Prototyping fly rod spoons

I read Tenkara Bum’s post about fly rod spoons, which aren’t really available anymore. If you are lucky you can find a brand from Japan like Rodio, but the shipping is killer and they are hard to find. It is easy to find larger spoons, but for throwing them with a fly rod you want a weight of 0.5g (roughly 1/60oz)or less. That’s tiny!

I was intrigued, so I decided to make some of my own.

The closest thing I could think of is the spinners on rooster tails. They are the same basic shape and some are quite small. I spent a couple hours doing research and found a company that sells fishing lure components and ordered a sample of their smallest spinner blade sizes and split rings.

Dime for scale so you san see how small some of these are.

Next step: adding a hole on the bottom of each one. I thought I’d use a drill press, but they are so small that holding them in place is kind of a pain. What ended up working the best was a small (1/16″) jewelry metal punch, available in every craft store. I assume they are used for earrings. Works great.

According to Tenkara Bum, the best fish catcher was the Daiwa Presso Vega in the Nightmare color scheme:

I did my best to replicate that with the polished brass spoons, glossy black spray paint, and orange glossy enamel paint.

Next I added some size 0 split rings and size 14 hooks. These split ring pliers were very useful.

In my most recent fly fishing outing, I threw one of the spoons a few times to see how it works. It wobbles and flutters pretty well when swung across the current. I didn’t catch anything with them on this outing, but I’ll try them again soon. I think they’ll do better in bigger, slower moving water than the shallow, fast water I was fishing today. I expect them to do well for bass and panfish, too.

Ongoing challenges:

Size 0 split rings are still to large. I need to find some 00. Brass ones would look better than stainless steel.

The paint comes off when putting the split rings on. Perhaps I need to cover them in UV resin first for an extra layer of protection.

Why am I doing this?

It is fun to make things.

Flies are so easy to lose in a tree or an unreachable snag, and the Japanese versions of these are expensive. I want to be able to cast these without worrying about losing them since I can make a batch of them for cheap.