James River White Perch on Spoons

In the past, I hardly ever used spoons for catching White Perch. In fact, it was the last lure I would use. Normally I would pick up a bag of Blood Worms, make a few bottom rigs and head to the river. On one trip I noticed everybody seemed to be catching perch all around me. I was catching fish also, so I was content using the blood worms. There was however, one guy that was catching huge perch! Nobody else was catching perch the size of the ones he was pulling in. After watching him for a few minutes, I was able to see that he was using shiners for bait. He was actually cutting them in half and put a half on each of the hooks on his 2 hook bottom rig.

Now I wasn't about to pull up anchor to go get some shinners. I just filed it away in my memory and I would have some shinners on the next trip. As fate would have it, I got stuck on a rock and had to snap my line off. While digging in my tackle box, a saw one of my spoons and the light bulb went off in my head. A spoon mimics a bait fish! I fished through my box and found a 1/4 ounce Bink's spoon in a metalic blue color.

My first cast with the spoon netted me a 13" perch! I caught big fish cast after cast. In fact, I was catching them faster than the guy using shinners. 

I fish spoons in a river by casting upstream between 10 and 11 oclock or 1 and 2 oclock. I let it sink on a slack line and I snap my rod tip sharply up. I continue to do this until I either git bit or my line is straight back behind the boat. If I don't have a fish by then, I quickly wind in and repeat the whole process over again. If the water is really clear I like to use silver spoons. In murky water I use the darker color spoons. 

You won't believe how well spoons work! I still use shinners and blood worms, but I always toss a spoon. My favorite brand of spoons are the Bink's Spoon. Not that there's anything wrong with others such as the Hopkins spoon. I just prefer the Bink's and have had a lot of success with them. In fact, I like them so much that I became a distributer. You can catch any fish that feeds on bait fish with these spoons! They catch everything from Crappie to Stripers.

In the summer when fish are deep, try a spoon and you will be surprised at how well they work.

 

Check out the fishing of Darrell using his spoon to catch Stripers on Lake Norfolk in Arkansas Bink's video

We sell Bink's Spoons here. CatchingCrappie Market Place