Vertical spooning is an excellent technique to use from late summer through the winter. It’s an easy method to learn and to start catching numbers of fish. There’s nothing quite like getting on a good school of spots, largemouths, or white bass! The action can be fast and furious. With the help of some actual LCR pictures, I’d like to show you just how easy it can be.

If you enjoy catching top water schooling fish, you’re going to love this! The fish are in the same receptive mood but they’re 10 to 25 feet deep. You won’t have to run all over the lake to keep up with them because they’ll be in a confined area. You won’t have to throw 100 foot casts and spend time reeling in to throw again because your spoon will be in their face the whole time. You also won’t have other people running up and over them to help you catch, unless you invite them!

Let’s first debunk some old myths that might discourage people from trying spooning:

1. It’s boring and you’ll be hung up a lot because you’re fishing the bottom and around cover. Wrong. While those ways will catch fish, the fish you’ll be after are up off the bottom and feeding on shad in open water.

2. It requires a good working knowledge of your electronics. Wrong. If you can turn on your depth finder, you’re in business. You’re not going to be looking for subtle changes. You won’t be trying to pick out a fish suspended a foot off the bottom or in a brush pile. I leave my console and trolling motor depth finders on automatic full screen – right out of the box. You also don’t have to have top of the line electronics.

3. You’ll be fishing in real deep water. Wrong. I’m almost never in water deeper than 35 feet. Most of the fish I catch will be schooling at about 10 to 25 feet in water no deeper than 30 feet.

4. You’ll need to have a good feel for what your spoon is doing. Wrong. You’ll let it freefall through the fish, stop it when it goes through the school, pop it back up, and let it freefall again.

5. It’s not a big fish technique. While this may be true you can catch a lot of 2 to 3 pounds largemouths or spots, perhaps larger. I’ve found that spooning can work well any time of the day so it’s a great way to fill out a limit in a hurry after the morning bite dies.

The first step to successful vertical spooning is to locate big active schools of bait fish. The easiest way is to eliminate as much water as possible before you get to the lake. I eliminate the main lake and any large creeks because, although they contain plenty of bait, it’s harder to find and stay on. I also eliminate creeks with standing timber because they’re harder to read. I eliminate the smaller creeks  and the narrow V shaped ones because I haven’t found them to contain large quantities of bait fish. This leaves middle size creeks with clear bottoms that have a bowl shaped to them.

I’ll idle into the creeks staying in the deepest water until it gets to a depth of about 40 feet. I’ll then start watching my depth finder staying in the deepest water as it shallows to about 20 feet or the creek narrows too much. If I see anything along the way that looks good, I’ll throw a buoy out to the side. If I don’t see anything I’ll turn back and zigzag back and forth across the deepest water coming out of the creek and continue to look. It’ll take me about 5 minutes to accept or eliminate a creek. A good creek should have plenty of bait in different areas. Once you find one of these creeks, you can fish them all fall. I’ve been fishing one since July and it will probable hold fish through December. It’s good to have three or more creeks you like since their level of activity can vary from week to week or year to year. The following examples are what to look for. These were all taken from my console depth finder.

You’ve got a lot of bait broken up and fish all around.

Tall uniform columns that you can see on the right of the screen and just coming into view are bubbles.

This shows some bait on the bottom and on the top.

If you find a school of bait like you see above you can be pretty sure there’s more bait just like it in the same creek. It’s not that hard to find.

It’s crucial to use buoys. You think you can turn around and go back to where you were but it’s extremely hard. Remember, you’re seeing only 10 feet of the bottom in 30 feet of water and even less of the water column.

This is a picture of what you don’t want to waste time with:

Although there’s bait and fish around, the balls of bait are too small and spread out.

These are just scattered fish.

When I’ve found something good I’ll put down my trolling motor, turn on my bow depth finder that’s mounted on my trolling motor, and troll back to the buoy for a closer look. Things are going to look entirely different going slower with your trolling motor depth finder on.

When you’ve found good looking bait you want to look for the active fish. What you ideally want to see on your LCR is chaos! You want lines going in every direction. Imagine what those surface schoolers would look like on an LCR. These are great pictures to show you what you’re looking for.

There’s bait present and the fish are just hammering it! Look at the depth. These fish are like a pack of wild dogs in a feeding frenzy. They’re competing with each other to see who can kill the first thing that moves. Your fluttering spoon will never make it through. They’re not thinking about your line size. The only problem with this is you can’t get back in the water fast enough! You might catch 10 or more fish off this before it stops.

Look at the ball of bait in the middle of the screen and the active fish on the right hammering it. Your 6 year old with a Zebco 33 would have a ball watching! He or she would be able to see their spoon and the fish they’re going to catch.

The first thing you want to do when you find something like this, before you drop the first spoon, is to throw out a buoy. It’s so easy to drift off good fish.

When I see this kind of action I’ll let my spoon freefall through to fish. Not so fast that line builds up on the surface, but fast enough that the spoon has slack to flutter. These fish will pretty much set themselves. You want have to worry about them spitting out a spoon with a good treble hook! You’ll be surprised how often you’ll catch a fish on the first drop. Watch your spoon on the LCR the whole time. When it goes through the school rip it back up a couple of feet above the school and stop it quickly. Lower your rod tip right away to give the spoon a little slack to get it on it’s side where it can perform best. It’s true that over 90% of your bites come on the drop so don’t waste time getting the spoon up so you can drop it again.

When your hot spot dies down, troll around and look for another close by. If you don’t see one pretty soon, don’t count on luck to find another. Pull up your trolling motor and idle around the creek and find another active spot. It’s a lot quicker.

If you see uniformity on your screen you don’t want to waste time fishing it. The most common examples are lines parallel to the bottom like these pictures:

You also don’t want to waste time on spooning fish or bait that’s hugging the bottom like these pictures:

You can clearly see my spoon and I’m wasting my time and might get a spoon hung up.

Don’t let bubbles fool you. This time of year with the turnover they are everywhere. If you see straight lines starting at the bottom left and moving to the top right they’ll nearly always be bubbles – unless they turn off and head down!

If you find a giant school of bait fish that aren’t tight together, don’t fish it right there, but you’ll want to troll out to the edges and check for active fish. This picture is an example:

See how loose the bait is? Those dense lines near the surface are probably fish but again they are parallel to the bottom so they’re not very active.

This is also a giant dense school of bait and there’s nothing of interest on the left side but it needs to be explored farther. There looks like fish on the bottom but they’re not active.

This is a school that you can’t not fish but you might not catch anything. You sure might snag one though!

This was excellent to the left with a big school of bait but I fumbled trying to stop the LCR, didn’t do it in time, and lost a good black bass at the boat. You can see how the fish are merging back into their own school. You can see my spoon back in the water but I’m too late for the really good fish.

These look good but they’re not near bait and are hard to get to bite. The active fish are right on the bait.

It’s intriguing to watch a school of bait. My family has been going to Anna Maria, Florida to vacation for years. It’s located at the mouth of Tampa Bay and they’re these 2 old wooden piers that go way out in the water. The water is very clear and has huge schools of bait fish that literally blacken the water hanging out around the old pilings.  They’re small fish like our shad and they form these giant oddly shaped balls that are pulsating with life and constantly changing shape but staying in the same relative spot.  Occasionally a piece of the ball will break off but quick reattach to the main ball.

When they sense predators near the area of the bait ball that’s near the predators will get tighter for protection. All the fish on the outer edges are fighting to get to the center for protection. Imagine what it would look like on an LCR? You’ll see a dark center and edges that don’t feel threatened and a light (dense) area that is threatened. This is a good example from the lake.

Look at how loose the school of bait is on the left side and bottom but how tight it gets in the upper right side and the predator fish in the upper right corner. That’s my spoon on the bottom where it shouldn’t be. When I pull it up to 5 feet and drop it, it will get hit!

When the predator fish are ready, one or more will slam into the school of bait and the ones on the edges will be broken loose – kind of like throwing a rock into the water. The bait fish knocked out will be injured or disoriented and the predator fish will gorge themselves while these poor bait fish fight to get back into the school. If the school is small enough, the whole school might be broken apart.

This is another example of bait under attack. Again you can see my spoon and I’ll just about guarantee a fish!

I use a baitcaster because I want to be able to push the button and have the spoon drop quickly when necessary. I use a fairly stiff rod. The active fish will hit the spoon hard and I want them to pretty much set themselves. I will also rip my spoon back up though a school of fish fast and then drop my rod tip quickly to get the spoon on it’s side. If the rod tip is too flexible, the slack line can get wrapped around the tip of the rod. I use 12 lb test line. Any medium size line will be fine. There’s no need to risk a small line in open water and a real heavy one could hinder the spoon.

The spoon I use most of the time is a 1/2oz Cabela's Real Image spoon in glow because I have confidence in it. I've practiced in a pool with all kinds, weights, and shapes. With most spoons a 1/2oz will give the best flutter - anything lighter is too small to displace enough water, anything heavier sinks too fast. I use a split ring but do not use a swivel! Swivels are meant to prevent line twist and keep a lure running true. That’s not what you want a spoon to do. Line twist will improve the action of a spoon.

I encourage you to practice in a swimming pool or some very clear water to get the feel of the spoon – it won’t take long. You’ll read that you need to feel your spoon or have tension on it. Try it and see what kind of action you get if you’re feeling your spoon at all. For a spoon to react it’s best, it needs to be on it’s side catching as much water as possible. If you’re feeling it, it will be standing up. It also needs a little slack to flutter off to the side. Try it and see what you think. If it’s a friend’s vinyl liner pool, make sure you bend your hook points in!

You will get hung up every now and then on a stickup you can’t see, but jigging the spoon up and down on a slack line will free up most of them. If not a slow pull will usually straighten out the thin wire hooks and free a lot more. Remember, that active fish you’re after aren’t on the bottom. You might also bend the hooks when you’re removing them from a fish with pliers or pull them off brush and you’ll need to bend them back. If you change the treble hooks and retie from time to time, one spoon will last a long time.

I use #6 round bend Gamakatsu hooks. Don’t use the EWG hooks. If you compare them you’ll see that there’s not that much difference in the gap but the hook shafts on the EWG are bent in. I want the hooks pointed out. I'll also tie on some pearl Flashabou. Even though the catalog doesn’t show it, Real Image spoons come with Flashabou on their hooks. This is a picture of how easy it is to make up new ones:

Cut off about 10 strands of the Flashabuo and lay them across a piece of dental floss. Put the 2 ends of the floss through the eye of the hook and pull it half way through. Hold the Flashabuo and cut the bend freeing the floss. Have a slip knot tied in some string. Pinch the Flashabuo down, put the slip knot around the Flashabuo just below the eye of the hook and pull it tight. Wrap the string around the hook shank about a dozen or so times and put a dab of super glue on it for a second. Trim the Flashabuo to the length you want and you’re through. It takes a couple of minutes to do one just like right out of the box.

 Don’t worry about a fish throwing one of these hooks. They want to go to the bottom. If you give them a little head they won’t jump. Fish will come off by pulling off so be careful how your drag is set and don’t try to horse them into the boat too quick.

Try this technique the next time you fish. Two people can fish in the front of the boat on the same depth finder just fine. It’s a great way to introduce a child to fishing. What kid wouldn’t enjoy seeing the fish he or she was fishing for? It’s great for spotted bass, largemouth, slab crappie, and you can’t beat a school of white bass for great action.  I’m not a professional fisherman or a guide and these pictures were taken in just three half days the last 10 days. The lake these pictures came from is a 10,000 acres reservoir that is considered low in fertility. I just fish a day or two a week like most of you so if I can do it, you can too! Good luck!