DOUBLE DIPPING SPOONS
How to Fish the Jigging Spoon in Deep Structure
 EDITOR'S
NOTE: You can have your cake and eat it too. Charlie
Ingram, a bass fisherman on Lake Eufaula in Eufaula,
Alabama, on the Georgia/Alabama border, practices catch
and release when he fishes for bass. But he also takes
home a mess of crappie for the skillet on almost every
outing. Ingram has developed a technique for bass fishing
that allows him to catch big bass and large crappie
at the same time. The bass go in his back livewell,
and he shows them to his buddies at the marina before
he releases them. He puts the crappie he catches in
his front livewell and never opens it until he arrives
at home. Then he takes the speckled sides out to fillet.
While fishing a jigging spoon at almost any time of
the year, Ingram catches crappie weighing 3/4-pound
to 2-pounds each. Also when fishing a jigging spoon
in these same places, Ingram takes bass weighing 2-
to 10-pounds each.
To take bass and crappie in submerged structure, put
your jigging spoon where the fish can see it. Make sure
you don't spook the fish while trying to catch them.
When you fish the 3/4-ounce jigging spoon in submerged
trees and stumps, the hooks may get hung in the wood.
Also, because of the sharp hooks and heavy bait, a crappie
often can shake the bait free from its lips before you
can get the fish to the boat.
 "I
began to look at the lips of the crappie and bass that
I brought up out of the water when I first started fishing
the jigging spoon," Ingram said. "I realized
the sharp hooks sliced large cuts in the crappie's mouth,
often allowing the fish to get away." To solve
this problem, Ingram took the file he normally used
to sharpen his hooks and passed it over the points of
each of the treble hooks, dulling the points slightly.
Now when he set the hook, it would punch a hole through
the lip of the fish instead of making a large cut. When
the fish fought against the lure, and the heavy jigging
spoon started to fall away from the fish's mouth, the
barb would catch on the side of the hole that the hook
had punched instead of falling out of the gash a sharp
hook would cut.
"I also noticed that by dulling the points I not
only caught more bass and crappie but didn't lose as
many jigging spoons as I'd lost in the past," Ingram
explained. "The hooks didn't go as deep into the
wood when they got hung. I just had to jiggle the bait
on the slack line, and the weight of the hook would
pull the lure out of the wood." Ingram fishes a
3/4-ounce jigging spoon on 17- to 20-pound test line.
"You need abrasion resistant line when you fish
in thick cover like the kind where I fish," Ingram
advised. Ingram uses a standard bait-casting rod and
reel to fish the jigging spoon for both bass and crappie.
Slow Dip, Don't Jerk:
 The
first time I fished the jigging-spoon tactic with Ingram
I let the spoon free-fall from the surface through the
cover. Then I used short jerks to get the spoon to jump
up and fall back. After hanging the cover three times
in succession and losing three spoons, I heard Ingram
say, "Watch how I let the spoon down, John."
Pointing his rod at the water, Ingram kept his thumb
on the reel as the spoon began to fall. "Don't
let the spoon free-fall," Ingram instructed. "Instead,
lower it gently down into the cover, because many times
the bass and crappie will hold above the cover and will
hit the spoon before it gets to the wood. By keeping
your thumb on the spool of the reel, you can stay in
constant contact with the spoon. If a fish hits, you
can apply pressure with your thumb to the line to set
the hook. If the fish doesn't attack as soon as your
spoon touches the wood, you'll want to stop the line
and try and move the spoon off the limb or branch it's
touched. Then it can continue to fall all the way to
the bottom. As you bounce the spoon off the limb on
its descent to the bottom, keep your thumb on the spool.
If you get a hit, you can apply pressure to the spool
and set the hook."
Once Ingram's spoon gets through all the limbs and
to the bottom of the lake, he continues to point his
rod tip at the water, locks his reel in gear and raises
the spoon 2 to 3
inches off the bottom. Next he slowly and gently raises
and lowers his rod tip about six to eight inches at
a time. "You want the spoon to move straight up
and straight down very slowly, just as if you've put
an iced-tea spoon down into a glass and brought it straight
up," Ingram said. "I don't give the spoon
much action at all. However, the bass and crappie can
and will attack the spoon when you use this technique."
 By
slowly moving the heavy spoon up and down, you also
will have the advantage of thoroughly working all the
water depths and every piece of cover through which
the spoon passes. If the hooks on the spoon touch a
limb, you can stop the spoon, shake it and let it fall
back. The weight of the spoon will pull the hook out
of the cover. After Ingram has moved his spoon up and
down for about 30 to 40 seconds, he'll take three or
four slow turns on his reel to raise the spoon off the
bottom and begin slowly lifting and lowering his rod
tip. Next he'll reel up three or four turns on the reel
and continue to work the spoon all the way back up to
the surface.
"Since you don't know exactly at what water depth
the fish hold and where the fish have positioned themselves
in or over the cover," Ingram mentioned, "by
using this jigging-spoon tactic of raising and lowering
my rod tip, I can present a slow-moving bait at every
water depth. By going back and forth over the water
several times from different directions, I can work
each part of the tree, bush or stump from every direction
of the compass." If a fish holds anywhere on the
cover Ingram fishes, Ingram usually can present his
jigging spoon to cause the fish to attack.
TOMORROW: HOW TO USE A SATELLITE
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