10/5/22 Bink’s Spoons with a minnow can be deadly

Daily Fishing Log For October 5, 2022

General Info		Weather / Water Conditions
Date	October 5, 2022	Air Temp	70s	Current Generation	Minimum
Fisherman	See below notes for more info on Bink's Spoons!	Water Temp	mid to upper 70s	Current Generation	Minimum
Hours Fished		Sky	Sunny	Water Clarity	Clean
Fishing Overall	Fair	Wind	Light	Water Clarity	Clean

Fish Caught
Total Caught	Total Keepers

Size/Weight (Pounds)

Baits Used
Keepers	Other Fish
Bink's Spoons

Bait Colors
Keepers	Other Fish
Blue/white, white scale, albino, black/white, Many Shad

Location/Presentation/Structure
Bink's Spoons has been around since the 90s and used across the country, but especially in the midwest from Arkansas all the way up to Minnesota and Wisconsin. We will have a post about Bink's Spoons every two weeks until February talking about how to effectively use them on Truman Lake and beyond for crappie and many more predator species. Bink's Spoons were made popular by their creator, Darrell Binkley, on Norfolk Lake. There, he uses the spoons to target many species including crappie, walleye, white bass, hybrids, and stripers. You'll even catch some big blue and flathead catfish as well. Dipping trees with a minnow tipped on the spoon can yield many crappie. For hybrids and white bass, the fish will hit it on the fall most of the time. Humps from the dam to KK island have been producing hybrids and white bass, but the shallow bite is getting close. If you find a wind-blown main lake point, or a windy point on a flat, that's a good place to start. Turnover process is mostly complete throughout a large portion of the lake. Water is very clean on the lower end and dirtier in the upper Grand and Osage.

Location/Presentation/Structure

Bink's Spoons has been around since the 90s and used across the country, but especially in the midwest from Arkansas all the way up to Minnesota and Wisconsin. We will have a post about Bink's Spoons every two weeks until February talking about how to effectively use them on Truman Lake and beyond for crappie and many more predator species. Bink's Spoons were made popular by their creator, Darrell Binkley, on Norfolk Lake. There, he uses the spoons to target many species including crappie, walleye, white bass, hybrids, and stripers. You'll even catch some big blue and flathead catfish as well. Dipping trees with a minnow tipped on the spoon can yield many crappie. For hybrids and white bass, the fish will hit it on the fall most of the time. Humps from the dam to KK island have been producing hybrids and white bass, but the shallow bite is getting close. If you find a wind-blown main lake point, or a windy point on a flat, that's a good place to start. Turnover process is mostly complete throughout a large portion of the lake. Water is very clean on the lower end and dirtier in the upper Grand and Osage.

Fishing Notes
Special Note from Bink’s Spoons: We finally got our new line of plastics in. The Bink’s Power shads come in five different colors. The website shows the Green Pumpkin/Red flake as looking almost black, especially on mobile devices. This is an issue with the image. But, the only bait that’s black is the leech. If you click on the power shads you can select the color and it will bring up a picture of that color. These baits are all infused with chicken liver and UV glow. We have had very positive feedback on these baits. Bass love chicken liver and it turns out walleye seem to also. The reaper is an awesome walleye bait but you can catch everything with them. Bink’s Fishing Report: If you’re looking for dinner, tie on a 1/4 oz white spoon and head for the creeks to catch some crappie on the upper end of the lake. Tip the spoon with a minnow for extra attraction! White Scale is a good color in the cleaner water, drop it down the trunk of a tree or to the top of a submerged piece of wood structure and hold it there until you feel the thump! Don’t bounce it around, just hold it there fairly still and let it sit in front of the crappie. As Steve Blake likes to say, drop it to the bottom until your line goes slack. Reel it up 2 cranks and just hold it there. Down on the lower end of the lake by the dam the crappie have been near the bottom on fence and tree rows. For Hybrids and white bass, this is the time of the year to get out the jigging spoons. For Truman, you’ll more than likely be fishing 0-20 feet of water for hybrids and white bass so the 1/2 oz spoon will work just fine. Already some early reports are coming in of biting white bass in less than 5 feet of water, and for that, you’ll want to use a lighter spoon. In clear water, you need to be using one with a lot of white. In stained water, a darker color will work best. Last but not least, while jigging, raise your rod over your head and let it fall all on slackline! It’s not long until the whites and hybrids will really start schooling up together as the water clears. We should be seeing surfacing activity take place soon as the water temp drops into the low 70s and 60s. That’s when the next technique will come into play. That technique you can use is skipping the spoon on top of the water. This is a method to employ when you see schooling fish at the surface. You throw your spoon out and keep your rod tip high in the air while reeling as fast as you can to get that spoon skipping on the surface. If you aren’t able to skip it, you will still have a good chance of hooking into one if you keep it within the first foot of the water column while they’re schooling. The fish will “shark” the bait, meaning they will chase it and smash it from the sides until eventually they eat it. Makes for a heck of a good time. More on crappie: Fall patterns are taking effect. Put that jig away and go pick up your spoon and some minnows. Crappie are moving towards the mouths of coves and even getting into the coves and creeks. They are eating a Bink’s Spoon tipped with a minnow like crazy. The spoons provide a great benefit to fishing around brush and timber as well. If you are tired of getting snagged while dipping minnows down in all of those trees and brush, get you a Bink’s spoon with a single aberdeen hook on it. Or, swap the treble hook out yourself on the Bink’s spoon you already have with your hook of choice. Then, simply tip that hook with a minnow and drop the spoon down into the structure. When using the spoons, Jeff Faulkenberry recommends hooking the minnow behind the eyes, not through them because when you go through them, they are much easier for a crappie to steal off your hook. He hooks them below their jaw and out through the top of their head bone and says you can usually catch 2-3 crappie off the same minnow that way before you have to change. The other benefit to the spoon is if you get snagged, you can easily just use the weight of the spoon to knock it off the snag and retrieve the bait. This procedure can work with the treble hook, but not as well. All colors of Bink’s Spoons are reported to be working, but favorites are Albino, black/white, all white, chartreuse, blue/white and green/white. You can visit this link to browse the Bink’s Spoons Catalog: Bink’s Spoons Website

Fishing Notes

Special Note from Bink’s Spoons:

We finally got our new line of plastics in. The Bink’s Power shads come in five different colors. The website shows the Green Pumpkin/Red flake as looking almost black, especially on mobile devices. This is an issue with the image. But, the only bait that’s black is the leech. If you click on the power shads you can select the color and it will bring up a picture of that color. These baits are all infused with chicken liver and UV glow. We have had very positive feedback on these baits.

Bass love chicken liver and it turns out walleye seem to also. The reaper is an awesome walleye bait but you can catch everything with them.

Bink’s Fishing Report:

If you’re looking for dinner, tie on a 1/4 oz white spoon and head for the creeks to catch some crappie on the upper end of the lake. Tip the spoon with a minnow for extra attraction! White Scale is a good color in the cleaner water, drop it down the trunk of a tree or to the top of a submerged piece of wood structure and hold it there until you feel the thump! Don’t bounce it around, just hold it there fairly still and let it sit in front of the crappie. As Steve Blake likes to say, drop it to the bottom until your line goes slack. Reel it up 2 cranks and just hold it there. Down on the lower end of the lake by the dam the crappie have been near the bottom on fence and tree rows.

For Hybrids and white bass, this is the time of the year to get out the jigging spoons. For Truman, you’ll more than likely be fishing 0-20 feet of water for hybrids and white bass so the 1/2 oz spoon will work just fine. Already some early reports are coming in of biting white bass in less than 5 feet of water, and for that, you’ll want to use a lighter spoon. In clear water, you need to be using one with a lot of white. In stained water, a darker color will work best. Last but not least, while jigging, raise your rod over your head and let it fall all on slackline! It’s not long until the whites and hybrids will really start schooling up together as the water clears. We should be seeing surfacing activity take place soon as the water temp drops into the low 70s and 60s. That’s when the next technique will come into play.

That technique you can use is skipping the spoon on top of the water. This is a method to employ when you see schooling fish at the surface. You throw your spoon out and keep your rod tip high in the air while reeling as fast as you can to get that spoon skipping on the surface. If you aren’t able to skip it, you will still have a good chance of hooking into one if you keep it within the first foot of the water column while they’re schooling. The fish will “shark” the bait, meaning they will chase it and smash it from the sides until eventually they eat it. Makes for a heck of a good time.

More on crappie:

Fall patterns are taking effect. Put that jig away and go pick up your spoon and some minnows. Crappie are moving towards the mouths of coves and even getting into the coves and creeks. They are eating a Bink’s Spoon tipped with a minnow like crazy.

The spoons provide a great benefit to fishing around brush and timber as well. If you are tired of getting snagged while dipping minnows down in all of those trees and brush, get you a Bink’s spoon with a single aberdeen hook on it. Or, swap the treble hook out yourself on the Bink’s spoon you already have with your hook of choice. Then, simply tip that hook with a minnow and drop the spoon down into the structure. When using the spoons, Jeff Faulkenberry recommends hooking the minnow behind the eyes, not through them because when you go through them, they are much easier for a crappie to steal off your hook. He hooks them below their jaw and out through the top of their head bone and says you can usually catch 2-3 crappie off the same minnow that way before you have to change. The other benefit to the spoon is if you get snagged, you can easily just use the weight of the spoon to knock it off the snag and retrieve the bait. This procedure can work with the treble hook, but not as well.

All colors of Bink’s Spoons are reported to be working, but favorites are Albino, black/white, all white, chartreuse, blue/white and green/white.

You can visit this link to browse the Bink’s Spoons Catalog:

Bink’s Spoons Website

10/5/22 Bink’s Spoons with a minnow can be deadly

Truman Lake Fishing Reports

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