Stuff weighing between 1/32oz and under 1/8oz. In the past I went with Diawa Crusaders or Smith Native series spoons which are aces but I decided I didn't want to spend 5 or 6 bucks a pop. I had been hearing some decent things about inexpensive CDM spoons from AliExpress and decided I'd drop a few bucks down to test them out.
I've purchased 7 rods from Kuying and a rod and Reel from Tsurinoya off the Ali website. My experiences have been just as smooth as using Ebay and most vendors on Ali take paypal so you get that protection. Shipping takes a little longer but I've never had something just not show up. When I went to the Ali site there were a ton of spoon options that came up. I quickly decided I liked the look of spoons from both Countbass and Yapada better than any of the others I saw. They looked a lot like what I was used to in the Daiwa's and Smith's. They also only cost between 1.51 to 2.55 each.
The Countbass spoons, of which I ordered 8, had remarkable paint jobs and were often different colors on both sides of the spoon. Both sides were finished as opposed to one being shiny brass or chrome. I liked that. They featured a single Korean needle point hook that was either minimally barbed or barbless. Most, if not all of these, are brass bodied spoons and not steel. I think these were 2.15 or so each and one of the slightly heavier models was 2.35. So I dropped about 20 dollars on them with free shipping.
They arrived the other day and I am extremely enthusiastic about them. I think they are every bit the quality spoon as the more expensive ones. The only negative I could mention is that they do not have a split ring or snap to tie to. Considering they are 1/32oz up to just under 1/8oz, I would imagine many UL spoon slingers would use a quick snap as I do, like one made by Decoy to effortlessly change baits out in an instant and that would be more practical than re tying every time you want a color or weight change.
I ordered a few 5.5gram Yapada spoons in gold for light tackle red fishing and a small 2.3gram 8 spoon kit for trout that came complete with a zip style spoon satchel. I spent under 20.00 for these spoons and a couple of them were 1.50ea. The smaller trout spoons came with excellent paint jobs and finishes. They also come complete with an Owner ST21 single hook and a snap. Even more impressive is that they were a lot cheaper than the Countbass spoons. I threw a couple of each brand in my pool and they truly act and move like traditional spoons so there are no surprises here. I don't think the fish will know that this is CDM stuff and not JDM.
Apparently Ali is gearing up for some mega sale and these spoons along with lots of other stuff will be on sale starting on Fathers Day. There is still a ton of CDM stuff I would never take a chance on but the Kuying, Tsurinoya, Countbass and Yapada stuff is slowly making me reconsider some of these products. You can't go wrong here with this particular stuff.
