The Spoonpluggers Forum

I know most guys on here remember this song by the late great Otis Redding.

Most of you probably know he died b4 it was a hit.
But did you know that he was killed when his private plane crashed in lake Monona, Madison Wisconsin.
So next time some of you yankees are fishing that lake think of ole Otis.

We'll be sure to play it while out there this weekend, maybe it will attract us a big fat girl.

Jerry Borst!
Doin what he does best!!!!!
Awesome video my friend!!!

Jerry Borst Really nice to see you in action. You are just inspirational.
Thanks so much for sharing that Clip.. Loved how the Daiwa's operated for you in that clip

Hal

Nice fish and great video. I was watching how you maneuver the boat on that troll. I see why a tiller makes that possible. Is that a Daiwa Tanacom reel? I don’t have enough knowledge to know why that fish hit on that spot but you said he was right where he was supposed to be. Your WP043 is where I would have expected given the structure. Can you help me understand why that fish was where you marked the “x”?

Just a novice,
Ken

Ken,
If you look at Jerry's map you will see that all those Contour Lines, which WERE quite far apart, all of a sudden they all come together (very close together) at that one spot, and then they widen out again. That spot is what Buck would call a "Sharper Break". It becomes a very quick change in depth. To a fish it is a stopping point, or on a structure situation, it can be the "Contact Point", where the fish, coming from the deeper water, first make "contact" with the bar or structure.
On that stretch of water it only makes perfect sense that that is where the fish will be.
As far as the X is concerned, there may be a break(rock, gravel, coke bottle, etc.) causing the fish to hang out there. But rest assured there was probably more than one fish on that spot at the sharper break. Also, Muskies, Pike, tend to follow a lure before hitting it, so the X is not exactly at the sharper break.

On a more ridgelike bar, we want to find the Longest, narrowest, deepest and sharpest break(quick change in depth) into(and this is the most important) the DEEPEST water in the area. As a fish comes from the deep, a sudden or quick change in depth looks like a mountain to them. They will stop at these "sharper breaks".
Hope this helps
Steve

Thanks Steve. Yes, that is helpful. If I understand you correctly, even though we can map a sharper break that leads to deep water, we still want to locate the breaks in that area which can either be the “spot on the spot” or the migration route markers to get to that sharper break?

Ken

Yes, that is correct.
Unfortunately for us, many of the breaks the fish use, we simply can not see. Especially in the very deep water.
That is why Buck says that most of the time we have to let the fish come to us.
It is also why we should learn to Contour Troll the shallows, because at some point in our life, we are going to have to learn to Contour Troll the deep in order to locate those tiny spots.
Buck actually predicted this. He knew that as all our lakes get clearer and clearer, fish movements would become less shallower, and we would have to get much better in out deep water structure interpretation. We dont just go out deep and troll. Notice i said "deep water STRUCTURE" interpretation.
The one thing i am so thankful for is that early on way back in 1975, I learned to Contour Troll, keeping those first 3 size lure ticking and learning to "feel" what was down there. My problem was that i started out on a White Sandy lake colored lake. Fish movements were many times, under good weather conditions, VERY shallow. Im talking schools of fish in 250 series depths. I never had to go deeper! I was so successful trolling the shallows that there was never a need to use a 100 series lure!
This was a HUGE mistake on my part, because back then the worst water colored lake i fished was a Dark Yellow Green!

THEN........
I moved to Arizona 36 years ago! What a shock! Being able to see a quarter in 30 feet of water! The best water colored lake was Roosevelt at 3- 6 feet clarity, but this sucker was covered with Brush and It ate Spoonplugs like my Grandkids eat candy!
I actually quit fishing for 12 years'
After a while of Guiding Predator Hunters, and getting my Painting business going. I found out that I wanted to go fishing again.
Tom Coleman had also moved to AZ. Buck had started coming to AZ to see Tom and fish. He actually invited me to join them. Tom got me started on how to go about fishing out here, and he also got me in touch with a Spoonplugger by the name of Jim Vaughn. Jim had fished about every western reservoir out here. and he was a wealth of knowledge on working out deep water structure.
Then several years ago, I started talking to the fellow that just posted that video above, Jerry Borst.
Jerry is the King of Deep Water Structure fishing and he helped me more than any other to learn to spend more time out deeper when I dont find the fish AFTER going as deep as i can on the structure. This meant Contour Trolling the Deeper areas on or very near those structures. Thank the Lord I was good at Contour Trolling the Shallows! This opened up and entire new world for me. I owe it all to Jerry and also to Jim Vaughn.

Sorry for the long post, but i wanted you to understand just how important learning to troll the shallows is, and keeping your lures in position. Once you do, you will see how it will serve you well later on as your knowledge and understanding increase and you will only get better and better.
Steve

Excellent Steve. Thank you. I’m glad we are having a mild winter (so far) in MN because of the chance for early ice out. I can’t wait to get on the water and start trolling 800’s. Ha, just kidding. No, I will concentrate on trolling the shallows in the darker bays with 500’s, 400’s and 250’s - at least I think that is the instructions I’m receiving. I have some basics to learn and a foundation of knowledge to build. It sucks that I’m starting over at age 62 but I always tell my kids, “it takes a year to get a years worth of experience/knowledge”.

Ken

Can we get back to fishing?
Great looking walleye MA, maybe we'll get back to Minaki someday. The electric reel is a Daiwa Leobritz S500.

Steve is exactly correct about why that area and those depths were being trolled. Today,,,, I look for spots such as this on every lake. However maybe what I should have said in the video was, "It was not a surprise where that fish hit." 25 years ago I would have never been out there.

Let's circle back, that seems to be a phrase of recent lol to that day in 1996. The reason my friend Paul and I made the deepwater catch we made was as John said, "we were ready". We were ready because of the prior 100+ days trolling in the shallows.
I'm not saying anyone needs to spend 11/2 years trolling shallow in a $10/ day rent a boat, we all go at our own pace.

The reason my buddy's, Chris, Billy and I never went much deeper than 12' or so was pretty simple, we were catching lots of fish running weedlines and relatively shallow breaklines.

Sometimes things just happen for a reason, when your a believer. In 96 Paul and I started out that morning on the weedline where we landed a couple of muskies. However it became more and more difficult to run the weedline with all the tournament fishermen in the way.

We had 2 choices we could continue to run the weedline and tick off a few bass guys or
look for a breakline out away from the weeds. So we headed our boat towards deepwater and it wasn't long before seeing a break that went from 18' to 27-28'.

Well you guessed it, we ran it at 18' and caught a muskie. Holy crap! We couldn't believe it!! Next we had another idea, let's run the base and again you know it, we caught a muskie. Now both Paul and I were super excited, what a day!

We ended up catching 7 muskies that day, 3 over 40" including a 44" and 45". We both were literally shaking with excitement. Not just because of the fish but we now knew that muskies could be caught in deep water. The deepwater light came on and ever since I have never looked or fished a lake the same way.

You can become a great troller if you stick to the basics and put your time in. If you become a great troller you will become a great mapper and then you will know exactly where to cast.

Everything Buck put in his material was put there to help you and I catch more and bigger fish. As Mr.Perry had the faith to follow his dream. All we have to do is have the faith to follow his guidance.

Best of luck,
Jerry

Jerry Borst wrote: ↑Sat Feb 13, 2021 6:00 pm Can we get back to fishing?
Great looking walleye MA, maybe we'll get back to Minaki someday. The electric reel is a Daiwa Leobritz S500.

Steve is exactly correct about why that area and those depths were being trolled. Today,,,, I look for spots such as this on every lake. However maybe what I should have said in the video was, "It was not a surprise where that fish hit." 25 years ago I would have never been out there.

Let's circle back, that seems to be a phrase of recent lol to that day in 1996. The reason my friend Paul and I made the deepwater catch we made was as John said, "we were ready". We were ready because of the prior 100+ days trolling in the shallows.
I'm not saying anyone needs to spend 11/2 years trolling shallow in a $10/ day rent a boat, we all go at our own pace.

The reason my buddy's, Chris, Billy and I never went much deeper than 12' or so was pretty simple, we were catching lots of fish running weedlines and relatively shallow breaklines.

Sometimes things just happen for a reason, when your a believer. In 96 Paul and I started out that morning on the weedline where we landed a couple of muskies. However it became more and more difficult to run the weedline with all the tournament fishermen in the way.

We had 2 choices we could continue to run the weedline and tick off a few bass guys or
look for a breakline out away from the weeds. So we headed our boat towards deepwater and it wasn't long before seeing a break that went from 18' to 27-28'.

Well you guessed it, we ran it at 18' and caught a muskie. Holy crap! We couldn't believe it!! Next we had another idea, let's run the base and again you know it, we caught a muskie. Now both Paul and I were super excited, what a day!

We ended up catching 7 muskies that day, 3 over 40" including a 44" and 45". We both were literally shaking with excitement. Not just because of the fish but we now knew that muskies could be caught in deep water. The deepwater light came on and ever since I have never looked or fished a lake the same way.

You can become a great troller if you stick to the basics and put your time in. If you become a great troller you will become a great mapper and then you will know exactly where to cast.

Everything Buck put in his material was put there to help you and I catch more and bigger fish. As Mr.Perry had the faith to follow his dream. All we have to do is have the faith to follow his guidance.

Best of luck,
Jerry

Thanks Jerry for putting words to it for me. It was the pitching and flipping guys, the dock fisherman that pushed me out onto the deeper break lines. and I started catching bigger pike and more Muskys. I remember one day whiles tourney was going on and I had just boated a 40 inch pike two of the bass boaters came out to check out where I was fishing and how deep it was. Well they made a few casts then realized that i was still making trolling passes in the area. They left very soon after just no stick-ups or pads in 25-30 fow
Just got to luv those Daiwa S500J waiting for my 3rd one to be delivered, Here in SW Michigan should have open water in about 30 days.

Hal

Two posts in a row by two guys that have something in common. One with a lot of time on the water and great knowledge and one who is getting there fast. Every once in a while, someone comes along and understands what they need to do to find fishing success. In the last 48 years, I have only seen a handful of fishermen who are willing to put in the effort it takes to get there. They show their fish, they share and they get better through their efforts. They are self motivated people. It is very satisfying for me to see their success. John

I’m mesmerized by all of these posts. The depth of knowledge and willingness to share it is atypical for today’s fishing industry. I appreciate all of the information packed in these short posts.

I’m struggling with the “how” to troll the contours in the shallows in order to become a great troller. My struggle is not in the concept but rather in the massive weed beds in all of the natural MN lakes around me. In most places, milfoil, pondweed and cabbage are thick from shore to 12-20’ (in peak summer).

How do I troll in this shallow area and learn the bottom, structure and contact points?