The Surfwalker Challenge.....Do you Follow the Herd, or Lead your Own Way????

[surfwalker]

I'm sitting here looking at all the plugs and metal I have hanging from the cellar ceiling by wire, easy access for the time of day I'll be plugging or time of year. I love all the new plugs out there and appreciate the work put into them. But I'm staring at ones that were given to me by no name maker friends that will never be used, because they are just too nice, I could never think of losing them. Then there are the ones that have produced, doubles, triples, quads of the same, out of fear I'll never be able to replace them if lost. Lastly are the ones I carry the most, the dented, chipped, rewired, waterlogged, and repainted, but they still perform and run pretty true, and produce.
What I'm getting at is- Do you fix up your old plugs or just throw them into a box, or do you fill in the hook holes and repair them, repaint them, have faith in them. Your old dull metals- Do you cover them with reflective tape or anything? Your new plastics are they sprayed with some clear before the first use? Am I just cheap or a hate to let go person?

[DarkSkies]

Lastly are the ones I carry the most, the dented, chipped, rewired, waterlogged, and repainted, but they still perform and run pretty true, and produce.
What I'm getting at is- Do you fix up your old plugs or just throw them into a box, or do you fill in the hook holes and repair them, repaint them, have faith in them. Your old dull metals- Do you cover them with reflective tape or anything? Your new plastics are they sprayed with some clear before the first use? Am I just cheap or a hate to let go person?

I'm that way too, surfwalker.

Old reliable plugs I keep around because each one has a story to tell, to me. As I pick it up I remember if I had a nice fish on it, and re-live that fight. Just like a trusted old bird-dog or beagle that has brought many a prize back to the hunter, these plugs have served me well.

If they were junk in the first place, I'm ok to get rid of them during the winter. The good producers I'll sand down and re-paint, put new VMCs on them and split rings.

The metals I use something called "Magic Wadding" to shine them up, it's like lambswool with a metal cleaner soaked into the fibers, works pretty good. You can also dress up the metal spoons by gluing red beady eyes on them, that works sometimes too.

As for the plastics, I tend to use them as is, but a neat trick is to scuff them up a bit with fine sandpaper and spray the old ones chartreuse, black, or bright yellow, 3 colors that have produced well. I also like to swap out the rear treble on a lot of my magnum bomber types with a single bucktail siwash.

I met a guy a few years ago in MoCo, and old salt who's not too much into the newest styles of anything.

This guy not only made his own wooden plugs, he took all the plastic ones we use...bombers, redfins, magdarters, ets, and made them better, either with paint, bb's, or some modification. I was drooling as I looked over the weatherbeaten old army issue green canvas container he was using as a plug bag, and all the custom mods he made with these basic plugs.

[surfwalker]

Yeah, all my old wood is redone, sanded, painted, new hardware and stuff. Don't get me wrong, I do use new stuff too. My old plastics have been repainted. I'll have to try that magic stuff on the metals, right now I just put some Witchcraft tape on them. Old Army green (sometimes black) bags- all I use. I usually do these things in the off months, blowing off any painting or leaks that have to be done in the house.
Dark, why arn't you out there, there's some good stories waiting to happen.

Happy Trails

[vpass]

Has anyone ever painted there tins black and used them at night. I have a bunch of bluefish destroyed tins that lost their luster and thinking of painting them black. What do you guys think?

[voyager35]

Black tins are good for bass in the rips at night. Paint em black.

[storminsteve]

Has anyone ever painted there tins black and used them at night. I have a bunch of bluefish destroyed tins that lost their luster and thinking of painting them black. What do you guys think?

I always wanted to try that and see if they produce better. I am going to make a note to do it for the next new moon.
This morning I fished a small ava oo7 in the dark and caught some cocktail blues. Would love to think that with all the small bait around there are a few bass that would take it. Keeping the hope alive.

[DarkSkies]

I had the idea for this thread for a long time now....the inspiration came from talks with Surfwalker....and our pushing each other to try different presentations and profiles when out there.....
I'll be talking to him, talking about a night of fishing, and he'll say...
"Did you try this?
What else did you try?"


It seems we are both in agreement that when we are catching fish, we are naturally curious as to what other artificial will tempt them as well....
I know I have had these conversations with some of ya's as well....
To me, and you, it's fun to try something different....so I thought we could push the new guys to think about why and where, some of these artificials would trump Brand A or Brand B....











Some recent catches with no-name, $5 artificials.....Bombers. other swimmers, etc....

4-23 Wed
Scouted a few places back and front. Lots of dead water.
Found a good solid bite in the western bay where bunker were schooled up with the wind pattern.

6 hour trip
Managed 9 fish....10 to 17lbs.
There was solid action for 1 1/2 hours, the rest of the time I had to work hard for each fish.
All on small bomber type swimmer.
All the hype out there about the expensive swimmers Daiwa, big wood, etc, etc.... and I caught these fish on a $5 plug......
All released

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4-24 Thu
Had some business in South Jersey.
On the way home I fished some unfamiliar water.
Fished 7 hours total.
3 bass to 9lbs, all legal, but some were skinny.
all on small swimmer.
All released.


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**********

[DarkSkies]

The Contest:


1. Fish with any plug other than what is being talked about on the internet or facebook....

A. IE NO Daiwas.

B. NO Name brand metal lip swimmers (generic bargain basement, or ones that are not built en-masse are eligible....such as your own home-made swimmers...
C (in other words, fish with something that is not being promoted by the herd mentality out there....... )

2. Catch a fish on it....

3. Post a pic of the fish with the artificial that you used to catch it.....and how you got it....

4. So, in this contest,
A. a less popular artificial, (Bombers, redfins, rebels, creek chub, or any obscure plug that has fallen out of favor....there are dozens of them to choose from......)
B. or rubber other than the vision sand eels, or tsunami shads, or storm shads,..or tsunami shads,,,would qualify....
c. no name bucktail and grub or pork will also qualify.....
D. Your own teaser that you made, would also qualify


5. Most creative report at the end of the year, wins the 2 best producers from my tackle bag.....
And some tips as to how and when I fish those plugs......

6. Or....if you are convinced I don't know how to catch fish.......I'll give ya 2 brand new in-the-box swimmers from my collection.....

[DarkSkies]

Why a contest/Surfwalker Challenge?

Too many people are getting locked into the herd mentality.
They think a Daiwa is the only thing that will get them that big fish.

Or a name brand swimmer, custom wood, with scale pattern, will get them the fiish of their dreams.....
Although a plug that swims a certain way can be deadly....to me it is about the presentation, and the angler fishing it.....and that's something that I wanted to convey to you younger anglers out there....


and something that Surfwalker always trys to convey..

[DarkSkies]

"What the Hell is the matter with you, Dark, why are you so anti-Daiwa??????"


some might be thinking this question, thinking I have some kind of bias against it....
But I don't,,,,,,I have even done a video promoting the Daiwa.....seen here.........

[DarkSkies]

My main goal here, is to get the newer anglers out there...to see that there are a great number of out-of favor plugs that will produce, given conditions for that plug.....









And I want to encourage the new guy out there...to try to think outside of the box.
By doing this, you will eventually become a better angler....
And you may want to thank me for it....

Don't thank me, thank Surfwalker....
For being old-school enough to still believe in the less popular plugs, and still catching large fish on them....

[albiealert]

I like it I'm in! Will fish a bomber or redfin next time I'm out and see what comes after it. Not a problem as I am a big fan of bombers anyway, If you lose them no big deal.

[DarkSkies]

June 10.....Cownose ray, caught on a plug......

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[DarkSkies]

June 16 AM trip
5 hour Monty Mini Marathon

Got the blues....
Some bluefish activity in the dark, swimmers.
As opposed to the day before they would not hit top water....tried 3 separate times during the trip.
Best action on swimmers....Half the fish came from the OFFC plug,


Attachment 17291



which is now trashed after catching over 30 bluefish...tail hook and back part of plug broke.....

One of the "larger" bluefish was caught on speedy's white swimmer...

Attachment 17290

The blues that morning were so small they were not pic worthy...half the size of the blues the day before

What was interesting was how picky and sluggish they were....light hits, if you missed it they would not come back....
I missed so many fish it was embarassing.
When the plug bite died they hit metal at varying retrieves until slack tide. Bite was dead after that.

Also hooked and landed 2 cownose rays, 8-10#...both on metal.



Attachment 17292



Total:
14 blues to 3#.
2 cownose rays.

[DarkSkies]

June 22 2013 - Early AM - 3 hour trip.....

Started out with good expectations...went back to the well-known bluefish and weakfish bay spot to see if I could find the bigger blues at night....
I failed at that, but did manage to land a 6# weakfish, my first of the year....she was beautiful, had not seen them in long time....quick pic and release.....

Attachment 17297

on a small swimmer...(old and ugly, see the Surfwalker thread...)
http://stripersandanglers.com/Forum/...d-your-Own-Way


The rest of the night went downhill after that...........my bail spring broke and I was not really participating any more no matter how hard I triied....it was too much of a pita.....so I cut the trip short and called it a night early, no other action for me...

[DarkSkies]

June 27/28 PM/AM trip:

Weather conditions forced me to re-plan my night. The wind and swell were bad, so I found an inlet where I could get a little lee and the wind wasn't so daunting.


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Total:
6 bass to 10#,,,,3 small blues - 5 hour trip
All bass were fat and had been feeding well.
2 of the bass were legal, kept one to see what they were eating., released the rest.....


Mostly on plugs..one on bucktail.....and then when I was getting ready to leave, one nicer fish dropped, on rubber.

[DarkSkies]

I copied the posts above from other threads. You will see at least one fish, in each post, that has been caught on a no-name swimmer. Sometimes they were larger, but for the most part they were smaller swimmers. Some got destroyed by the fish (The small yellow swimmer the OFFC gave me got busted up after 30 bluefish, but so what?).....

In most cases they produced lots of fish for me....
They were the only thing that would produce for that trip...
Usually this was because of the very small forage around that time of the season...and the fact that these swimmers came closest to matching it.....
And..best of all, they all cost $5 or less.....

[robmedina]

I cant wait for the fall run when I can catch bass with my homemade flies....I hope anyway

[Monty]

Fished this morning ocean side from 1:00 to 8:00.
Picked up a shad on a teaser, then a decent Fluke on a loaded red fin, Sea Robin also on the loaded Red Fin.
Also picked up 6 short stripers, biggest around 24 inches.
Loaded Red Fin, white Hogy and feathered teaser (2 on each).
And a double of blues (Howdy and feathered teaser).
Last fish caught around 6:15.
None of the fish were sluggish, was awesome seeing them crash the White Hogy.
Had a few bumps and misses, covered at least a mile and half of beach, great time .
Beautiful night, saw 4 shooting stars, ocean had small chop. Water and air were cool.

[buckethead]

Nice going monty you nailed the inshore trifecta only thing missing for a full house was a weakfish. I fished moco from 10-2am last night picked up a few short bass on a black bomber.