The Spoonpluggers Forum

I remember reading somewhere buck making the comment he thought some new lines would be forthcoming...
I found where he mentioned that. Volume 2, Controls and Tools, page 31:

" I expect one of these days a new development in line material".

And he was right... again!

Yes he was right. He had wonderful foresight.

Also, just look at all the other advancements due to technology we have these days.
Boats, motors, rod materials, reels, depth finders.
Who would have thought even 20 years ago, that we would have an entire computer system in a small depth finder!
And now with the right program, we can actually draw an exact picture of what is down there, simply by driving over the structure.
But still today, I believe my old Spoonplugger Depth Meter was and is one of the best units i ever used!

Yet.....with all this wonderful technology, people still dont "get it" about what makes a fish tick!
Knowledge is still the Key to fishing success.
Even though that Dr. Depth Program will draw fantastically accurate detail of the bottom, we still must use the Knowledge that Buck gave us, to interpret the what, when, where, how, and why to catch more and bigger fish!
Knowledge will always trump whatever technology will hand us. If we dont know how to use that technology, then what good is it?
Just goes to show that Buck was ahead of his time in many, many ways!

You are so right Steve. I just happened to have written about the new depth finders for the next National Newsletter. I tried to put their use in the right perspective for success and compared todays units with the old. I remember when the first braids came out. Frank Hamill used them so we thought that we had better get in on this stuff and see what it was all about. That was back when the lines were flat instead of round and the line would not wind tight on the reel and if you got a snag and had your drag too tight, it would pull way down in and it was a mess. I asked Frank how he got his line tight onto the reel and he said to put it on to the reel and then tie it to the back of a truck and walk it all back out and reel it back in while keeping a lot of tension and that did help. Seems like every time that they bring out something new like the braids and fluorocarbons, it costs me money to find out what I like best. I have tried them all and Denny reminded me a while back that we really never had much trouble even when the only thing that was out there was the standard mono lines. I do remember Mr. Perry saying that he didn't care what equipment we used as long as it allowed us to do a good job but I remember him writing me a letter when he heard though the grapevine that one of our Indiana spoonpluggers was going to write an article about his opinion on the new braided fishing lines. I was lucky to get the warning and was able to get that article stopped. Because of that chewing, this guy has always kept a low profile even though to me, he is one of the greatest spoonpluggers out there. In my opinion, all of the new tools have a time and place in our fishing. I just love the HDS units. John

My old Spoonplugger Needle Meter finally quit working. Maybe someone out there knows where I can send it to get it fixed?
I now have 2 HDS Touch units. Just got a 12 over Christmas. Really makes a difference for my "old eyes" to be able to see.
VERY simplistic to use this unit, and dont have to push any buttons etc, and just have to touch the screen, and the Structure Map feature is a joy to use. After running it over several structure situations that i had already mapped, I was very pleasantly surprised to see that my hand drawn maps would almost fit perfectly over what the Structure Map was showing.
About the only thing it showed better was some "breaks" that were there that i had not found yet.

I was in the process of making a turn on a bar and caught an 8.7 pound LM bass, and could not figure out why I took him there in that spot. Upon inspection, I saw a very small rock pile on the HDS that i never knew was there.
Now i never miss hitting that spot and have taken several nice fish off it.

Steve Craig wrote:My old Spoonplugger Needle Meter finally quit working. Maybe someone out there knows where I can send it to get it fixed?
I now have 2 HDS Touch units. Just got a 12 over Christmas. Really makes a difference for my "old eyes" to be able to see.
VERY simplistic to use this unit, and dont have to push any buttons etc, and just have to touch the screen, and the Structure Map feature is a joy to use. After running it over several structure situations that i had already mapped, I was very pleasantly surprised to see that my hand drawn maps would almost fit perfectly over what the Structure Map was showing.
About the only thing it showed better was some "breaks" that were there that i had not found yet.

I was in the process of making a turn on a bar and caught an 8.7 pound LM bass, and could not figure out why I took him there in that spot. Upon inspection, I saw a very small rock pile on the HDS that i never knew was there.
Now i never miss hitting that spot and have taken several nice fish off it.

You know Steve I think some of the guys who get frustrated with the Elite 5's wasn't so much that they couldn't work the things but that because of the nature of how StructureScan works you just can't see things clearly. And because people are used to seeing fish appear as arch's and then the new units show little blocks that are barely visible...people get frustrated.
The big screen is the answer. I wouldn't go less than 7". Last year I had switched to 2 12's and a 7. All touch. Great view. No Question what you're looking at. I am positive it'll show the minorest changes even muck lines easily. Last year I found several hard spots and the shine like search lights.

Make sure you adjust the contrast. It's not really talked about much but I found it was critical. The touch units with the LSS2 have auto-contrast, and it's great but not perfect. It'll still hide a thermocline.
I find that once you adjust it once for a depth you're good for that depth. Go to the next depth and you need to adjust. Believe me it makes a big difference.