spoon plug in sw

[Bottomfeeder]

do you think i could catch anything in salt water with a spoonplug? i mean bumping the bottom it kinda looks like a Flounder which i know Stripers love

[dahlberg]

Hi BF
I've torn up groupers speed trolling deep divers grinding bottom parallel to rock/sand projections and I'm sure they'd eat spoon plugs, but you might need 800 of them because when you get hung up in coral it's usually the last hoorah!
Also had good success doing same for snook.
The saltwater environment is quite a bit different than what old Buck experienced and wrote about, but on a macro scale many of his principles hold true regarding location and structure of reef dwellers, and to a degree on a very very large scale billfish as well.
The speed control business, if you really understand what Buck was trying to say, (I used to spend hours with him on the phone in my early 20's) translates directly to almost every species and environment.
best,
L

[Bottomfeeder]

Billfish?
Sounds great now to find a 5 lb Spoonplug :D

[dahlberg]

Hi BF
A spoonplug of the right size with a big squid tail on the back might make a good teaser if you had a 900 pound gorilla to pull it out of the water, but that's about it!
Billfish are almost impossible to hook on lures that have bodies. Believe me, I've tried!(much to the consternation of the captains and mates who've been unfortunate to endure my experimenting)
The reason is that rather than having mouth cavities like bass, tarpon etc. that rely on both a bit and a big blast of suction, they have a beak like mouth not unlike a bird. When they grab something with a body their mouth doesn't close around it and they are really hard to get hooks in. That's why virtually all the successful billfish lures are skirted, so the fish grabs nothing but "fringes" and hooks!
best,
L

[Bottomfeeder]

so thats why the lures are designed so that the hook trails a few inches behind the skirt?
makes sense!

[dahlberg]

Yup, both slightly behind and maybe one tucked in to the skirt itself and oriented at 90 degrees to the other hook.
best,
L