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[mko72]

There's something spectacular about fishing from a slightly elevated position, like a tall rock, and watching a fat coho catch sight of your wobbling spoon; then saunter over to it as the lure enters your field of view, follow it a little then BAM, fish on!!!  So cool.

Sadly, I had my drag set too loose and had a poor hook set. Mr. Chompy freed himself after about ten seconds. Still, good times.

Tips?  Set drag tighter and yank harder?  How hard/easy is it to yank a spoon out of a salmon's mouth?

[armytruck]

Just do what ur doing and fish
just saying

[armytruck]

Ur gonna learn one way oh anothah

[armytruck]

Wait till the fish
 pulls the trigger,  then set the hook
bang bang

[alwaysfishn]

Try a tip I learnt from an oldtimer I met years ago. He would modify all his lures by using split rings to attach a small swivel between the hook and the lure. I believe the extra length allows for better hook sets.

On the other hand the take is the fun part, hooking a fish means the end of the experience.....   

[mko72]

Try a tip I learnt from an oldtimer I met years ago. He would modify all his lures by using split rings to attach a small swivel between the hook and the lure. I believe the extra length allows for better hook sets.

On the other hand the take is the fun part, hooking a fish means the end of the experience.....   

You want a good wobble right?  And you should feel it in your rod tip right?  Sometimes I think I retrieve too fast because I can't feel that wobble.  Make sense?

[alwaysfishn]

Retrieving just slow enough to keep your lure off the bottom is good.

[leadbelly]

I love spoon fishing, very exiting
your going to loose fish regardless of what you do, but some things seem to help me
Super sharp hooks, and not a loose drag but not tight either, Im constantly checking and testing both.
different spoons feel different on the retrieve.I prefer ovals like the Gibbs coho or Little Cleo etc.
 Too fast is never good, smaller spoons that will sink slower and lighter gear for sensitivity can be good.
get a good hook set, drop your rod tip if it jumps, some times it pays to fish them like a boss and horse em in but you have to know when to let them do what they need to do, generally, sometimes lol.

[Blue_Fox]

I like to set my drag 3/4 tight and the hook should be always sharp.

[Every Day]

I started spoon fishing religiously last year.

I found a whole bunch of things to work. Some increased my landing % by probably close to 30-40 percent. I found at the beginning I was losing close to 60% of the fish I was hooking in the way of steelhead and coho. Made these changes and I was probably landing 95+% of the steelhead I hooked on spoons by the end of the year (could have just been a bad streak before, or a good streak I'm on now though, never know).

1) First of all... change all the hooks that come with the lures. Can get expensive but it is totally worth it.
2) Get sickle hooks... they don't need to be open eye ones either, just a normal sickle hook helped out a lot. I like matzou or "Big River" gammies.
3) Been echoed a few times... make sure your hooks are sharp, carry a hook file and make sure it literally sticks to your finger nail. Big rivers hold their point well.
4) Braided line... more sensitive so you can feel the light bites, no stretch = better hooks sets and better connection to fish during fights
5) Set your drag properly... I like to have mine so that it peels line out if I set the hook HARD. Good to have it so that if you get a hard hit (like a steely hit) that it allows line to pull out so that you don't have the spoon pull out of the fishes mouth. You need to experiment lots to get the perfect balance of just loose enough with too loose (if it's too loose you can't bury the hook). Make sure you don't let anyone touch your drag after that 

Cheers,
Dan

[kosanin kosher salt]

Everyday , ? Obviously your main is braided , but what about your leader , mono right ?  I do agree with you ever since I used braided berkley crystal it has been really nice . Casts way farther than mono and sensitive is unreal . And I'll now try sickle hooks ! Appreciate the tips

[skaha]

--very good explanation of how you set your drag for your rig.
--I would just add that mono with stretch or lo-stretch or soft rod with soft tip and quality of drag on your reel  all are factors in how you set your drag.. big thing is to test it out and ensure you have the whole package dialed in. You have to customize the settings to fit your style and the area you fish.

[bigblockfox]

i am going to have to try the braid out on my spinning gear. any particular brands better then others?

[alan701]

power pro and suffix are the most popular i think

[Every Day]

Everyday , ? Obviously your main is braided , but what about your leader , mono right ?  I do agree with you ever since I used braided berkley crystal it has been really nice . Casts way farther than mono and sensitive is unreal . And I'll now try sickle hooks ! Appreciate the tips

Yep main is #10 braid.
Leader I run is #10-#14 flouro carbon leader, generally in a 3 foot section.
To be honest I don't think it matters what type, I think I have spider wire on mine.

I have quite a noodly rod, so I tend to set my drag so that it is fairly easy to pull out by hand, but if you were to pull at the end of the rod it takes quite a bit of force to pull line out. As skaha says, you really need to fool around with it a lot, it took a few days on the water to get mine perfect to where I like it.

Cheers,
Dan