The Spoonpluggers Forum

If your new to the site, drop on by and introduce yourself! Heck, even if you've been on for a while, post a note about yourself.

I'll start... I've been spoonplugging since 1987. I had no knowledge of spoonplugging, other then I knew what a spoonplug looked like. I've heard some well known anglers mention Buck from time to time. I purchased the greenbook and thought I'd be reading about a "method" on how the spoonplug is a magic lure. After reading the first 20 pages or soo... I was an awe of what I was reading. I read the book in just over 2 days, bought the rod, line a 5-pak and went out for my 1st solo trip a day later. After that 1st trip. I knew it would become my way of life. And 25 years later, I'm just as excited as I was on that 1st day!

If your new at this, don't be shy. Plenty of friendly people here that will help and share!

Keep on pluggn'

Jim

All,
In the late summer of 2009 I started ramping up my time on the water quite a bit and soon I started to become frustrated with my fish/hours on the water ratio. One day a friendly fisherman stopped me on the water to chat. I had 1 musky in 3 days of fishing the lake, he had 3 muskies in 3 hours. When he headed to the launch, I did the same, curious if he would chat more. He told me how to fish the lake, how he fished in general, showed me all his lures, showed me pictures, and encouraged me to really check out spoonplugging. I was blown away by the willingness of someone to share and teach a complete stranger. Mark Brown, thank you. I bought and read the green book right away. Much like Jim Shell, 20 pages in I knew I had found something really special.

I realized early in life that hunting and fishing was in my blood.

My grandparents ran Mtn.View boat dock on douglas lake in east Tn. in the early 60s thru the mid 70s. My grandfather saw Douglas lake impounded in the 40s. He was an outstanding bass fisherman on Douglas lake, He was strictly a caster. as a young boy he taught me how to catch bass on the Texas rig as well as some topwater fishing. Once my grandparents sold out and moved away, my grandfather was somewhat lost on strange waters, and soon gave up fishing.

Teresa and I were married in 1986. I soon realized that she enjoyed fishing, so we bought a small boat and attempted to get back into bass fishing, after no success, we started hanging out in tackle stores to try and find the answers, we soon realized that was a dead end. I wanted to see a bass so bad, I decided to hang out at the local taxidermy, hoping somone would stray by and help us out. The taxidermist became so frustrated from us hanging out so much, that he called us back in his private office and told us that he had something that might interest us. In his office was a full page newspaper article of Frank Hamill holding up all the different size spoonplugs as well as a stringer of trophy fish, he explained that this group fished out of small boats, as well as caught big stringers of bass out of lakes supposedly fished out. He said it was a family oriented group. He gave us Franks number, and we were on our way.

That day I phoned Frank and explained my situation. He told me about spoonplugging, and said they met the third thursday of each month at his home. I told him that Teresa and I would like to come to the next meeting, He quickly told me that We were not welcome until we purchased the green book of spoonplugging, and read it. He said once you read it, call me and let me know what you think, He then said, have a nice day and hung up.

One month later, after reading the book, I called Frank and told him I had read the book and was still interested. He then told me that we were welcome to attend the next meeting. I have never looked back from that incredible time. Spoonplugging has far exceded my dreams and expectations, but the greatest gift I have received from spoonplugging is the extended family of the greatest folks on earth. I tell John all the time, spoonplugging wouldn't be near as much fun, if you didn't have great stories to share, and you certainly wouldn't learn as much. Have you ever noticed when your talking to a nonspoonplugger about spoonplugging, there's no connection, you might as well be speaking French.

I started fishing when I was about 13 years old in a little pond at a nearby park. No one in my family fished so I was basically on my own. As I grew up, I read stories in magazines about the great catches some guys were making. Never could I duplicate their efforts. Their success always seemed to revolve around a certain lake, using a certain type rod & reel, and a certain type lure, line, etc. I couldn't afford to go to that certain lake or purchase that certain equipment so I remained frustrated with my efforts.

In 1978, I thumbed through the Green Book at Ed Shirley's in Countryside, IL. The fish pictures in the book were unbelievable. Men, women, and children were holding stringers of big fish that I could only dream of. I took the book home and read it. Every few pages or so, I'd jump up and run over to my wife; "this is why I'm not catching fish, this is what I'm doing wrong", I'd say. The thing about the Green Book was that it just made perfect sense! I'd found the answers I was looking for.

Don Dickson and his partner came and gave a 3 day workshop in Elk Grove Village, IL in 1979. We worked out of the precursor to the Home Study Course: the Blue Binder. Then I hit the water. It wasn't easy and I gave it up after a brutal first year. I went back to my old ways, drifting aimlessly over the lake basin, and soon realized this was even worse than the troubles I was having Spoonplugging. I redoubled my efforts, studied the book, and it started to come together.

The difficulty I was having came from the fact that I didn't know anyone else who spoonplugged. I fished with a neighbor who was willing to give it a try but we didn't know if we were doing it correctly. In 1989/90, I got a call from Jim Shell saying there was a Spoonplugging club that met at his house. Would I like to come to a meeting. YOU BET I WOULD! And from that first meeting, it's just gotten better and better.

Boy, what a pleasure it was to talk with fishermen who spoke the same language and were so willing to share. It's been that way ever since joining the Illinois Spoonpluggers. The satisfaction
my success has given me can't be measured in dollars. My dream was to catch a big fish. I never thought I was capable of making the catches I'm making today.

Thanks to all the guys who helped me along the way and THANK YOU, Buck Perry for sharing the knowledge. I'm forever in your debt.

Jim

Love hearing everybody's story, good stuff!

Our story is a little different, at 11yrs old Dad let me tag along with 3 of his buddys on a Canadian fishing trip near Flin Flon Manitoba. At 17 I went again and basically drove his motor home and boat most of the 3000 miles. I got to positioned the 18' 105hp steering wheel boat down the shorelines as we all beat the bank with red and white Daredevils. We also dragged, (trolled) a few baits behind the boat occasionally. We caught mostly pike during the day and walleye towards evening.

I did some pond fishing in 1988 while building our 1st home (neighbors pond) from time to time but that was about it. I knew nothing about fishing, never owned a boat or was interested in obtaining one.

Then my Father n law gave me 4 video tapes done by Don Dixon, you probably know them well. I watched them every night, and fell a sleep most every night with it running for months...can only imagine what your thinking... Later My buddy Paul put em on cassette so we could listen as we traveled the midwestern lakes, we never fell a sleep, ha ha!

I called Bucks Baits, they put us in touch with Mike Moran. Mike gave me a lot of great info but more importantly told me a few guys got together at the Vfw and talked fishing and I was welcome to join them.

In the mean time I put together a make shift package of a 68 Johnson 20hp tiller (this was 1995) that I mounted on a $10/day rental boat, a portable $100 Humming Bird (that we used for our 1st 6-8 seasons). We caught a lot of muskies with that cheap depth finder!

I had made up my mind pretty early on that I was going to "try", ha ha this fishing / Spoonpluging thing. One of the most defining moments besides meeting Terry O'Malley and him looking at me and saying "not only could we do this but if we, Billy, Chris and I did the work that he would teach us". Who would say no to that? Hard to believe isn't it? There's a lot of, you know... out there.

Anyway I'm out in my $10 rental on Channel Lake on the Fox Chain in northern IL pulling weeds off my 100 running a 9' weedline with my spinning rod, what a site we had to be, when a gentleman by the name of Bob Sabota pulls close and yells out, "are you spoonplugging?" In which I reply "I'm not really sure". To make a long story shorter, Bob throws a 250 at me, says "follow me and stay in 12'-13'", yep, the fish were taking it up off the bottom. When it was over Bob caught 10-12 muskie & pike and I caught 7.

I absolutely could not believe it! It was middle of the week July, jet skiers and pleasure boaters everywhere. Bob said later the fish were in that area for 2 weeks. Yes of course I was hooked! And yea catching a bunch of fish that "conventional wisdom" says can't be done was part of it, still fun today messing with "cw" but this guy Bob, who didn't know me from Adam took the time to share what he had, Buck would have wanted that way.

In this cynical society we live in some fishermen would have said "thanks, but I hate trolling". But not you, and not me. My 4 boys, family and guests have fished more than a hundred different lakes, rivers and reservoirs across the midwest and Canada, we've seen some beautiful places endured a few challenges and met many like minded fishermen that want to see you succeed.

I know one thing, if a fisherman new to Bucks teachings or he's been around a while he must be willing to be a student and also must put forth the necessary effort. If he does that, they could have a really good time and make some unbelievable memories with their family and friends,
Thanks Mr. Perry!

Come join us!

Mine is about the same as every ones here. Funny how close our stories are, yet different.
I grew up in central Indiana along one of the finest smallmouth streams in the state. Used to catch alot of fish on that "crik".
In the early 70's I started fishing a small lake for the first time and was totally lost! So just like everyone else, I started beating the banks.
What i got to see was a movement taking place in the shallows, Bass chasing minnows all over, but in only 2 places on that little lake. I caught some of them, but could not figure out why these spots only produced some of the time.
One day while browsing the Magazine rack in a grocery store, I found a Mag called Fishing Facts!
In that Mag was a couple of articles. One about using nightcrawlers(Lunkers Love Nightcrawlers) and the other was by a fellow named Buck Perry. I ordered the crawler book and low and behold they were giving credit to this Perry guy! So I thought, lets just get to the source and order the Green Book. I devoured it, and now all those fish I saw chasing minnows made total sense to me and so did the book.
The rest is history. I called and got to talk to Buck on the phone and he was able to tell me all he know about the lake i was fishing and then some.
I stayed with it even though i wasnt catching fish at first. I decided to take his Florida Classes with Tom Ferencek and Don Dickson. I started catching fish like never before, and i kept going back to Florida each year to fish with Don. By the mid 80's I was in need of a better job and more money and so moved the entire family to AZ.
I well recall the first time I saw these Highlanders and Canyon lakes here. I got sick to my stomach! So much so, and not having much success, I just quit fishing for several years. In the mean time, I was building my company, plus Guiding hunters in the winter months, and stayed away from fishing for many years. After getting comfortable in my business and retiring from the guiding/teaching predator hunting business, I found this site in 2007.
With the help of many on here and elsewhere in this great country, and being able to spend time talking with men like Tom Coleman, Kenny Hyde, Wayne Alford, and Jim Vaughn, Jerry and several others here, I have been able to shorten my learning curve quite a bit, and in the process get better.
That is one of the great things about Buck Perry's material, no matter where you are in your knowledge, you can pick up where you left off, and by spending more and more time on the water, continue to get better.
Mr. Perry said: " the more I learn, the more I see there is to learn". But in my eyes, you and I must start thinking outside the box and move on. This is the way we continue to get better. There are things to learn out there that Mr. Perry did not/ could not teach us. why? I believe he knew we could not handle it untill we had reached one step then take another. How? Not by doing the same thing over and over again, that is for sure! That is the definition of insanity, doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting different results! If we are not improving, learning more and more, then we will go backwards.
One of the reasons I became one of the best at calling predators, was because i was willing to go beyond conventional beliefs and think outside that box. It turned out it was one of the best moves i ever made. You see, I was able to apply what i had learned as a Spoonplugger to animals. It does work. Once I was able to prove it to myself, make record book catches and kills, then it became time to move one and get better! This is where the thinking outside the box came in. But that is a story for another time. so now you all know more about me.
As Jim says: we cant catch them if we dont get out there.

I was blessed to have a close family friend Ed Schaffer as a spoonplugging teacher from a very early age. Ed took me out salmon fishing for the first time when I was 3... After 8hrs of no fish and me begging/crying to hold a pole they finally handed me a rod to shut me up, within minutes I had 25lb king on and been hooked ever since.
Ed was a perfesional musician so during the summers we would pack the van up and travel all over the Midwest fishing 100s of different lakes and playing the blues. Thoses were some days I will never forget Sex, drugs, rock n roll and spoonplugging it was absolutely crazy! If my poor mother had any idea what was going on I would have never become a Spoonplugger haha.
Soon as I turned 16 I got a fake ID so I could rent boats on the fox chain and the local cooling lakes. At the time I could not afford a depth finder so I would go to the local sporting good store and buy a cheep depth then return it after ever trip. After a couple seasons of that I finally got my first boat a 1970 Starcraft/ 1967 johnson 6hp with a bad cylinder . Went and picked it up and drove 7 hours straight down to southern Illinois, launched the boat drove across across the lake and got checked by the dnr, no life vest, safety gear etc... He told me he would have to spend the rest of the day writing me tickets so he just kicked me off the lake.
Couple years later I got hit by a drunk driver and totaled my boat and truck and list most of my gear. Missed most of the season but finally got a new boat and meet a couple guys from the Illinois Spoonplugger club and told me about the green book and the rest is history.

Hi, I live in Cameron, Wi. One hour north of Eau Claire. Does any one that spoon plugs live or fish near by? I move on a channel off of a lake, have not had that much education on fishing, read the spoon pluging instructions, but have not had the opportunity to put into practice yet. Any hepl would be appreciated. Thanks Doug K

Welcome Doug to the forum.
I am sure there are plenty here willing to answer any questions you have.
So go to the Spoonplugging 101 or General discussion area and ask away.
Steve

Welcome aboard Doug. Ditto what Steve said. You came to the right place.