The Spoonpluggers Forum

Hi All,

I’m enjoying recording these videos and sharing some of my interpretation of spoonpluggging knowledge. I hope you enjoy as well. Any questions and/or debate are welcome. Here is another day on “New Lake.”

Question I received via email: Why I’m not trolling to find the schools before casting.

My response: I have trolled around the lake many many times at both 6 and 8 ft and some at 10 ft. Some of this was shown in the Day 1 video. That is how most of the schools were located. I will eventually troll at 12/14ft to locate them as they move deeper. That will be more difficult because the bottom is not clean after 8ft so it may be more difficult to get them to take at those depths. Anyway, Buck said once the school was located to go to the cast and that’s what I did and continue to do. There’s not really a need to go back to the troll the next day, I already know where they are. I may find stragglers trolling but the main schools are on the key features discussed in the videos. Also there are some fish shallower than 6ft in this lake and it is too difficult to troll due to weeds so I work thru the key features shallow using the trolling motor and casting. Finally, this lake's features are extremely small. The points and humps don’t require more than a couple anchoring positions so in my view once I have properly mapped the key structures they can be much more thoroughly worked through various depth and speed using my casting tools.

Brett

Nice videos Brett,
Was the thermocline still at 12 ft.? Were you fishing the A rig at 12ft ? Its hard to tell but were you just casting it out letting it sink to the bottom and slowly crawling it along the bottom ? Or were you jigging it. I bought one but haven't used it yet. Tom

Therm was still close to 12ft at that time but beginning to drop. I prefer to use a straight retrieve very close to bottom w the A-rig although there are times when jigging it can be effective. But straight retrieve here close to bottom and on that particular spot I was anchored in 10-12 casting to 8ft. I don’t exactly crawl it, I like to just keep a steady pace and try and tick bottom. When I can’t tell if I’m near bottom on a retrieve I will stop it and sink it back to bottom and start again.
The A-rig is a great tool I wish I started using it earlier. I use 1/4 ounce for the 3 bottom hooks (no weight or hooks on the top two) in the summer and I switched my weights to 1/8 in the late fall for a slower retrieve. I found the 1/8 option effective as deep as 20ft so you have a lot of depth/speed options here. Could make it a beast with 3/8 swim bait heads.
Thanks to John Bales for encouraging me to add this to my tools. Brett

After watching your videos, I definitely realized I don’t spend nearly enough time working over a productive structure. Checking all the speeds and depths. My last couple of trips late last fall were to Cedar lake in Mich. for northern, I did ok on the troll 21 and 24 ft. breaklines 2 to 4 mph. Only hooked 1 northern on the cast. It was a on a finger that was part of a larger bar. I anchored in 8 fow on the finger and casted to the deeper breaklines using a weedless spoon. After a few minutes of catching no more fish I was back to the troll. Now I’m thinking maybe I should have repositioned and anchored parallel to the breakline and casted across the finger. What would other spoonpluggers have done? How long would you sit on a spot? Tom

Tom,

I’ll give my thoughts and hope others comment also. First, I approach Northern and Bass a little different. Maybe I should cast a bit more for Northern but I’ve found I’m much more productive with Northern on the troll. This varies, however, based on the weather/water conditions and for me it also varies slightly based on the particular structure. For sure when they want faster speeds I approach them on the troll mostly. It’s too much fun getting big hits trolling fast and it’s often too difficult to get that speed casting. But I realize you’re asking more about the specific situation you were in, more of a colder/slower situation. So, the fact that you stopped to cast is great! I probably would’ve been similar to you and gone back to the troll fairly quickly. The fact that you got one on the cast would’ve kept me there a short bit longer and maybe checking with a secondary slower speed like a worm also. Knowing it holds fish I’d also check back on a couple times during the day on the cast if things are slow on the troll and to break up the day. Check out some of the Jim Duplex late fall (check them all) Muskie fishing. He has a nice mix of cast/troll with success with both. I’m trying to say things a couple different ways but really the answer comes down to the fact that it can all be answered by depth and speed. In the colder periods especially you have to check down to zero speed which requires incorporating some casting and the troll/casting ratio becomes a gut feeling/what the fish are telling you situation that gets easier over time to digest. Getting out there and doing it like you are is most of the battle great job!