I'll echo most of Sol's comments...good post...I find the selection of the spoon's finish to be, mostly, an exercise in personal preference of the angler, not the fish. That being said, I'm tossing either silver plated, silver/gold 50/50, or I stack a silver and gold one together. I do all of those with Rvrfshr spoons.

The other spoons, like Sol, that I use are Gibb's...but just the really heavy ones, as I have the lighter weights covered with the Rvrfshrs. Occasionally I'll toss a Ltl Cleo, too...those were my go-to spoons for years.

Depending on the size of the river I'm fishing, I either use a Lamiglass X96JC, a Lamiglass X10MTC, Lamiglass X10MHC, or the new Lamiglass XMG50 120 (10 foot, 8-17, and especially kick ass now that they come with cork handles from the factory).

Line is pretty simple for me...fifteen pound mono in most situations, seventeen or eighteen pound mono in the bigger or more extreme situations. If the water I'm fishing is shallow enough that I'll be fishing with what I would consider a pretty light spoon (1/4 oz to 1/3 oz), then I'll often drop down to 12 pound test...but I don't use those little spoons in the winter very often at all.

I also like to use a fairly visible monofilament line so that I can monitor the "pulse" in the "bow" in the line...I fished for two days with a guy from the board a couple of weeks ago who saw first hand what using a slack line approach with visible line can do for ya...six fish to one fishing the same water...you never feel the hit, you just see it in the line.

I do not like the action that braid gives spoons, so I don't use it for spoon fishing, and I don't have a problem getting the hook set even when I'm fishing huge rivers like the Thompson or Skagit, though I'll admit I've been known to set the hook while running backwards fifteen feet just to make sure! The thickness of the heavy mono allows the spoon to flutter around rather than swing on a tight line...more important for winter runs who like to see the lure fall in their face, less important for summer runs who will come up six feet and chase it twenty feet across the river.

I also agree that levelwinds are the only way to go...besides the accuracy in casting they allow, you can also wing 'em across the run without twenty feet of parabolic slack line ending up in the air, and allowing your $4 or $5 lure to nestle right into the rocks. Also, in deeper water, you can let 'em swing with the bail disengaged and feed it line as it goes, slowing the swing and allowing the spoon to get even deeper in the slot.

A lot of the above doesn't apply when talking about fishing for little summer runs around here...which I mainly use spinners for, anyway.

Like Tim said above, it ain't rocket science...but he was being a bit facetious about "huck it out and wait for something to yank on it!"...it does require a bit of an experienced feel, but once you get it and start hooking fish, it becomes second nature pretty quickly.

Go hear one of Bill's seminar talks about it...the information is even easier to understand than in his articles.

Fish on...

Todd