I fished with Doc Claimen on Bull Shoals, he is a noted bass proffessor on the big bull in fact when i fished with him some 8 years ago he at that time had won 10 boats, the other notable I have fished with on Bull Shoals is Tony Albrights son. Both times I've fished with these fellas we were spoon fishing, and I learned that I knew nothing because I always thought that spooning was with a Johnson silver spoon that fluttered down and it would take minutes to reach bottom.

I was wrong they used slab spoons 3/4oz in silver, white w/chartruese head or red head or all chartruese. To me these spoons looked like a 3" lead nothing they were straight and had little for my eyes to go oooohhhhh. no fancy eyes, nor fancy paint, nothing but maybe impressions of scales made during molding.

We would troll at slow speeds in certain areas looking for "balls" of shad they would show up as a darker circle and we would free spool the spoons through them till they hit bottom, then reel in 1 crank on the reel and then "jerk" or "rip" the bait with our rods 1-2 foot or so at a time and let it fall on tight line not real tight but snug. when you got a bite it felt like a tick/tap on your line you set the hook. they stayed on the shad with the trolling motor untill they moved too fast then we would troll some more find them and go again.

funny thing is we caught a smallmouth and Doc said "lets get outta here, we don't want these brown fish" WHAT?!!! I said I'm tickled to catch them he just groaned and told me about the state record smallie he caught by accident on a jig in the pontiac area that was the record for like 7 years in missouri.

hope this helps guys