Best Ice Fishing Spoons of 2026

Where the Buck-Shot shouts, the Thumper whispers, and that difference is the whole reason it made the list: this is the finesse side of our spoon box. The body is thin stamped brass, bent on purpose, with a small flicker blade trailing off the back. A modest lift sends it fluttering and flashing sideways instead of thumping straight down.

That flutter is what we reach for when a flasher shows fish that rise, look, and turn away. The spoon slides and rocks on the fall like a baitfish that has lost its balance, and the blade adds a flicker of light at the tail that a plain spoon can't manage. At 1.375 inches and 1/8 ounce it's small enough for perch, crappie, and bluegill but still heavy enough to get down at a sensible rate in the 10-to-20-foot range where most panfish sit.

The color program is the other argument for it. Ten options, including Super-Glo finishes that keep glowing after the lure leaves your headlamp, cover clear water, stained water, and the last half hour of light. We like carrying two or three — a natural baitfish pattern and a glow — and it helps that this is the least expensive spoon in the group, so a small spread doesn't sting.

Thirty feet of water under the ice is a different problem from eight. A light spoon takes its time getting down and swings away from the hole on the way, and the fish you marked drift out of the cone before the lure arrives. A dense body drops fast and keeps your line closer to vertical, which is the whole case for tungsten.

Reaction Tackle's spoons are pure tungsten, and the density is the point: a compact body that sinks quickly, lets you feel the bottom, and telegraphs a fish taking on the drop. Of the deep-water options here, this is the one we want on the rod.

The action is whatever you make of it. A lift gets a wobble; a pause turns that into a flutter, a dart, or a long glide. Short lifts with long pauses suit it, since the spoon does most of its work falling. Weights run from 1/2 ounce to 2 ounces in gold or silver, so the same shape covers perch in 20 feet and lake trout over a deep hump.

The catch is packaging. Each pack holds two spoons of the same weight and color, so you're buying a spare rather than a color assortment — if you want to find out whether gold beats silver on a given day, that's a second pack. For vertical jigging in deep water, the trade is worth it.

Two inches and a tenth of an ounce is not much metal, and that's the honest boundary of this kit: it's built for shallow water and small mouths. Over 8 feet of weedy flat, with trout or perch cruising through, it's exactly the right size. Over walleye sitting in 25 feet, it isn't. If your season is mostly panfish and stocked trout, keep reading.

The spoons are solid brass with a bright plated finish that resists tarnishing, and each one carries a ball-chain trailer at the tail. That chain is not decoration — it adds a wobble and a light knock of its own on the fall, and it keeps the spoon moving at the slow speeds cold water demands. The Eagle Claw hooks and split rings come ready to fish, which saves you a swap before your first drop.

Three color patterns — gold and chartreuse, silver with blue and pink, and a copper pattern — is a smart way to start a trout box: a bright, a natural, and a wildcard, without committing to a dozen spoons you'll never tie on. At 2 inches the profile sits right where stocked rainbows and perch are looking, and the plating holds up better than the price point suggests.

The detail that sold us on the Rattl'N Flyer is one you won't see in a product photo: it doesn't spin on the drop. Tie it straight to your line — no swivel, no leader — and it falls without twisting, which is one less knot to manage with cold, wet hands.

The rest is a hybrid, and it fishes like one. The non-lead alloy body is light enough to dance on a short lift and heavy enough that you can still feel it, and the brass rattle and scale-pattern finish give fish something to look at and something to hear. It also darts and flies wide of the hole rather than dropping plumb. That's not a fault; it's how it covers water off to the side of your cone.

At 1/16 ounce this is a panfish and early-ice spoon, and it's for exactly that: perch and crappie under new ice, where a heavy spoon is overkill and a plain jig won't glide. A spoon that both rattles and glides is unusual — most give you one or the other.

At 3.5 inches and a quarter ounce, the Steely is the biggest single spoon here, and it's the priciest single as well — so the question is whether the extra metal and the hardware under it earn the difference. For walleye, pike, and lake trout, we think they mostly do.

A spoon this size gives a big fish leverage, and the parts are where that leverage lands: Eagle Claw hooks and Rosco split rings rather than no-name hardware, plus a ball-chain trailer at the tail that adds vibration and a knock to the action. The prism finish throws a wide, bright flash on the lift, the kind you want with a big profile in off-color water.

Two things to keep in mind. The prism finish is tape rather than plating, so check the edges after a few trips and keep hook points away from it — a lifted corner is how a taped spoon starts looking tired. And the size is the point: this is not the spoon for a light panfish bite, it's the one you tie on when you're hunting a fish that eats something three inches long.