The Spoonpluggers Forum

Woody,

The "Home Study" course is really all that you or I need. The "Home Study" course is better organized and is much easier to carry around and keep up with. The "Blue Book" as Fran calls it, is single page, memographed paper (remember that) about 3" or so thick, and was the study material in the Spoonplugging Schools of days gone by. I seldom refer to my copy of the "Blue Book"; the "Home Study" course is so much easier to reference, and I can carry around an individual sections with ease.

Good Fishing,

TN Dave

Getting back to contour trolling the deep...
When we all fished the Detroit River we contour trolled the main channel in and around the the deepest holes. I think the depth ranges were 24 to 32 or 38 feet. These trolling passes could be MILES long. In fact I wrote about losing a bunch of 800's. I lost them not because of contour trolling but because until I realized just how big the structure situations were, I found myself wandering around without a clue about what I was doing.

I think Buck wrote the statement about no contour trolling the deep was because of this wandering around not knowing what your doing. But if you have the skill to bump and accurately control the boat in deep water, there is certainly a lot of evidence in the various publications that contour trolling is a perfectly acceptable method of working deep water.

Now the Detroit River is a unique area. The bottom to the deepest sections was really hard. Even a beginner like me could bump when the Spoonplug feels like its being dragged down a highway. And the Detroit River has quite a current, lots of floating weeds, and shipping traffic that had very frequent 1000 footers. I just don't know how you can cover such large areas without contour trolling.

When it comes to natural lakes again once we get past recognizable structure I just don't know what else you would do. Buck gave us some guidelines. Go Deeper was one. Anchor and wait for a movement, Or keep trying your known/reachable structures. If your skills don't allow you to fish with control past 25 feet, that's OK - just fish from 0 to 25. Or anchor on a spot and wait.

Personally I want to go and get the fish.

This is very interesting indeed,

About six weeks ago I was fishing my local venue. The lake is an abandoned quarry that has filled with water, the contours are square ledges where the stone has been cut and removed, each ledge is about 20ft wide by 20ft deep and they cover almost the entire circumference of the lake .

I fished as I normally would, fishing the shallows tight against the reeds on the first ledge. In the warmer months this would normally produce a few nice fish between 4 & 5lb. After fishing this way for several hours and getting nothing I decided to move out into deeper water... a 23m deep hole. I free-lined my bait down into the hole and picked up a nice fish of about 7.5lb on the drop at about 15m.

I'm very new to spoonplugging, in fact I haven't read any of the books and only heard of the technique (too loose a term I know) a week ago. I'm absolutely fascinated with what I'm reading here and can't wait to start mapping the lakes I fish. Oh I forgot to say, I'm in South Africa and spoonplugging is unheard of here, although contouring and trolling is practised by a few, but frowned upon by "the purists".

Thinking outside of the box is definitely what one needs to do if doing it by the book isn't working. I agree 100% that books should be used as guidelines. One man's research is another man's starting point.

Wilmy,
Welcome to Spoonplugger.net. I have been talking to fishton and madporra since about January.
Please ask your questions we are very willing to help you understand the materials. While we may be a bit reluctant to answer the where would you fish on this dam for this tournament type question we all want to help you understand what you are reading. By putting Spoonplugging practices into your fishing, the tournament stuff will fall into place. Put in the effort and it will pay off. While they don't say it publicly, MOST of the Pro Bass fisherman have read Bucks material. I guarantee it. Shortly before his death, someone asked the pros to send a letter to Buck saying how his knowledge affected their fishing. I have seen glowing letters on Buck's tribute wall from people like Roland Martin, Doug Hannon, and others. You are not wasting your time.

As to the contour trolling issues...
All trolling teaches us about the structure, breaks, and breaklines. Get good enough with the trolling and you will find the contact points (casting spots although there is much more to it). Understand the seasonal and the daily migrations of Bass and you will understand how everything fits together. This isn't a short course on fishing, on the contrary the materials are University level information on the LARGEMOUTH Bass Specifically. Granted all species (even Saltwater) will get in the way, with a little effort your fishing will improve to levels you won't believe.

I encourage you to take small steps. Read the materials first otherwise not much will make sense. If you're close to either fishton or madporra I have sent them some materials you may be interested in. I'd rather not get more specific than that but it'll be worth it to find them.

Your recent practice with contour trolling will be effected by a number of things. Right now in SA you are pre-spawn probably so you must adjust your fishing to take advantage of the SEASONAL migrations of the bass. Major creek arms away from the main river channel. Slow presentations. Long line presentations because of the very slow dormant fish. There is a lot to this stuff but its worth it.

Now if you were contour trolling to learn the structure then it doesn't matter what time of year it is.

Take it slow. Read (STUDY) the materials. It will pay off.

If you would like contact me directly,

Fran
myersf@comcast.net

Thanks Fran,

It's great to come across like-minded people who are willing to share their experiences and methods for no personal gain. Madporra is a personal friend of mine and lives 15 minutes down the road. He just dropped off a flash drive a few minutes ago with some of the material you mentioned.

Where can I buy spoonplugging books etc? And what is the correct title of "the green book"?

WWW.buckperry.com

Email me directly. Myers@Comcast.net

I need to relay something to you.