Fishing Spoons

As Easy As Making
Fishing Lures From Spoons

Fishing spoons are one of the best lures the angler can use in freshwater or saltwater fishing.

A spoon is compact and heavy enough to cast well especially in the smaller sizes. It can be used when casting or trolling, and attracts all kinds of fish because of its brilliant "flash" and lively, swaying action.

The fishing spoon is also one of the oldest fishing lures used by man, having its origins in the dim past. The lure we know as the spoon was used a long time ago in the Scandinavian countries.

In this country the spoon was developed and perfected in the early 1800's. The story goes that a fisherman named Julio T. Buel dropped a teaspoon into the water. As he watched it twist and turn it gave him an idea.

He started experimenting and soldered a hook to the end of another teaspoon and attached his line to the handle, which was partly cut off. It caught fish and then he went into the business of making fishing spoons for fishermen.

You can make spoon lures of sorts by merely taking a teaspoon or tablespoon and cut off the handle. Holes can be drilled at each end for holding the hook and line.

Such a homemade spoon lure will catch fish, but is too deeply dished and the action is not the best. A much better fishing spoon can be made by following the design shown below.

This is one of the basic designs patterned after the famous "Dardevle" copied by many fishing tackle manufacturers.

To make a freshwater spoon from scratch, obtain brass or copper sheet metal in various thicknesses. The smaller-size spoons which run only from 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 in. in length use thinner-gauge metal than the larger spoons which measure from 3 to 5 in. in length.

This metal must be cut out and filed out to the size desired, then bent and hammered into the proper concave shape. This is a lot of work if done with hand tools, and takes time even with the aid of power tools.

Then the holes to take the hooks and line have to be drilled. If the hook is soldered to the spoon that's another operation.

Next, you have the spoons plated in nickel, chrome, gold, or silver. Or, if you want to use the brass or copper of the original metal, you must polish or buff it.

Frankly, when one figures the time, energy, and money spent in making freshwater fishing spoons from the raw material it really doesn't pay — not unless one is willing to go to the expense of having a die made to stamp out the fishing spoons on a punch press.

With such a die one can stamp out enough spoons to last a lifetime. Such a die runs into quite a bit of money and unless you need hundreds or thousands of spoons it isn't worth it.

Although it doesn't pay to cut or stamp out your own freshwater fishing spoons, it's a different matter when we come to the larger saltwater fishing spoons .

These are more expensive and it often pays to make your own. Also, you cannot buy the larger metal spoon bodies already stamped out and plated, as you can the smaller freshwater ones. So you either buy the finished spoon or make your own.

Naturally, home-made fishing spoons will not look exactly like commercial ones. There will be slight imperfections in construction or the finish. But don't let that worry you. The fish don't know the difference and take them just as readily as the ones bought in a fishing tackle store.

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