The best spoons for trout fishing

The Best Spoons for Trout Fishing

Mar 14, 2023

In February 2022, On The Water Magazine ran a story tabbed “The Buel Spoon” that delved deep into the history of metal fishing lures we know as “spoons”. In short, a fisherman named Julio Buel discovered the potential of these simple lures in 1824 after he fumbled a teaspoon overboard during a pause for lunch. The utensil shimmered as it fluttered down through the crystal-clear waters of Vermont’s Lake Bomoseen, surpassing an enormous lake trout inhaled it on the drop— a behavior for which they are now well known. Flabbergasted, Buel was inspired to create a spoon-style fishing lure, and today, nearly 200 years later, spoons remain one of the most historically successful lures for trout and salmon fishermen. With dozens of options available to anglers nationwide, the weightier spoons for trout are the ones with realistic whoopee and unique features that indulge them to outperform other lures in unrepealable environments.

(Note: On The Water is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an unite commission.)

Best Spoons for Trout Streams

Shallow-water streams and mountain creeks are held in upper regard by fly fishermen, but at times, their resident trout can weightier be targeted with spinning gear. Where there are shallow and expansive slow-moving pools, these tiny tins are the weightier spoons for trout streams.

Acme Phoebe

A pronounced curvature in the soul of the lightweight Phoebe spoon is designed to reservation water and create a natural swimming whoopee while resembling a fat-bodied baitfish with its realistic profile and scaled body. Tint and retrieve it withal current edges and seams where eddies trundling withal the shoreline.

Thomas Lures Colorado Spoon

Named without its Colorado-style blade, this portly, scale-patterned spoon is slightly concave on one side, which creates a small but noticeable value of stilt that allows it to sink slowly and requite off a pronounced wobble. Slow retrieves with a unenduring twitch or pause work weightier to generate the desired tremble action, expressly when it’s dragged through shallow, seemingly stagnant pools.

Best Shore Tossing Spoons for Trout

Casting spoons are designed to kick, or swim, side to side on a steady retrieve, imitating the whoopee of a frantic or tumbled baitfish. These metals cast like a bullet, but sink relatively slowly, and although they can reservation when jigged or trolled, they are most towardly for wading and shore-based trout fishing on lakes and ponds.

Acme Kastmaster

With its slender profile and oblong-shape, this aerodynamic spoon casts a country mile and sinks fast. Its sloped edges minimize resistance on the waif but create a uniquely frantic kicking whoopee that resembles a fleeing baitfish on a steady retrieve. For these reasons, Kastmasters excel for shore fishermen who need a lure with tossing loftiness that can be fished at variable depths and speeds.

Thomas Lures Buoyant Spoon

The stout, wide-bodied Buoyant spoon swims most powerfully when it is retrieved slowly, making it platonic for use in shallow streams where it can be swung through slow-moving currents and deeper pools where larger trout tend to linger.

Luhr Jensen Krocodile

The Krocodile spoon casts like a bullet due to its dense, rear-weighted diamond that allows it to fly long distances plane in gusty conditions. One side features a slight impression that allows the spoon to tremble as it falls through the water post and generates its exaggerated side-to-side wobbling whoopee as it is retrieved.

Acme Little Cleo

The Little Cleo has a dramatic wobbling whoopee due to its wide body, rounded edges and slightly concave construction. While it does tint well, it is most constructive for long-distance trolling in shallow environments considering it is nearly flat, which causes it to plane out and generate a strong kicking whoopee that is visible in the tip of most light to medium trolling setups.

Thomas Lures Rough Rider

The aerodynamic shape and contumely construction of the Rough Rider spoon indulge it to soar long distances into headwinds which makes it easy to imbricate water and locate the fish. Its sleek diamond generates cuts through the water just like it does the wind, rendering it most useful on a speedy retrieve or when tint virtually wind-blown coves and points where there is some wind current or directional spritz of water.

Best Trolling Spoons for Trout

When trolling via wend or kayak, it is imperative to use a spoon that reaches and maintains your desired depth while on the move. Lead cadre line and outriggers will help, but finding a spoon that swims powerfully and translates its whoopee to the rod tip or line at various depths will provide you with conviction that it’s swimming naturally and unobstructed.

Williams Wabler

The rounded edges and subtle lines to the soul of this tossing spoon will produce noticeable swimming whoopee at any speed or depth. The Williams Wabler has a history of success among shore fishermen targeting lake trout due to their long-casting worthiness and a ridged “spine” in the part-way that stabilizes the lure to minimize line twists on longer retrieves through deep water.

Michigan Stinger Trolling Spoon

The Michigan Stinger trolling spoon was specifically designed to excel at transmissible trout that are hanging virtually schools of small baitfish in unshut water. This lightweight spoon has a uniquely lean profile with a slight curvature towards the rear that acts like a keel to trigger a tight wobble plane at slow trolling speeds. With a seemingly uncounted selection of colors and patterns, they can powerfully “match the hatch” of most trout forage in large lakes and reservoirs where trout are primarily morsel oriented.

Best Jigging Spoons for Trout

These hardy, fast-sinking metals have a reputation for imitating a wide variety of forage with their realistic sheen and swimming action, earning them permanent real manor in tackle shops wherever spin fishermen target deepwater trout.

Jigging spoons work weightier with a vertical or near-vertical presentation, making them the platonic nomination for wend and kayak fishermen. However, considering these metals are designed to sink rapidly and reach the target depth with ease, they are not out of the question for shore fishermen tossing into deep water. When effectively jigged, they full-length a similar tremble whoopee to their cast-worthy counterparts.

Cotton Cordell CC Spoon

The CC spoon has a short and stubby profile and a slender build, which, withal with its hammered metal finish, allows it to mimic a variety of small, scaly baitfish and reach the strike zone with ease in deep water. Rounded edges and slight impressions toward the front and rear indulge it to swoop efficiently without sacrificing the tremble whoopee of an injured or frantic baitfish on the drop.

Blue Fox Pixee Spoon

Like a true spoon from the utensil drawer, one whole side of this contumely lure is concave to create a considerable value of stilt that leads to a unshared side-to-side tremble when trolled. It can be trolled powerfully at upper and low speeds considering it generates resistance so well, and in deeper, darker water, their hammered finish reflects light unexceptionable unbearable to undeniability in trout from distance.

Dinner Bell Spoon

The Dinner Bell spoon has a reputation as unique as its construction. It was designed with an inner willow-style stipule that is rigged on a split ring to create a mayhem when any whoopee is imparted to the lure. Its oblong shape allows it to sink easily, and as it falls, one concave side generates a tremble of both the spoon and its inner blade, duping trout and panfish— or at least antagonizing them—into wintry aggressively.

Bink’s Jigging Spoon

Developed by Arkansas fishing guide Darrell Binkley, these slim-bodied spoons are platonic for deep vertical jigging from wend or kayak, but can moreover be fished powerfully from shore due to the way they sink. Bink’s spoons are uniquely well-turned so they tremble downward like a leaf falling from a tree, resembling a mortally wounded baitfish to entice strikes from large trout on the drop.