B.A.S.S. Federation Win Uncovers “Secret”
Spoon
Ohio Fishermen Champion Snakie
Spoon,
Bait that is Gaining National Acclaim
When the Ohio team won the Northern Divisional B.A.S.S. Federation
tournament in 1988, team members relied on a secret weapon –
the Snakie Spoon.
The lure accounted for more than half of the 114 pounds of bass
the team caught during the three-day event, and gave them a victory
margin of more than 12 pounds.
The contest took place on Lewis & Clark Reservoir in South
Dakota, a body of water that attracts more walleye fisherman than
bass anglers. Although the walleyes may be abundant on the main
lake, the bass favor the shallow, weed-infested backwater sloughs
that are ideal for weedless spoons.
“We selected the area before we even left Ohio,”
said team member Bob Mosier, one of Ohio’s leading tournament
anglers. “It was about 20 miles from the dam, where the
river actually comes into the lake. From that point on up about
10 miles, there were a number of old oxbow, backwaters and swampy
areas. We were fishing emergent weeds. Coontails, basically, and
a kind of cattail reed.”
Ohio team captain Ron Perrine was responsible for putting together
the winning pattern. He began catching bass immediately during
the first day of practice on the Snakie
Spoon, a lure that only a handful of Ohio anglers had access
to.
“The key,” recalled Perrine, “was finding
pockets 10 to 15 feet back in the cattails. The bass were spawning
and feeding. You couldn’t throw right into the hole, because
you’d spook the fish in the clear water. You needed to cast
beyond the fish and into the weeds. A spoon wouldn’t snag
with this presentation. Then you pulled the spoon into the hole
and let it flutter.”
Largemouth bass readily hammered the spoon, and Perrine was
pleasantly surprised when he also took smallmouth bass on the
lure. He told other Ohio team members about the pattern and passed
out Snakie Spoons. Soon the entire team was on the fish. While
the bass would also take plastic worms, the spoon could be fished
faster and allowed the team to cover more water. The result was
a convincing victory.
Other spoons also may have worked, but not nearly as well as
the Snakie Spoon,
according to Ohio bass fishermen who know the virtues of this
spoon. The lure was invented by Jack Smith, an Ohio angler who
wanted a better spoon for fishing aquatic vegetation in Ohio and
Canada.
Smith marketed the spoon locally for a few years, but stopped
because he became more interested in fishing than making lures.
He later sold the dies for the spoon to Ron Perrine, who briefly
marketed the lure and stopped so he could spend more time fishing.
The few anglers fortunate enough to obtain some of these spoons
fished often and hid them from their closest friends. The lures
were especially hoarded by anglers who fished Ohio’s Indian
Lake, a shallow canal impoundment with lush fields of lily pads.
Word got out about the Snakie
Spoon after the South Dakota tournament, and Perrine was swamped
with inquiries about the lure. He began manufacturing the Snakie
in earnest and now sells them nationwide. What makes the Snakie
different from other spoons?
- Action - This light, brass spoon is slightly longer, thinner
and has a deeper curl at its base than other weedless spoons.
The design gives the lure a more pronounced wobble even when
retrieved slowly or allowed to flutter.
- Colors - The Snakie
Spoon is available in 12 colors and 2 sizes, including the
typical chrome, gold, black and white, and not-so-typical chartreuse,
yellow and red.
- Adjustability - The nose of the soft brass spoon can be bent
up slightly to give the lure a wider wobble. Snakie
Spoon addicts claim that this subtle adjustment makes a
big difference.