The Spoonpluggers Forum

Thanks for the follow-up reply, John. Hoping to get out once or twice this week now that the Holiday stuff is done. Water was 42-45 here on my last trip about 5 days ago, but a slight warm-up in the forecast for this week.

John - This one is interesting to me from the perspective of the map, as that dot wouldn't be my first, second, or likely even my third anchoring spot not knowing anything about the lake, and just seeing the map - lol - though the area looks great. If you look at the houses on the map, and then figu...

When the 2 best spoonplugging educators can't agree on what the contact point is its a pretty big deal. I don’t see it as a big deal because they are basically talking about two different situations that make it sound like they are differing when they aren’t. In Terry’s example there are 4 fingers,...

Yeah, I think we're splitting hairs. I rewatched some old Dickson videos and he did say the deepest break into the deepest water. If two or more are equally deep, then the sharper one is better. If two or more are both equally deep and sharp, then the longer one is the better one. I'm guessing 9 tim...

Different interpretations by different Spoonpluggers based on their experience, perhaps. It's all tied to which one breaks into the deepest water in the area, not which one breaks at the deepest depth, for me. Terry O on contact points and which finger produces : "It doesn't have to be the deep...

Because it's the sharpest break into the deepest water in most cases, not the deepest break. See the green book, Chptr 6, Contact Points: The type of lake, or reservoir, and the bottom conditions would determine which type is more important, BUT, if you were a fisherman who fished a variety of lakes...

John - I think you make two very important points. First, the importance of mapping and interpretation, and why we can always improve in this area. The second, and it was almost what I was going to write about in the National, is that I believe most Spoonpluggers don’t pay enough attention to the sh...

We all live in our own little fishing world. What my fish do in the lakes I fish is not the same as what you may deal with in your own little fishing world. You must do your own thinking of what your fish are doing daily and seasonally. You must adapt to what you are faced with. ...Now I just have ...

Do you have a map showing a larger area of this particular section of the lake? I see JWT’s point about a possible junction with a feeder stream cut, but can’t tell for sure based on the above picture. Might help with interpretation, but this is one of those that there will be no way to know for cer...

Okay, here is the next question. Let’s say this is a natural lake, clear water and weeds to 20’. Besides the obvious “go somewhere else”, would you approach this structure differently? How would you troll the breakline if the weeds from 20’ top out at less than 10’? Ken Was hoping a natural lakes g...

There are several reasons for why I drew the line along the entire break line. First, Green book page 42-43 (Fig 21) references the fact that the route to the shallows may not be the shortest, most direct one. Fish will use the available breaks and breaklines, often ending up in what Buck termed “a ...

I agree with Champ. First time on the lake, I’d spend some time idling around and graphing the area to see how similar or different it is from the map. In addition, you’ll get to see any breaks (weeds/weedlines, stumps, brush piles, rock piles, etc.) that fish would use, but won’t show on these maps...

That would be my first guess, too, but while in the area, I would double-check the little fingers just above and below that spot to be certain. They could get some activity at times, or have something not shown on the map that makes them good.

FWIW, looks like a good spring spawning area. Now that we're past that season, I'd be looking at areas the fish would use as they move out of there. First for me would be the saddle/island combo. Shallower, but could be good immediate post-spawn while fish are recuperating or guarding fry. Beyond th...

All we can do is guess since we can’t see what kind of breaks are there and where they are located. Additionally, the accuracy of these maps is never spot on, and as readers, no idea of water clarity. That said, if I had to pick one area to focus my efforts at, I’d guess the area circled in red as t...