The Return of the Original CC Spoon

The improved Cotton Cordell CC Spoon marks a return to this iconic lure’s original design. Learn what prompted the change.

Throughout the fishing world, lures have come and gone. Some could have been saved with a simple design change, and while others have been harmed by seemingly small changes! The Cotton Cordell CC Spoon is an example of the latter.

This classic jigging spoon was the pinnacle of flash and baitfish appeal when it was introduced. Unfortunately, in the early 2000s, the design needed work because a deteriorating mold was leaving the spoons with an unfinished look. The product team at Cotton Cordell racked their brains on how to revive the mold and ultimately went with a new look that produced a compact and “shiny” design. Unfortunately, this new design had far less action on the fall and was nowhere near the bite getter, compared to the original CC Spoon.

Fast forward to a few years ago – to a fall bass fishing trip on Lake Ouachita in central Arkansas with my father who is a longtime pro staff angler for Cotton Cordell. Shad were positioned in huge schools on the edges of creek channel drops and the bass were ripe for picking with a jigging spoon – one of our favorite situations for fall bass fishing!

We each tore open a package of 3/4-ounce CC Spoons and quickly tied them on to drop over the side of the boat in anticipation of a quick bite. To our surprise, after multiple drops, we were left with no strikes. “Not even a bump,” I told my father. He grew frustrated and began to move around, using 2D sonar to look at the fish clearly positioned below the boat.

We were baffled as to why couldn’t get a bite, but then it dawned on us. As I was waiting for him to get us in position to drop once again, I was quickly dropping and pulsing my CC Spoon and noticed a lack of action. It fell like a rock. We both watched the spoon in the water and after a few glances my dad dug into his box for an old model CC Spoon from the 90s. Within the first few drops he was pulling in bass after bass on the old spoon, and I knew immediately what needed to be done.

Luckily, with me being an employee at PRADCO, which owns the Cotton Cordell brand, I could find some old model spoons and plead with our product director to enact a change back to the old style. After a trip to the test tank to show them side by side with the current models he gave me the green light to initiate a change back to our old design. The old design, which is flatter, offers an erratic side to side action that creates enormous flash.

The new/old design  Cotton Cordell CC Spoon can now be found in throwback-style packaging and is available in all the sizes known to Cotton Cordell fans in both Chrome and Gold.  While making the change back to the original design Cotton Cordell also upgraded the treble hook on the CC Spoon

I can promise if you give the design change a shot you will see a noticeable difference in your catch rate.