The Case For Big Wooden Plugs

In early November 2024, Frank Daignault handed away on the age of 87. Frank authored eight books on surfcasting for striped bass, and his articles appeared in a wide range of publications, together with On The Water, over a span of fifty years. His writing evokes surfcasters to at the present time, along with his tales of residing and fishing on the Cape Cod seashores exhibiting us simply how good the great ol’ days have been. This story initially appeared within the August 2001 Problem of On The Water, at a time when massive stripers and enormous bunker have been returning to the surf in larger numbers. Whereas the lures and sort out have modified, the teachings nonetheless maintain true. – Jimmy Price

Fishers of the striper surf date themselves by the scale of the plugs they’re doubtless to make use of. The continuum falls neatly into line with age and time; the additional again you go, the larger the plugs get. I’m satisfied that the alternatives are based mostly extra upon tools calls for and maybe fishing traits than efficient surf casting. In the present day’s younger Turks crack on the outdated guard with their massive plugs and what they use to fish them, however at the back of their minds they both know or have a gnawing suspicion that there might be one thing to it.

All you need to do is take a look at all of the 1-ounce or lighter Rebels or Yo-Zuris and the like of at the moment and rummage by way of my buggy, and also you’ll get a robust really feel for what’s now and what was then. Sure, within the minds of many, I and people with whom I as soon as fished, are anachronisms. Nonetheless, our outdated picket plugs proceed to catch fish. Extra importantly, the massive stuff is extra more likely to catch the suitable ones. Huge plugs demand heavy sort out, and it’s fairly powerful to fish the small stuff with our pool-cue surf rods.

What sort of plug sizes are we speaking about? Springing from the times when solely massive reels might be used to fish 50-pound-test strains, we threw picket swimmers and poppers weighing as much as 4 ounces with stout sticks able to delivering the plugs into the tooth of a gale. It was not merely that the stuff was that heavy, nevertheless it was typically additionally aerodynamically poor. We weren’t in casting contests; our lures have been chosen as a result of the stripers favored them, a proven fact that has not modified. Even at the moment, with a robust onshore wind, aspect by aspect, your little 3/4-ounce floating swimmer goes 50 toes and my 3-ounce monster picket plug of yore will land beside it. These usually are not nice casts to make certain, however let’s take a look at the opposite numbers.

As a result of break-offs are a giant consider successful over dream stripers, massive sort out allays that concern. With line concerns out of the best way, the whole lot else within the sort out and equipment equation has to match the forces. What I imply by that’s, if in case you have chosen one of many new, practically unbreakable strains, chances are high your reel won’t have an appropriate drag. It does no good to have a 50-pound line on a reel designed to be used with 20-pound sort out. Equally, you’ll be able to neither swing onerous nor heavy with the rods that might stability with common although insufficient reels. A lot of at the moment’s sort out is out of concord due to ongoing adjustments.

Furthermore, as soon as a caster strikes into this degree of kit, the whole lot is put to the take a look at. Snap-swivels and barrels start to fail, by way of wires can break, hooks open and in smaller plugs designed for a lot much less rigorous use even the plugs themselves might be damaged at occasions. Every part from the underside of the spool to the hook in a striper’s jaw must be of appropriate power.

It typically is smart to make use of massive plugs. Linesides over 20 kilos feed on the identical measurement baits as these over 50 kilos do. Always remember that the size distinction between them is just 10 inches. Folks in boats generally live-line 3-pound pollock and mackerel. Thus an imitation of these reside baits by artificials would observe comfortably.

Some would argue that the massive plugs are solely worthwhile when bass are on massive baits. I view it as simplistic to stick too carefully to that. Too little is understood. You might be on a seaside that’s awash with sand eels and make the pure statement that stripers are consuming them. The sense is in it, I admit, however I’ve seen them gorge themselves on sand eels and mackerel on the identical time. You’ll typically see mackerel and even dabs and immature weakfish entering into the act and falling prey to linesides within the course of. Even then, I don’t suppose {that a} bass goes to cross up your mackerel plug as a result of the ocean is filled with sperling or different small stuff. Bass would possibly simply take it despite it being improper. They are often selective by intuition or behavior, however I’ve by no means seen any fish as clever. I cite sand eels in distinction with mackerel on this dialogue solely as a result of they conveniently illustrate variety in measurement.The combo of plug selection and efficiency, situations and caster idiosyncrasies, when mixed, spawn a myriad of variables that may affect outcomes. Rod motion within the final wave is very individualized, the place some anglers sprinkle in a patternless bunch of jumps and jiggles. As a result of they know that stripers generally observe a protracted distance with out hitting, some anglers pause within the strike zone, whereas others rush it out to impart the notion of an escaping bait. Many massive plugs show a extra frantic swim due to bigger swim plates, whereas jointed fashions exhibit exaggerated movement. A quick-receding wave or hard-flowing rip is finest handled by a slower retrieve or perhaps a change in plug selections to compensate for water motion. Nonetheless, in most respects the issues with massive wooden are the identical as these with smaller presents.

I’ve typically thought that getting the eye of stripers is extra doubtless with massive swimmers. When there may be motion–wild water from windswept waves, present, a number of bait and even shoulder-to-shoulder surfcasters–the bass are lunging and pumping throughout you, searching for one thing to take. Actually this isn’t a choosy scenario and it by no means hurts to make it simple for the moby linesides to see your providing. All fish are influenced by different elements moreover what the angler would possibly observe. When there are bass, and even a mixture of bass and blues, aggressive habits accelerates the take as a result of every appears to be making an attempt to get the prey first, a logical assumption that might be true. The frenzy or blitz the place the meals chain is stacking–squid consuming sand eels whereas bass eat the squid–will get frantic, and sometimes the fish get fairly careless consequently. When it’s like that, it issues little what’s chosen for a lure, as it’s going to doubtless be taken anyway. The benefits of heavy gear within the massive stuff are power, reliability and velocity.

Some striper fishers are satisfied that the massive plugs cull out the bigger linesides due to the assumption that the small bass gained’t take a giant plug. It’s true to a point, however the notion stays unreliable as a result of you’ll be able to hook surprisingly small fish with big plugs. I as soon as fished with a surfcaster who thought that a big plug was perceived by quarry as a faculty of small baitfish swimming collectively. Many surfmen are somewhat dippy of their observations, however his logic might be used to clarify a 16-inch striper on a 9-inch plug. Who is aware of?

The swimmer plates of most massive plugs break their casting aerodynamics. Due to these poor casting qualities, folks new to surf fishing are sometimes tempted to make the most of different selections. So typically fishers want distance over effectiveness and throw the improper lure 300 toes slightly than the suitable one 75.

Through the years we’ve got seen surfcasters pissed off by the selective habits of stripers. Typically an answer to massive bass wallowing within the surf however not hitting has been to go ever smaller, to the purpose the place little balsa wooden swimmers used as a final resort have been too small to forged and too weak to be used on such cows. One time, and I doubt this might work that always, we had such fish in entrance of us on the Cape; they have been so specific that the majority had given up fishing. Out of frustration I tossed the largest plug in my buggy into them and a 40-pounder ate it. The lure appears to be in being too certain one thing goes to occur.Huge plugs have been disappearing from the surfcasting cabinets for the reason that creation of striper surf spinning over 40 years in the past. Plug builders logically noticed an even bigger future in lures for spinning at about the identical time that injection molding’s manufacturing benefits grew to become evident in manufacturing. Excluding the bigger Atom swimmers, which have been victims of the transition in manufacturing strategies and using spinning gear, the fee and low demand about killed the massive picket plugs and by no means permitted their manufacture in plastic castings. Why would anybody spend cash tooling as much as construct plugs for such anachronistic purposes as heavy typical sort out? Who would purchase them?

A consequence of those two developments was that spinning obtained the high-production molded-plastic plugs, whereas pool-cue typical fishing utilized the dearer handcrafted wooden. Excluding a pleasant line of manufacturing Dannys, Trolling Swimmers and monster poppers by Gibbs Lures, at the moment’s outdated guard will get their “Dannys” from small storage operations, crafted by romantics from New Jersey to Maine and even some in California.

Go looking for massive plugs within the catalogs and see if you could find Big Pikie Minnows, Goo-Goo Eyes, Nils Masters or Atom 40s. (The dialogue makes me really feel outdated.) A number of the old-timers, who I do know are going to get pleasure from studying this as a result of they may have written it themselves, are fanatics about massive plugs. Money and time have rendered the plugs irreplaceable. They thus face the enigma of selecting between their plugs and their fishing. You possibly can’t exchange a few of these “massive mommas” and so they know they’re going to find yourself crying once they lose a collectable.

Till now, typical reels, lengthy considered the sort out of consultants, have been the primary selection in fishing these massive plugs. The nuances of typical sort out have been mired someplace between voodoo and witchcraft for any up to date angler painfully struggling to grasp their use, nonetheless. Revolving-spool reels backlash and the favored braids lower grooves in retrieving thumbs. Every retrieve must be spooled evenly, typically with some salt-induced ache, for the following forged. The “conventional” sort out isn’t solely tough to study, it’s onerous to make use of and onerous to stick with, figuring out there may be a better different offered by spinning.

Nonetheless, the event and introduction of the brand new, fine-diameter, high-pound-test strains which can be beginning to seem available on the market might give rise to profound adjustments in surf sort out. As soon as folks start spinning with rods that match their 50-pound spinning strains, justification for typical sort out use will weaken, if not fade altogether. Extra folks might be fishing heavier and a few of these little plugs won’t ever stand as much as the trials of actually heavy surf sort out. Heavy strains, stiff rods and large, high-capacity reels with stout drags should be in concord with the plugs they throw and that would solely include larger plugs. In fact, if sort out goes that manner, the market will reply.

As a result of our fishing options typically spring from what appears to be working, and that often adjustments, those that use heavy sort out must be armed with the lighter plugs as certainly because the light-tackle customers must be prepared to maneuver up. Higher care and expertise are wanted, however gorilla revolving-spool tools casts lures as gentle as 1 ounce and possibly so far as that which is forged with spinning. A stunning mixture of outdated requirements–poppers, darters, bottle plugs, needlefish and Junior Atoms–fall into the 2-ounce vary, which makes them appropriate to each medium spinning and heavy typical. Sharp producers appear to be after the perfect of each worlds.Fish haven’t modified, we’ve got. But, a lot of what was completed stays common and viable. We admit that point has thinned the ranks of old-guard surfcasters, however most of the new children like the texture of heavy gear. And whereas light-tackle fishing has been touted as extra sporting and due to this fact tougher, these of us who’ve fished the seaside for years by no means thought heavy sort out was simple. Most of all, it’s the allure and goal of the massive picket plugs and the stuff we use to ship them that retains the outdated guard coming again and the younger longing for a component. Sound reasoning in sort out selections and the execution of efficient surfcasting must embrace your father’s sort out. When has having extra selections ever been dangerous for us?