lake okeechobee spoonplugging

[jiggerjohn]

On Florida shallow lakes, perhaps I'm covering old ground, and maybe everyone has seen the old (1950s?) black & white film of Buck & crew jigging the center of such a lake. During a trip to our club during the early 70s Buck arrived at the Pittsburgh airport (last off -I accused him of steering by tiller!!) carrying an old 8mm projector in a case and a big reel of film ( he handed ME the heavy packages, claiming "you shouldn't have to work if ya have a good dog to do it for you!" as a competitive weightlifter I became the operative "dog"!). At the meeting Buck narrated the silent film, and went on to describe how they had located this spot way out in the center and needed to jig it (think this was the first use of his SJ series) to have the lure skip over the mud to coerce a strike. He had mentioned the spot was either a very tiny drop off, or had slightly harder bottom features. The stringers were eye popping, but the second boat in the party was apparently just slightly off in their casting position and blanked out,even tho the boats were very close to each other. Not sure how this story adds to this discussion, only that then & now ,not many spoonpluggers pay as much attention to jump lures as they should!

[John Bales]

There is a time and place for all of our tools. A good spoonplugger will know when, where, what, why and how to react in each situation and make his catch. And do so without hesitation. Every day is different. Our guidelines tell us what to do to become a good fisherman. If we follow these guidelines and become a good troller(trolling is our teacher), we will know when the time comes to apply the other tools to control our depths and speeds to put the fish in the boat. The situation will determine what is needed and the experienced spoonplugger will have no problem adapting to any situation. A jump type lure is just a jump type lure. It is not a teaching tool. When it is needed, the fisherman uses it to make his catch and then moves on. John