Fish Sniffer On Demand Digital Edition 3817 August 2- 16 2019 | Page 8

6 HOW TO... Aug 2 - 16, 2019 VOL.38 • ISS. 17 Spoon Feeding Landlocked Kings! < Spoons are an often overlooked option for landlocked kings, with most anglers relying on rigged bait or hoochies for their hookups. This hefty king slammed a large Ex-Cel spoon trolled at 2.5 miles per hour. ^ For fast trolling for kings and large trout these are top options. Up top we see a pair of large ¼ ounce Speedy Shiners. Featured down below are two half ounce Mack’s Lure Hum Dingers in Firetiger and Rainbow Trout finishes > While Kingfisher Lite spoons are designed to draw strikes from kings, they will also tempt large browns and big rainbows. The lures come equipped with large J hooks, but Cal removes them and installs treble hooks for lake trolling. ^ Here we see one of author Cal Kellogg’s favorite Kingfisher Lite spoons. This watermelon pattern offering has accounting for many large trout and kings. All this hardcore action has taken a toll on the lure’s finish, but it continues to produce. presents Heavy Metal For Trout & Landlocked Kings! T ake a look at the tackle assort- ment of a trout and landlocked king salmon troller and you’ll see a lot of spoons, such as Sep’s Pro Secrets, Vance’s Sockeye Slammers, Hum Dingers, No. 1 Needlefish and 1/8 ounce Phoebes… What do these spoons have in common? Well they have a lot of things in common, but the answer I’m looking for is that all of them are small. When you consider the fact that the average fish hooked by trout and salmon trollers is probably about 12 inches long it makes sense that we live and die pulling small spoons. After all these small offerings match both the size of the fish we catch and the forage they feed on… For the better part of two decades I rode the small spoon bandwagon and you can still find me pulling small spoons from time to time, but more often than not when I rig up with a spoon these days it’s a medium to large size spoon that I snap onto the leader. Let’s look at how these “heavy metal” offerings can help you catch more and larger fish! At this point I think that medium to large size spoons offer several advantages over their smaller brothers. First and foremost, larger lures tend to produce larger fish. Start pulling larger spoons and you’ll start hooking larger fish. Small trout and salmon target small baitfish, while larger fish will often go for larger prey when it’s available. Trinity Lake is a great example of this. Trinity has a well-earned reputation for booting out huge landlocked kings, but these fish don’t feed on the traditional diet of pond smelt or shad. Instead they gobble young kokanee. Those big kings want a big meal and immature kokanee fill the bill nicely! Beyond representing a large meal, big spoons can be trolled faster than small spoons. When it comes time to fool large experienced trout and salmon a lure moving at 2.5 to 4 mph is much more likely to draw a strike as an opposed to a slow-moving offering. The longer the fish have to scru- tinize the bait, the less likely they will be to hit it as a general rule. When a big fast moving spoon storms onto the scene the gamefish has to decide to strike or pass…Large fast moving spoons, generate reaction strikes from both average and large size predators. Back in the old days when I first started speed trolling big Rapalas for brown trout I was shocked to learn how often trout as small as 12 inches would smack a massive 7-inch No. 18 Rapala. There is no way a foot-long trout can gobble down a 7-inch bait, but because of the fast trolling speed they would still hit the plug…A classic reaction strike. Large fast moving spoons create the same effect. Another advantage large spoons offer is increased vibration and flash. Large spoons moving through the water create more disturbance than smaller spoons and as a result pull fish in from long distances. The increased surface area of a large spoon generates more flash then a small spoon and once again this can pull fish in from longer distances. Finally, while trout and kings are accus- tomed to seeing small spoons, hoochies and Rapalas, large spoons aren’t something they are often confronted with. They say curiosity killed the cat, well in fishing circles it’s often curiosity that creates strikes! The Spoons Early on Speedy Shiners, Sparklefish and large ½ ounce Hum Dingers were the only big spoons I used. They worked great then and they continue to produce fish for me know, but my large spoon selection has continued to grow and evolve. After digging around in my tackle bag a bit, I’ve determined that my large spoon FISH SNIFFER HOW – TO by Cal Kellogg CONTINUED ON PG 18