The Spoonpluggers Forum

NoMusky,

I have been "networking", talking to all those I know that fish this area. Talked with a guy last evening that had some really good info on a couple of lakes he had fished numerous times.

Both are larger lakes for this area, 750-850 acres, both are 10 hp max motors, and no swimming, camping etc allowed. I trust what he told me, as I have known him for years. He has moved a bit away from here and I lost contact with him until yesterday.

He currently fishes Lake Anna a lot as he lives only 15 minutes away. The two lakes he told me about are only 10-15 miles further than Lake Anna for me, but is more travel time, but not that much. These are actually reservoirs that allow outboards, have standing timber and are abundant with 2-4 lb bass with trophy size to 10 lbs. I checked out the lakes online, and he is 100% correct with his information.

Concrete boat ramps, ample parking, no launch fee.

Now.....do I buy a nice little 2.5 - 3.5 hp outboard and try them out? How many times would I actually go there in a season? If I went once a week, and cut back on my local electric only lakes, from 3 days a week to only 1 day, then I would be putting on the same mileage I am currently.

Maybe I should try them out with just the electric to find out for myself before buying an outboard, might make more sense. But without an outboard I may not be able to get where I need to go on the much larger bodies of water.

Have to think on this for a bit.

I still have 2 other electric only lakes to check out that are closer to home, but the catch reports aren't even close to these 2 lakes I was informed about yesterday.

hi Vaguru,

Checking out a bigger lake with a trolling motor to determine if you want to invest in / get an outboard motor makes sense, especially since you will need to decide how much you will use an outboard motor and where you will be fishing. But, there obviously will be numerous advantages if you are using an outboard however, you could still have the possibility of using a trolling motor which is better than rowing until needed after you lose power to get back to the ramp.
I don't know where you are geographically located in VA, but, I'll throw out another idea (if nearby) for consideration... south of Lake Anna is the James River, have you considered fishing a river ? I think that would be another reason that you could have and use an outboard. Better than only being limited to a trolling motor, but if you decide that you only want to fish the local reservoirs or fish anywhere with only the trolling motor, then Vaguru, you can spend the time on the water and figure out where you want to fish and the kind of motor you will use. But, I understand that by using a trolling motor you have a limited time on the water and what speed you can travel (to use to troll at a slower or faster speed) at and/or how far you can go from the dock you launch at. So, if you want to fish a bigger lake and be using an outboard motor (except for the maximum mph speed you can safely propel the boat to), you'll have more options for fishing a lake and increase speed to troll faster and longer on the water and still get back back to the ramp. Based on where you want to fish, what motor you can use there, how often you want to drive and fish there, and how much you want to troll vs cast, getting an outboard will give you an option unless you want to decide that you will only fish local with a trolling motor.
Whatever you decide, I hope you have a great time on the water and it is a fun body of water to be out fishing when you have the free time to be out fishing. I'll look forward to seeing your posts (if any) with a photo of what you caught, especially since it sounds like you are looking forward to catching an 8 - 10 pounder without having to pay a launching ramp fee!

NoMusky,

I'll keep you posted. Lost out on a great looking 3.5hp Mercury today at a really great price. Didn't think it would still be for sale, and I was right. Still awaiting a call back on a mint looking Evinrude 2.5hp, again at a great price. Am still undecided as to what I really want to do, as both the bigger lakes where the outboard can be used have slot limits, one is 15-24, and the other is 16-20". That kinda takes away from the fun when there is a total of 4 hr drive time. May just stay with the electric, but if the 2.5 can be bought right I might just get it anyway.

If you really want to learn how to Spoonplugs, just sell what you have, skip the 2-3hp and jut get a nice 12-14' boat with a 9-15hp and a big trilling motor. Days you want to fish the Eletrican lakes just take the big motor off (in Illinois we just take the prop off the big motor and can launch on electric lake only). And on days you want to fish the other lakes you will ready to go in a safe boat.

Bink

Bink,

I did just that! Sold my 10ft jon last wed morning, and had a new 14' jon home that evening. Looking for a good used 9.9 hp motor now. Can't find anything reasonable currently except 6 and 8hp models. May end up with an 8 hp. Spent yesterday extending trailer tongue and wiring, setting ups bunks, tower, ect. Today I will mount seats, oar holders, registration numbers, etc.

I decided it was better to have a bigger boat.

vaguru

New boat - sweet. I ran a 16' jon with a 9.9 for nearly 8 years before finally upgrading a smidge to a 16.5' deep-V due to getting older and safety concerns on highly trafficked waters around here. Very versatile. Congrats.

Vaguru
Very good decision. Another little tip.... get a 15hp and put 9.9 decal on it. You can order the decals online for about $5.
Looking forwards to some lake Anna reports. Only fished it for a day but had decant luck on the flat bar out in front of the plant. It's deep and clear... think we caught everything on 700s

Bink,

Picking up a used 2 stroke 8 hp Merc tomorrow. I understand the 15 hp thing, but I won't be able to spend as much time on the motor lakes as I'd like due to distance. Will try for once a week on the motor lakes, and once or twice a week on the same old electric lakes I have been fishing. There is one electric lake I haven't fished yet(450 acres), but will give it a try soon. As soon as I get another battery, due to size of this lake I would prefer to have 2 batteries.

I had a 9.9 on a 15' deep v years ago, would do 22-23 mph. I'm thinking the 8 will push this 160 lb jon about the same as the deep v, it weighed about 150 lbs more.

I was looking for a 2 stroke 9.9 yammy, as changing the reed valve plate makes it a 15! Alas, I went with the best bang for buck and the merc. I think it will be fine.

Took my new rig out to Sandy River Reservoir. Maiden voyage caught13 bass and 6 channel cats. Went back 4 days later and caught 39 bass and 7 channel cats. All were caught trolling, but NONE were on spoon plugs! Don't know if the fish here are not very aggressive or what. I caught them all on crank baits that I trolled from 5 - 12 ft deep. I varied speed from 1.6 - 3.5 mph according to my hand held gps. Most were caught at a speed of 1.8 -2.2 mph, some at 2.4 mph. I'm not giving up, next trip will try spoon plugs again. Can't believe there is not a fish in there that would hit a spoon plug.

btw, the 8 hp Merc pushes the 14' jon at 19.8 mph with just me and all my gear. Not to shabby.

Another day fishing (post cold front) ended up with 23 small bass and 8 channel cats. Probably could have/should have caught more fish, but I was determined to catch one on a spoon plug. Dragged them around for hours, 400, 250, 200, 100 and not one fish with enough brass to hit them. Getting really disappointed with the fish here not wanting to hit them. Used different colors and speeds from 3-4.5 mph. They just don't like them here. I'll give them a try again but am having my doubts.

I know they work at Lake Anna, so maybe I ought to fish there!

later

ps. forgot to post last Fridays results, 39 bass with 5 keepers and 8 channel cats, no keepers. It was a real good day, pre cold front.

Vaguru
A Spoonplugs is not a magic lure. It doesn't matter what lure you use to catch a fish... if you catch 20 bass one a lure there's no reason to switch to a spoonplug trust to catch a fish. If you used the guidelines to locates and catch the fish your are spoonplugging!! Regaurdlees of what lure you are using.

Fish do not shy away from a lure because they may not like it. Either your depth is off or your speed is off or both. That's the only way to look at it. John

John,
True that, but the other option is they are not there! Today I went back and finally caught 3 fish on the spoon plug. A 250 trolled at 3 mph running 8 1/2' deep. 2 of them were 10" bass, the other was a 16" channel cat. I tried different depths with the spoon plugs, but nothing deeper, or shallower.

Today was really a different day on the lake for me. Overcast, dark, light wind. Caught 15 bass, 3 were 18" but had to put them back due to a slot limit, 8 channel cats, 7 crappie and a 24" pickerel. Up until today I hadn't caught a crappie or a pickerel in this lake. I finally caught 2 bass on spinner baits as well, another first for me on this lake.

Next trip I'm going to continue using the spoon plugs to see if I can find more that will hit it. I'm also going to try some other techniques as well. Hopefully the weather will straighten out and I'll ba able to go again at the end of the week.

In an old Fishing Facts article, Buck takes you on a fishing trip where there's no motor trolling allowed. But that hindrance wasn't a deal breaker. On same (imaginary trip) you drop the depth meter overboard. Still not a deal breaker. At times, Buck even tries to cajole you (i imagine trick you?) into trolling by rowing the boat! Of course, the context is "emergency spoonplugging", and not the way to learn the craft long term. Your attitude toward lures sounds like trout fly fisherman whose goal is to Match the Hatch with the kind of fly that trout will "want." Whatever you enjoy is good, but that's not spoonplugging.

I won't mention the guys name (great friend now), but years ago, this guy was having trouble catching fish period. After about a thousand questions, we ended up near his boat and I got a chance to look around. I didn't see a spoonplug in the boat but tons of crankbaits of all different kinds. I let him have it real bad. Told him the first thing he needs to do is get those things out of the boat and replace them with spoonplugs and then learn how to keep each one of them in position and to do nothing else till he can do it. He ended up just fine after that. A new spoonplugger should use nothing but spoonplugs till he gets good at it. After years of practice, if he finds something that works better in a particular fishing situation, at least he might understand why!!!!!! Most all of what we need to learn about what a fish does and what we need to do to catch him cannot be sucked into our brains until we become a good troller. John