The Illex tricoroll spoon is a wobbling spoon available in 3 sizes and weights: 10, 14 and 19 grams.
This is a tapered wobbling spoon with an easily recognizable diamond shape. Born in Japan, this wobbling spoon was initially designed for fishing fast-flowing rivers, but it also proves excellent in lakes, whether dams or high-altitude lakes.
As far as I'm concerned, it's the missing link between the jig (I use the Illex Silver Shade a lot) and "lighter" wobblers like the Native Spoon.
The tricoroll spoon allows me to fish far and deep and to quickly and methodically prospect homogeneous slopes close to the bottom.
Finally, natives are best used for slow fishing, close to the bottom or throughout the water column.
Like its tricoroll swimming fish cousins, the finish of the tricoroll spoon is flawless and you can feel that this lure comes from the land of the rising sun.
Animation
Another aspect that makes the tricoroll spoon effective is that it's a very easy lure to get to grips with. Even a beginner will feel it working, find the right retrieve speed and catch fish fast! No complicated animations, just simple linear lines interspersed with a few twitches, and you'll get the bites!
My basic animation consists of casting, letting it sink, making contact with the bottom and reeling in with a few tip animations every 3 to 4 crank turns. You can slow down or speed up the animation according to the activity of the fish or the pace of prospecting you want. The tricoroll will respond easily while remaining very swimmable and you don't have to torture yourself with slow retrieve speeds or a too restricted range of use.
What's more, and this is its undeniable advantage, the tricoroll spoon "holds" the bottom. It doesn't come up too quickly on the retrieve, so you pass perfectly just above the bottom. It's this same advantage that makes it so stable that it won't stall in river currents.
In rivers, it can be used to cross currents or to cast three quarters of the way upstream, simply by controlling the banner. The tricoroll spoon will remain stable, easy to control and steer in the rapid, always moving easily close to the bottom.
I don't think I know any better lures for effective trout trout fishing on lakes!
The tricoroll spoon's stroke is very stable and "mechanical". The head moves very little and remains in line with the axis of the line, while the rear section has plenty of lateral travel and rolls nicely on itself, without dropping out of its stroke. As a result, the Tricoroll spoon is attractive, swimmable and pulls little in the line. You can still feel it working perfectly. It's also easy to twitch, with simple strokes of the tip, without having to force the action.
The low pull of the tricoroll spoon makes it easy to use with almost any rod. I don't hesitate to use the 14 g model on a stream Master Trout Opportunnist S2102ML rated for 12 grams maximum without any problems.
The tricoroll spoon's great stability means it doesn't spin when cast, and can be cast far and accurately.
A unique hook
In addition to the tricoroll's easily recognizable diamond shape, it's the tricoroll spoon's armament that really stands out. It's a single hook, very bulbous and large in size. It offers incomparable comfort and serenity.
This belly shape helps to "keel" the hook and stabilize it, so that it's always pointing upwards, more so than any other corrugator.
This results in very healthy bites, almost all of which are hooked into the trout's upper jaw with an incredibly low stall rate. This is also the case with the crushed barb, the tip being relatively long and the belly offering little support for the fish to disengage itself.
Another unique aspect, which offers a real plus in terms of results, is that the tricoroll spoon doesn't snag very much despite being worked close to the bottom. As proof of this, at the start of the 2025 season, I scraped the bottom a lot and used the tricoroll spoon without losing a single one! If you have to cast a lure on a bottom cluttered with large boulders or branches and other plant debris, it's definitely a tricoroll spoon, which is one of the lures available in France that should perform best on cluttered bottoms!
A lure of unique quality
As mentioned, the tricoroll spoon is a lure of Japanese origin whose every design detail has been thought out with efficiency in mind. It is not a Chinese lure repainted or simply repackaged!
The paint holds up really well for a metal lure, and it takes a lot to chip the paint. As mentioned, the hook is unique and perfectly matched to the tricoroll spoon, making it a formidable combination. It stays sharp for a very long time and doesn't get damaged.
A wide range of colors is available to suit many types of environment, cold or warm water, turbid or clear water, lake or river...
My favorite colors are the Aurora baitfish, which is both natural and highly visible in low light, and incredibly attractive. Pink back yamame also remains one of my must-haves. Despite the fact that for me pink remains one of the most effective colors on trout, few anglers use this color... Good for those who believe in it and use it, because it makes a difference in many situations...
A redoubtable lure in competition
To conclude this declaration of love for the tricoroll spoon, you should know that it's a lure I use very often in competition and my confidence in this undulating lure is unfailing.
I discovered this lure during the 24 h of Barouchat, the Lake Master, and caught a lot of fish at night, especially with the white glow color. I also use it successfully with the Salmotrek, on deep-set Arctic char or trout.
Finally, it was with a tricoroll spoon that I caught my first abant trout in Turkey, on a very uncertain and difficult fishery.
