The Spoonpluggers Forum

I've been asked many times....."how did you get those fish in such a short time"
Here's what I know about that. Controlled Straggler fishing….a Buck Perry tactic that works but isn’t talked about too much.
Back in the late 60’s and early 70’s when I was out on the road gambling for money on fishing, I needed something that would give me an edge. When you’re betting your money, you HAVE to win or you sleep in the car and eat vienna sausage. I talked to Buck about it. (I knew he had faced those situations when he was out there doing promotions in various areas)
He wrote an article in later years about this somewhere and I consider it to be one his best.
He said…"here is what to do, assuming you have good water color to play in, DO NOT FORGET that water color is NUMBER ONE for this to work. NUMBER TWO is get on structure situations right away….usually they will be grouped together in the areas of riprap, bridges, road beds…start there."
“When you get out there and start the fishing put on the smallest lures first 500 – 400 and troll the shorelines for about a half hour…this will tell you quickly if there are any fish up tight to the banks. Then go DIRECTLY to a 200 and troll every piece of water 8-10 feet deep that you can find. Every so often put a 400 back on for a while but then go right back to “straggler trolling” that 8-10 feet of water. Over a period of hours, this should locate enough fish for you to win. I call this meat fishing…(gotta get some meat for the table or for a promotion)”
I used that procedure for years….that is until the lakes down here cleared up. Then it was tougher…the structure situations were the same, but it meant trolling deeper and that is always bad news for a road agent since time is NOT on his side. A worm fishing bass clubber perched on a point throwing at a deep breakline has a better percentage going for him in that type of condition. And when you're playing for money, just like in a poker game, you gotta' have an edge, as long as it isn't dishonest or cheating.
That is what I know about “controlled straggler fishing”…straight from the high priest himself.
Regards,
Doug Bush

Doug,

I just read this. Thank you for posting.

Brett

Glad you liked it.
If I can get the right water color, I still use it today.
But that "right" water color is hard to find nowadays, even down here in the south.
As far as equipment goes, I use the wire on all this trolling, even with the 400. Less line out behind me, better control, and of course the fish could care less.
Regards,
Douglas

Doug,

Did you go to the cast at times or was the troll more efficient under the circumstances.

Dennis

Great advise!!! When I started spoonplugging I was told when in doubt get to the 8-10 brakeline.

ltharley wrote:Doug,
Did you go to the cast at times or was the troll more efficient under the circumstances.
Dennis

I burned up a lot of gasoline...and I mean a lot of it. (it was very cheap back then). I especially liked running that short wire line with a 200 on it.
A fishing day for me consists of 90% trolling and 10% casting. Give me a lowlander with miles of rip-rap and I'm in business....(and I'm always looking to stumble on one of those "auxillary channel" cutoffs)
I HATE casting those spoonplugs because, for me, they seem to always be tangling up, the hook fouls, or some other nonsense.......but THEY CATCH so many fish it's worth the suffering they cause.
I did catch a lot of fish in the deeper water on plastic worms, but didn't fool around long....5 casts, then move boat and 5 more casts, then move boat and 5 more casts...by then I was usually outta there and on the move again.
Buck told me that when Ray Scott started his BASS tournaments, Scott called him and asked what to do about stopping the spoonpluggers from winning all the time. Buck told him..."Just take their trolling away from them and ban it, that will do what you need to do. Without the trolling they're just like anybody else...mostly ineffective".

Bink wrote:Great advise!!! When I started spoonplugging I was told when in doubt get to the 8-10 brakeline.

You are so right!
Getting people to try it for 8 hours is another story....

Douglas,

Ah, "The Lone Fisherman" speaks again! A word to the wise and a Classic Spoonpluging lesson.

Thanks again for sharing the information that was learned from many, many hours on the water.

Good Fishing,

TN Dave

PS: Remember that Water Color is the most important lesson of all. Easy to forget when we are in a hurry just to get on the water.

Great stuff, thanks for posting. I think a lot of us are here because of straggler catches. When we got started we were taught to troll the weedline and no deeper than 15' till we got the hang of it. On the Fox Chain that put us at the 8-10' depth much of the time. Lucky for us the Chain was stocked with a load of muskies at the time. Once we caught a couple muskies no one could get us off that weedline for a long time.
Thanks again!

There was a lot of meat on those muskies, just kidding.

DouglasBush wrote:Buck told me that when Ray Scott started his BASS tournaments, Scott called him and asked what to do about stopping the spoonpluggers from winning all the time. Buck told him..."Just take their trolling away from them and ban it, that will do what you need to do. Without the trolling they're just like anybody else...mostly ineffective".

Curious if trolling was the only thing keeping spoonpluggers away from winning all the tournaments then why isn't the walleye trail leaderboard all spoonpluggers year in year out? Trolling is allowed and widely used in these events. Obviously a walleye is a different species with different behaviors but there are other methods out there that get the job done on the troll once you know you are on a productive structure.

Consigliere wrote: Curious if trolling was the only thing keeping spoonpluggers away from winning all the tournaments then why isn't the walleye trail leaderboard all spoonpluggers year in year out? Trolling is allowed and widely used in these events. Obviously a walleye is a different species with different behaviors but there are other methods out there that get the job done on the troll once you know you are on a productive structure.

Since no one else has responded yet, I'll tread lightly but throw this out for discussion. First, I never met Buck and never talked to him, so I can't begin to say what he may or may not have said about the situation. I've only read that he wasn't happy about the decision. However, I have spoke with Ray Scott and Harold Sharp (Harold set up all the B.A.S.S. rules and regs with Ray back in 1969 and was their first tourney director), and know that Al Lindner is also on the record with confirming the exact same reason.

That reason is because when Ray Scott first started and devised the rules for his national B.A.S.S. events, he envisioned a competition where guys who didn't know each other were paired together in boats and competed "mano y mano," cast for cast, one lure each. In the earliest events, they wouldn't even let two guys from the same state be paired together. Each angler was competing against all the other guys, and everyone's weight was an individual score - let the best man win. As such, there was no good way to implement trolling into the game and keep with the spirit of competition and fairness he sought. Since Ray and B.A.S.S. set the rules, most every other bass tourney organization that followed did the same.

As you noted, trolling has always been allowed in not only professional walleye events, but also professional crappie events. I believe this difference supports the theory. For example, the walleye guys (PWT, AIM, etc.) were always paired as a pro and a co-angler in the same boat, and had a shared weight system (work as a team, and the weight for the boat is the weight recorded for both the pro angler and the co-angler). Makes trolling and scoring fair for both partners. Similarly, nearly all professional crappie events are "team" events, where the team (both guys) get the same weight for the day. As such, trolling is a perfectly good tactic again, fair for all.

Ray was the first to set the rules for national bass competition, so that's how we all continue to play the game.

-Brian