Reviewed by: CAPT. MIKE SCHOONVELD
The most popular Great Lakes trolling spoons are not made by “main brand” lure companies. There are no Rapala spoons or spoons from PRADCO the corporation that makes Rebels, Cordell, Bombers and other lures.
The one’s you’ve heard of and probably use all have similar stories. They started as a sole-proprietor business or at best a family enterprise by an individual who bought spoon blanks, hooks and rings and learned to decorate them either with sticky-tape patterns or hand applied paint and patterns using an airbrush.
You can do this yourself, I do it myself, but I can’t do it as well as the tapers and painters who turn out the Dreamweavers, Warriors, Stingers, Pro Kings and all the other popular brands. I can paint a picture, but it isn’t a Terry Redlin. I can paint a spoon, but it’s not Moonshine.
New spoon makers are still starting and hoping to carve a niche in this Great Lakes centered market. I usually rely on the time tested spoons and have favorite patterns I’ve trusted for decades. I also enjoy taping and painting clones of my favorite patterns or fishing with patterns I invent in my own man cave. Still, it’s fun to have the chance to attach a promising looking spoon from an upstart company to my line to see if it works, and hopefully, to be able to say 10 or 20 years from now, “I remember when this company was new.”
I discovered one these newby spoon makers last summer going by the name, Kustom Kreations Lures, LLC. Kustom Kreations Spoon Company has been gaining traction along the Wisconsin shores of Lake Michigan for a couple of years. The samples I tested were mostly “glow” patterns, but KKL produces patterns in non-glow and UV finishes, as well. I took the spoons with me to the Michigan side of the lake and proved they work just as well on that side as they do in Wisconsin and I’ve no doubt they will perform in any of the other lakes where salmon, trout and steelhead regularly slam trolling spoons. Check out the available patterns at: www.facebook.com/treelizard24
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