The Spoonpluggers Forum

I was wondering if some of you guys might be able to shed some light on this bait. I recently picked up this 1-oz. Vic Saunders Go-Devil off eBay. I know Vic was one of the early Spoonpluggers under Buck, and is still active with the group. I'm guessing several of the guys from IL know him and have spoken to him at length. From all the old Fishing News stories I've read, it seems Vic built a line of spinners in varying sizes to accomplish having a weedless bait that could still maintain depth and speed control, both casting and trolling. I'm not certain if the 1-oz. version was his largest or not.

Does anyone have any insight into the bait? Kind of curious about it's history and place in spoonplugging. Has anyone either used this bait or a similar one in their Spoonplugging efforts? Any success stories? I seem to recall Steve mention before that he has done similar out west in his deep canyon lakes.

Haven't decided whether to keep it sealed in its package as a bit of spoonplugging history or to take it out this year and try and fish with it.

Thanks,

Brian

Brian, Vic gave me a few of those things a few years back, Mine were not an ounce but maybe more like 1/2 to 3/4. They were made a long time ago. The hooks back then cannot be compared to those that are out there today. In short, it's just another jump type lure with a small spinner and it was a good one. Vic hated to wait for his lure to get to the bottom so he liked them heavy. I'd leave it in the package. You have some history there. John

Thanks for the information, John. I think I'll do as you say and leave it in the package. Just received a few of the earliest copies of Fishing News & Wisconsin Spoonplugger today. Some great details, stories and pics from the "beginning" of spoonplugging here in the Midwest, not to mention the great detailed lake maps they published of Geneva, Mendota, Okauchee, and others. Absolutely fascinating!

-Brian

That Go-Devil was a very good jump lure for deep breaklines (down here and back then, a 'deep' breakline was 25-30 feet).
Al Lindner showed me how he and his brother would 'backtroll' those things while staying in position by watching that depthfinder like a hawk.
That big size Go-Devil was really good for that kind of work and it got a lot of fish for me. The weight was the really important thing...it got down there and would stay down there bumping along just about as good as you can do. If you kept a slow speed.
I suppose you could do the same thing with any spinner bait, if you put a big chunk of lead sinker up the line ahead of it. I never tried that out though.

DouglasBush wrote:That Go-Devil was a very good jump lure for deep breaklines (down here and back then, a 'deep' breakline was 25-30 feet).
Al Lindner showed me how he and his brother would 'backtroll' those things while staying in position by watching that depthfinder like a hawk.
That big size Go-Devil was really good for that kind of work and it got a lot of fish for me. The weight was the really important thing...it got down there and would stay down there bumping along just about as good as you can do. If you kept a slow speed.
I suppose you could do the same thing with any spinner bait, if you put a big chunk of lead sinker up the line ahead of it. I never tried that out though.

Thanks for the info Doug. Lure is still in the package for now, but if I ever come across a second one, one of them is going to hit the water

-Brian