Bass pro Jordon keeps spoons handy

Photo courtesy Yamaha

Spoons can be successful in catching northern pike, lake trout, and muskies, however Yamaha pro angler Kelly Jordon also uses them for largemouth bass.

Spoons have produced northern pike and lake trout for this old scribe for years in Canada, but I never gave much thought or effort to using them for bass in the Midwest.

True, I have caught several bass on a Johnson Silver Minnow over the years, but that is the extent of my spoon success stateside. So, a recent news release from Yamaha was of considerable interest. It is worth sharing.

“If you caught 15 bass, each weighing between four and six pounds, on the first 15 casts you ever made with a new lure, wouldn’t that lure become one of your all-time favorites? Of course it would, which is exactly what happened to Yamaha Pro Kelly Jordon several years ago when he decided to tie on a big flutter spoon one afternoon at Lake Fork. Ever since that day, Jordon has kept a box full of spoons in his boat and ready to use, regardless of the time of year.

“I had known about the big six-inch flutter spoons for some time, because they’re made right at Lake Fork by a friend who had designed some special spinnerbaits for me,” admits Jordon, “but I just never had considered using them. Then, when I found a school of bass suspended about 25 feet deep off an old sunken bridge and didn’t have any other lures I could use efficiently at that depth, I put one on.

“On my first cast, I counted it down to what I thought would be the right depth, jerked it once, and a six-pound bass just slammed it. I caught a four-pounder the next cast, and that’s how it started. I caught 15 bass on my first 15 casts before I lost one.”

The Yamaha Pro believes the 1 1/2-ounce lures trigger strikes because they imitate a shad either dying or being chased by another bass, since they can be retrieved to flutter erratically up and down throughout the water column. Jordon has caught fish on them from 10 feet down to about 50 feet, but knows other anglers who’ve caught bass as deep as 80 feet with the big spoons.

“The winter months are a good time to use big spoons because they do work so well in deep water,” says Jordon, “especially when the fish are very close to the bottom. I like to make a cast, let the spoon sink completely to the bottom, then hop it lightly. I do this with my rod tip and only hop the lure six to 12 inches up above the bottom at a time, and after two or three hops, I’ll just let the spoon lie motionless. 

“I have actually had bass pick up my spoon when it is lying on the bottom, but not often. Most strikes come either as the spoon begins its upward movement, or when it’s falling.”

If he locates bass suspended five or six feet above the bottom, Jordon will still begin by making short bottom hops with the spoon, but then he’ll suddenly rip the lure up through the fish and let it fall again. When fish are suspended even higher, he’ll cast beyond them, let the spoon sink, then begin swimming it back, sometimes reeling really fast, then stopping so the spoon sinks. Because of the way they are designed, these lures flutter as they’re falling, too.

“These big spoons are not effective around vegetation because the dangling treble hook does get snagged, but they’re excellent winter choices around deeper structure like ledges and breaklines, humps and high spots, and certainly along sunken roadbeds and old bridges. If they do snag, you can usually jiggle them free because they’re so heavy.

Yes, this old scribe, now also keeps several spoons in my tackle box.