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I was late to the spoon fishing game by all accounts. A very knowledgable gentleman by the name of Christopher Stewart was the first to open my eyes to the possibilities of using spoons for trout and panfish. It helped that he stocked and sold Japanese spoons as well as rods, reels and lines.

What many people do not realize is that there is a system. You need to match the rod and reel, as well as the line to the type of fishing you are doing and to the target species. And this is especially true when using spoons. We are NOT talking about Johnson’s and KastMasters here, simply because they are not manufactured in the weights we will need. In some cases we will be using spoons that tip the scale at 1 gram or less and fish them very slowly for panfish. I find trout prefer a more erratic action and almost always hit on the drop…or when I stop reeling and let the spoon freefall for a few seconds.

What I have discovered is that spoons allow me to fish almost the entire water column effectively. I can vary the speed, the depth and the action without changing lures often. And in cases such as this, I prefer a JDM Area Trout rod due to their being more of a moderate action rod specifically designed for light lines and lures. I have yet to find a US rod that comes close to being suitable for fishing sub-1 gram spoons and other various light lures. You have to remember that in the JDM (Japan Domestic Market) world, they make rods with ratings of Super Ultralight, Extra Ultralight etc etc. They are truly specialists in their fishing pursuits. This is why I harp on JDM tackle since it opens a whole new world of tactics and techniques and it is very effective.

I would also like to give a huge shout-out to my good friend Robert in Virginia. He is a true Master of his Craft when it comes to ultralight angling. He is one of the most experienced and knowledgeable anglers I know and is always on top of the JDM market. He freely shares information and tips which can be rare these days. I have hinted several times, unsuccessfully I might add, that he should be writing about JDM tackle since I think many people would enjoy the information, and it is hard to find good, reliable sources. He has tested more rods and reels than I could ever fathom.

Thank you for reading and if you have any questions, feel free to ask and I will try my best to answer them or find the information. Cheers.

2024 was a wild ride and if I’m being honest, I’m glad it’s over. We could only squeeze in one vacation last year so we didn’t get to take any major fishing excursions. However, we did hit our goal of 50 outings apiece for the year.

With our youngest son being a Sophomore in college, funds were tied up in education which was way more important than fishing gear.

I was tempted to do a “Most Used Gear of 2024” post but not much has really changed. Besides, we fished for everything from Carp to Stripers so the gear list would be rather long anyway.

I did manage to purchase 3 rods last year. There were only 3 that popped up on my radar and I eventually got them. They were the Palms Egeria Native Performance EFNS-61L, the TenRyu Rayz Alter RZA-612S-LT and the MajorCraft Finetail Works Tune FGW-4102UL.

As for reels, I only purchased two new ones. The Shimano Twin Power C2000S and the Daiwa Airity ST SF 1000. Both are mid-tier and incredibly smooth reels. I’ve been very impressed with both.

Other than new Veles lures we bought throughout 2024, we continued to rely on the proven EuroTackle B-vibes in 2 inch and 3 inch varieties for most of our fishing. They are tried and tested and reliably catch fish when nothing else will. We are trying to find Tungsten jigheads in suitable weights to get away from lead heads.

We are currently kicking around several ideas for excursions in 2025. Possibly hopping on a plane to the Tampa Bay area to do some inshore wade fishing for Redfish, Snook and Speckled Trout. We will definitely hit some of our favorite rivers to be sure. As usual, we are pouring over maps and seeking out those “thin blue lines” that hold possibility.

Here’s to a successful 2025 to all! Thank you to everyone who read this blog last year, even though content has been hit-or-miss , we really appreciate it. And I’d be remiss if I didn’t give a hearty shout out to Darell over at Classic Fly Tying for being a faithful reader. We really appreciate your support and wish you all the best!

Upon return from our previous fishing excursion; I stepped onto the deck to wipe my shoes off with a boot scraper and instantly, I was on my back. The wet wood coupled with algae/lichen or whatever was enough to make me slip and fall.

The damage was two broken fingers, a wrenched shoulder and messed up hip. The fingers still look pretty bad and thankfully the shoulder has healed up well. The right hip on the other hand is very painful.

Fortunately the shoulder pain was pretty much gone by the time the hip flared up. I woke her up around 0130 on a Wednesday and asked her to drive me to the ER. She knows I have a pretty high pain threshold so she figured it was serious.

The ride to the ER was agonizing as I could not sit nor lie down. I literally stood in the examine room while they tried to work on me. They gave me a Fentanyl injection and were amazed that I was still standing there. The shot did absolutely nothing. Next up was a Dilaudid injection which took the edge off but still did not provide any relief. After being forced to lie down for a CT scan, which was not pleasant, I was back in the room and still standing. By the time the pain had eased just enough for me to finally sit on the hospital bed, the nurse came in and said the CT scan was clear and didn’t show any fractures or dislocations. Then she handed me the discharge papers with a prescription for 12 Percocet tablets. She suggested that I see an Orthopedic specialist as soon as possible.

Now…I’m not a doctor, but if Fentanyl and Dilaudid didn’t provide any relief, then what makes anyone think that Percocet was going to do anything? But that’s just me I guess.

Thankfully there was a cancellation at the Orthopedic specialists office and he could see me the next day. The 25 mile drive was excruciating but I was hoping that he might finally give me some relief. Nope. He said the CT scan wasn’t very good and only showed half of the hip but he didn’t think an x-ray, CT scan or MRI was necessary and that Motrin would help me. If the pain didn’t get better then he suggested I go to the ER again. UGH!

At this point I am really getting frustrated. I called my primary Care Physician to make an appointment. I figured I could suffer through one more day and explain everything to my doctor. Later that evening I get a cancellation notice from the doctors office and was urged to reschedule. My doctor had the flu. This all happened on February 7th and 8th by the way.

Needless to say it is currently February 18th and I am out of Percocet and have been bedridden since the 9th. Sleep has been virtually impossible and I still cannot sit down. I do have a doctors appointment for Tuesday the 20th which I am seriously looking forward to. None of this makes sense to me. I am not impressed with any of the treatment I have had so far but hopefully that will change. If it wasn’t for an old tens unit we had lying around, the pain would be a lot worse than it is now. I will add that not one doctor or nurse cared one iota about my broken fingers. They never even looked at them despite me asking for them to do so.

Fingers crossed that this is nothing serious and I’ll be back on my feet soon. As always, thanks for reading.

I have a “thing” for handcrafted lures and it borders on an addiction. What’s worse is that my wife has the same addiction. Our favorite lure maker is Duro Cucak from Serbia…better known as “Veles Handcrafted Lures.” In my opinion, he makes the best lures I’ve seen to date. The craftsmanship is outstanding and every lure is a masterpiece. Whats more, they fish well and catch fish.

Our next favorite lure maker is Alexandru Piper and goes by Panlures and is based out of Bucuresti, Romania. His lures are outstanding, run true and are durable. Granted, a lot of his lures are aimed at the European trout fisherman, but many will transfer to here in the States.

Both of these artists can be found on Etsy as well as a few other websites. I’m not trying to sell anything, but if you’re interested, go check them out.

Life has been a whirlwind to say the least. The mother-in-law has been in and out of the hospital and physical rehab since September, our workloads have increased at our jobs as well as getting the usual stuff done around here. The holiday season kept us busy as well. We are both ready to relax a bit and catch our breath.

Our youngest son goes back to college this weekend and today is our youngest grandsons first birthday. And of course, Old Man Winter roared onto the scene. We were at 61F on Thursday and now it’s 14F out there and we will be below zero soon. I can’t complain, my father, who lives in Saskatchewan, is sitting at -34F right now. That’s brutally cold and I feel for him.

We will definitely be pulling the maps out soon and see what we can come up with for 2024. Things changed at my company so they are doing vacations differently. It is almost impossible to get two weeks in a row off, which is very disappointing. If nothing else, perhaps we can squeeze in some long weekends and get some fishing in.

Not that it really matters, but we did reach our goal of 50 outings for 2023. I managed 56 and she ended with 51 outings. My journal shows we caught 516 fish and we released every single one of them. I’m sure some would call that a “fools hobby.” We didn’t even bother taking pictures for a lot of the outings because we knew we wouldn’t have time to edit them. Run and gun was the name of the game.

With each and every year, we are getting our gear dialed in more and more. There are a couple of rods that have caught our interest as well as a reel or two. We have learned a lot and will continue to research and test out our theories as we chase that ever elusive goal of perfection.

More importantly…we are still having fun!

Stay tuned for more content in the near future and thanks for reading.

P.S.- to top it all off…we have experienced a surge in earthquakes in the last 24 hours with the USGS registering 9 of them. We felt a 4.2 at around 945pm last night and just had a 4.7 a few minutes ago.