Here's a different kind of tip. Modern Johnson Silver Minnow (spoons) have poor quality control when it comes to what is the exact position in which the hook is attached. Usually, the "alignment" of the hook point aims at a location which is "inboard" of where the line connects, and to whatever degree the hook is "aimed in tight" like that, it proportionally reduces the hookup success. If the hook is aimed in really tight toward the body of the spoon, the hookup percentage is terrible. At the very least, the aiming point of the hook should be directly toward the line connection, but I like to have it aim just a little outside of the line connection. With each new Silver Minnow I buy, I carefully bend the hook so that the "aiming point" of the hook is just a little bit outboard of where the line connects. If you do that, you will almost never miss hooking up. Do all the bending within the curved portion of the hook, and do it a little at a time so you don't over-do it. Don't bend the straight portion of the hook that leads in to the point - that part of the hook needs to remain straight to maintain the most effective hooking.
Good tip. I have noticed that inconsistency over the years as well, but never tried to open up the hook. I would probably agree that if one were to attempt it, you'd want to do it in very gentle and small increments as I don't think the metal used is very forgiving. I'm sure there are ways to accomplish it. Not sure if using some form of heat first would help. I could envision someone with welding experience might even be able to spot weld a better hook onto a spoon. Imagine using a wide gap swimbait hook with a screw lock. And using a some kind of soft plastic, skin hooked, essentially as the weedguard. We're only limited by our imaginations.
@@TheBassinGuy You are right that the hook is not super high quality and it would probably break if bent too far, but slight bending doesn't seem to weaken it enough to matter and the increase in hooking percentage makes it worth it in my view. Though I'm a hobby metalworker, I haven't tried heating the hook to facilitate bending because for some treated metals, that will actually weaken the material, and cold-bending has worked just fine for me so far. Still, I might try it at some point and see how it goes.
YOu show a lot of class,, I especially appreciate that you get the fish back in the water quickly unlike SO MANY “Pros” who stand around talking about their lures and tackle while the fish is out of water suffocating-- Thanks.
Thanks for the comment. I do try to treat the fish with respect, but to be honest, I really just want to get my bait back in the water to catch the next one!!!
A Johnson Minnow or Daredevil Spoons are great fish producers! Not just to throw out and straight retrieve, make them flutter and then rip it! Fish think its a dying minnow or bait fish! Strike it just on reactions of flash & flutter in the water. Like that idea of drilling a small hole in the back of spoon, it would flatten out the wobble you get when putting a trailer on the hook itself! Using the old pork rind baits on the Johnson Silver Minnow, fish would hold on to it a little longer and you could guide a fisk of heavy cover before setting the hook! And not get hung up. Nice video
really like you vids. just stumbled up on them the other day. have watched a bunch already.slugo,i thought they had quit making them. ordered some last night. thanks so much.
It's just another tool in the arsenal and can be just the thing in certain situations. If I have been hammering on fish with other stuff, I can still usually fool them once more with the spoon. Plus, I enjoy the strikes that the spoon can elicit!!!
Tinkering is an awesome way to come up with creations that the fish haven't seen (or heard). Spoons are a great change of pace when fish are hammered by all the old and new baits out there. Tight lines!
Old school is the best school. For bass these old style rigs often work great because the fish aren't used to seeing them anymore. They get Texas rigged worms bouncing off their heads every day.
Do you tie a barrel swivel up on the line like 18 inches up then direct tie to the spoon? This to avoid line twist. I have heard that the best way is to just direct tie to the spoon. Great idea about drilling a hole at the end and using a screw lock. You are the man!! Thanks, Jim
For my style of fishing I do not use a swivel. The erratic retrieve that I use doesn't generate much lie twist. A weedless spoon, if rigged properly, shouldn't be an issue. Spoons are designed to wobble, not spin. I think the biggest culprit that creates line twist is if you use a trailer that is either not balanced or is rigged crookedly. It pays to take some time, either in a swimming pool or beside the boat, and watch how your spoon moves through the water with different trailers. Trial and error is how you will figure out the correct combinations of spoon size and trailers.
There are a ton of baits out there that will get the job done. As long as you choose the appropriate bait and color for any given situation AND [learn to] use them effectively, you're probably gonna catch 'em. But that's the trick, isn't it? You gotta be in the right place at the right time with an appropriate [tool] bait AND use it effectively. Old or new, the same holds true. But if one doesn't learn how to "get on 'em", it's gonna be a struggle o catch them. Just sayin'.
I've never fished them much, but back in the 70's they used Uncle Josh's pork rind as the trailer quite a bit. It was thin and didn't interfere with the hook set. Although, occasionally it would find it's way over the hook point, which would make that cast pointless. :-)
Plastic has by and large replaced the real pork rind products. Plastics come in all kinds of shapes and configurations, which makes tinkering and finding great combinations. If I lived up north, however, I might still use the real stuff in the cold fall and winter water.
@@TheBassinGuy There's still no substitute for the action of a pork-rind strip, and besides their unmatched type of swimming action, they also offer less wind resistance when casting because with their greater flexibility and thinner profile, they fold back more compactly when the spoon is in flight. Modernization of hog-raising practices ended the availability of good-quality pork rind (hogs are sent to slaughter at such a young age nowadays that their skin isn't nearly tough enough, and that's why Uncle Josh went out of business), but there's a company called "Fat Cow" that makes a really good synthetic substitute. It behaves just about the same as the original pork rinds. I have no stake in the company except to hope like heck that they stay in business so I can keep using their "jigging strips" on spoon lures!
Great video! What size/color spoons do you suggest? Do you tie your line (what size/brand) directly to a spoon or use a swivel to alleviate line tangling? Do you use a swivel to hold the screw lock? Sorry, lots of Q's.
Thanks for the comment. Sorry for delay in responding. I use all sizes from time to time, depending on situation. I've used the tiny spoons when fish are schooling on little minnows. My favorite size for most situations is the 1/2 ounce. Yu can still skim the surface with a flat trailer and you can fish sub-surface to deep with thinner trailers. I do not use a swivel. If you use an erratic retrieve you won't get much line twist because you aren't really letting the spoon "spin". Rigging the trailer correctly (straight) will also help eliminate twist. As for the screw lock, you can simply screw it onto the spoon if you drill a hole near the rear edge right next to the hook. Not in the video but I also weld the screw lock onto the spoon at the rear as well. I use 20 lb mono. Using a loop knot will allow the bait a little more freedom, which is better suited for slow-rolling situations. But for aggressive fishing, I would not use a loop knot.
@@TheBassinGuy Thank you for the reply! What size screw lock do you suggest? I hope I can still use the spoon for fall/winter season btw. Is there anyway you can post the pic of the back of the spoon to see how you welded the screw lock? Would you be willing to sell some of your customized spoons? Thank you for your time!
I use the medium and large sizes, depending on the size (bulkiness) of the trailer. I used the term "weld", but I should have said :"solder". There are two ways to do it, You can still attach it via the drilled hole and then solder it. Or slide it over the hook to the base and apply solder there. I scrape up the area with a file first. I do not know how to weld and i am not a great solderer myself. I tinker and tweak stuff out of necessity or curiosity. It usually takes me a few tries to get the solder to hold correctly, again, because I am not an expert. As I always say, "experiment"! If at first you don't succeed, try and try again. I guess that makes me a republican!
Sorry for the delay in responding. Experimentation is a great thing. You never know what will work if you don't try. I like the latest Berkley commercial. It's all about trying, failing and trying again until you figure it out. So go ahead and try some different rigs. You might find one that really works. It's like using a jig as the carolina rig weight instead of a traditional bullet weight. Sometimes you catch the fish n th jig instead of the trailing bait. Sometimes you catch two, one on each! Remember the Helicopter lure? You can catch a fish on just about anything ONCE. I prefer to use baits that work consistently. but every now and then, some goofy tricky sneaky little setup is just what the fish gods want. Tight lines and thanks for watching.
Sorry for the delay in answering. I use 20 lb mono. Using a loop knot will allow the bait a little more freedom, which is better suited for slow-rolling situations. But for aggressive fishing, I would not use a loop knot. Thanks for watching.
Great video... I've tied hookless feather trailers, but I like the blade idea. Thanks for the great advice... Liked and subbed to support a fellow youtubing angler!
Those spoons, although an older lure, always worked best for me with a #11 pork frog. The white and green one (for me) was best on a sliver minnow. On the gold spoon I had best luck with a yellow #11 pork frog. Sadly Uncle Josh went out of business for a time. There is another company using the name. Some of the new tough plastics will likely work just as good. When it was hot, say August, fishing in and around flooded standing timber I have many memories of the large bass that would inhale that spoon. Always sharpen the hook before using it they generally were not sharp enough out of the box. Re-tie after every fish because big fish love it.
Thanks for posting. I used the real pork rinds, primarily on jigs, up in New England. I did, however, almost win a Red Man tournament on the Kissimmee chain slow-rolling a spoon with an Uncle Josh split eel pork rind in shallow eel grass... in the heat of the summer no less. It's a great bait where fish have gotten shy on spinnerbaits and chatter baits. I tend to pull it out after I have worn out an area on other baits over a period of days or weeks. To those reading this, this is a lesson worth remembering!
Another great old lure that works best with a pork frog is the Snagless Sally. Gold spinner, yellow and black skirt, green and white #11 pork frog. They are awesome.
Here's a different kind of tip. Modern Johnson Silver Minnow (spoons) have poor quality control when it comes to what is the exact position in which the hook is attached. Usually, the "alignment" of the hook point aims at a location which is "inboard" of where the line connects, and to whatever degree the hook is "aimed in tight" like that, it proportionally reduces the hookup success. If the hook is aimed in really tight toward the body of the spoon, the hookup percentage is terrible. At the very least, the aiming point of the hook should be directly toward the line connection, but I like to have it aim just a little outside of the line connection. With each new Silver Minnow I buy, I carefully bend the hook so that the "aiming point" of the hook is just a little bit outboard of where the line connects. If you do that, you will almost never miss hooking up. Do all the bending within the curved portion of the hook, and do it a little at a time so you don't over-do it. Don't bend the straight portion of the hook that leads in to the point - that part of the hook needs to remain straight to maintain the most effective hooking.
Good tip. I have noticed that inconsistency over the years as well, but never tried to open up the hook. I would probably agree that if one were to attempt it, you'd want to do it in very gentle and small increments as I don't think the metal used is very forgiving. I'm sure there are ways to accomplish it. Not sure if using some form of heat first would help. I could envision someone with welding experience might even be able to spot weld a better hook onto a spoon. Imagine using a wide gap swimbait hook with a screw lock. And using a some kind of soft plastic, skin hooked, essentially as the weedguard. We're only limited by our imaginations.
@@TheBassinGuy You are right that the hook is not super high quality and it would probably break if bent too far, but slight bending doesn't seem to weaken it enough to matter and the increase in hooking percentage makes it worth it in my view. Though I'm a hobby metalworker, I haven't tried heating the hook to facilitate bending because for some treated metals, that will actually weaken the material, and cold-bending has worked just fine for me so far. Still, I might try it at some point and see how it goes.
YOu show a lot of class,, I especially appreciate that you get the fish back in the water quickly unlike SO MANY “Pros” who stand around talking about their lures and tackle while the fish is out of water suffocating-- Thanks.
Thanks for the comment. I do try to treat the fish with respect, but to be honest, I really just want to get my bait back in the water to catch the next one!!!
Thank for the info and ideas. Sometimes something old works better than something they see every day.
Exactly. Plus, I like the strikes a spoon can get. It's fun to fish with every now and again.
A Johnson Minnow or Daredevil Spoons are great fish producers! Not just to throw out and straight retrieve, make them flutter and then rip it! Fish think its a dying minnow or bait fish! Strike it just on reactions of flash & flutter in the water. Like that idea of drilling a small hole in the back of spoon, it would flatten out the wobble you get when putting a trailer on the hook itself! Using the old pork rind baits on the Johnson Silver Minnow, fish would hold on to it a little longer and you could guide a fisk of heavy cover before setting the hook! And not get hung up. Nice video
really like you vids. just stumbled up on them the other day. have watched a bunch already.slugo,i thought they had quit making them. ordered some last night. thanks so much.
Welcome to my little part of the world. Thank you so much for the compliments.
Cool! I have not tried a Johnson spoon yet. Thanks for sharing!
It's just another tool in the arsenal and can be just the thing in certain situations. If I have been hammering on fish with other stuff, I can still usually fool them once more with the spoon. Plus, I enjoy the strikes that the spoon can elicit!!!
Nice. I just ordered a few spoons. Never used them before. I like tinkering and experimenting with baits/tackle too.
Tinkering is an awesome way to come up with creations that the fish haven't seen (or heard). Spoons are a great change of pace when fish are hammered by all the old and new baits out there. Tight lines!
What a great video. Thank you for the tips!
Thank you for watching. Tight lines!
Old school is the best school. For bass these old style rigs often work great because the fish aren't used to seeing them anymore. They get Texas rigged worms bouncing off their heads every day.
Exactly!!!! Plus, I lie the kinds of strikes they can elicit!!!
Great video... Thanks!
Glad you liked it!
Awesome tip🙏🏼👍🏼👍🏼
Thanks for watching.
Do you tie a barrel swivel up on the line like 18 inches up then direct tie to the spoon? This to avoid line twist. I have heard that the best way is to just direct tie to the spoon. Great idea about drilling a hole at the end and using a screw lock. You are the man!! Thanks, Jim
For my style of fishing I do not use a swivel. The erratic retrieve that I use doesn't generate much lie twist. A weedless spoon, if rigged properly, shouldn't be an issue. Spoons are designed to wobble, not spin. I think the biggest culprit that creates line twist is if you use a trailer that is either not balanced or is rigged crookedly. It pays to take some time, either in a swimming pool or beside the boat, and watch how your spoon moves through the water with different trailers. Trial and error is how you will figure out the correct combinations of spoon size and trailers.
Reeling them in too fast will make them spin. Slow and easy. ;)
Thank you for this video I'm looking to give weedless spoon a shot
It's just another tool in the arsenal, but can fool the fish, especially where they see lots of other traditional baits.
Old is new again TRUE!!!!! Ive always said that!!
There are a ton of baits out there that will get the job done. As long as you choose the appropriate bait and color for any given situation AND [learn to] use them effectively, you're probably gonna catch 'em. But that's the trick, isn't it? You gotta be in the right place at the right time with an appropriate [tool] bait AND use it effectively. Old or new, the same holds true. But if one doesn't learn how to "get on 'em", it's gonna be a struggle o catch them. Just sayin'.
I've never fished them much, but back in the 70's they used Uncle Josh's pork rind as the trailer quite a bit. It was thin and didn't interfere with the hook set. Although, occasionally it would find it's way over the hook point, which would make that cast pointless. :-)
Plastic has by and large replaced the real pork rind products. Plastics come in all kinds of shapes and configurations, which makes tinkering and finding great combinations. If I lived up north, however, I might still use the real stuff in the cold fall and winter water.
@@TheBassinGuy There's still no substitute for the action of a pork-rind strip, and besides their unmatched type of swimming action, they also offer less wind resistance when casting because with their greater flexibility and thinner profile, they fold back more compactly when the spoon is in flight. Modernization of hog-raising practices ended the availability of good-quality pork rind (hogs are sent to slaughter at such a young age nowadays that their skin isn't nearly tough enough, and that's why Uncle Josh went out of business), but there's a company called "Fat Cow" that makes a really good synthetic substitute. It behaves just about the same as the original pork rinds. I have no stake in the company except to hope like heck that they stay in business so I can keep using their "jigging strips" on spoon lures!
Great video! What size/color spoons do you suggest? Do you tie your line (what size/brand) directly to a spoon or use a swivel to alleviate line tangling? Do you use a swivel to hold the screw lock? Sorry, lots of Q's.
Thanks for the comment. Sorry for delay in responding. I use all sizes from time to time, depending on situation. I've used the tiny spoons when fish are schooling on little minnows. My favorite size for most situations is the 1/2 ounce. Yu can still skim the surface with a flat trailer and you can fish sub-surface to deep with thinner trailers. I do not use a swivel. If you use an erratic retrieve you won't get much line twist because you aren't really letting the spoon "spin". Rigging the trailer correctly (straight) will also help eliminate twist. As for the screw lock, you can simply screw it onto the spoon if you drill a hole near the rear edge right next to the hook. Not in the video but I also weld the screw lock onto the spoon at the rear as well. I use 20 lb mono. Using a loop knot will allow the bait a little more freedom, which is better suited for slow-rolling situations. But for aggressive fishing, I would not use a loop knot.
@@TheBassinGuy Thank you for the reply! What size screw lock do you suggest? I hope I can still use the spoon for fall/winter season btw. Is there anyway you can post the pic of the back of the spoon to see how you welded the screw lock? Would you be willing to sell some of your customized spoons? Thank you for your time!
I use the medium and large sizes, depending on the size (bulkiness) of the trailer. I used the term "weld", but I should have said :"solder". There are two ways to do it, You can still attach it via the drilled hole and then solder it. Or slide it over the hook to the base and apply solder there. I scrape up the area with a file first. I do not know how to weld and i am not a great solderer myself. I tinker and tweak stuff out of necessity or curiosity. It usually takes me a few tries to get the solder to hold correctly, again, because I am not an expert. As I always say, "experiment"! If at first you don't succeed, try and try again. I guess that makes me a republican!
Good stuff will try that with fluke and frog yum frog also what do you think about small spoon and dropper line with trout worm for bluegills?
Sorry for the delay in responding. Experimentation is a great thing. You never know what will work if you don't try. I like the latest Berkley commercial. It's all about trying, failing and trying again until you figure it out. So go ahead and try some different rigs. You might find one that really works. It's like using a jig as the carolina rig weight instead of a traditional bullet weight. Sometimes you catch the fish n th jig instead of the trailing bait. Sometimes you catch two, one on each! Remember the Helicopter lure? You can catch a fish on just about anything ONCE. I prefer to use baits that work consistently. but every now and then, some goofy tricky sneaky little setup is just what the fish gods want.
Tight lines and thanks for watching.
Do you use a loop knot to tie onto the spoon?
Sorry for the delay in answering. I use 20 lb mono. Using a loop knot will allow the bait a little more freedom, which is better suited for slow-rolling situations. But for aggressive fishing, I would not use a loop knot. Thanks for watching.
Great video... I've tied hookless feather trailers, but I like the blade idea. Thanks for the great advice... Liked and subbed to support a fellow youtubing angler!
Thanks... sorry for the delay in responding. I wasn't seeing the comments. my bad.
Those spoons, although an older lure, always worked best for me with a #11 pork frog. The white and green one (for me) was best on a sliver minnow. On the gold spoon I had best luck with a yellow #11 pork frog. Sadly Uncle Josh went out of business for a time. There is another company using the name. Some of the new tough plastics will likely work just as good. When it was hot, say August, fishing in and around flooded standing timber I have many memories of the large bass that would inhale that spoon. Always sharpen the hook before using it they generally were not sharp enough out of the box. Re-tie after every fish because big fish love it.
Thanks for posting. I used the real pork rinds, primarily on jigs, up in New England. I did, however, almost win a Red Man tournament on the Kissimmee chain slow-rolling a spoon with an Uncle Josh split eel pork rind in shallow eel grass... in the heat of the summer no less. It's a great bait where fish have gotten shy on spinnerbaits and chatter baits. I tend to pull it out after I have worn out an area on other baits over a period of days or weeks. To those reading this, this is a lesson worth remembering!
Another great old lure that works best with a pork frog is the Snagless Sally. Gold spinner, yellow and black skirt, green and white #11 pork frog. They are awesome.
Dang I’m gonna try this for redfish in the marsh.