarely casts crankbaits. of watet. The next day he'd spooned up
Kissimmee Chain in Florida, the entire "Jigs and spoons are my big-fish only two fish when the bite stopped.
"My boat was sitting on the deep side
of rile ledge, and I was marking fish sus-
pended 10 feet deep," he says.
Quick Tip: Built-In Plug Knocker So, Kenny backed his boat another
long cast away from the ledge and began
hen you snag a structure spoon, don't try to rip it free. Instead, keep the
W line snug and move the boat directly over the lure. When you're positIOned
properly, jig the rodtip up and down on slack line; the spoon is heavy enough to
tossing the spoon over the suspended
bass. He counted it down to 10 feet and
hopped it at that level, using the satTIe
serve as its own plug-knocker. Do this and you'll rarely lose one. cadence as he did when fishing the bot-
tom . The result was several 4-pound
bass and one over 6, plus a bunch of 2
and 3 pounders.
Tennessee River system of reservoirs, Lake baits," she says. "I can catch fish any-
Champlain and even Lake Erie, where where with those two lures. " Metal Matters
smallmouth bass inhaled his spoon. Her favorite approach is to position Wherever in the water col= you find
her boat on the edge of the drop and cast bass, it's clear structure spoons can put
Find Them First parallel to it. This keeps her spoon in the them in the boat. Simply put ~
For all its strengths, the spoon's slow, strike zone throughout the retrieve. these lures in the zone. V
wobbling action makes it a poor search On the contraty, Rose and Kenny pre-
bait. Kenny and Rose find bass faster by fer to hold their boats on rile deep side of
combing water with ):I-ounce football jigs a drop and work a spoon downhill. WEB EXTRA
and deep cranks. The jig, especially, helps However, they occasionally circle far up
them feel bottom to fmd shells and other on the shallow side to avoid spooking
hard spots that attract bass. Of course, jigs bass atld then work the bait uphill. One
Spoon Tackle
and crankbaits also draw strikes. drawback with this approach is that the This new breed of structure spoons
Only after the anglers find bass do they lure is more lilcely to get hung up. is remarkably effective, but you
throw spoons into the mix. A typical pro- need to fish the lures with just the
gression would be to work the structure Suspended Bass right combination of line, rod and
with a crankbait until it stops getting When bass suspend above structure, ree l to get the most from them.
bites, then switch to a jig, and, finally, to they won't respond to a spoon hopping Mark Hicks reveals how to gear up
the spoon. One of these lures usually below them. This is when Kenny works right-just go to FishingClub.com
catches more bass than the others, but the rile lure higher in rile water collUlln. and click on Web Extra.
spoon usually catches the biggest fish. He ran into rllis situation a few years
Clark casts a structure spoon 40 per- ago on Kentucky Lalce. One day he boat-
38 • FishingClub .com North American Fisherman