Does anybody use these lures anymore? I have one of each and have never used them . I made a couple of cast with the Rogue but thats it . I weighted them to suspend . When would one use a suspending spoonbill and what depth would they be effective ?

I have 2 older ones with the metal bills, silver long billed rogue, but I have never used it. I never seem to do well with deep diving suspenders, not sure I have the patience. I know alot of people consider Rebel "Cheap" but I have plenty of Rebel lures and they all seem to catch fish, I would imagine people still throw those spoon bills. They aren't the prettiest lures, thats for sure, but not sure that makes a difference.

 

I do like the suspending rogue cause it stays shallow, and I always carry the jointed Rebel minnow. Something about the clown colored Rogue in muddy water....I imagine the deeper model would work well bumping the bottom.

When I lived in CA I caught hundreds of ocean fish, calico bass, bonito, Mackrel, barracuda, etc. on the Rebel Deep Diver both jointed or not.  I have caught a few bass and stripers in Lake Lanier using them as a jerk bait and sometimes trolling.

Back in the day (pre- Lucky Craft & Japanese jerk baits in general ). Rebel & Rogue spoonbills were "secret" baits.  Several tournaments were won on the Ozark Lakes (LOZ, Table Rock, Bull Shoals in particular ) throwing these baits.

If you threw them "stock" you wouldn't catch much.   The trick was to wrap lead tape around the shank of the treble hooks til it suspended.   With your bait rigged like this, you could throw a jerk bait  10 to 12 feet down off a point and at the time there wasn't any other way to do that.  Guys were putting 8 lb mono on bait casters, throwing the spoonbills pretty far using med/ medium light rods, then just twitching it along once they got it down.

 

Lucky Craft jerk baits and suspend dots applied to other jerk baits made this trend obsolete.   I'm pretty sure that these baits would still work, but there was a pretty strong learning curve to getting the spoon bill weighted just right.  More modern jerk baits and suspend dots have made the whole process easier.   I guess the spoon bill minnows are still decent trolling baits, I don't troll so I don't know.

Both spoonbills are difficult to cast as they tend to helicopter snagging the line on the hooks. Most anglers trolled the big Rebel spoonbill.

Tom

Not anymore, they've been swapped out in favor of baits like the Lucky Craft Staysee and Spro McRip.