Hey Spoonpluggers 2024

deep reply :

Unfortunately I can't locate my copy of the book to find the answer right now.

Anyway, why is it that we must fish top-middle-bottom in shallow (<10 FOW I think) water, and only the bottom in deeper water? And did Buck say anything about suspended fish?

Thanks,

Buckeye Ron reply :

Sorry,can't help you but it was great to just see the word Spoonplug! Haven't heard about them since the days of Fishing Facts magazine in the 60's and 70's!

everythingthatswims reply :

I fished the top in 40 to 50 feet of water this weekend.

Dave Jakes reply :

Not sure what a spoonplugger is, or what book you're referring too, but I do know a thing or two about fishing deep water regardless of the lure or presentation:

1. When bass suspend in deep water, they aren't interested in eating. You can drop a spoon or dropshot right in front of their nose and they won't care.

2. In deep water you have a LOT of water to cover. Unless you spot them on your graph and know the depth they are suspending at, you're going to be spending a whole lot of time casting and counting down to each depth. Even if you are lucky enough to be pulling your bait through the right depth, you still have the inactive bass situation in my first point.

MFBAB reply :

I don't remember BP saying that specifically (about not fishing top-middle-bottom in deeper water), but I can tell you that deeper fish that are glued to the bottom are almost always feeding fish, whereas suspended fish off shore are generally A LOT tougher to trigger.

- An example of this would be summertime fish that pull up on structure at the depth of a thermocline to feed, but suspend adjacent to the structure at the same depth when they are inactive.

- Another example would be in river run reservoirs (TN River for one, which BP loved) where the bait and fish go tight to the structure (current break) when the water is running hard=CHEWING, and then tend to suspend adjacent to it when the water flow is reduced=NOT CHEWING.

As far as why BP would have been targeting those fish on the bottom in deeper water and ignoring the suspended ones:

I think his generally philosophy offshore was targeted more towards covering a lot of water trolling at high speeds, somewhere around 5 mph +/- in an effort to locate active feeders on structure, then to kill the motor and cast to the school. Then repeat.

Team9nine reply :

On 1/13/2016 at 8:25 AM, deep said:

Unfortunately I can't locate my copy of the book to find the answer right now.

Anyway, why is it that we must fish top-middle-bottom in shallow (<10 FOW I think) water, and only the bottom in deeper water? And did Buck say anything about suspended fish?

Thanks,

Pg. 108 in the green book: "When presenting lures in the shallows you must work all sections - top, bottom, and all the water in-between. You must 'strain' this total section with your lures. Only in this way will you attain depth control in the shallows."

Plus, fish that have moved past the "scatterpoint" could be "anywhere" in the shallows, and are (typically) more aggressive and willing to move further (up, down, or horizontally) to hit a lure.

Once you move deeper than 8-10 feet, you only fish the bottom, or as close to it as you can, concentrating on the breaks, breaklines, and deep water that the fish use. Buck wrote a couple articles on suspended fish, basically stating that by focusing on trying to keep your lure in position working the bottom, you will by default figure out if the fish are suspended when your baits come off breaklines, dropoffs, etc. and you work to get them back in position. The fish tend to suspend in some relation to these bottom features, and if they are doing so, will likely contact your lure when it comes off these same features. In later writings he said it also wasn't out of place to use your fishfinder to "see" if fish were suspended in relation to these features while you were trolling the deeper water (structures), but to never just go out looking in open water for them.

-T9

MIbassyaker reply :

After seeing numerous references to spoonplugging without really knowing what it was, I found a used copy of the "green book" cheap. It is a very interesting, but strange read, and I'm still trying to get my head around it -- you get the impression of Buck Perry giving a series of lectures in front of you with blackboard full of hypothetical depth-chart diagrams. You can practically smell the chalk.

Buckeye Ron reply :

On 1/13/2016 at 11:07 AM, MIbassyaker said:

After seeing numerous references to spoonplugging without really knowing what it was, I found a used copy of the "green book" cheap. It is a very interesting, but strange read, and I'm still trying to get my head around it -- you get the impression of Buck Perry giving a series of lectures in front of you with blackboard full of hypothetical depth-chart diagrams. You can practically smell the chalk.

Uh huh. You might say Buck Perry gets really "deep" into the subject.

WRB reply :

Knowing the difference between dermasel and palegic fish is very important in understanding the bass you are trying to catch.

Dermasel fish are bottom feeders, palegic fish are open water feeders, bass adapt to both type of prey fish and feed on both.

Buck Perry's focused his effects on what I will call active bass, those bass willing to chase down prey or his lure of choice; spoonplugs. Spoonplugs are a series of metal diving lures that Buck Perry invented to run specific depths when trolled, not unlike shallow, medium and deep diving crankbaits of today,

Bass are not active 24 hours each day, maybe 3 to 4 hours, then they rest at different levels of activity and they do this behavior independently, not all at the same time.

A lure that triggers a strike is usually from a active bass wherever it may be located.

A lot of credit should go to Buck Perry for understanding how bass relate to structure, he was ahead of his time a true pioneer.

Tom

deep reply :

On 1/13/2016 at 10:48 AM, Team9nine said:

..

-T9

Thanks! That's it.

On 1/13/2016 at 11:14 AM, WRB said:

..

Thanks for adding a related dimension. I tend to usually neglect pelagic baitfish since none of my local reservoirs have shad, although one has trout (all layers seem fair game there).

WRB reply :

On 1/13/2016 at 11:58 AM, deep said:

Thanks! That's it.

Thanks for adding a related dimension. I tend to usually neglect pelagic baitfish since none of my local reservoirs have shad, although one has trout (all layers seem fair game there).

Don't forget crappie are pelagic fish.

Tom

deep reply :

On 1/13/2016 at 12:01 PM, WRB said:

Don't forget crappie are pelagic fish.

Tom

Yes, those guys too! Thanks again.

g man reply :

Deep, have you lowered yourself to throwing spoons? Next thing you know you will be throwing the drop shot....it's a downhill spiral; remember you can't catch a swimbait fish unless you are throwing one...probably find you on the cover of next month's addition of Dropshot Nation LMAOROF g man

deep reply :

Nope K, I'm gonna try some white spinnerbaits first. I heard those can make me a lot of money in quick time, plus get me on the cover of a magazine!!

*Hootie reply :

On 1/13/2016 at 10:01 AM, everythingthatswims said:

I fished the top in 40 to 50 feet of water this weekend.

But, did you catch anything?

Hootie

deep reply :

On 1/14/2016 at 8:52 PM, *Hootie said:

But, did you catch anything?

Hootie

Looks like he did, Hootie.

*Hootie reply :

On 1/14/2016 at 9:03 PM, deep said:

Looks like he did, Hootie.

Pictures?, or did I miss the pictures?

Hootie

scaleface reply :

I've never even owned a spoonplug but know how effective they can be . I watched a couple of guys pull some nice bass and a big flathead off a point trolling these weird looking spoons .

Choporoz reply :

Been fishing through my grandfather's and father's tackle boxes and now am the proud owner of a few spoonplugs. Not sure of their design depths, but I suppose I'll give them a troll this year.

WRB reply :

Spoonplugs depth range trolling is by size;

2.5" size 250 depth 6-9'

3.0"size 200 depth 9-12'

3.5" size 100 depth 12-15'

4.0"size 700 depth 15-20'

I believe there are 7 sizes and still available on the Buck Perry site.

Tom

Catt reply :

If all y'all gathered from that book was "spoon plugs" y'all need to re-read it!

Team9nine reply :

On 1/15/2016 at 2:10 AM, WRB said:

Spoonplugs depth range trolling is by size;

2.5" size 250 depth 6-9'

3.0"size 200 depth 9-12'

3.5" size 100 depth 12-15'

4.0"size 700 depth 15-20'

I believe there are 7 sizes and still available on the Buck Perry site.

Tom

Yep. There is also the smaller 1-1/2" 500 (2'-4') and 2" 400 (4'-6') Series, along with the 5" 800 (20'-25').

And don't forget that they can be cast and retrieved as well as trolled. Most every species of fish will hit them which always makes it fun. Never know exactly what you might catch on any given pass. But as Catt mentioned, there is way more to Spoonplugging than just a bait.

-T9

Catt reply :

On 1/15/2016 at 3:04 AM, Team9nine said:

But as Catt mentioned, there is way more to Spoonplugging than just a bait.

-T9

To quote Bocephus: "some of us are born with it; some of em don't ever, ever get it!"

jcdogfish reply :

Made me go dig up some old reading material. Probably time for a refresher course, thanks for the reminder.

Catt reply :

Any brand crank bait can be used in place of the spoonplug because it ain't about the lure!

As Team9nine so eloquently put it in his write about the "Ned Rig", it's a philosophy or mindset. It's a complete understanding of structure, how to properly identify structure, how to interpret structure, and then fish structure effectively. Added to that is the complete understanding of how bass relate to structure morning, noon, & night...with each passing season. And then we still ain't done cause next we need to understand what the predominant prey species in your body of water & how that species relates to structure.

Structure can be fished effectively with a single set of lures like the spoonplug or with multiple lures & techniques.

Having this understanding, mindset, philosophy or any other adjectives or adverbs y'all wanna use is what sets fishing apart from catching!

Crestliner2008 reply :

I was probably 15 when I first started reading about Spoonplugging in one of the first yearly issues of "The Fisherman's Bible", back in the 50's. Back then I couldn't afford to buy a "set" of spoonplugs, but I gleaned every bit of bass knowledge I could from reading that article, as well as many others, written by Buck Perry, in "Fishing Facts" magazine. The knowledge is still with me today and it still amazes me that many, many fishermen haven't read his book, "Spoonplugging". I wonder, how many fishermen actually know what "structure" really is? Often times when fishing with a partner, I'll see him point to a stump and say, "There's a nice piece of structure!".

FYI: you can still buy his books and "lessons" online on his site. Priceless.

kickerfish1 reply :

Good info

Edited January 21, 2016 by kickerfish1

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