Medium-light spinning and medium casting rods work well for spoon fishing. Use light-colored braid and 7-foot fluoro or mono leaders. (G&F staff photo)
December 08, 2025
By Frank Sargeant
In the hit movie Top Gun, Maverick loved “going vertical.” Bass anglers across the Midwest might take a lesson from the legendary fighter pilot when it comes to fishing in late fall and early winter as bass head to deeper water and cluster near bait, and there are few lures better suited for vertical fishing than flutter and jigging spoons. These are distinctly different from weedless spoons (like the legendary Johnson Silver Minnow ) and they can be deadly in cold waters.
FEEL THE FLUTTER Flutter spoons are oversized slabs of curved steel equipped with a sizable treble. Their main purpose is fishing deep, with maximum depth limited only by their weight and any current present. Flutter spoons are designed, as you might expect, to flutter as they free-fall. The angler must ensure line feeds off the spool with no resistance as the lure drops. Otherwise, the erratic, fluttering, back-and-forth movement that triggers strikes is lost.
The Acme Sidewinder is a classic example of a smaller but highly effective spoon that works well across the Midwest. The 1/2- and 3/4-ounce sizes seem to do best for bass. And due to its unusual crescent shape, the lure has a unique back-and-forth fluttering, glittering fall like few other spoons. It’s effective in depths of 10 to 30 feet.
The stock treble is not the best, though. I usually swap it for a No. 2 Berkley Fusion 19 or Mustad Triple Grip treble , either of which seems to produce a better hookup ratio. You’ll also want to add a small swivel to the forward split ring to avoid line twist.
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The Strike King Sexy Spoon in the 4-inch size is another good one for Midwest lakes. It has a wobbling fall that you can feel through braided line on the pull and drop. (If you don’t, it has picked up a bit of weeds, so reel in and try again.)
The Dixie Jet Flutter spoon in the 1/2-ounce size is another winner. A brass lure deep-plated with copper, chrome or gold finish, it has a flutter that seems particularly attractive to spotted bass. The Jackall Counter Back Spoon , which is just under 5 inches long and weighs 1.3 ounces, is a somewhat larger lure that’s not too big for most Midwest bass. It comes with a swivel to prevent line twist, and the feathered treble is a good one. It also has a particular “glide back” falling action that separates it from other flutter spoons.
With any flutter spoon, the best procedure is to make a long cast and let it fall all the way to the bottom before flipping it upward—about 5 to 10 feet— with a long pull of the rod. Then, let it fall to the bottom again as you follow it down with the rod and take up slack with the reel. The art of this technique lies in keeping just enough pressure on the line to feel a tap or hesitation during the fall, but not so much that it’ll affect the lure’s free-falling flutter. The tactic draws strikes pretty much all the way up to the boat in water deeper than 10 feet. So if you’re in fishy water, keep working the spoon back to boatside. There just might be a school following it.
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Jigging spoons are built to reach fish fast. Drop straight down to the bottom, bring it up with short twitches, and let it fall while watching the line. (Photo courtesy of PRADCO Outdoor Brands) JIG HEAVY METAL Jigging spoons like the Hopkins Shorty (with bucktail), Cotton Cordell CC Spoon and War Eagle Jiggin’ Spoon are typically heavy, compact slabs of metal designed for fishing straight down. The War Eagle is particularly good because it comes with a built-in swivel and premium EWG treble.
These lures usually work best when you find fish in water more than 20 feet deep, any shallower and the fish sense the boat overhead. And even at the desired depth, you must be very quiet and run the troller as little as possible to draw bites. In clear lakes, bass may school as deep as 70 feet, so don’t be afraid to scope the depths if you’re not finding the fish shallower.
Remember to always let a jigging spoon drop straight from the rod tip all the way down to the bottom. Then, bring it upward with a series of short twitches that make it dart and flash before letting it free-fall again while you follow it down with the rod. If the line jumps or goes slack before the lure hits bottom, set the hook.
Vertical jigging lets you see both the bass and your lure on conventional down-looking sonar. You’ll often watch the fish marks converge on your bait just as you feel the tap that means you have a taker. Alternatively, with forward-scanning sonar, you’ll do better by letting a lighter flutter spoon wobble down in front of bass stacked up near bottom. If there are fish hanging high in the water, the spoon may not be the best offering for them, though active fish will chase a flutter spoon a long way down to grab it.
Cold-water smallmouth, largemouth and spotted bass can all fall victim to spoons jigged vertically. Focus efforts on sunny, warmer afternoons. (Photo courtesy of Acme Tackle) PREP FOR THE PLUNGE It’s much easier if you fish these spoons on white or light-colored line, like Berkley’s new ultra-smooth, fused Forward braid so it’s easier to tell what the line is doing. Then, you’ll actually see the line jump at times when a fish takes. Using a double uni or FG knot, add a rod length of 10- to 12-pound mono or fluorocarbon leader to reduce line visibility for the fish and prevent the treble from snagging the limp braid on the drop. For smaller spoons, 10-pound braided line with a 15-pound fluoro leader will enable longer casts. With heavier spoons—or when fishing snaggy water—opt for 15- or 20-pound braid and 20-pound leader to avoid breakoffs.
A sensitive, medium-light spinning rod, like the 7-foot Fenwick Elite , is a good choice for this duty, with a 3000-size reel like the Abu Garcia Revo3 SX . Medium-power baitcasting rods of 6 1/2 to 7 feet—with a slow tip—equipped with a low-profile reel and 20-pound-braid also work well. Again, add the desired length of clear leader.
FIND LATE-FALL FISH Across the Midwest, bass typically go deeper whenever water temperatures dip below 60 degrees, but they keep right on feeding until it drops below 50 degrees. Fishing, therefore, remains good from late September to mid-November, with larger, deeper lakes chilling off more slowly than smaller, shallower waters.
In lakes where shad are present, the easy way to find bass is to locate shad schools, which show up as bright, nebulous clouds on sonar. Run at just above planing speed with your transom sonar turned up high and you can quickly scout a lake for these baitfish schools. They frequently hang near abrupt drop-offs, as well as on long points and at the mouths of bays leading to large creeks. Main-channel bends, standing timber and causeway bridges can be prime, too. Bait and bass also swarm around warm power plant inflows, where available.
Floating docks can also be a bass bonanza. A few years back, a friend and I were fishing Table Rock Lake out of Johnny Morris’ Big Cedar Lodge and catching mostly nothing despite the lake’s reputation as a bass factory. One of the dock workers tipped us off that dropping a jigging spoon straight down would change our luck, and he wasn’t wrong.
There were swarms of spotted bass under nearly every dock, with some hanging out as deep as 70 feet down. And whenever we hit a school of spots, we repeatedly doubled up on nearly every drop. The fish were not large, about 1 to 2 pounds, but there were so many and they were so eager to hit our spoons that it was like shooting fish in a barrel. Sometimes three or four chased a hooked fish to the boat.
WATCH THE WEATHER Sunny afternoons in late fall and early winter can be highly productive. By contrast, blustery, chilly and gray mornings are not only tough on you, but they also make for some difficult fishing. Holding the boat in one place so you can probe the depths can be pretty challenging then, and the fish just don’t seem to cooperate much either.
So, if you have the option, time your trips to coincide with those late-season, last gasps of summer when a calm and sunny late afternoon is prime time.
Table Rock Lake is one of several Missouri reservoirs where vertically jigging spoons can produce lots of bass in late fall and early winter. (© Ozark Stock/Dreamstime) BASS SWEET SPOTS Six stellar lakes for cold-water spoon action. While lakes in the northern part of the region may start icing up in November and early December, there are plenty of places that offer great open-water action through late fall, and even into winter. Some of these waters provide excellent opportunities for those willing to jig spoons.
Missouri is loaded with good spoon-fishing waters, including multiple clear, deep lakes with lots of shad. Table Rock, Bull Shoals and Lake of the Ozarks are all dream vacation destinations for spoon-fishing anglers. And because they are farther south than most Midwest waters, fishing continues past Thanksgiving for folks who don’t mind bundling up.
At 3,800 acres, Lake Springfield, just south of the city of Springfield, Ill., is another good spoon-fishing venue. It has a strong shad forage base that keeps the bass fat, and a powerplant that keeps the water warmer than most lakes into late fall. Fish where your water temperature indicator shows warmer plumes of water on chilly days.
Iowa’s 11,000-acre Lake Rathbun also has plenty of shad and offers good spoon action, particularly around submerged timber and ledges. You’ll likely also have chances to take home some tasty hybrid stripers for the pan.
Indiana’s largest inland lake, Monroe Lake (10,700 acres), is another great alternative. The huge floating docks at Fourwinds Lakeside Marina, among other spots, are ideal for vertical spoon jigging.
This article was featured in the November 2025 issue of Game & Fish magazine. Click to subscribe .
