by Colby Sorrells
Tackle Time
DIXIE JET
“The Perfect Bait”
S
poons are without a doubt one of the most successful
saltwater fishing lures. When asked, many saltwater
anglers agree if they could have only one lure it would
be a spoon. But are all spoons the same? Most anglers
have their favorites, and one was advertised as “The Perfect Bait”.
Coastal anglers have used spoons to catch speckled trout,
redfish, flounder, and other coastal fish as long as spoons have
been around. The often quoted first spoon story is that a
fisherman, for some reason, dropped a spoon off the side of the
boat and as the spoon wobbled its way to the bottom a fish
attacked the spoon.
The fisherman cut off the handle part of the spoon, attached
a hook and invented one of the most successful fishing lures
ever designed. The basic spoon design goes back to the earliest
days of metal lure production, most likely to the east coastNew York area in the 1800s. Spoon production and design
worked its way across the country as
people moved farther west. New waters
opened up along the way and new species
fell to the effects of a spoon.
The coastal environment is tough
on all fishing tackle, especially spoons.
The bright shiny silver, gold, or copper
color of the spoon only gets there by a
lengthy process. A base metal, usually
an alloy of several different metals, is
used to create the spoon. Then the
spoon is dipped in a solution that
includes other metals like copper, brass,
gold, silver, or chromium. An electrical
charge causes the metal to adhere to the
spoon surface. Many spoons include several of these metals,
with each one added after the previous, ending with a shiny
finish of silver, chrome, or gold.
Coastal anglers found the spoons they used were thin and
the coatings were not thick enough to withstand repeated use,
especially when worked over sand, rocks and oyster shells. After
using a spoon for only a few days, the bright finish wore off
and the base metal, usually a different color, was exposed.
One angler decided there was a better way. Emory
Schumacher of Houston, Texas, started making his Dixie Jet
Spoon with much thicker metal and much thicker coatings.
Schumacher’s tough spoon held up to repeated use. Now anglers
could buy one spoon that lasted for years, not just days.
Anglers of the time also liked the heavy 3/4 ounce weight
of the Dixie Jet. Reels of the day required braided nylon line
instead of monofilament. Monofilament often worked its way
around the end of the reel spool and wrapped around the spool
spindle causing any fish hooked to be instantly lost. The larger
diameter, water saturated, braided nylon didn’t have this problem
because it would not fit in the gap found on many reels of the
period.
8
GULF COAST FISHERMAN
Schumacher’s Dixie Jet Spoon was the answer. Schumacher
was a regular award donor to the tournament casting contests in
the Houston area. Bill Bush of Sealy, Texas, was a young
teenager when the Dixie Jet Spoon was new and he recalled casting
at the tournaments with some of his friends. He stated they all
wanted second or third place, because lower places were awarded
Dixie Jet Spoons, while first place was awarded a trophy.
Dixie made spoons other than the 3/4 ounce Dixie Jet. They
also made the 5/8 ounce Dixie Siren and the 3/8 ounce Dixie Dude.
All of these lures incorporated the tough Schumacher electroplating.
The silver versions of the spoons were made with chromium over
nickel, and the gold version was made with real 24 karat gold over
nickel and included a gold treble hook.
Early Dixie Jet Spoons were sold on a cardboard sign.
Anglers simply pulled off the spoons they needed, headed to
the cash register and then to the water. Later, Dixie products were
sold in individual plastic boxes included
in a 12-pack cardboard counter display.
The success of the Dixie Jet brought
about a change in Schumacher’s
company, also. They became so
successful in producing the spoons that
his el