Tackle Question

[Slowretrieve]

In every tacklebox I know of there is a red and white spoon. Has anyone ever actually caught anything with one of these?

[Chris_Carlyle]

The pike and muskies up in Ontario have eaten them for me several times. I dont carry one with me as I do mostly bass fishing here locally. My 99 fly in trip showed me that a red and white Len Thompson spook will catch just a couple toothy critters!

[Moose1am]

If you are referring to the Dare Devil Red/White spoons then yes I have caught many fish on that these baits.

In Canada I used Dare Devils to catch Toothy Northern Pike. At Patoka Lake I caught Northern Pike as well on these spoons.

At Kentucky Lake I have caught many white bass on these spoons.

There are a very good bait to use at times.

If you see some stripers firing on the surface a dare devil spoon is a great bait to use. One of my first times fishing the boiling waters of a striper attack I used a dare devil spoon and hooked into a 2lb White Bass. Talk about fun. That was in the middle of the Summer many years ago on KY lake.

Regards,

Moose1am

[Topwater2004]

I think they catch as many as a Lazy Ike does now.

I think it is an old timers lure, I never tried to use one.

Great question though, I guess I will have to go buy one now and try and figure it out. I always like the solid gold color ones, when I have seen them in catalogs.

[Slowretrieve]

I think Moose1am hit the nail on the head. I asked about this lure on another site and was told time and again that northern pike hit that lure hard. Years ago I fished Northern California's rivers a lot and everyone I knew had one of those lures in their tacklebox but no one ever used it as far as I could tell. I have two of them. Don't know where they come from. They just show up in your tacklebox and never seem to catch anything. In early October I was fishing on Monroe and couldn't seem to catch anything. I had a packet of colored spoons on the boat and decided to give them a try. What a surprize! I got three walleye on a silver spoon, then I got about 40 wipers and a few yellow bass. They cast forever, and with a slow retrieve they'll catch a lot of fish, since they do a great job of mimmicking shad. But that red and white would not catch a thing. Guess I need to head for Canada if I ever want to see it in action. Anyway, thanks for the input.

[Moose1am]

If you want to you can take some paint remover and take the red/white paint off the lure. Then shine them up real nice and bright with some metal cleaning compound.

I was dragging a Johnson Silver Minnow behind my boat once up at Lyville Pit in Southern IN. I had a nice 3lb bass take a liking to my spoon.

[crappie66]

The time required to do such a thing, and the expense of the paint remover and rubbing compound would seem silly to do when you can buy a shiny lure for a few dollars.

Hey moose I haven't seen you over in the crappie message board, what happened?

[Slowretrieve]

Sometimes time and money aren't all that important. Guess it just depends on what gives you a sense of personal satisfaction. Sometimes it just feels good to catch a fish on a "tweeked" lure. Personally, I make many of my own rods. There really is not much point in it because really good rods are readily available at prices much lower than the cost of building them. But, there is just something wonderful about catching a fish on a rod you made yourself, using a lure you customized.

[crappie66]

I can understand the satisfaction of catching a fish on a personal customized rod and catchign a fish on a customized lure. However, in my opinioin removing the paint isn't really customizing it, its just removing one part of it, to me customizing is adding to it. Just what we need lures with paint thinner on them to be thrown in a lake.

[Slowretrieve]

Ah, Mr. Crappie, in the game of coup counting I will give you this one, although I believe your closing sentence is a bit reaching. Are you, too, a Hayakawa enthusiast?

[crappie66]

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON Oct-31-05 AT 03:02PM (EST)[/font][p]Actually I don't know much about Hayakawa, don't know where you are attempting to go with that one.

I did take the time to look up Hayakawa and he does make some interesting points. One quote that stood out:

"I'm going to speak my mind because I have nothing to loose."


But anyways, you wrote about customizing and building your own rods. It sounds like something I might be interested in doing this winter. Where is the best place to get information on how to properly do it, and where is a good source for supplies. Also, how much time and money is generally required to take on such a project.

[Slowretrieve]

And who could resist this? "You guys are saying the same thing. The only reason you're arguing is because you're using different words." -S.I. Hayakawa

I would start a rod-building journey with a trip to Cabelas.com. They have a rod building sub-section of tgheir fishing department that offers complete rod building kits. Tghey are great way to get started. Follow their directions and you will end up with a usable rod. The only thing other than the kit you will need is some sort of machine to turn the pole while you apply Epoxy and while the Epoxy dries. Without a turning mechanism, the glue tends to glob up and can throw the balance of the pole off. The machine (called a rod wrapper if I remember right)can cost as little as $20 for non-electric and go to about $650; Cabelas has an electric wrapper for $69 that works just fine. You should be able to build a fine rod for about $50, plus the cost of the rod wrapper. You can build a St Croix for $75-80. There is a wide range of rod blanks available, but like anything, you probably want to start out with one of their less expensive models to see if you even like the demands of rod building. If it suits you, you can spend hundreds on each rod. The one thing rodbuilding will do is increase your appreciation of fishing rods. After building just one, you will look at all other rods in a different light.
Good luck. If you decide to build one, let me know how it goes.