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.
Casting-Swimming Spoons -- Miniature standard spoons like the Acme Little Cleo, Eppinger Dardevle Midget, Northland Fire-eye Minnow, or #8 Len Thompson provide an additional casting option for shallow-water walleyes. Small spoons (1/8- to 2/5-ounce) cast well on 8- to 10-pound test, swim over weeds nearly reaching the surface, and flutter downward a few feet on the pause. Hold the rod tip high while reeling. If the treble hangs up, give a quick wrist snap to pop and flutter the lure free, potentially triggering strikes. Spoons can be surprisingly effective on fertile prairie lakes with dark water and patchy weed cover, where fishing is concentrated in less than 4 feet of water.
Narrower spoons like the Mepps Syclops (light) and Luhr Jensen Krocodile (heavy) defy description, since they're versatile enough to function as vertical jigging, trolling, and casting spoons.
For a heavier, faster-moving casting option, try some of the 1/2- to 3/4-ounce jigging spoons mentioned earlier. Cast, swim, pop, and retrieve 'em across sand-rock-gravel flats, across weed tops and down into pockets, or down sloping shoreline points. They're great when fish are spread across expansive areas -- even suspended. On a long cast, pop the rod tip up, then reel up slack while dropping the rod tip, repeating all the way back to the boat. Spoons come through weeds somewhat easily if you jig and retrieve simultaneously, keeping the spoon just above the weed tops. If snags are abundant, try a small version of a more weedless Johnson Silver Minnow, Mepps Ultra Lite Timber Doodle, or Normark Rapala Minnow Spoon, using a slow swimming retrieve.
