Retrieve

[hookset]

Is there a difference in how you retrieve during the day compared to at night?

[strikezone31]

Day or night it does not matter to me. It all depends on the type of plug I am using.

Here is an article. However this is too long for one post so I put it up as several.

Doc's Perspective on Plug Fishing

The generic grouping of artificial baits called plugs is a diverse one. Indeed, years ago the term plugger was used to designate virtually any fisherman that used artificial baits. In general, plugs are lures that are designed to imitate small fish; and these types of lures fall into one of five basic categories: popping, surface, floating/diving, slow sinking, and deep-running. Excellent speckled trout baits are to be found in each of these categories as the following review will show: Popping Plugs

Popping plugs are specialized topwater baits that are characterized by having concave, scalloped faces. These baits are typically retrieved using a whip retrieve, so that the concave face of the plug is forced against the water, making a small splash, bubbles, and a popping sound. A sharper whip retrieve will produce a correspondingly bigger splash and make a louder popping sound. This sound is especially attractive to feeding spotted seatrout who mistake the sound for other feeding fish and so are attracted to join in the activity. Popping corks, used by jig and natural bait fishermen, work in much the same manner, ringing the dinner bell to nearby fish with their feeding sounds.

Popping plugs are most productive under calm water conditions when their surface commotion is used to best advantage. They should be fished very slowly under most conditions; and in shallow or clear water, the popping action should be subtle. As water clarity becomes poor and in deeper water, the popping action can be correspondingly increased to draw fish from afar.

Most successful popping plug fishermen in northern Gulf waters favor plugs like the Bagley B-3, the Heddon Lucky 13, and the Rebel Pop-R in silver shad and shoreminnow patterns. So-called pencil poppers are a good choice for big specks whenever small, fingerling needlefish are present. Particularly along the Florida coast, these needlefish are a significant component in the diets of adult spotted seatrout; and fishermen can use this fact to good advantage by fishing pencil poppers like Smithwick's Devil's Horse or the Boone Needlefish. These baits are exceptional night-time baits for catching spotted seatrout around offshore oil and gas flares, around lanterns that have been set along productive stretches of shoreline, or even under the lights of a front beach fishing pier.

I remember well one such trip to the University of Southern Mississippi Gulf Park Pier. It was one of those windless November nights just following the passage of a front. A heavy fog hung thick in the air and muffled every sound. Not a hundred yards from the seawall, the sound of six o'clock traffic was reduced to a murmur. The glare of headlights was a mere flicker in the heavy fog. The waters of the sound were glass-slick; and I knew that this would be a good evening for topwater fishing.

Knowing that the trout would prefer to hold in the shadows where ambushing a passing baitfish would come easy, I gently lofted a silvery Devil's Horse into the darkness. Retrieving the lure in slow and deliberate jerks, I brought it parallel and close to the long, dark shadows of the light standard. Sloosh...sloosh...sloosh, the nose propellers of the stickbait beat a rhythm into the stillness of the night. Within seconds, things began to happen. Like a series of small explosions, the trout struck repeatedly at my bait, tossing it high into the air with every strike. I thought at first that they must be mighty small trout to be missing with such regularity. Perhaps they were frightened by the larger plug and I should be trying a smaller one, I thought. And then, as the plug came into view, I noticed two or three nice trout at its heels. The plug was attracting the fish alright, but they were just nipping at it, trying more to wound than to devour it. That night, I learned a special trick about fishing popping plugs.
I had often heard that fishing topwater baits with a trailing jig was more productive than fishing topwater alone; but I had never tried it. With nothing to lose, I tied on a small, yellow crappie jig, attaching it some eighteen inches or so behind the rear treble of the Devil's Horse. On the very next cast, and still using the familiar whip retrieve, I scarcely had a chance to turn the reel handle when my graphite rod nearly bent double as the line screamed out. For an instant the line went slack, and then the rod was almost jerked out of my hands by another powerful surge. When finally I managed to bring the unseen weight under the lights of the pier, much to my surprise I had bagged not one, but two nice fish. It seems that the smaller jig was just what was needed to stir the fish to activity. When the smaller jig was taken by one fish, the subsurface turmoil drew attention to the stick bait above; and nearby fish were quick to take advantage. That night, I managed a catch of nearly forty nice trout, mostly school fish in the two-pound class. Most of these fish were released unharmed, but three nice four-pounders were invited for dinner.
The Smithwick Devil's Horse in the 4-1/2 inch, half ounce size will catch trout in most situations requiring the use of a pencil-popper. It comes in a variety of colors, but its many silver variations, Tennessee shad, chrome black, black shiner, and silver shiner, will produce well with trout.
As conventional poppers go, the Heddon Lucky 13 has been an all-time favorite of speckled trout fishermen for over sixty-five years; and this plug still enjoys a great following among Chandeleur grass flats fishermen. The 5/8 ounce, 3-3/4 inch Lucky 13 is top choice among most experienced flats anglers; and both the white bodied, red-headed model and the yellow perch model are popular among these fishermen.

Jig and natural bait anglers will also use topwater poppers in place of conventional popping corks, removing the lure's back treble and replacing it with thirty-pound test line and a trailing plastic jig or a number 6 or 4 treble hook and a live shrimp. Either way, the fisherman is now covering two bases by simultaneously offering the fish a topwater and a medium-running bait. This effective searching pattern over shallow seagrass flats and oyster bottoms will oftentimes result in doubles as many fishermen can attest.

Surface Plugs
These topwater baits, as the name implies, float on the surface. Unlike poppers though, they can be fished in a variety of different ways to create a surface disturbance unlike that of the popper. Some, like the 5-M-series Mirrolures are equipped with nose and tail spinners that provide the desired surface noise. Others, like the Jitterbug have a wide metal lip that provides a side to side action and accompanying gurgling sound. Yet others, like the Zara Spook have a torpedo shape that darts, dives, bobs, and weaves on retrieve to provide the necessary action. Another group of topwater baits of which the Original Rapala is a prime example, seeks to function not merely as an attractor, but to simulate the appearance of a natural bait fish as much as possible.

Whatever the particular design of the topwater plug may be, it is fundamentally geared to attract fish to the surface and to fool them into striking. And in order for the fisherman to successfully and consistently fool a wary spotted seatrout, he'll need a complete selection of surface baits.
Seasonally, the best time for fishing topwater baits for speckled trout is when water temperatures are in the range of from sixty to about seventy degrees. This will usually occur only during the spring and early summer months and throughout the fall. This does not go to say that trout cannot be caught on topwater at other times of the year; but since surface baits are most effective in shallow water, it is not unreasonable to expect to have the best success with them when the fish are active and feeding in the shallows.

Over the years I have met a number of fishermen who specialize in catching speckled trout on topwater baits; and none is more adept at this technique than Dennis Fleming of Long Beach. For the most part, Dennis sight fishes topwater Mirrolures, casting to the fish as he sees them swirl and move in the shallows. The TT-19 is among his favorite baits; and for good reason. This topwater plug is made to resemble the young-of-the-year spotted seatrout that abound in coastal shallows and grass flats during the late spring and early summer. Since an adult yellowmouth trout is not the least bit reluctant to strike at others of her kind, Dennis usually has plenty to show for his efforts.

Plugs like the 5-M Mirrolure are versatile and can be fished in a variety of ways. They can be barely twitched so that they produce only a hint of a ripple in the water. They can be steadily retrieved and chugged across the water, or they can be skipped across the surface as fast as the fisherman can crank the reel handle. Most successful topwater anglers develop a personal pattern of their own - one that produces fish time and again.

Topwater Mirrolures and similar propellered surface baits are best fished with an erratic retrieve. I prefer an easy whip retrieve that moves the plug a foot or so at a time, followed by a few seconds in which the lure is allowed to remain still. In quiet or shallow waters, this approach seems to work best for me. Often, the wake of an interested trout can be seen from afar as it begins its approach on a collision course with the plug. At the last instant, speeding the action up somewhat may help to ensure a strike. At all costs, the fisherman should not allow the fish to merely swim up and investigate the strange moving object. More often than not, a wary speck will detect that something is amiss and beat a hasty retreat. Other times though, the fish may follow the plug for some distance before finally deciding to strike. Varying the retrieve often until the right presentation is found is the best advice for fishermen here.

Successful topwater trout fishing also calls for careful observation on the part of the fisherman. Whenever the water is relatively calm, topwater feeding activity is apparent by the sprays of baitfish here and there and the occasional slurping sound of a trout picking off stragglers near the water's surface. With a fairly stiff wind, the topwater activity becomes considerably less obvious though feeding near the surface might still be quite active. Even a slight breeze is often enough to reorient schools of baitfish near the surface. In shallow waters, wind-driven currents can easily overpower even tidal or longshore currents; and when this is the case, the fisherman must be prepared to adjust his technique accordingly if a natural bait presentation is to be made. I remember well one September several years ago the effects that wind-driven currents can have on trout fishing. Sherman Muths and I were drift fishing the shallow grass flats off Monkey Bayou in the Chandeleur Chain. All morning long, we had been catching trout with regularity on topwater Mirrolures. The hot-pink plug in particular had acquitted itself well during the wee hours. With virtually no wind with which to contend, we'd drift along with the longshore current paralleling the shoreline and casting towards the edge of the marsh where thick schools of pinfish and finger mullet were concentrated.

[strikezone31]

Casting across the sandy, deep holes that were scattered across the grass beds, we'd bring our topwater plugs across these barren patches and get instantaneous and vicious strikes from the trout as they burst from their ambush points beneath the grass to strike at the plugs as they passed above. All morning long we caught fish ranging from two to as big as seven pounds in weight. Then the wind picked up. At first there was only a slight breeze out of the west, scarcely enough to notice; but, before long, the wind was pushing our small skiff right up to the marsh. The drifts became shorter and the strikes grew fewer, until by noon, we had fished for nearly an hour without a strike.


By sheer accident, I lofted a cast against the wind, away from the shoreline and into the deeper grass beds that lay to the west. Instantly, I was rewarded with a solid, bone-jarring hit. The big trout headed straight into the grass; and in the four-foot water I could see the hot-pink plug going round and around as the big speck rolled near the bottom. As I struggled with my fish, Sherman's rod bent double; and we were once again in business. The wind picked up even more, but we persisted in catching fish all afternoon long once we'd discovered the secret of casting into the wind.


Fisheries scientists have long shown that fish are inclined to swim into a strong wind. Smaller fish near the surface, on the other hand, have little choice but to go where the current takes them; and if the wind-driven currents are of sufficient strength, they will be forced in that direction. Our topwater Mirrolures that day must have seemed quite unnatural to the fish as they moved along the surface against that strong wind when everything else near the surface was moving in the opposite direction. Once the problem was corrected though, there was no problem; and the fish started cooperating again.


Topwater baits are oftentimes the only possible artificial to use, especially if the fish are feeding in shallow grass flats where other types of baits would become easily fouled. For most fishermen that have caught speckled trout on topwater, however, any excuse to fish using this technique is a good one. And, for such yellowmouth enthusiasts, catching spotted seatrout on topwater is as close to trout fishing nirvana as catching rainbows on a dry fly is to any angler that has ever wet a hook on Henry's Fork.

It is on topwater baits that the spotted seatrout puts forth its finest performance; and it is this spectacular topwater show that has won over many a speckled trout fisherman.




An arsenal of topwater speckled trout baits would be incomplete without the following tried and true floaters:

• 5-M-11 Mirrolures
• Original Rapalas
• Boone Spinadas
• Zara Spooks
• Rebels
• Bagley's Finger Mullet
• Heddon Tiny Torpedo

All these plugs come in a wide variety of colors, but there are certain combinations that have proven their effectiveness in most areas along the northern Gulf. The white-bodied, red-headed plug is a favorite of many fishermen; and the 5-M-11-FGO Mirrolure embodies the best of this color combination in a topwater bait. Of course, the Zara Spook and many of the other baits are available in the red and white color combination. In fact, of the lot, only the Original Rapala does not come in this color or any of the other bright attractor patterns. It is limited to gold and silver plugs with red, black, or chartreuse backs, all of which easily rate as nearest to the real thing in most fishermen's eyes.

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Fishermen that fish predominantly in clear, offshore waters will find that the brightly-hued hot-pink, chartreuse, and iodine baits are most effective while nearshore fishermen will have greater success with gold and silver-sided green and blue-backed lures. It should be realized that floaters will be viewed most often directly from the bottom; and so the bottom coloration is of primary importance

Long-time fisherman and tackle shop owner Travis Lott of Long Beach, Mississippi has a saying that "white is right" when it comes to fishing for speckled trout. The addage may be especially true when it comes to topwater fishing for specks. When was the last time you saw a fish that had a belly coloration other than white? Dark on the back, silvery on the sides, and white on the belly - that pretty well describes the typical baitfish; and you'll find that most plugs follow suit.


Floating/Diving Plugs
The floating and diving plug is one of the most versatile lures that a fisherman might choose to use. Designed to float while at rest, the floater/diver will dive when retrieved; and, depending on the speed of the retrieve, some of these plugs will work right down to the bottom. Most all of these lures achieve their diving performance by an extended lip at the head, either as part of the structure of the lure itself or as an added piece of metal.
The nicest feature of these plugs is that they can be fished productively under all types of water conditions. Most of them have a built-in wobbling action that requires little imagination on the part of the fisherman. In fact, the more erratic the retrieve, the better these lures will fish - dive, surface, dive, surface, di.. And before you complete the sentence, a big yellowmouth will have grabbed the plug.
Among the floater/divers, the Thinfin Silver Shad is one of the most popular with fall and winter bay and backwater anglers. This plug is a superb trolling lure that resembles the small menhaden and threadfin shad that can be found in all Gulf of Mexico estuaries throughout the year. Its wobbling, darting action has accounted for plenty of nice stringers of trout in Mississippi and Alabama waters in recent years.
The Countdown Rapala is a personal favorite of mine. Like all Rapala baits, this lure is designed, not so much to attract fish with its flash and pomp, but rather to fool them into believing that this is indeed the real thing. One look at the Countdown Rapala in the water, and you'll have to agree that this bait is the next best thing to a live minnow. The Countdown is available in the usual Rapala colors - silver or gold with either a black, red, or chartreuse back and a white belly. The silver and black model is my all-time choice for night-time fishing during the late fall and early winter months.
One day last fall, as the fog hung heavily on U.S. Highway 90, I headed out to one of my favorite fishing haunts, the Gulf Park Pier in Long Beach. It was only quarter after five, but darkness was already setting in. The pier lights went on with a muffled crackle in the thick fog as I continued on towards the end of the pier. With the tide strongly falling, I reckoned that the fish would be holding along the outer edge of a dropoff near the pier's end, waiting to pick off any bait fish that might pass overhead.
I could not help but notice the dew running down my rod as I tied on that 2-3/4 inch Countdown. I made my first cast towards the edge of the shadow zone and let the plug settle. After a count of five, I began a slow and deliberate retrieve, creating an undulation in the plug. On occasion, I would literally rip the lure through the water with such force that its action could be clearly felt. On my second cast, I caught a glimpse of a silver flash as it streaked towards the plug, nearly wrenching the rod from my grasp. Lip-hooked, the big trout thrashed about in wild indignation on the surface. Within seconds though, I had brought the five-pounder to within reach of my net.
With one fish in the basket, I continued to explore the pier's shadows with my Rapala. On the very next cast, I hooked up with yet another good fish. This time, the big yellowmouth preferred to do battle at depth as it quickly sounded and headed for deeper water. My rod bent nearly double as the drag began to slip. Line peeled off, but once again, the speck was mine.
After a few unproductive casts into the same shadow, I figured that I had caught all that were there, and I moved on to another light standard. This time, I was in much shallower water than before. On the third cast, I noticed several flashes at my plug; but there were no takers. A cast later, no sooner did the plug hit the water than all heck broke loose. Trout appeared from out of nowhere. They slapped the little plug high into the air. Finally, one of them managed to grab it, and I was in business. Like the others I had caught before it, this fish weighed in at almost five pounds. With three fish already in the basket, I resolved to catch perhaps three more; and then to call it quits. Well, it didn't take long. In fact, it took exactly three casts. So between roughly five in the afternoon and seven, I had managed to catch nearly thirty pounds of speckled trout on my Countdown Rapala - superb fishing in anyone's book. . .
Now some folks would not regard the Countdown Rapala as a true floater/diver; and indeed it is not. It is actually a plug of yet another category - the slow sinker. Its rate of descent is so agonizingly slow that for all practical purposes it might arguably be termed a floater/diver. In either case, it is a mere question of semantics because the plug is one dependable trout-getter however it might be classified.



http://www.datasync.com/~dbb/plugs.htm

[Rip-Plugger]

Is there a difference in how you retrieve during the day compared to at night?

Hi Hookset,

whenever I am out in day fishing you can bring the plug back faster as the fish can see it more and you can inpart the action of the baitfish seeing the predatory fish after it.
at night you want your plug coming back slow to keep it out there longer and also to allow more time for the fish to home in on it if you happen to pass near enough to a fish that may be holding along your plugs retreive path.

R-P

[plugcrazy]

at night you want your plug coming back slow to keep it out there longer and also to allow more time for the fish to home in on it if you happen to pass near enough to a fish that may be holding along your plugs retreive path.

R-P

I have noticed when the water gets colder the fish might nudge rather than hit the plug and you will not always see it unless your retrieve is very slow. Like ripplugger said I vary my retrieve but generally slower at night. An exception to that would be when there is a lot of bait around in the spring. Then I find ripping it through the water at faster speeds at night will also work.

[nitestrikes]

If the fish are nudging your plug the thing that is best for me is to set the hook hard. Cross its eyes. Some of the signs this is happening is if you bring in a lot of fish that are hooked in the head.