How to Rig a Jigging Spoon

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Which of these spoons is rigged right? All of them.

Some jigging spoons come with a single hook rigged up top, others have a treble on the bottom, and some come with no hooks pre-rigged. Confusing? Youbetcha. Here’s how to rig those spoons up right.

jigging spoons

Which of these spoons is rigged right? All of them.

Take a look at the spoon to the far left. With a single hook up top, snags are exceedingly rare. However, it only works well at hooking up fish when they hit the spoon as it’s being cranked (so the hook lays back along the spoon). If fish are striking the spoon as it falls, you’ll miss bite after bite. Same goes for the next spoon over, with two hooks rigged at the top. Many anglers will argue that the second hook boosts your catch rate, while others feel it isn’t necessary.

Moving along to jigging spoon number three, we have a single hook on bottom as well as the top hook. This will result in better catching if fish are striking the spoon when it falls. The downside is that if the jig touches bottom structure, there’s a bigger chance of snagging it. This rigging style has another advantage, however, in that it makes a good bait delivery device. Put a chunk of cut bait on one hook or the other, and in certain scenarios you’ll get a lot more bites. All of the same is true for the final rig, with a treble hook at the bottom rather than a single. Note, however, that if this one touches structure your chances of snagging up grow exponentially.

Finally, one not pictured here is a treble at the bottom and no hook up top – the historical norm, before leadered top-hooks became popular. Essentially using these is no different than using spoon number four above, except that there’s one less hook swinging around down there.

So, which one’s best for your uses? That depends on where you fish, and what you’re fishing for. In any case, now you should be able to make the best pick for your needs.

TIP: Always attach your line to the ring the hook leader is attached to, not the split ring securing it to the spoon itself.

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