Summer Spoon Fishing by John Forret

I’ve been sat here at the laptop now for far longer than ever needed to start this story about spoon fishing over the last few years. I’ve been reflecting over the last few seasons where I have been fishing and catching my share of fish on a long forgotten lure that used to be one of the main weapons in a pike anglers arsenal. My fascination with fishing spoon started with collecting all things old. I collect antiquarian pike fishing books, a hobby that’s more expensive than my budget in the main. But then I guess that maybe one of the attractions, you always want what you can’t have. Its funny when you want something real bad it feels like everyone else wants the same thing but when you come to sell it there seems to be seldom buyers. I guess that most people with a kin ship for expansive hobbies and online auctions feel the same.

Collecting and fishing spoons is one of the cheaper things I do, its certainly cheaper than fishing plugs or Jerkbaits. I seem to have caught a few fish over the past two seasons with spoons and would like to think of myself as a little more experienced than most anglers in this method, most likely why I have sat down today and thought about writing a story about it. I think some people think that’s part of my eccentricity spending a lot of time messing about with bent bits of metal worth a couple of quid rather than a very fashionable Jerkbait worth 10 times the price, sometimes I think the money invested in one of these lures is the confidence that makes the lure work for some folk. I think when I explain to people the fun I have had and the fish I have caught on these little bent bits of metal it adds to my eccentricity, most just think you’re a bullshitter or don’t know what you are talking about, but then its worth letting them think that as they generally leave you alone and its not my fault as I tried to advise them before they ended up with a Plano box of expensive firewood. Occasionally its good to get your own back, I was out fishing recently with my friend and we fished the water all morning from different boats and had struggled on a relatively easy water, we began slow trolling in which was annoyingly very nearly the same contour, when as luck would have it my spoon pulled a few fish out the bag, even right under the nose of my buddy, its hard to be overly chuffed without showing of to much after all I held this guy with high regard being a very knowledgeable angler, but being younger than most folk I fish with sometimes its just nice to thing to yourself I told you so. Whose the eccentric one now.

During the last 30 minutes pondering before I started typing I noticed a few things, the type of things that sneak up on you, if your busy for other reasons than being out fishing, these things tend to sneak up on you as you don’t notice the season change, but looking about its apparent we are into the winter, dinners these days are of the robust winter nature, thick root vegetable soups and casseroles topped up with a hearty stout or ale, winter grub nearly makes it worth it. Its also apparent I have missed the tail end of the trout season a trip I usually make at least once before the season ends and it becomes to cold for any type of fly or lure fishing. One thing that’s apparent I nearly haven’t fished as much as I planned to last winter and its likely that I won’t now as the nights are too long for weekend trips and before long its going to be too cold for any serious time out lure fishing.

Its here unfortunately, and so is the realization, which just makes it worse, the boat’s in for the winter, the lures are in storage. I hate it; the winter torment is the worst time of the year. You’re a frozen relic of a pike angler. Lure fishing is out of the question as its far to cold, trailing all that bait gear out of the house for a mere 8 hours of light seems like you’ll put into it more than you get out, it’s a hopeless horrible situation. After work lure trips down some local water have been substituted for long nights on the phone talking to your buddies about next years trips, pre-baiting campaigns, pioneering new waters, even a foreign trip for some crazy Spanish Barbel, you know you have over committed yourself, but so do your buddies, the worst thing is most of it won’t happen and you all know it.

You just know soon that an island in this whole mess is coming, Christmas and New Year, time to get stupefyingly drunk for a week and forget about the torment that haunts you. Its funny how Christmas shopping always ends up in Glasgow, and invariably ends up in pointless trips to a shop somewhere near Possil or the Glasgow Cross picking up some very important piece of tackle like split rings or snap links. To make it worse on the sly you have mail order lures and rods and bivvies and braid turning up from all over the world that hasn’t exactly had the green light from her in doors.


Just now I have realized its winter, summer spoon fishing, now that wouldn’t make much of a story.