trolling spoons

[mrwalleye]

I'm new to trolling lake erie and I was wondering which types/sizes of spoons seem to produce the best. I do not have a down rigger. I have fished lake erie quite a bit but I have always either jigged or casted for them, can someone help please.

[Whit's Whaler]

This is only my second year trolling on Erie for walleye, but this site was really helpful to me last year in getting started, so I'll try and pass on what I've learned as a rookie.

I have had the best luck with the Stinger spoons in the smaller "scorpion" size. I have talked to people who use both the smaller scorpions and the larger stingers and I think both work, but for me the scorpion size seems to catch more fish. Overall the most productive color/pattern has been copper melon, with orange crush and mass confusion seeming to be the next best color. We caught 12 walleye yesterday and the copper melon spoons caught about 2/3 of the fish and orange crush 1/3 (I was only pulling those two patterns yesterday). Later in the summer last year this fish seemed to like the "monkey puke" and "mass confusion" patterns better, instead of the copper melon that had worked earlier. It will be interesting to see if it changes again this year.

I have 4 downriggers on my boat but to be honest I catch more fish on dipsy divers this time of year. I have been fishing mostly in the western basin around the islands. In the shallower water (40' or less) I think the dipsies have the advantage of pulling the lures out to the side of the boat while still reaching the desired depth. In the shallower water I believe that the fish are pretty boat shy, especially to trollers running over them with the outboard running and they move to the side and right into the dipsies. Depending on where you are fishing, you probably don't need downriggers. You can get the spoons to the desired depth with dipsies or a combination of planer boards, in line boards, snap on weights, jet divers, mini discs, etc. As long as I've got enough fishermen along I will probably run 4 dipsies, 1 or 2 downrigger lines and 1 or 2 in line boards with snap on weights to get the spoons to the desired depth. The "Precision Trolling" book is really helpful with determining the depth of your lure presentations.

I hope this helps. As I said, I'm relatively new to trolling on Erie, but had an extremely successful year last year and have done pretty well this year with limited fishing. The same pattern has worked last year and so far this year, and I pretty much learned what to do by reading posts on this site. I believe in passing on what others on this site have taught me, last year I really didn't know where to start and this site was really helpful.

Good Luck......

[mrwalleye]

thank you much. I will certainly give that a try.

[HUNTER]

Hello I was just wondering are these spoons hammered texture or not. I was also wondering were is the best place to buy the spoons in those colors. Thks for the info.

[Whit's Whaler]

Hunter,

The Stinger Scorpion spoons I use all have the "hammered" texture. The larger stinger spoons are a mixture of the flat and hammered finishes.

Most of the bait shops up by the lake have a good selection, but I have also found them at Dick's and Gander Mountain.

Good Luck......