The Spoonpluggers Forum

Now Douglas I am totally serious.
I will be leaving Minneapolis the Monday before the outing so I can find a fish or two. Paducah is the closest airport although I don't know if it still has air service. I know I used to fly there quite often out of Memphis.

I may even have an extra bed in my hotel room. I also don't need your money, just your company. Netting is helpful but a camera man is more important. I can always put an air mattress down on the floor of the boat and we can find something to listen to on the satellite radio. Granted my boat my be a bit of a scow, I think you'll be comfortable.

Douglas
You can ride in my boat if you bring your bass player

Douglas,

From the great articles by "The Lone Fisherman", whom I wold like to see ride again, to the harmonica blues, to the outstanding fishing; you never cease to amaze!

Looking forward to visiting at the new Jamboree 2010. I always enjoy the stories about the Spoonplugging Days gone by.

TN Dave

Getting back to the original question,
but before I do, Mr. Bush I'd like to add my name to the list as well. You have a place in my boat anytime!

Bassdawgie,
Just by doing something means we automatically learn, and the longer we stay with it the better we get! We all have doubts in the beginning about anything new, I remember asking Terry O'Malley if he wouldn't mind if I followed him around Lake Marie?" he probably thought, "who is this looser". I just wanted to know if I was doing it right.

I like what Bink said, "Don't worry about the weather this time of year, just go fishing whenever you can". The only thing I'd scratch from that is "this time of year." Go when ever you can, no matter the time of the year. There is to much to learn for you to start choosing your weather, that time for you will come down the road. If you keep the blinders on and do the work you will excel quickly.

Getting yourself familiar with all the lures is your 1st goal. You must learn what it takes to hit "EVERY" depth on the troll and casting down to 60'. This takes time... Don't let those deeper depths scare you, take it one step at a time. Your going to loose some wire, your going to loose some lures but as Buck said the hunter doesn't worry about spent shells, or something like that....

We spent our 1st year basically on the weedline, approximately 100 days on the water, 10 hour days... This summer I listened to an author on the radio and he said "No matter what you do, it takes 10,000 hours to get good at anything". Let that sink in a little....

We spent the next 61/2 "years" trolling 100+ days a year out to about 35'. In 2004 the kids and I hit a 50" muskies in 46' on an 800 w/ penn 109s, a lot of line out. In 2005-06 we hit the deep water again and followed the pike down to their wintering area, 50'+. We caught so many pike, 700+ in the deep depths that we would put the boat in reverse and back up to the fish to make it easier to reel up. Today our line lengths are much shorter with deeper running crankbaits. In November Steve Gillian and I taped a "Deep Water" DVD which we're very excited about. We went through, Why we fish deep water? What are some of the indicators that may tip us off as to where (depth) the fish may be found ect, I hope it turns out well.

When we started in 95, I know Doug we're still babies, kind of like it that way, ha ha, we didn't know either what it would take but with the success we saw from Mr. Perry, Terry, Vic, Rocky, Mike Moran, Vince Romano and others before, we were all in!

Our attitude remains same today, invest, invest, invest time on the water, then we may get paid.

Douglas, These guys want you to come for different reasons than I do. They want to listen to your stories, listen to you play your harmonica and pick your brain. I just want to take your money!!!!!!!!! John

Jerry Borst wrote:Getting back to the original question,
but before I do, Mr. Bush I'd like to add my name to the list as well. You have a place in my boat anytime!

Bassdawgie,
Just by doing something means we automatically learn, and the longer we stay with it the better we get! We all have doubts in the beginning about anything new, I remember asking Terry O'Malley if he wouldn't mind if I followed him around Lake Marie?" he probably thought, "who is this looser". I just wanted to know if I was doing it right.

I like what Bink said, "Don't worry about the weather this time of year, just go fishing whenever you can". The only thing I'd scratch from that is "this time of year." Go when ever you can, no matter the time of the year. There is to much to learn for you to start choosing your weather, that time for you will come down the road. If you keep the blinders on and do the work you will excel quickly.

Getting yourself familiar with all the lures is your 1st goal. You must learn what it takes to hit "EVERY" depth on the troll and casting down to 60'. This takes time... Don't let those deeper depths scare you, take it one step at a time. Your going to loose some wire, your going to loose some lures but as Buck said the hunter doesn't worry about spent shells, or something like that....

We spent our 1st year basically on the weedline, approximately 100 days on the water, 10 hour days... This summer I listened to an author on the radio and he said "No matter what you do, it takes 10,000 hours to get good at anything". Let that sink in a little....

We spent the next 61/2 "years" trolling 100+ days a year out to about 35'. In 2004 the kids and I hit a 50" muskies in 46' on an 800 w/ penn 109s, a lot of line out. In 2005-06 we hit the deep water again and followed the pike down to their wintering area, 50'+. We caught so many pike, 700+ in the deep depths that we would put the boat in reverse and back up to the fish to make it easier to reel up. Today our line lengths are much shorter with deeper running crankbaits. In November Steve Gillian and I taped a "Deep Water" DVD which we're very excited about. We went through, Why we fish deep water? What are some of the indicators that may tip us off as to where (depth) the fish may be found ect, I hope it turns out well.

When we started in 95, I know Doug we're still babies, kind of like it that way, ha ha, we didn't know either what it would take but with the success we saw from Mr. Perry, Terry, Vic, Rocky, Mike Moran, Vince Romano and others before, we were all in!

Our attitude remains same today, invest, invest, invest time on the water, then we may get paid.

"I remember asking Terry O'Malley if he wouldn't mind if I followed him around Lake Marie?" he probably thought, "who is this looser". I just wanted to know if I was doing it right".
Jerry, This is where i feel that i am in my development, and am happy to have found this forum and the NSOA, to compare my technique with the more experienced, to "know if i am doing it right"."I like what Bink said, "Don't worry about the weather this time of year, just go fishing whenever you can". The only thing I'd scratch from that is "this time of year." Go when ever you can, no matter the time of the year. There is to much to learn for you to start choosing your weather, that time for you will come down the road. If you keep the blinders on and do the work you will excel quickly". My goal and game plan exactly. I learned in my earlier years of fishing that if i timed my trips to take advantage of the more stable weather patterns, more fish in the boat. I can see now that there is plenty to keep a Spoonplugger busy, even under adverse conditions, striving to master the tools, and map the available structures. As stated earlier, i have caught more fish per fishing hour learning to troll than i had previously casting the shallows, so there has been no sacrifice in the livewell, a plus.It will be a while till i get 10,000 hours in,so i am trying to suck the most out of every trip in terms of real knowledge gained.Been doing my homework with the study course and videos, can't wait to get my hands on yours and JB's videos! What kind of deep-running crankbaits other than Spoonplugs are you using? Dwight

This is way too long,,
As you have been learning every lure has it's limitations of just how deep it will run, with "A" reasonable amount of line out. While it's true we can get an 800 spoonplug on the troll down to most any depth by sinking it and given there's enough space, however letting out 250' of wire to hit 45' is not reasonable in a lot of situations.

After running the spoonplug for a while now, imo the spoonplug is the absolutely best tool for reaching depths down to about 30-35'.

Going deeper than 30-35' requires lures that are designed to run deeper. Personally we have lures that will reach, so far, ha ha, 100'.

Most fishermen don't have any desire to fish deep water which is totally understandable.

Years back I was invited to Bimini island in the Bahamas where the owner was set up to fish deep water. (Deep dropping) He was fishing a 300'-500' drop off with a 7lbs window weight, a bunch of single hooks and cut bait. When we returned to the marina I saw a guy cutting up a bunch of beautifully red snapper. Amazed at the depth we found our fish I had to ask him.. He responded "1200'."

I turned to my buddy and said "You idiot, we were fishing way to shallow!"

So is 60' is reachable?

There are guys, spoonpluggers who are building what they need mostly for personal use, this may change soon. There are also lures available on the market. Mann's makes a few and there are others if you look around the web.

Do yourself a big favor as others have already talked about, learn to run all the lures before running out deep, only go out there when you have a reason to do so. When will that be? All I can say is, You will know. Good luck!

A fisherman once asked Mr. Perry why(in Florida) are we not catching bass bigger than 12 lbs? Mr.Perry's answer was(as he was holding up an 800 spoonplug) that this 800 spoonplug is not a mouthfull to a large bass. So......... if an 800 is not a mouthfull to a 12 lb bass, what is not a mouthfull to a 50 inch musky? Years ago, a few spoonpluggers began making larger spoonplugs. One of the suprises was catching big bass(indiana bass) while fishing for the musky. This was an eye opener. One day while fishing in the late fall, I was on hamilton lake trolling an ernie and a manns 30+ on a 36 ft breakline for northerns and never did get a northern. You might say, if you didn't catch any fish, then why mention it? I said I didnt get any northerns...... I caught all bass and all big bass. Did you see what was in that walleye that we caught this fall? A ten inch northern and a 8 inch catfish! A 17 inch walleye was caught and cleaned the same day and it had a small 3 inch bluegil in it. A lot of fishermen will not get this message or might not be ready to accept it , or think size may not make a difference. Mr. Perry said it like this. Our controls are (Depth, Speed,Size, color and action), and then goes on to eliminate all but the two most important that should always stick in our minds as we go about our fishing. Did you notice that size is listed first behind Depth and Speed? And before color and action.
There are those that will never make it beyond a 200 series spoonplug and there is nothing wrong with that. To each his own. Mr. Perry did not tell all that he knew. He took a great deal of knowledge with him that will never be known. He had his reasons. First of all, he sold lures. The knowledge that he put on paper allowed for those that desired, to catch fish like they have never dreamed. That sold lures and made many fishermen happy. Remember, trouble begins at 15 feet. Presentation of lures becomes more difficult. Interpretation becomes more difficult. This is the area that seperates the men from the boys. "It has been a struggle for Mr. Perry to get the fisherman to do things correctly and believe in his studies at those depths shallower than 15 feet, so why should he try and tell those who cant accomplish the easy stuff how to do it in 30 to 50 feet of water?" He would have lost them all perminately!!!!!!!!! He sold lures!!!!!!!! It is a business!!!!!!!! Lucky for us he shared....... We need a bigger lure........John

Hello John

I allways enjoy your post. You are allways on the money. I am all ways looking for big baits for muskie fishing. The old Swim whiz baits were really good, the new once really are poor quality baits. There are couple of baits that are really good quality baits by Legend, They make a 14 inch Legend Plow easly will go to 30 feet. There is also another bait made called All Esox Swizz trolls to 40 feet. I know of the Manns lures they also will dive very deep, these baits will wear you out pretty quickly. Would like to hear from other spoonpluggers of other baits available that will dive to 30 feet +. The baits I mentioned can be found at Rollie and Hellen Muskie shop.

Gino