The first fish I ever caught on a lure ate a Crocodile spoon. It was a flathead in north Queensland’s Don river and I was about five at the time. Flathead tend to find them irresistable when fluttering past seductively in the strike zone, although nowdays I see that their taste has matured to much more expensive offerings.

Spoons are great for targeting suspended bass.

You’ll probably be aware that bass and flathead share the same sorts of diet - small fish, crustaceans and worms are irresistable to both species when in a feeding mood. I suppose that I wasn’t really surprised, then, when my first spoon-fed bass wallowed boatside. A thinking angler, then, will piece together why spoons can be so effective at fishing a variety of depths in a variety of situations.

Made mostly of metal, spoons sink, and therefore can be presented at any sub-surface level. Spoons that have a high surface area to mass ratio will tend to flutter while sinking and this makes them a prime target on the drop as well as while retrieved.

The fact that the hooks are presented right at the rear of the lure gives spoons a good hookup rate and the fact that this type of lure supports a single, rather than multiple hook arrangement means unhooking bass is quick and easy - especially when using barbless trebles or singles. This means they have a better chance of surviving in the livewell or back in the water.

To fish a spoon effectively, you have to know where the bass are feeding, or where they are holding in the water column. There is no substitute for good quality sounders in this regard. Separating bass from baitfish and non target species is important in a tournament situation and having the confidence to re-present to located fish that don’t hit first cast can mean the difference between a fishless session and catching a limit.

Kim Bain’s PB bass was caught on a jigged spoon.

Switch to spoons when you feel that bass are striking the blades of your spinnerbait. Repeated taps are easily felt through the braided or fused GSPs that you should be using for deep presentations.

Brisbane based angling journalist, Kim Bain, recently caught her personal best impoundment bass on a spoon fluttered just off the bottom in 23 feet of water.

“The fish were visible right on the bottom and were loosely associated with schools of bony bream. Fluttering the spoon in front of its nose proved irresistable to the 47 cm bass. After a productive morning session on spinnerbaits, we started getting more hits than hookups and that’s when spoons kept the fish coming,” Kim said.

And therein lies the secret to all bass casting. Present the lure at the depth at which the fish are holding and choose the lures that are suitable for their changing moods and feeding patterns.

Typically, you can fish spoons a little faster than spinnerbaits - they have less resistance in the water and are extremely effective when fished with a stop-start retrieve. Instead of sweeping the rod tip as you would when fishing a weighted soft plastic, use the reel to impart action to the lure with a few quick winds. Simply stop the retrieve to let the lure flutter back to the bottom. Expect hits at any stage of the retrieve. As bass aren’t likely to chew on a spoon, strike as soon as you feel a hit - you’ll either set the hooks or tease the fish into striking a second time.

I like to point the rod tip right down the line and set the hook with a sideways sweep, but fishing with Craig Johnson recently showed me that keeping the rod at right angles to the line can also produce the goods.

“Bass can hit a spoon quite hard,” said Craig, after a session on some switched-on fish, “and the rod offers a cushioning effect with that fused 11 pound breaking strain GSP.”

With fish averaging between three and four pounds that session, getting busted on the strike was a real possibility. Scale up the line diameter too much or use mono and you lose the finesse of presentation down deep; go too light and the hard-hitting bass will sometimes catch you off guard and leave with your lure. Around ten pound gelspun seems ideal in open water. Go a little heavier in the timber if the fish are big.

Scale up the line diameter too much or use mono and you lose the finesse of presentation down deep; go too light and the hard-hitting bass will sometimes catch you off guard and leave with your lure.

Bass feeding higher in the water column are more receptive to a constant retrieve and by counting your retrieve down and controlling your winding speed, you can easily fish spoons through all parts of the water column.

Buzzing heavily actioned spoons just under the surface is a great way to target surface feeding fish - especially those feeding on bony bream or garfish in the warmer months. Still retrieve relatively slowly, but don’t count the lure down at all and hold the rod tip high. Bass boiling the lure will get the blood pumping, although as spoons sink, you can’t really employ the ‘let it sit until they come back’ approach, so effective with floating surface lures.

In this situation, make the change. Identifying the best lure for the feeding pattern and switching to it is what makes a good basscaster.

Spoons are cheap and effective, but rely on angler skill to put them in front of the fish. They deserve a place in every basscaster’s kit.