Buck Perry Spoonplugging book

[Cgolf]

Is this a good book to read and have on hand and possibly reread? I have a couple of older books, slider fishing and lunkers love nightcrawlers that I reread from time to time because they have a lot of good info in them. Should I pick this book up or pass on it?

[senile1]

I think it is an essential book.  I have the whole series.  

[Catt]

Only if ya wanna learn how to fish structure.

[Cgolf]

Thanks guys, it gets put on the Christmas list for some over the winter reading.

[WRB]

How many of you that own a spoon plug have caught a bass using them?

Spoon plugs are made for trolling at specific depths and few bass anglers troll today.

Knowledge is always good and Buck Perry's books are more about why bass locate where they do and less about spoon plugs.

Tom

[senile1]

9 minutes ago, WRB said:

How many of you that own a spoon plug have caught a bass using them?

Spoon plugs are made for trolling at specific depths and few bass anglers troll today.

Knowledge is always good and Buck Perry's books are more about why bass locate where they do and less about spoon plugs.

Tom

I received some freebie spoonplugs when I bought the Buck Perry series but I have never used them.  There are some things in Buck's books that are outdated but his information on structure and mapping is very informative.  

[Dypsis]

It's next on my fishing books to read.  About halfway done with In Pursuit of Giant Bass.  Its hard with the little ones right now to find any time to read.  

[Cgolf]

1 hour ago, WRB said:

Knowledge is always good and Buck Perry's books are more about why bass locate where they do and less about spoon plugs.

Tom

This is why I was interested in the book, the location factor. I will never fish a spoonplug and the closest I will come to trolling for bass is catching one while walleye trolling. I have mostly been a shallow water fisherman who will dabble with deep cranks when the shallow bite is off. I would like to up my deepwater game in the future.

[frogflogger]

You can learn more about your body of water by trolling than any other method - period.

[senile1]

1 hour ago, frogflogger said:

You can learn more about your body of water by trolling than any other method - period.

With side imaging and down imaging, many don't see a reason to take the time to troll and map a structure like Buck recommends.  I, personally, agree with you.  To get the best picture in your mind of how a particular structure element is laid out and how different pieces of cover are situated on that structure, trolling performed correctly can be very informative.  However, I do use my sonar for mapping purposes when little time is available which is much of the time for me.

[Catt]

18 hours ago, cgolf said:

This is why I was interested in the book, the location factor. I will never fish a spoonplug and the closest I will come to trolling for bass is catching one while walleye trolling. I have mostly been a shallow water fisherman who will dabble with deep cranks when the shallow bite is off. I would like to up my deepwater game in the future.

Structure aint just about deep water!

Structure start at the bank!

1 hour ago, senile1 said:

With side imaging and down imaging, many don't see a reason to take the time to troll and map a structure like Buck recommends.  I, personally, agree with you.  To get the best picture in your mind of how a particular structure element is laid out and how different pieces of cover are situated on that structure, trolling performed correctly can be very informative.  However, I do use my sonar for mapping purposes when little time is available which is much of the time for me.

Could you imagine Buck Perry with side imagine/down imaging?

I used to troll a lot with Mud Bugs & Hellbenders!

[J Francho]

1 minute ago, Catt said:

I used to troll a lot with Mud Bugs & Hellbenders!

Not those baits, but I used to troll quite a bit for smallies on a seemingly featureless area on Lake Ontario.  My only cues were catches.  Catch three in a spot, anchor up, and start dropping tubes.  These days, the game has changed a bit with gobies, though what I've found with better graphing is that there ARE MEANINGFUL STRUCTURAL cues, and the bite is related to those and bait fish movements.  Those structural elements are often huge, but within those elements are sub-structures, only located with modern graphing.

Buck would have been a monster with SI, lol.

[Catt]

10 minutes ago, J Francho said:

Not those baits, but I used to troll quite a bit for smallies on a seemingly featureless area on Lake Ontario. 

When I first started fishing Toledo Bend I was clueless!

Faced with 190,000 acres of flooded timber we trolled parallel & as close as we were brave enough

[WRB]

Ironically trolling ended for bass anglers about the time electric trolling motors became popular in the 70's. 

Trolling deep diving crankbaits is still very effective and a good learning tool combined with structure knowledge and today's sonar units. Anytime I fish with a new bass angler and there is a crankbait bite, I troll the lures so they can get the feel of the lure and strikes.

With nearly every  type of game fish trolling is a popular technique to locate and catch fish with. Because tournament anglers are not allowed to troll, trolling has become a forgotten technique with bass anglers.

Tom

[J Francho]

Didn't they ban trolling BECAUSE of Buck and the other spoonpluggers' success? 

[WRB]

Never heard or read where spoon plugs/Buck Perry was tied to the no trolling for B.A.S.S. tournaments, but the timing is right.

Tom

[J Francho]

11 minutes ago, WRB said:

Never heard or read where spoon plugs/Buck Perry was tied to the no trolling for B.A.S.S. tournaments, but the timing is right.

Tom

Here's an article: https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=266&dat=19741023&id=V_ErAAAAIBAJ&sjid=FAYGAAAAIBAJ&pg=1298,5782445&hl=en

[Paul Roberts]

11 hours ago, Catt said:

I used to troll a lot with Mud Bugs & Hellbenders!

I did that too!

[scaleface]

I troll crankbaits  and catch as many channel cats s bass . Man theres a lot of catfish in these parts .

 

[WRB]

9 hours ago, J Francho said:

Here's an article: https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=266&dat=19741023&id=V_ErAAAAIBAJ&sjid=FAYGAAAAIBAJ&pg=1298,5782445&hl=en

Buck Perry thinks he influenced a ban on trolling during cash derby's or what we call bass tournements before B.A.S.S. sanctioned their 1st event in '67........interesting.

Tom

[Team9nine]

On ‎8‎/‎22‎/‎2016 at 2:42 PM, WRB said:

How many of you that own a spoon plug have caught a bass using them?

Tom

I own hundreds and catch plenty of bass using them  both casting and trolling. They'll catch pretty much anything that swims...

 

On ‎8‎/‎22‎/‎2016 at 9:48 AM, cgolf said:

Is this a good book to read and have on hand and possibly reread? I have a couple of older books, slider fishing and lunkers love nightcrawlers that I reread from time to time because they have a lot of good info in them. Should I pick this book up or pass on it?

Good to see Buck and Spoonplugging being discussed  - and yes, buy/read the book - it's one that belongs in every fishing library.

-T9

[J Francho]

10 hours ago, WRB said:

Buck Perry thinks he influenced a ban on trolling during cash derby's or what we call bass tournements before B.A.S.S. sanctioned their 1st event in '67........interesting.

Tom

Its also a bit self-serving.  "My methods are so good, they banned them!"

[Paul Roberts]

I was under the impression that trolling was banned bc of the space it requires. Why fly-fishing was banned I always wondered about. Not that it would be competitive.

[J Francho]

16'-17' boats, rods over 8' aren't gonna work with two anglers.  I don't think fly fishing is banned, the rod length limit precludes it.

Trolling is allowed in walleye tournaments.  Almost as many boats in the pro events.

[Cgolf]

4 minutes ago, J Francho said:

16-17 boats, rods over 8' aren't gonna work with two anglers.  I don't think fly fishing is banned, the rod length limit precludes it.

Trolling is allowed in walleye tournaments.  Almost as many boats in the pro events.

I believe that Sage made their bass fly rods 8 footers for this exact reason so that they could be used. At times I have fly fished for bass and done well on tough bites, and it really isn't that inefficient.