Spoons are definitely not one of the regular lures for most anglers when targeting smallmouth bass, however, in some situations, a spoon will do a great job and it will also give you more opportunities for landing other species of fish as well. For example, if you are fishing a lake that has good smallmouth bass and northern pike fishing, you may want to throw a spoon so you don’t allow the pike to destroy a bunch of lures. While most spoons will work great for pike, you may want to throw a spoon that is more appealing to a smallmouth bass knowing that it will still get bit by the pike anyways. So, by trying to find a better spoon for smallies, you catch more smallmouth bass with all the pike mixed in and you don’t destroy all of your favorite smallmouth bass lures.
Use a casting spoon that is similar to the baitfish smallmouth bass will be feeding on. If you can match the colors somewhat closely, you will catch more smallmouth bass. Try to avoid all of the big, bulky spoons that so many anglers use for salmon, big trout and northern pike.
Jigging Spoons are one of the best deep water fishing lures for smallmouth bass, although, most bass anglers rarely fish with them. When bass move deeper (15 to 30 feet of water), it is not uncommon for some anglers to catch bass in bunches by vertical jigging over bass that are suspended near schools of bait fish. Jigging spoons work well during the pre-spawn when bass are staging in deeper water near the shallow water spawning sites. These lures are also very effective during the hot summer months and in the late fall when more smallmouth bass are found in deeper water.
