Spooning Saltwater Species

Targeting redfish, speckled trout, snook and flounder in the saline shallows is commonly an exercise in covering, and subsequently eliminating water. True, it’s tough to beat a live shrimp, croaker or crab under a popping-cork once you have fish pinned in a corner. But until then, you’re best off peppering the water with exploratory casts, deploying a menagerie of lures, including casting spoons.

Some will argue that saltwater spoons remain the most reliable search baits. Even in this time of spitting-image replication – hard and soft-baits cloned to look, even act like real forage – the stalwart swim and flash of the spoon is everlastingly effective.    

The trouble with most spoons, however, is their one-dimensional performance. A good and heavy, long casting spoon, for example, is a bull in a China shop in the shallows. It crashes and cartwheels over oyster beds, inevitably becoming a permanent fixture notched in the reef. Super-skinny, lightweight spoons tango tantalizingly over the shallows, but can only be cast about six oar lengths, even less in a headwind.

The good news is that a high-performing and fully adaptable spoon does exist; one that can cast across the marsh yet hover among tailing redfish long enough to get annihilated. This spoon of spoons is the Fin-Wing.

This so-called “hovering” serves as a primo example of Fin-Wing functionality. Typecasting says saltwater lures, including spoons, should be burnt at Formula One speeds. Yes, inshore species often react positively to a fast-paced retrieve. But equally as often, inshore species either aren’t chasing the silver bullet, or simply didn’t have time to commit, especially in the hyper-shallows.

Because of Fin-Wing’s inimitable scooped shape and wide profile, the patented spoon has an especially long hang-time, and can be retrieved slower. This keeps the bait in the strike-zone longer, letting fish dial-it-up for a charge, not to mention summoning nearby fish that would have gone completely untapped by a fast moving – and sinking – conventional spoon.  

Another Fin-Wing phenomenon is its subsurface appeal. As desperately as inshore anglers want to taste a topwater bite, sometimes that just isn’t happening. The typical backup program involves pitching a jig. Retrieved at the right speed, the Fin-Wing flounces just below the surface, throwing flash and vibe like a salsa dancer. So sit on that jig for a while and let the Fin-Wing shake its hips below the surface.

Here’s your chance to get reacquainted with spooning. Take a few Fin-Wings on your next inshore adventure and reap the catch of the most progressive piece of metal on the Seven Seas.