Jigging spoons traditionally are used most during the cold-weather months for deep-water walleyes. Primary reservoir points, for example, are favorite vertical spooning areas during winter. Yet spoons also produce year ‘round, particularly where walleyes are near schools of open-water suspended baitfish like ciscoes, shad, smelt, or alewives. Apparently, a fluttering, shiny spoon imitates an injured easy meal.
Ice Spoons and Lures—Ice-anglers typically use lighter jigging spoons than do open-water anglers, to achieve a slower, more-subtle drop and less action in cold water. Spoons can be lighter because they’re fished from a stationary platform—no drift. The Swedish Pimple is a good example. It’s lighter than the average open-water jigging spoon, but heavy enough to fish through the ice.
Let’s divide ice jigging spoons into four categories: (1) swimming lures that move in wide circles beneath your ice hole, like a #5 Jigging Rapala, #3 Nils Master, System Tackle Walleye Flyer, or Northland Air-Plane Jig; (2) straight, wide spoons for slow descent and flutter action, like an Acme Kastmaster or small Hopkins; (3) narrow or bent spoons for intermediate drop speeds and moderate flutter action, like a Bay de Noc Swedish Pimple, Ivan’s Slammer, Northland Fire-eye Minnow or Rocker Minnow; and (4) thin, wide-bodied bent spoons like the Blue Fox Tingler or Reef Runner Slender Spoon for ultraslow descent and maximum flutter. Fluorescent orange, yellow, and chartreuse colors; silver and gold; and prism tape finishes in silver, chartreuse, blue, and green are popular. In general, tip the hook with a minnow head to add scent and taste.
Even a light wide spoon like the Reef Runner Slender Spoon can be vertically jigged beneath the ice, combining abundant action with a slow descent—perfect when fish are fussy and you have the patience to wait ‘em out. Narrow spoons display less inherent action, sink quicker, and typically are better choices for ice-fishing, however. An intermediate choice like a Luhr-Jensen Krocodile—a medium-width, medium-heavy curved spoon often used for open-water trolling—occasionally produces through the ice, particularly when fish are aggressive.
Trolling Spoons—Thin metal flutterspoons like Oak Tree Silver Leaf Spoons, Luhr-Jensen Diamond Kings, Sutton Spoons, Arbogast Thin Doctors, and others associated with Great Lakes trolling for salmon, trout, and steelhead often are excellent walleye lures. They lack sufficient weight for casting, but can be trolled with planer boards, downriggers, diving planers, or on weighted lines to achieve the proper combination of depth and speed. While not so popular as crankbaits in most walleye trolling fisheries, they do provide the added dimension of speed. Spoons trolled up to about 4 mph, and sometimes a bit faster, take walleyes under certain conditions, and water can be covered quickly. If you fish the Great Lakes or bodies of water with silver suspended baitfish like shad, alewives, ciscoes, smelt, or shiners, be prepared to experiment with spoons. Select sizes and shapes that match prevailing baitfish, typically in flashy silver, gold, or fluorescent colors. Multispecies spoon-catches of steelhead, salmon, lakers, and walleyes are common in various Great Lakes ports and on numerous reservoirs, too.
Tiny flutterspoons like walleye Willospoons also work with bouncers or three-ways, plain or tipped with livebait or plastic.
