Foley spoons

drumking

New member
Get your Foley spoons from Spurhunter, but first make him take the jinx off them. They catch everything that eats shad and are easy to fish.
 

jdw2920

New member
I've never had much luck but I know a lot of people catch fish in spoons. I guess it's a confidence thing
 

Daniel Tn

New member
What technique do you use to fish with these things? I bought 2 cards of them but didn't have much luck below the dam. White bass and skipjack were breaking and jumping like crazy but I could throw right in the middle of them and not get bit. But I didn't really know how I was supposed to be fishing them.

I rigged them Carolina rig style like the drawing on the card showed. I tried different weights to see if that made a difference. I wasn't sure if I was supposed to let it hit bottom and drag it like a Carolina rig soft plastic or if I was supposed to just steady retrieve it, or pump it. I tried a little bit of everything. There were a couple of videos I found on YouTube but I couldn't really tell what they were doing technique wise, to catch fish. I only caught 2 white bass, and both of those came when I birdnested my reel and let it sink to the bottom.
 

Randall53

New member
Daniel Tn - 9/10/2015 9:13 PM

What technique do you use to fish with these things? I bought 2 cards of them but didn't have much luck below the dam. White bass and skipjack were breaking and jumping like crazy but I could throw right in the middle of them and not get bit. But I didn't really know how I was supposed to be fishing them.

I rigged them Carolina rig style like the drawing on the card showed. I tried different weights to see if that made a difference. I wasn't sure if I was supposed to let it hit bottom and drag it like a Carolina rig soft plastic or if I was supposed to just steady retrieve it, or pump it. I tried a little bit of everything. There were a couple of videos I found on YouTube but I couldn't really tell what they were doing technique wise, to catch fish. I only caught 2 white bass, and both of those came when I birdnested my reel and let it sink to the bottom.

I'm sure there are different ways to rig them, but I use a barrel swivel about 15" to 18" above the spoon to prevent severe line twist. Those light spoons do dance a lot. For weight, I've started using large split shot, number 4 or 5, with the ears (to make them easy to add/remove) above the barrel swivel. The split shot makes it easy to adjust the weight to conditions without having to retie to change weight. If there's more current than the split shot can handle, I'll use a 1/2 oz egg sinker above the swivel and add split shot as needed to get the spoon down quicker. I don't like to fish really deep because you'll lose a lot of spoons that way, or I do anyway. I've done pretty good keeping them anywhere from the surface to halfway down in the water column which is usually 7 to 12 feet depending on how many turbines are running and river flow. If the spillways are open or there's just more current than I'm comfortable with, I fish the Chick. I'd rather live to fish another day than take a chance. Personally, I will NEVER use an anchor in that water. I just use my trolling motor to control boat position while I drift from the turbines down to maybe halfway to the highway bridge and just motor back up and do it again. Sometimes when the current isn't that bad, you can hang in the slack areas just outside the flow and usually stay there with a trolling motor. I usually throw the spoon out into the current straight across and start cranking it back to the boat and varying the speed a little and maybe a jerk or two every few seconds. It's a lot of fun and you never know what you've got on the line when one hits. I've done pretty good lately with white 1/2 oz. jigs and grubs. If the fish are there and active they will tear them up!!

ALSO....I will not get out there without a good life jacket.
 

SpurHunter

New member
I don't think there is one magic bullet for fishing the spoons, every situation is different but the one thing I can tell you is if the fish are there diesel absolutely catch them I generally use between a half ounce and 2 ounce egg sinker depending on the current in the depth of water that I am fishing I almost always throw slightly upstream or directly across the current and retrieve it as it is flowing downstream with and intermittent jerk in between several reel cranks. There has been days when a straight retrieve works better, but that goes back to the basics of any fishing and the fact that fish will act differently on any given day. Here's more proof of my point, fishing machine and drum King both ended up below Watts bar earlier this week and even though they were both throwing the same spoon and are using the same way after having fished with me, they were 40 yards apart and Dickey caught at least five times the fish that Terry caught because he was throwing where the fish wanted to bite
 

SpurHunter

New member
I will also say this about most tail waters, well as a rule they can be phenomenal fisheries, they can also be temperamental depending on the flow
I was below Chick last Friday and while the flow was very light the fish were active and we were catching them all over the place, as they increased the flow the bite absolutely stopped and we could not catch a fish on anything at all
 

Daniel Tn

New member
I don't have a boat so I am bank bound. Watts Bar tailwaters aren't accessable anymore; can only fish the lock side of the dam. But we went to Melton Hill dam and fished the tailwaters there. You can walk right up to the dam there. There weren't any other people fishing there...no breaking fish either but they had the water rolling pretty quick. We left and went to the Ft Loudon tailwaters...and there we found where all the fisherman were and why. The skipjack and white bass were churning the water like piranha. The guys in boats were wearin' em out but the folks on the bank and walkways weren't doing so bad either. Not as good as the folks in boats though. There'd be a school or two start breaking by the bank and people would load up while they were there. The guy to the left of me was throwing a heavier white colored roostertail and blistered me. He caught so many white bass that they mangled his roostertail to where it wouldn't spin right. I could throw right to the same school of breakers that he was, and not even get a tap or thump. But in all fairness, I wasn't sure how I was suppose to be working it.
 

drumking

New member
It is a different animal every single trip. If the fish aren't too active, I like to see more turbines turned on. Sometimes, this will trigger the fish to go into a feeding frenzy. If they are active, and they turn more on turbines, it seems like the bite stops or slows down, but it is more probable that the fish have just re-positioned and we haven't adjusted by moving or adding more weight. At WB the other day, when they were running only one turbine, we caught the fish up high just below the turbines, maybe 20 or 30 yards below them. After they turned on 2 more turbines, we had to move about 2-300 yards down the bank and found the fish had just moved there. We caught fish in one particular spot every time that we drifted by. Having fished below Watts Bar for several years when I used to Striper fish a lot, I have learned what seams the fish move to when TVA increases or decreases water flow. You just have to fish a lot to figure some of this stuff out. Some days, I skunk out too. emoBang Pew eee. emoBigsmile emoGeezer
 
SpurHunter - 9/11/2015 12:10 AM

................Here's more proof of my point, fishing machine and drum King both ended up below Watts bar earlier this week and even though they were both throwing the same spoon and are using the same way after having fished with me, they were 40 yards apart and Dickey caught at least five times the fish that Terry caught because he was throwing where the fish wanted to bite

Spur I have to respectfully disagree. Drumking caught more fish because he's Drumking. I'm still in therapy since my first crappie trip with him 5 years ago when he caught 48 slabs to my ONE! emoBigsmile emoBigsmile

Tennfisher
 

Rhino

New member
I've been able to tell a big difference on the number of fish I've caught since switching from mono to a fluorocarbon leader. I usually use a 24-30" leader in 20-25lb line. It has caught everything.
 

Juggo

New member
Can you fish them anywhere besides below the dam? Can you use them above the dam on the lake or do you need turbulent water?
 

SlabDog

New member
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Juggo - 9/12/2015 9:41 PM Can you fish them anywhere besides below the dam? Can you use them above the dam on the lake or do you need turbulent water?
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I was wondering the same thing a few days ago while fishing a slough close to the Nuke Plant. I saw some fish busting minnows on the surface andpulled my spinning rod out that I had already rigged up with a chartreuse folly spoon. I caught 4 stripe and 3 bass inabout 15 casts, so the answer is yes.</p>
 

SpurHunter

New member
You can absolutely fish them anywhere especially on active schooling fish. There have been times when I have sat at Sequoia at the discharge with everybody else waiting for the white best to come up to the surface and instead of waiting I just threw and caught the deep end and 20 and 30 feet of water before everybody else could catch them all their poppers
 
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