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 Daredevle cast at a weed edge has been catching pike for a hundred years, 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.

Common mistakes

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.