3 HACKS for the WEEDLESS SPOON! (NEW Hack Included)

The weedless spoon is an old school classic fishing lure, and just like any spoon, it GETS BIT! I love the weedless spoon as a struggling baitfish imitator, and I LOVE how easily it comes through the grass and weeds. What I love MOST about it though, is its customizability and versatility. In this video I will be demonstrating 3 ways to hack or modify the weedless spoon with a soft plastic trailer, including one ORIGINAL hack. Links to the products used in these hacks are below :)
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Products Used in this Video:
➡ Johnson Silver Minnow Weedless Spoon: amzn.to/3mAhirW
➡ Heat Gun: amzn.to/3UEIhyU
➡ Heat Shrink Tubing: amzn.to/41ucMdm
➡ Split Rings: amzn.to/3URHECB
➡ Twist Locks: amzn.to/3o97dCB
➡ Culprit 7.5" Worms: amzn.to/3UEJmGY
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Chapters:
00:00 - Intro
01:25 - Hack 1
04:25 - Hack 2
07:05 - Hack 3
10:03 - Bonus Tips
11:06 - Outro
Title: 3 HACKS for the WEEDLESS SPOON! (NEW Hack Included) | Just the Tip # 3
➡ The links in the description are Amazon Affiliate links to products that I use and LOVE. Purchasing these by clicking the links helps to support the channel!
#fishing #outdoors

[@dtffishingmi]

There are links to all materials used here in the description for y’all. Tight lines!

[@jamesblaschke6184]

Watch Roland Martin’s video on spoons. Skirt on back is super effective. Just bend weed guard so it’s 1/4” above hook point. Also bend hook out so point is parallel (improves hook ups a lot) Lastly paint it black and put black ribbon worm or black “otter tail). Deadly action on that.

[@dtffishingmi]

@@jamesblaschke6184 Dardevle makes a spinner/spoon hybrid lure that has a skirt like that, and it’s DEADLY for northern pike. If you keep the original weed guard, bending the hook out more is a good idea. With the soft plastic method, I haven’t had a hookup issue since it compresses easily. All black is definitely a great pattern for this and for lures in general. I have some all black or mostly black spoons that I have glued some bright colored eyes on just for a bit of contrast and they get smoked. My black spoon with the red colored eye and black ribbon tail is one of my favorites.

[@ericl2969]

I've made this comment on a couple of similar videos. First, there's a company called "Fat Cow" that makes synthetic pork-rind strips (you can't buy proper "strips" of real pork rind anymore). These synthetic pork-rind strips are nearly the same as the old, real pork-rind strips, and like the real ones, they won't tear off your hook no matter how much abuse they take (except that short strikes from northern pike will sometimes make cuts, but usually even the pike teeth won't hurt them). Even fishing for pike, I usually keep the same strip on the hook for days or weeks at a time, that's how durable they are. Second, the hook on the Johnson Silver Minnow tends to aim quite a bit "inward" toward the body of the spoon, though to what degree this is so, varies a lot due to crappy quality control in the manufacturing. This makes the hookup percentage worse than it could be. If you use a pliers to "open up" the curvature of the hook a little bit, so that the the hook point is "aimed" just a little bit outside of where the line connects, hooking percentages will be a lot better.

[@dtffishingmi]

Hmm I have never tried the pork rind strips, I’ll have to give it a try. Might also be good for holding some additional scent/attract as well 🤔

[@lpz6564]

Awesome! Would be nice to have an underwater pool vid!

[@raywells2858]

The best trailer I have used is a Uncle Josh (or knock off) Ripple Rind or 3.5 inch Split Tail Strip. Its bullet proof and near irresistible to Bass or Striper.

[@dtffishingmi]

I’ve used the split tails but have yet to try the Uncle Josh tails - will have to try em out! Another good one is the Mister Twister Split Double Tail - great for pike!

[@jbrujster]

Awesome!

[@jbrujster]

Very innovative! nice hack!

[@dtffishingmi]

Thank you 🙏

[@af4od02]

Excellent tips. Thanks for sharing. I will try them out.

[@dtffishingmi]

Thank you 🙏

[@FredFralick-xe7bj]

That last one was probably the best one

[@ballhawk387]

These are awesome hacks. Had an outing last year when I was getting lots of hits, but few hookups trolling silver minnows with grub tails through heavy foliage, and I'm sure getting that weed guard out of the way will greatly increase the hookup %. Another hack is to carefully bend the hook up a bit to effectively make it wider.

[@dtffishingmi]

Thank you 🙏 - I have found that the soft plastics are equally effective against the grass, but significantly better with regard to hookup %. I have also found that when you bring the spoon through the grass, the moment it emerges from the grass is when it gets smoked. When I cast with them, I will often aim for the grass, and pop it up out of the grass and let it flutter back down repeatedly. The bass and northern pike patrolling the weedlines go crazy when it pops out!

[@ballhawk387]

@@dtffishingmi I've not had the greatest hookup percentage with weedless soft plastics, either. There's necessarily a compromise. I've experimented with single hook stingers, with little success thus far. The most difficult trick is achieving a slow sink for weedbeds along deeper weed edges. And big pike tend to hang deep in summer. The ideal lure would get down and stay down on faster retrieves, while cutting through the weeds, so it wouldn't be a strictly shallow water game. But anything with a diving lip necessarily gets hung up. Perhaps I should experiment more with bottom bouncers and swimbaits or weedless spoons. But just having the hook(s) pointing up on top of the lure, rather than on the bottom, makes a huge difference when it comes to working through typical densities of foliage.

[@dtffishingmi]

@@ballhawk387 I like the bottom bouncer idea. If you incorporate some type of inline floats midway up the line from the spoon, it might stay right in the zone through the top of the weeds. I sometimes peg some inline floats on the line in order to use some lures that would otherwise slowly drop to the bottom while drifting

[@ballhawk387]

@@dtffishingmi Yep, I do that, too. For bass and rock bass, Rebel Crawfish and flatfish are awesome drifting baits. Can also run diving lures such as Grandmas higher farther away from the boat without having to resort to undergunned inline planers that would be too much work with big baits. BTW, are you also located in Michigan, which is an implication from your screen name? My main venues are the Detroit River and Lake St. Clair.

[@dtffishingmi]

@@ballhawk387 Yep! I am about 10 minutes from Lake St. Clair. I fish all over southeast Michigan and the thumb, primarily from the bank and wading. I have a trip planned with my wife's uncle next week on the St. Clair River - he likes to drift with bottom bouncers/crawler harnesses. I am working on figuring out how I can rig streamers and leech patterns that I tied myself to target walleye with bottom bouncers. I'm always trying to experiment!

[@victorsimonsen921]

the only problem with tying to the split ring is that it changes the action of the way the spoon runs the way the eyelet on the silver minnow was bent helps give it that wobble that make them so good.

[@dtffishingmi]

It does have a different action rigged this way, but if anything is to blame, I believe it’s the curly tail worm. This rig will roll 180 degrees from 3 o’clock to 9 o’clock with the soft plastic staying on top. It’s proven to be pretty enticing for me, especially with northern pike. If the split ring does anything, just like with any lure, it grants it more freedom of motion. This is just my experience with it though - there are a lot of variables that could make changes to the action.

[@victorsimonsen921]

yes the split rig would normally add more action but when u put the worm on the screw lock and the hook it impedes the free movement of the split ring by keeping it all in line i am not saying it will not catch fish just that u are losing some of the action tried it many years ago you may want to try putting the screw lock on the weed guard by putting a loop in the wire weed guard and attaching the screw lock to that. kind of like how on a spinnerbait the blade is attached.

[@funkymojo111]

Nice hack #2. I have 3 of the Johnson Minnow Spoons and they have never produced a single bite; just took them out of the tackle box last month. Going to try removing the weed guard because our local lake was drained so we have grassy, mud or algae slime on the bottom, and the rocks creating the snag are now above the shore line. Thanks for sharing this!

[@dtffishingmi]

Thanks for watching! I’ve had the most luck with the silver minnow in early spring and late fall, in particular where there are shad present as the main forage. I’ve also had a few pike slam it with the trailer on. Good luck!

[@kenneth9874]

I've caught plenty of bass on them, usually with a small rubber skirt, never had a issue with the weed guard but the hook requires sharpening. Usually fished on top of grass and allowing it to flutter down in any open pockets, good luck!

[@carlosm9719]

How do you tie your spoon? Snap swivel or straight to line?

[@dtffishingmi]

I’ll typically tie direct to the split ring on the spoon, but use a swivel about 24-36 inches up the line. Sometimes I’ll use a snap swivel at the spoon if I’m going to be changing frequently, but I usually try to avoid it - I trust my knots more than most of the snaps.

[@CaptainVincentRusso]

I suggest that you use superglue Loctite preferred on your second hack.

[@dtffishingmi]

Added security - I like it!

[@michaelbarquin2901]

Can u us a oval rings as well.

[@dtffishingmi]

An oval ring might present an issue if you’re tying to it directly, since it would then have 3 points of contact (the screw lock, the eye of the lure, and your knot). This means that your knot would have to be tied to the flat side where it will inevitably slide around. I like ovals for normal uses like treble hooks, but I wouldn’t use them for this

[@sonnyyouderian9700]

Does Hack #3 work for Redfish?

[@dtffishingmi]

I'm not a saltwater guy - I'm going to leave that to other viewers to answer for you. Help this guy out! :)

[@rspencer2511]

That hack has been around thirty to forty years. Roland martin

[@dtffishingmi]

I suppose it's possible for two people to come up with the same idea separately, no? If I'm coming up with the same tricks as Roland Martin on my own, I feel pretty darn good about that 🙂If you could link me to the source, I'd love to take a look.

[@lpz6564]

Awesome! Would be nice to have an underwater pool vid!

[@dtffishingmi]

oooo you read my mind! Next year, I'll be doing a lot of underwater footage - I have access to a pool now 👍