Casting Spoon

The casting spoon is fishing's oldest lure story: a curved piece of polished metal that wobbles, flashes and rolls like a dying baitfish on a plain retrieve. The red-and-white spoon cast at a weed edge has been catching pike for generations, and the same spoon counts down to lake trout, flutters into stream pools, and jigs vertically over schooling fish. Cheap, indestructible and effective at every depth - there is no more honest lure.

What it is & how it works

A curved, stamped metal blade with a treble at the rear. The curve makes it wobble and roll on the retrieve and flutter enticingly on the fall - flash plus wounded-baitfish wobble, adjustable entirely by speed.

When & where it shines

Pike and pickerel at weed edges, trout in lakes and bigger streams, salmon, white bass and schooling fish busting bait. Because it sinks, one spoon fishes 2 feet or 40 - count it down.

How to fish it

Cast, count it down to depth, and retrieve at the speed that gives the best wobble without spinning. Mix in stop-and-flutter drops - the fall catches half the fish. Vertically, lift-drop it under the boat over marks.

Tackle & rigging

Medium spinning or casting gear, 8-17 lb line by species; a swivel or snap-swivel prevents twist, and a short wire leader where pike live.

Colors & sizes

Red/white and five-of-diamonds for pike, silver and gold everywhere, firetiger in stain. 1/4-3/4 oz covers casting work; thin-blade flutter spoons for the fall bite.

What makes this lure fail

Retrieving so fast the spoon spins instead of wobbles, no swivel (line twist), and forgetting the fall - the flutter on a killed retrieve is the day-saver.