Fish Tales: Make sure your spoon is wiggling right and watch your speed

by Bill Eden

Sep 26, 2007

I know that we have had some really good weather at times this fall, but it would be even better if the wind would stop blowing once in awhile. I am thinking about installing seat belts in my boats. Last week we went out on a bigger lake with a small boat. The wind drove the water over both the front and the back of or boat. When we did finally get to turn around and troll with the wind, we were blowing down the lake so fast our lures almost skipped on the water. If we stayed in the trough of the waves, we would nearly get pitched out of the boat when we went over a wave crest.

The ride out and back in was not much better. The wind would blow the wake from our boat right back at us. We got wet no mater what we did.

Even though we gave it our best shot, we came back empty handed. Not that the fish were not there, we could see them on the finder. Some were stuck on the bottom and others were sitting high off the bottom. What we did notice, was that the fish weren’t moving very much. Most of the time we can see streakers darting about on the screen of our finder. Those are fish that are hunting or are spooked from the noise and shadow of our boat. For the most part, those are active fish and catchable. That is, if you can keep control of your lures. On windy days, it’s hard to keep the boat pointed in the right direction, and impossible to have any control of what your lures are doing.

The speed that you are trolling at has a lot to do with how many fish you catch. If you go too fast, the fish may not be able to catch what you are towing. When you go too slow, the lures that you have on may not swim properly. You must go at least one mile per hour to make most any spoon swim like a minnow. But once you get over four miles an hour, most spoons spin out and don’t wiggle right. So it pays to watch your speed.

When times get tough, we try body baits. They are more forgiving. I have baits in my box that can be trolled down the lake at over six miles per hour. But you must match the mood of the fish with the speed of your offering. Lots of times we have got fish to bite because we bumped up our speed — they had to make up their mind real quick. Bite it or leave it alone.

When they bit, we had to get out the pliers to get the hooks out. On days like that, body baits really shine. But there are some days that fish only want a spoon. Body baits shake, rattle and roll. Spoons sway back and forth. You just put down all that you can and let the fish pick out what they like.

But be forewarned: some days they want nothing at all.