Lol, yea the copper has better feel than the lead core. I can get about a pound of it (around 300 ft) on a Penn SG47LC line counter reel. Still using it with the gang trolls. Never did get into jerking spoons with steel line like some real old guys still do.Out4trout wrote: Copper - wow, You`re part of a rare breed. I`ve never used copper myself, but know a few older locals who still do.
"Way" back in the eighties when I first started fishing Charleston there used to be a couple of old guys that would drag a Johnny Green spoon (Remember those? Still available from Lucky Strike) right on the bottom as they crossed the lower end of Big water. One guy would attach a minnow to the extra treble off the main hook, and the other way was to remove the treble, then bend the large single hook into a loop and attach a leader with a treble and a minnow. I bet they would still work good. Maybe even off a rigger. I still have a couple.
Quite the story to those spoons. Invented in the 30's by John green, a farmer from the Buck/Devil lake area, who would guide Americans for Lake Trout in the summer to make money. The first ones were made from the headlight reflectors of old Model T Fords. As word got out he got lots of orders so he would spend his winters making them to be sold at 50 cents apiece at first. Unfortunately he was too trusting, and gave the template to some American firm for $500, which he never received. Also, according to Harold Green, somebody from Kingston once contracted with Johnnie to make lures for a “cut” of the profit on those sold but “Dad lost a pile of money on that deal”. As he had never gotten a patent on the lure, he never did get his due rewards from the design. OOD magazine did an article on the lure in their April 2012 issue but I no longer have it and can't seem to find it online
Here's a pic for those who have never seen or heard of it before. It has a good bend to it.
Cheers