Spoon topwater

[SpoonMinnow]

Ever use a Jitterbug or Spook? I'm sure everyone has at one time or other and what's obvious to the angler and surface feeding fish are the noise, action producing wake and slow rate of retrieve.

Before the Spoon Minnow came the topwater made from the same spoon. I've named it the Waddling Toad. Heddon produced a similar design in hard plastic years ago and they are still sold. Mine are soft plastic, made in different sizes depending on the size of spoon used as a mold, rigged using a texposed 38 degree Mustad Swimbait hook - the largest the bait will accomodate. I pull silicone skirt strands out the back corners (four per corner) and use super glue to secure them. The hook is held in place to the nose of the lure by a clip I designed for my swimbaits.

The first cast in some weeds produced an amazing and violent strike from a 1.5 lb LM. The 3rd cast produced a 2 lb LM that came back after the lure after missing it, but on the same retrieve! One thing I noticed about using the lure fast - it resembles a toad raciing across the top of the water trying to get back on land. Same noise same action.

When used with a medium retrieve, it waddles along, plopping and bubbling the water, leaving a large wake similar to waking a spinnerbait with a #5 Colorado blade but at a much slower speed.

A friend turned me on to the phenomenal Lake Fork Frog last spring. The leg design is superior to any other frog on the market IMO that you want to use barely twitching in place.
Most frogs excel as buzz baits but are lousy slow baits, especially if loaded with salt. Taking into consideration the frog's large profile, action within a larger space around it and slowness to the point of dead stop, the Toad was born.

The lure also waddles on the drop.

Noise and large profile another example of design determining function and application.

Pics to follow this evening.

[SpoonMinnow]

The Spoon Toad