Can’t tell you how many bass I’ve caught on a Johnson spoon in the pads. Here’s a tip, take a black one and thread a white culprit worm that you’ve cut in half at the egg sack. You can thank me later. 

11 minutes ago, SC53 said:

Can’t tell you how many bass I’ve caught on a Johnson spoon in the pads. Here’s a tip, take a black one and thread a white culprit worm that you’ve cut in half at the egg sack. You can thank me later. 

Sounds good! What rod/line do you use for spoon fishing? 

Nothing special, what I would throw a frog on. Mostly a MH 7-3 and a 6.3 Citica with 40# braid 

Also a lot of fish will follow the spoon, hit it and miss or just show themselves with a wake or blowup. Have a backup rod ready with a worm with a 3/16 oz pegged sinker and throw to the spot they showed. 

I have a Johnson Minnow but have never used it. The metal weed guard is super stiff. Will that keep the fish from getting hooked?

26 minutes ago, georgeyew said:

I have a Johnson Minnow but have never used it. The metal weed guard is super stiff. Will that keep the fish from getting hooked?

No. When a fish hits the spoon, give them a couple of seconds to make sure he has it, then set the hook hard. 

Don't be foolish enough to believe a spoon will not work in open water. It has more action subsurface than it does on top.

1 minute ago, Catt said:

Don't be foolish enough to believe a spoon will not work in open water. It has more action subsurface than it does on top.

Agree Catt. I've caught fish that followed it out from thick weeds, and hit in open water. Sometimes, bringing it slowly over thick weeds, then, where the weedline ends, kill it, and let it fall. Some fish have hit it while it's falling also.

1 hour ago, Mobasser said:

Agree Catt. I've caught fish that followed it out from thick weeds, and hit in open water. Sometimes, bringing it slowly over thick weeds, then, where the weedline ends, kill it, and let it fall. Some fish have hit it while it's falling also.

 

Fish it like you would a spinnerbait, from just under the surface to slow rolling it deeper.

8 hours ago, georgeyew said:

I have a Johnson Minnow but have never used it. The metal weed guard is super stiff. Will that keep the fish from getting hooked?

Adjust the weed guard to 1/8" above the hook point. When you get a strike you need to wait until you feel the weight of the fish before you set the hook. (Kinda like when fishing a frog)

I like to consider myself avid at securing topwater hooksets, but weedless spoons kill me. When the situation is right for a weedless spoon, I can count on getting blowups- not hookups. Maybe I am setting the weedguard too close to the point? I have a silver silver minnow with a white grub trailer in the go to box.  

A silver minnow always had a very dull hook out of the package. Make sure you sharpen the heck out of it!

There were a couple of threads about the Johnson Silver Minnow this week. That got me thinking I should try mine. To tell the truth, I've only used one in freshwater once before today. So I rigged one up on my frog rod with a pumpkin chunk trailer and took it when I went this morning. I'm glad I did. It's the only thing I caught fish on. I got 4 on it pulling across small lilies much like a frog. I missed several others. Two that I caught were on top of the lilies. Two were at the edge when it dropped off. Mine is a gold one I bought for saltwater fishing. I did also lose one on the jig.

 

 

 

They never stopped working, a lot of fisherman stopped using them. I use them with 12# flouro and any of a variety of plastic trailers, I have real small frog trailers we used to use years ago. You can't seem to sharpen the hooks enough and I keep the weed guard 1/4" above hook. Pickerel and pike hit them a lot so with no wire leader you loose em a lot, I just can't stand wire leaders so thats life. Always pays to have one handy .....or two

2 hours ago, Tatsu Dave said:

They never stopped working, a lot of fisherman stopped using them. I use them with 12# flouro and any of a variety of plastic trailers, I have real small frog trailers we used to use years ago. You can't seem to sharpen the hooks enough and I keep the weed guard 1/4" above hook. Pickerel and pike hit them a lot so with no wire leader you loose em a lot, I just can't stand wire leaders so thats life. Always pays to have one handy .....or two

I rigged it with a small Zoom chunk with the swimming legs. When I took out I threw it from the dock, looking down on it. It looks like a mouse swimming through the lilies. I hit the hook with a hone just before I went out because of what I read in this thread. The 4 fish I caught on it hit it hard. One of them hit and swam toward me so I had to catch up to it to set the hook. It held on several seconds. This technique calls for a heavier combo and heavier line. I used my frog rod, which has 50# PowerPro braid. It helps set the hook and drag 'em out. I'm going to rig another rod for this so I can use my frog rod for frogs.