We have talked about the effectiveness of using spoons to target cold weather bass. We have also talked about the differences between casting and jigging spoons. This is important for the angler in terms of choosing which spoon to use for a particular situation. The vast majority of the time, when we begin our day on the water, we are using a casting spoon.
However, when the fish are relating to the bottom and down deep, our choice moves to a jigging style spoon. One of our favorites is the subject of today’s review. The War Eagle Jiggin’ Spoon. These spoons lend themselves by their design, more to a vertical jigging presentation than casting and retrieving. Why is that you’re wondering?
War Eagle Jigging Spoon Construction
For starters, the length to weight ratio gets these spoons down in the water column quickly. At 1/2 ounce and 1-3/4 inches or 7/8 ounce and 2 inches, you can imagine that deep depths are no problem for the War Eagle. The Jiggin’ Spoon uses high quality components and comes with a swivel attached to the line tie. This feature serves two purposes. One, it protects your line better than tying directly to the lure and secondly, helps alleviate line twist as you’re fishing with it.
Another feature that we like is the fact that while most spoons are only painted on one side of the bait, the War Eagle is painted on both sides. In our testing, this does increase strikes over some of its competitors.
Action
The action of the Jiggin’ Spoon is one that would be considered moderate to understated for a bait of this type. Again, due to its size, there isn’t a lot of surface area on the lure for the water to move around. However, it is just this subtle action down in the depths that seem to be the strength of this lure especially when the fish are in a nuetral to negative mood. How many times have you been fishing where using a lure with a lot of action results in no strikes? I can tell you for sure, it’s happened to me often. Then when you switch to another lure with almost no action and usually, you start getting bit. This is where the War Eagle shines.
We like to use these to target deep structure in cold weather by simply positioning yourself above your target. Dropping the Jiggin’ Spoon down is simple and the bait doesn’t wander of course to any great extent. Once you’ve got it down simply raise your rod tip from about 4:30 to 2 o’clock and allow the spoon to settle back down on semi-slack line. That’s it. That’s has been our most effective retrieve with the War Eagle. We continue this same jigging motion until we get bit. A work of caution here, most of our strikes come as the lure is falling so keeping some contact with your bait is crucial. You can certainly miss the less aggressive bites if you allow the bait to fall on completely slack line. I know that I have!
The War Eagle Jiggin’ Spoon usually retails for about $6 for a pack of two and are flat out built. These things will stand up to the worst your lake has to throw at them and keep coming back for more.
If you’ve never tried fishing vertical jigging spoons but you’re looking for the right product to get going, this should certainly be one that is high on your list to obtain.
| War Eagle Jigging Spoon | |
|---|---|
| Overall Rating |    |
| Quality spoon with attention to details | |
See ya’ on the water …