Spoons, Tailspinners, Blades

According to legend, the first fishing spoon was a true spoon—an eating utensil. On a summer day in the early 1800s, the story goes, a young man named Julio Buel was struggling to catch fish on Lake Bomoseen in Vermont. Ready for a lunch break, he put down his rod and picked up a bowl of tapioca pudding.

Sitting adrift in a rowboat, Buel fumbled his spoon into the waters below, only to see it flutter down and vanish, engulfed by a charging fish. On his next outing, Buel brought another spoon, one he’d removed the handle from and had drilled holes for a line tie and a hook. Thus, the spoon came to be.

Buel patented his design in 1848 and went into production a few years later via the J.T. Buel Company, in Whitehall, New York. The successful lure venture was eventually acquired by Michigan’s Eppinger Manufacturing, who introduced its Dardevle in the early 1900s.

Unlike soft plastic baits that undergo constant innovation and modification, the motto for spoons and other metal bass baits seems to be, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Innovations have been few and, for the most part, only cosmetic. Yet these chunks of brass, lead, steel, and copper continue to sell and, more importantly, catch bass, as well as ever.

Spoons

Many manufacturers offer wobbling spoons based on Buel’s original discovery. Eppinger offers an astonishing array of over 16,000 spoons in sizes ranging from 1/32 ounce to 41⁄2 ounces, and in a variety of shapes and colors.

Although casting-style spoons aren’t generally considered a staple of modern bass fishing, they do catch bass. The Dardevle Crystal Imp was among the hottest bass lures in the south in the 1950s and 60s, says company president Karen Eppinger. “The EPA banned some of the chemicals used to create the bait’s unique scalelike finish, and the rubber worm came out at about the same time, so we lost most of our bass market,” she recalls. Eppinger eventually sought other means of producing its Crystal finish and reintroduced the bait in 1998.

The tendency of casting spoons to snag in thick cover has limited their popularity among bassers. But baits with only two upturned hooks present a temptation rarely seen today to bass lurking on the fringes of grassbeds. They’ve remained a secret bait of top anglers in weedy waters like Lake Seminole and the St. Johns River

Sometimes referred to as “slabs” or “slab spoons,” straight-bodied jigging spoons have undergone fewer changes than any other timeworn lure. Made of lead, steel, zinc, or brass, and typically finished in chrome, noteworthy modifications come in the form of improved hooks and adornment with decals, prismatic tapes, and photo and holographic images designed to increase realism or add color.

Bass N’ Baits Rattle Snakie Spoon incorporated a rattle, a feature proven effective and popular. Northland has added the Buck-Shot Rattle Spoon to its line. Hot new Duh!!! Team Spoons from California feature holographic scale patterns, realistic eyes, and several shapes.