The Spoonpluggers Forum

I can say that each and every improvement in technology had taught me a little bit more than I knew before. They have all been great aids. I assume the next step will be the same but maybe better. 24 small bass today big 1 1/2 pounds and 26 crappie , biggest 12 inches. I kept a nice mess for tomorrow night. Since I am on a little different eating so called diet for the last couple of weeks because I am fat. Maybe that's the reason I couldn't smell them cooking in crisco today as I was bringing them in the boat. Last winter I made a bunch of great looking swim jigs hoping to knock the crap out of the bass on my lake and others. Have not had a single bite on one. Ain't that a bi$^(*. John

Fran,
Thanks for your post, brother. Like you, I have overwhelming capacity in my electronics that have taken me 2 years to begin to skim the surface of understanding. And, I learn after reading Buck’s book and study guides that my boat is overpriced and under performing. But I am determined to follow the procedures and learn a season’s worth of experience this year as best I as I can to become a better fisherman. And, if electronics help to shorten the learning curve, I will not feel bad about it but be grateful for the opportunity. Are boats the secret? I don’t think so. Are electronics the secret? I don’t think so. Do I know the secret? No. But as of this moment, I choose to trust what I’m learning and work my a$$ off to put into practice the lessons taught by Buck and his students. When I do, I will find out if I followed the right path.

Well.....
It is in the boat, all set up like I want it. The Elete is set up as well. Spent alot of time last night playing with the settings etc. It is so cool how this thing works.

Heading to Apache Saturday morning. Will see how it all works, or if I wasted a bunch of money. Something tells me that instead of being a fisherman with this thing, I may become just a HUNTER. Nothing wrong with hunting. Been doing it all my life. But if a guy doesnt keep it all in perspective, he will spend more time hunting the fish instead of fishing for them. I can see how easy it would be to do just that.

Ill try to video some of it if I can.

I appreciate everyone's comments above. Very insightful to say the least. We do live in a world now that the Good Book predicted would come along, that Knowledge would increase. It is doing so at a faster and faster rate than at anytime in history. I read recently that Knowledge is doubling every six months!!!! So six months from now, a new gizmo will take the place of the current one. It is my personal belief that we are only seeing the tip of the iceberg, so to speak, in technology. The same with our fishing tools. Like Mike said above, one day we will be looking at the fish through our sunglasses, instead of a screen on a machine.

Musky Addict - I admire your persistence and dedication - your post makes me put in my 2 cents:

If a student wants to learn to play Led Zeppelin music, the instructor won't tell him to get an acoustic guitar - even if he gets the notes right, it just won't be the same. If a house painter wants to learn to paint portraits, they will need different brushes. The right tools, even when not critical, make learning ANYTHING so much easier. It applies to spoonplugging no differently. You WILL work your a$$ off if you want the prize - why handicap yourself in the process?

I'm a rookie here, but I watch and listen - I have read the posts going back years and years, and one thing sticks out:

Many enthusiastically join this forum, eager to become spoonpluggers, but soon leave. People who have their boats,
electronics, and gear, and have been successful catching fish have the most difficult time transitioning to spoonplugging.
It is way more difficult to change if you are already a successful fisherman.

The very first thing any newcomer is told is they need a tiller boat. It was no different for me. When I first picked up the green book I called a local spoonplugger. When I told him I had a 17' center console, he said to go back to fishing the way I always had, I would never be a spoonplugger. That arrogant SOB set me back nearly a year - now I realize he was right, and that after telling this same truth to so many people, he was just tired of trying to explain what Buck said in the first few pages of his book.

I started as the world's worst fisherman. I could go for multiple trips without even a bite. After a year of working my a$$ off, I am beginning to catch fish for the first time. I know without a doubt that if I had been catching even a few fish I would have never invested the time and effort here.

Whew! I never intended to be so long winded. This thread started as a concern that tools will kill spoonplugging. I think the final answer is no. There have never been a lot of spoonpluggers out there, but there will always be a few.

TN Explorer - point taken. I know I’ll never be a Zeppelin or Picasso of fishing. And I probably don’t have 20 years left to know what so many on this forum have learned. But if I can learn all I can and then pass it on to my kids and grandkids so they are more successful than me - I will consider this path well traveled.

Ken

Ken - I appreciate your positive attitude. At 71 years, I don't have a lifetime of learning ahead either. Like you, I hope to get to the point I can pass on some knowledge to the kids & grandkids - even if it is just enough to send them on their own journey.

-- Mike

Much written on this topic involving electronic tools. In the past 48 hours I had the opportunity to witness both forward scanning and side scanning electronics while fishing for tarpon on a guided trip with my brother in-law. This guide uses the same technology for his muskie trips when in Minnesota where my in-law met him. He had the Hummingbird Side scan and Garmin forward looking radar for a lack of a better term.

We fished for 10 hours along some islands off the Everglades. I would guesstimate that nearly 50 times during the fishing day he directed us to cast toward fish he identified on the screens. He would say, “fish at 10 o’clock or point to a specific side of the boat. I am guessing that he likely saw 60 tarpon and jacks combined. We only connected with one fish based on his direction of seeing fish a screen. We also had four other fish on but they were caught on live bait off the back of the boat and he did not recognize those fish being behind the boat.

As I see it, this technology will give the anglers the confidence to remain longer in an area being fished. This may impact our ability to fish if we allow it. Because we are not limited to a specific species, we can fish for any lake or species we desire.

I have spent a great amount of time on a bass lake that is heavily fished by anglers that have invested considerable money on their boats and electronic. Nearly all fish off shore features. I am normally on the water for ten hours or until the summer storms run me off. Nearly all these anglers are gone before 1pm. When summer heats up in Florida, I am normally 1 of 5 max and around noon I am 1 of 1. I can say with great certainty that all the money invested in the new technology means nothing while sitting in a garage or storage. They have the electronics but do they have the desire?

Phillip - just curious, did you fish with Jason H?

Ken

It's probably not but if it's the same Jason H. I'm thinking of from MN then there's no doubt that man has muskie desire!
Tarpon, love to catch a few of them someday. Sounds like a great trip Phil.

Bob was the name of the guide and he concentrates his business on Lake Vermilion Listening to the conversation with Bob and my brother in-law, the forward looking radar has created controversy amongst his guiding competitors.

The tarpon I hooked was an estimated 80 pounds based on the opinion of those in the boat...two leaps and it was off. We had three on and all jumped and never made it to the boat. Had a couple of sharks that did not make the boat due to bite-offs.

Here is the important takeaway from this writing - All the large fish were taken during a 40 minute movement window. It did not matter that he saw all the fish throughout the day. The view of fish only meant something during an actual Movement.[/b

Brian, a little late to the party here but that was a great read. Appreciate the history and insight. Thx for posting.

Brett,
Ive been watching Randy for a while now. He makes some really good and valid points. I once thought like he does way back when they went from the Flasher to this paper graph and the first LCD depth finders. Back then i thought they were going to ruin fishing with all that new technology.
Maybe it has? I dont know.
Like i said earlier, I am testing this thing. I already know how to locate the contact point. And you know what? The new Finders make it quicker and easier for sure. (newest technology)
What will be fun and I intend to let it be fun, is to look at those contact points and see how the fish get to them. Buck always said that we cant find the fish when they are in their sanctuary, and not to go running around out there trying to find them, and we just have to wait for them to show up at our structures.
Fast forward to now, and I believe it will be totally possible to see them, drop a bait right in front of their nose and catch them with this new stuff.
If Im wrong, Im wrong and I will sell it.
Ive only used it for a day, so the jury is still out for me.
I never have been a techy. I dont do video games. So this is a learning thing for me.
Thanks for posting this, as it is a good video.

I’d like to weigh in here with a question since we are still discussing more the philosophical impact of the new electronics versus the technical capabilities. As most of you know, I’m a newbie to spoonplugging and haven’t had the first chance due to ice to get on the water and learn. However, 2 years ago I bought hummingbird units with mega down imaging, mega side imaging and auto chart. I did not get the mega 360 (forward imaging) for many of the same reasons mentioned before.

So, my question is will these electronics be an aid or a hindrance to my learning?

My “hope” is that I can use GPS, digital maps, lures, trolling, auto chart (which IMHO is the biggest game changer), down and side imaging, etc. - all in tandem to get a better interpretation of the bottom, more accurately identify contact points and “highway breaks”, learn quicker and more efficiently fish the structure.

My “fear” is that the electronics provide a short cut that creates gaps in my learning. I do not want to be lazy. I do not want to miss something that can only be learned if I turn off all of the electronics. And, I also don’t want to bury my head into a screen and miss the beauty of all that is around me.

And my question is not just for me. Perhaps it’s a bigger question for spoonplugging.

MuskyAddict wrote: ↑Fri Mar 26, 2021 8:51 am
So, my question is will these electronics be an aid or a hindrance to my learning?

My “hope” is that I can use GPS, digital maps, lures, trolling, auto chart (which IMHO is the biggest game changer), down and side imaging, etc. - all in tandem to get a better interpretation of the bottom, more accurately identify contact points and “highway breaks”, learn quicker and more efficiently fish the structure.

My “fear” is that the electronics provide a short cut that creates gaps in my learning. I do not want to be lazy. I do not want to miss something that can only be learned if I turn off all of the electronics. And, I also don’t want to bury my head into a screen and miss the beauty of all that is around me.

And my question is not just for me. Perhaps it’s a bigger question for spoonplugging.

So this hits at the heart of my post and concern for Spoonplugging. It's not the technology itself, as these are all great aids that make things so much easier and faster in regards to mapping, interpretation, speed control, marking breaks, pinpointing casting locations, anchoring, and on and on. If you came up from the bottom, did everything the "old" or "original" way as Buck has written about, then these aids can only help to a large degree (FFS aside for the moment).

Instead, it is your latter point, these all being "shortcuts" if you will that take away from the core of learning, and hence the "need" for Spoonplugging as written in the Green Book. Can you be a good angler by just jumping right in and using the aids? Sure, but as has been stated before, the BEST Spoonpluggers were the original ones - because they had to be. They didn't have the aids, so everything was a manual process that ultimately turns out to be a fantastic learning opportunity. If you have that as your base, the aids just complement everything. If you don't, you are missing a large part of the learning process, the thing that ties everything together for you.

My basic point becomes, how do you convince today's new anglers to become Spoonpluggers when the first thing you want them to do is read the entire Green book before coming back and asking questions? And then if, or when, they do come back, how do you explain to them their needing to go through the procedures in the book as written, no shortcuts - put in the work - when everyone else (including other Spoonpluggers) are using all this technology out on the water that is never even mentioned in the Green book? In many cases, most of us don't even check the shallows first (or anymore), yet we tell new Spoonpluggers to do nothing but stay in the shallows and learn contour trolling, often for the entire first year. I just don't see it happening. "Do as I say, not as I do" because I've already done it, just isn't going to cut it with today's young anglers, no matter how "right" or "good" the advice.

So I guess to answer your question, and just my opinion, but at least spend some time doing as much of the process as written and without the modern aids, even just a few trips, as you'll get a much better undertstanding of everything, including how far you have really come along in your technique and understanding.

I'll end with these stats:

209,000,000 - The approx. number of adults in the U.S.
40,000,000 - The approx. number of registered anglers in the U.S.
175 - The number of National Spoonplugging members in the U.S. last year (down 35% in the past 8 years and continuing to decline)