Vertically jigging spoons and jigs 

        While spooning up deep water fish can be boring, it can also be the best technique at certain times throughout the year, especially in the winter and summer months.  In a matter of minutes you can go from zero fish to 20 fish or my favorite 0 lbs to 20 lbs.  Good electronics are essential, and being able to understand them is even more essential.  A good flasher is a definite advantage over an LCR fish finder for this type of presentation.  Not only are they easier to see your lure as you move it up and down, but they show you the structure, baitfish, lure and bass, in real time.  The absolute key to catching fish on the jigging spoon is to have shad in the area, pay very close attention to the depth the baitfish are holding.  You will start to notice that the baitfish will generally be very close to that same depth throughout the lake.  For example, let's say you find baitfish holding 25' deep.  As you work other areas, you will also find the baitfish holding close to the 25' depth.  Some may be at 22', or they may be at 27', but the school will be very close to that 25' mark.

        Once you have established the depth, find an area with a good break line at or close to that depth, such as the side of a point, a roadbed, or a creek channel, and follow the break line all along that depth, until you locate the baitfish.  You will generally also find bass holding along the edge of the break line in this same area as well.  Standing timber is another good area to look for.  Most times, we find huge areas of standing timber with the trees topped at 20-40' below the surface.  These trees may be in water as deep as 50-80', but the bass are normally suspended in the limbs near the top of the trees.  As a school of baitfish pass near, the bass will ambush them.

        Jigging spoons can be worked in those trees, and yes, they will get hung, but are easily removed.  Drop the rod tip, and with some slack in the line, shake the tip from side to side.  The heavy weight of the spoon will pull the hooks free almost every time.  If you find you are really having problems with the baits getting hung, try using a lighter wire treble that will bend easily, or even replace it with a single hook.

        One last important factor is to use a split ring or snap to attach the line to the spoon.  It is important for the bait to move freely as it is falling.  If you tie the line directly to the spoon, you will impede this falling action, and you won't be able to get nearly as much flash or flutter from the bait on the fall.  Commonly a 1/2 - 1 oz spoon is used for this type of fishing, a good all around size is 3/4 oz.  Some of the best ones are Bass Pro Strata Spoon, Hopkins Shorty, Flex-It, Mann-O-Lure, Duh Team, and SPRO spoons.  A Buck tail or the larger sized Road Runners seem to work better, the subtle vibration from the small blade seems to trigger strikes.  Once you are catching fish, pay very close attention to the size of the shad they were spitting up.  If the shad are small shad throw a spoon the same size.  If you are fortunate to have stripers school on the surface in the wintertime, these are dynamite places to spoon for spots.  They will be below the stripes waiting for an easy meal.  Good places to fish are areas where stripers are known to school every morning or evening.  Where the stripers are the shad are, same goes for birds.  

        When fishing in 20-40 ft of water cast out and yo-yo the spoon back in like a Texas Rigged worm.  Keep constant pressure on the spoon as it falls back to the bottom.  This technique fits Fluorocarbon line to a tee, you need that sensitivity down in 60 ft of water.  You'll barely feel them on fluorocarbon line, so it could be a nightmare spooning with mono.  Structure is nice to have but not mandatory, bait is mandatory.  Whenever you drop the spoon down, watch it as it falls, and stop it just at the point where you are in the bait or bass.  When you lift, you watch it, and then see it fall back down.  Many times you can actually watch a fish move and come up and eat that spoon as it was falling back.  Also, you never know what you will get.  Anglers have caught largemouth, spots, stripers, crappie, catfish and even walleye, and often a mix of several of them.  Don't forget to look at vertical structure either, some of the best days can be  jigging around bridge columns on a cold day when your fingers are numb; a hot spoon bite can warm things up very quickly.