Running Spoons, Need help

[Ryno23]

This is my 2nd year fishing lake ontario and I have a question/concern about how I run spoons.

I can not get my Spoons to fire off at all, 99.9 % of the fish I have caught came off F/F Combo's, I dont understand why. I must be doing something wrong. Like this past Sunday 7/17, I had a great day landed 15 or so fish, all off F/F combo not a one on a spoon. I gave up and just ran all F/F combo's at the end of the day.

I run them at the ball, and I run them on stackers. I've tried all types and colors that are suggested here on the boards and at the local fishing tackle shops I visit up on the lake.

I run them usually 20 to 50 feet back depending deepths and positon on the rigger.

Can anybody give me some suggestions, tips, or something I'm doing wrong?

Thanks.

[Mortigan]

I'm just a newbie but you don't mention what speed you like to run at. I've read flashers tend to be speed-tolerant and that some brands of spoons prefer different speed ranges. What's yours?

[Tim Bromund]

try shortening up your leads. I seldom ever run a spoon back more than 15 -20 feet, quite often closer regardless of how deep they are running. we had fish hitting spoons on 15 foot leads on 35 and 45 foot riggers this past weekend, both on the main line and on free sliders. If I see fishing streaking into my spread on the graph but not bite, I typically take that to mean the fish are aggressive and coming right into the commotion from the cannonballs so I'll tighten up my leads to not more than 10' off the ball.

As Mortigan mentioned, some spoons are more speed tolerant than others, make sure the spoons you are running are running properly at the speeds you are tolling.

Tim

[rshubuck]

Some good brands of spoons are stinger, dream weaver, northern king, warrior spoons and r&r spoons. I'm a big fan of stinger spoons. The NBK mag was really hot saterday for me.

I typically run 1.8 to 2.2 mph down speeds. 2.1 being the most productive for silver fish. I run my spoons ten to thirty back from the ball. I usually don't run my spoons any deeper then 70 ft. I usually start one at 40, 50 and 60 but it depends on the temps. I also like running either cheaters or sliders with 6' to 7' leaders. Flurocarbon is all I use for my leaders. I usually tie the same length on my downriggers rods. Hope this helps

[ Post made via iPhone ]

[Ryno23]

I don't have my fish hawk installed yet, I haven't had the time to get that on yet so I don't know what my down speeds are, but I like to keep my GPS speed between 2.2 to 3.3 and try and find the speeds that the fish are hitting at.

Should I not run a F/F combo setup with spoons also?

I usually have 3 people fishing with me so I start the day with 3 F/F and 3 Spoon setup then end up up with 5 F/F and 1 spoon by end of the day. I always start out with hope with the spoons that today will be the day, then end up holding out thinking something got to hit it so I always leave one out.

I'll try pulling them in tighter to the ball or stacker, How should the spoon look when running it? Just wobbling side to side right?

Thanks for the responses so far.

[rshubuck]

Sounds to me you are doing every thing right. Just stick with it. Somedays the spoon bite is just the hot thing and some days it is not happening. Got to feed them what they like. With out a probe for down speed it hard to get speen right. Usually there is .5 difference. Surface being a little faster. Some days I have an entire 1mph difference.

[hawkeye625]

Ryno,

Try running all the same brand spoons in your spread. I had the same problem last year when running different brands of spoons at the same time. This year we started running 1 type (brand) of spoon together and it seems to be working for us. It doesn't matter what brand, just keep them all the same when putting out your spread (tip picked up last year from this site).

Last week was mainly a spoon bite for us. We run spinnys on the dipsy's and spoons cheated on the riggers.

Jeff

[Mortigan]

Just watched the "Keating on Kings" dvd last night and he mentioned doing the same, organizing his spoons by brand, as well as using good quality, small (30#) ball bearing swivels. Gotta read his books next - want more details and my usual ride is in the shop for engine repair.