The Spoonpluggers Forum

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfxRvj69MAc

Whopper Stopper

That was really cool footage. That had to be "drinkin water"! Those fish looked like they would have been easy pickens! Too bad he didn't aim that camera up toward the surface, you might have seen the sexy bottom of a 680T!

WS, I just watched your youtube spoonplugging video. I have read and reread the Spoonplugging book over the last 20 years, and currently going through the home study series .a 2nd time. I haven't been able to fish much until the last 3 years. I have been working on spoonplugging the shallows. I noticed in your video, you were trolling around the 21 foot depth. Are you using wire line in that depth or a no bo type line? The lake I fish is clear and I will have to troll that deep and wondered how hard it is to troll that deep. Thanks for any help.
TPD

TPD, Im not exactly sure which video you were watching. One video is of smallmouth on a breakline taken from another angler while using an underwater camera. The other is of my son and I fishing at HighRock Lake back during the summer. In that video ,, my son and I were fishing for hybrids and stripers. I believe that was a 21 ft. breakline. Now on that structure which was a bar or point as fishermen call it, before contouring the shallows around the bar, I had already established where the breakline dropped off which in this case showed a sudden change in depth at 21ft. I then dropped my marker on the shallower side of the breakline so it wouldnt be in the way of my trolling passes. Any passes made deeper than 8-10 ft I then began straight line passes and began criss crossing, back and forth, from different directions. I knew that the channel ran down one side of this bar which in this case was the deepest water in the area. (home area of the fish). Stripers and hybrids will travel by the channel, like we use a highway, then when they turn on, they will use the available structure just as any other fish would. Now,,getting down to your question about the line. I did reach the bottom on a long mono line and a 700, however sometimes it is better to go shorter with wire to reach the same depth to avoid waisted "reeling time" when fighting a fish, or having to motor your way back to the hang. There again, there is times like in the colder part of the season that a longer line may work better. At the time I didnt have wire so I used what was availible to me. Wire is really not hard to get use to once you learn all the no nos that go along with it. Mainly you learn quickly not to drop back any slack which will lead to a quick kink, or keeping from cutting a finger against wire line tension. Also, you have to remember that these fish have fairly small mouths compared to say the largemouth bass , so you want to make sure that they get a good bite on the lure, which they usually dont have to much trouble doing. With wire, you can downsize to a smaller spoonplug and still achieve the same depth. This particular bar that I was trolling also had lots of stumps on it so I had to bump lightly and make sure not to plow my hooks "into" these stumps. Those fish would simply NOT take a free running lure during those couple of days. Usually a striper, hybrid, or whitebass will often take a free running lure, Just off of the bottom structure, but you have to realize that spoonpluggers always look for that dingy water. The dingier the water, the "tighter fish hold to structure", and usually the longer they are up and active, which is good because you can always go back and find the bottom features much better than running around trying to find a suspended fish. Thats one of the beauties of spoonplugging. That structure will be their next time you return, or next year and hopefully many years to come for that matter. Suspended fish could be anywhere at anytime for whatever number of reasons. After all, suspended fish are not on the prow like a structure holding fish! There up on that structure for business! "So am I". Took me quite a while to figure that out!

Take Care, hope this helps W/S

W/S, thank you for the information. I was referring to your fishing trip with your son. Some of the stuff you touched on in your response is helping me apply the spoonplugging methods. I have read it over and over, but you still have to apply it.

I need to pick your brain on a bar that I am currently trying to work out. It is shaped similar to the state of Florida. The outline is about at the 19ft mark and drops off. About 3/4 of the way out the pennisula part of the bar, it is 10ft deep. I am assuming that the pennisula part is the contact point, but still trying to work it out. I have been practicing working the shallows of the bar, but wonder If you have some suggestions on how I may work the deep water. Thanks.

TPD, Always glad to help. I would go on out to the 19 ft. breakline and (drop a marker), say, 10 ft. back toward the shallow side of that breakline so it wont get in the way of your trolling passes. The contact point many times will NOT be on the (tip end) of the point itself. If could be off to one side or the other. What I like to do is after dropping a marker near the breakline for a reference point, is to began making my STRAIGHT LINE trolling passes back and forth from just past the shallows (which you can also drop a marker there to in order to see the dividing area between shallow and deep water.) Anyway, just keep trolling back and forth in STRAIGHT LINE patterns from different directions untill you are actually trolling parallel over the 19ft. breakline itself. Remember your always trying to find the CONTACT POINT as you MAP which will be somewhere ON that breakline. It will ALWAYS be at the sharpest drop into the deepest water in that area. There are many times (due to weather and water conditions) that the contact point will be as shallow as the SCHOOL of adult fish will come up. Picture this in your mind. Take a quarter and lay it down flat on a table, with heads up. Now place a piece of paper over that quarter and began by drawing STRAIGHT LINES back and forth over it in opposite directions with a pencil untill you have pretty much covered the entire coin. By the time you've finish, you should be able to SEE a PICTURE of Washingtons head on that piece paper. Its the same way drawing out a structure with straight line passes. If you had took that pencil and began going around in circles, it would be hard to get a good contrast because you would only be distorting that image. Anyway this is the way I visualize it. Only by making straight line passes will you be able to MAP out structure correctly in your mind and on( paper.) Dont worry about the "catching" as much as the "mapping" itself. The fish will "give away" their position on that bar when they TAKE THAT LURE. Does this make sense? In other words, I dont try to concentrate on the fish as much as I try to concentrate mapping out the structure. Eventually the fish and I should cross paths! Like Mr. Perry said,, "Catching fish will take care of itself". "They'll just simply get in the way" during your mapping process. Also something else very important that I might mention, and that is to have a marker laying within arms reach at all times and get in the habit of pitching it out "just as soon as a fish is HOOKED". Only that way will you be able to know WHERE your boat "position" was in relation to the fish that you caught. "Then",, you can go back to anchor down at that "same spot" for a( casting position) OR to make repeat trolling passes. And if you DO catch fish at (that particular spot,) make sure to get shoreline sightings before you leave out so you can put on your map the (where your boats anchoring position was) and also (which direction you were casting) in relation to the shoreline from where the fish were caught. Then,, you'll be able to take YOUR MAP and return to that SAME EXACT SPOT next time!

Hope this helped. May God Bless and good fishing! W/S

W/S, thanks for the information you have been very helpful.

TPD