2 hours ago, A-Jay said:

Congrats on the killer day ~

And I hate to admit it but I am totally stumped.

Looking forward the the 'reveal'.

A-Jay

 

1 hour ago, Eric 26 said:

What he said x 2?

 

41 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

 

What Eric said x3.

 

Is it an in-line spinner with a mirror blade?

 

In  1966, Buck's Baits (Buck Perry/Spoonplug) introduced the "SJ Series," sometimes referred to as the 'Action Jig.' It was a combination spoon/jig/fly meant to be used as a 'jump lure,' though it could also be trolled. If you can picture a modern day belly weighted hook like is commonly used for swimbaits, but centered and encapsulated into a jigging spoon body, with a Johnson Spoon like hook built in, and little wing tabs on the tail end. It could be had plain, or dressed with either bucktail, marabou or nylon. It came in 7 sizes from 1/8 oz. up to nearly 2 ounces. I'm not sure it was around for more than a half dozen years or so, as you won't find a single mention of the lure in his 1973 book, "Spoonplugging."

 

The bait was designed for fishing poor/cold/slow/windy conditions. It casts like a traditional jigging spoon, and sinks fairly quickly to the bottom. When you pop it off the bottom like a spoon, the belly weight feature immediately flips the lure right side up at the top of the hop (think of a "Weeble"), and then the little wing tabs glide it back to the bottom like the Space Shuttle, hook up every time. Dressing is just for added attraction, but plain ones could be tipped with the item of your choice (pork, plastic, live bait, etc.). It has a subtle shimmy/wiggle to it on the fall/glide, and looks mighty attractive in the water. Apparently the bass thought so, too.

 

A few guys have taken older ones and repainted and retied new material onto them. I was fishing with a "new" original one that featured a purple and white body with silver flake and a white marabou tail dressing. The pic below is of some "refurbished" ones a friend has, but shows the features of the bait pretty good. They are very hard to come by though, and I paid a pretty penny for a set of 5 "new" ones in original box with the original instruction booklet included.

 

Debated whether to fish with one or not, but really wanted to catch a bass on something that old and unique - and then just said a little prayer and hoped I didn't snag it up or break it off - lol. I cleaned it up, dried the hair back to original condition, and have put it back in it's original box, now sitting in my Spoonplugging display in the office. If I can ever get my hands on a couple more though, they're definitely going to be put to work again 

 

 

8 minutes ago, Team9nine said:

 

 

 

In  1966, Buck's Baits (Buck Perry/Spoonplug) introduced the "SJ Series," sometimes referred to as the 'Action Jig.' It was a combination spoon/jig/fly meant to be used as a 'jump lure,' though it could also be trolled. If you can picture a modern day belly weighted hook like is commonly used for swimbaits, but centered and encapsulated into a jigging spoon body, with a Johnson Spoon like hook built in, and little wing tabs on the tail end. It could be had plain, or dressed with either bucktail, marabou or nylon. It came in 7 sizes from 1/8 oz. up to nearly 2 ounces. I'm not sure it was around for more than a half dozen years or so, as you won't find a single mention of the lure in his 1973 book, "Spoonplugging."

 

The bait was designed for fishing poor/cold/slow/windy conditions. It casts like a traditional jigging spoon, and sinks fairly quickly to the bottom. When you pop it off the bottom like a spoon, the belly weight feature immediately flips the lure right side up at the top of the hop (think of a "Weeble"), and then the little wing tabs glide it back to the bottom, hook up every time. Dressing is just for added attraction, but plain ones could be tipped with the item of your choice (pork, plastic, live bait, etc.). It has a subtle shimmy/wiggle to it on the fall/glide, and looks mighty attractive in the water. Apparently the bass thought so, too.

 

A few guys have taken older ones and repainted and retied new material onto them. I was fishing with a "new" original one that featured a purple and white body with silver flake and a white marabou tail dressing. The pic below is of some "refurbished" ones a friend has, but shows the features of the bait pretty good. They are very hard to come by though, and I paid a pretty penny for a set of 5 "new" ones in original box with the original instruction booklet included.

 

Debated whether to fish with one or not, but really wanted to catch a bass on something that old and unique - and then just said a little prayer and hoped I didn't snag it up or break it off - lol. I cleaned it up, dried the hair back to original condition, and have put it back in it's original box, now sitting in my Spoonplugging display in the office. If I can ever get my hands on a couple more though, they're definitely going to be put to work again 

 

 

Cool Bait ~

Thanks so much for taking the time.

Means a lot.

A-Jay

You could have given me a hundred guesses and I would have never gotten it. Really cool of you to share and provide the history lesson behind the lure. 

Awesome. It sure puts the thunder in your quote: "All of the 'hot new' baits and colors are just playing on the gullibility of anglers that think there is some magic lure that will overcome their lack of fishing ability." -Wayne P

On 11/30/2022 at 2:48 PM, AlabamaSpothunter said:

This is the stuff of nightmares for me.  I would be eaten alive in those type of elements.   That type of cold makes you tough as nails.  

When it gets cold, I think about what Washington's men endured a Valley Forge and realize, we're ALL a bunch of pampered sissies these days.

8 hours ago, Team9nine said:

 

 

 

In  1966, Buck's Baits (Buck Perry/Spoonplug) introduced the "SJ Series," sometimes referred to as the 'Action Jig.' It was a combination spoon/jig/fly meant to be used as a 'jump lure,' though it could also be trolled. If you can picture a modern day belly weighted hook like is commonly used for swimbaits, but centered and encapsulated into a jigging spoon body, with a Johnson Spoon like hook built in, and little wing tabs on the tail end. It could be had plain, or dressed with either bucktail, marabou or nylon. It came in 7 sizes from 1/8 oz. up to nearly 2 ounces. I'm not sure it was around for more than a half dozen years or so, as you won't find a single mention of the lure in his 1973 book, "Spoonplugging."

 

The bait was designed for fishing poor/cold/slow/windy conditions. It casts like a traditional jigging spoon, and sinks fairly quickly to the bottom. When you pop it off the bottom like a spoon, the belly weight feature immediately flips the lure right side up at the top of the hop (think of a "Weeble"), and then the little wing tabs glide it back to the bottom like the Space Shuttle, hook up every time. Dressing is just for added attraction, but plain ones could be tipped with the item of your choice (pork, plastic, live bait, etc.). It has a subtle shimmy/wiggle to it on the fall/glide, and looks mighty attractive in the water. Apparently the bass thought so, too.

 

A few guys have taken older ones and repainted and retied new material onto them. I was fishing with a "new" original one that featured a purple and white body with silver flake and a white marabou tail dressing. The pic below is of some "refurbished" ones a friend has, but shows the features of the bait pretty good. They are very hard to come by though, and I paid a pretty penny for a set of 5 "new" ones in original box with the original instruction booklet included.

 

Debated whether to fish with one or not, but really wanted to catch a bass on something that old and unique - and then just said a little prayer and hoped I didn't snag it up or break it off - lol. I cleaned it up, dried the hair back to original condition, and have put it back in it's original box, now sitting in my Spoonplugging display in the office. If I can ever get my hands on a couple more though, they're definitely going to be put to work again 

 

 

Those things are sweet looking. Never seen or heard of them before. Thank you for the history lesson. Someone should make a modern version. Based on your description, I bet they'd be killer for snap jigging eyes. They seem to me as though they were ahead of their time.

Got 2 smallies and a meanmouth. The bigs should have been biting but nobody told them 

Nice, you can really see both sides of the DNA spectrum on that meanmouth.   His body looks far more Spot like, while his mouth region and markings look SMB.

 

Do you find they fight like a Spot?

23 minutes ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

Nice, you can really see both sides of the DNA spectrum on that meanmouth.   His body looks far more Spot like, while his mouth region and markings look SMB.

 

Do you find they fight like a Spot?

Eh, heck I can’t tell haha. They all fight hard when they are bigger, that one not so much 

The meanmouth I have caught (3) were nothing special. The fight was about the same

as other fish of comparable size.

I had an interesting day today.  I caught a 16 incher on my 2nd cast.  Within 15 minutes I had caught a dink and a 15 incher as well.    Rest of the day.........nothing.   It's like the bass went to sleep.  I could find them on sonar.  Most of them just flat out ignored....my entire tackle box.  Occasionally 1 would follow my lure but wouldn't offer to bite.   I thought I was going to have a super day after the first 3.   1st one at 8:07,  3rd and last one at 8:22.   I fished until 12.   We've had a bunch of rain, especially up river.  There was all kinds of BIG stuff floating.   I never got over 15 mph due to all the debris.   

Added: none of the bass touched my boat.  The debris stuck to the first one came from the water.   

 

 

Caught my first bass ever today. 
 

I think he’s about 8lbs???

29 minutes ago, LrgmouthShad said:

Caught my first bass ever today. 
 

I think he’s about 8lbs???

Solid 8 for sure.

12 hours ago, GreenPig said:

Solid 8 for sure.

Regardless of weight that is a beautiful fish ??

13 hours ago, LrgmouthShad said:

Caught my first bass ever today. 
 

I think he’s about 8lbs???

On my boat we call them "Just under five".

13 hours ago, LrgmouthShad said:

I had a decent day. 38 warmed up to 40 degree water temps. Nothing crazy all about this size.

Edited December 4, 20223 yr by Darnold335
Made a typo in the water temp

I'm just glad that someone is still catching bass. I'm printing depth maps and laminating them for next year's fishing. 

Ever since @ol'crickety said I was consistent I've been struggling to catch bass.  LOL.   Before last year I've never fished past October (except for some November fishing in Florida) or before March.   This cold water fishing is fairly new to me.  I have managed to catch bass every month this year, and every week except for 1.   

 

I caught 5 yesterday in 4 hours.  I didn't measure any.  2 were the size of the one pictured.  Maybe 14 inches.   The water temp is 55 degrees.  Not really COLD, but it's cooled 7 degrees in the last 3 weeks, and 1 degree since from Saturday until Sunday.   I suppose their metabolism has slowed.   I caught 4 slow rolling a spinnerbait, the other on a Carolina rig with a purple worm.   The lake was cleaner...most of the floating stuff was gone.   

 

On a side note.  My Grandfather would have been 108 Sunday.   

 

 

@Woody B

 

Yikes, I'm like the Sports Illustrated cover curse!

Got out yesterday in the yak again and had another really solid day. Didn't get quite the numbers as last week, but put over 30 in the boat from 8am-2:30pm. Air temps were 21* to 41* but it never felt that warm with the breeze blowing all day. Water temps started just below 41* and "warmed up", to just below 42* by the end of the day. Caught fish on a blade bait, jerkbait, Savage Gear sleeper gill type bait, but Ned ruled the day again. The size was a little better this time too. I spent almost the whole day fishing 1 point. 

 

Finally hit a few numbers at my normal spot, 7 of these little fun size dudes and a couple hours. Water is about 55 degrees right now, it's been stable for a handful of days now so I feel like some better fishing will return with that. They liked the pearl minimax today.

Bluebasser86 catches bass. I am aching to say how I feel about his bass, but I don't want to curse him. 

 

The last of the skim ice was just floating downwind when I arrived at the pond this afternoon. Nothing going on bottom after a quick pass through, so switched to a Husky Jerk and got to feel the rod load up on 10 bass during the fish back. High briefly hit 45 today, but no sun. Sprinkles but warmer (high 40s/low 50s) over the next few days, so waters should stay open for a while longer.

 

4 hours ago, ol'crickety said:

Bluebasser86 catches bass. I am aching to say how I feel about his bass, but I don't want to curse him. 

 

LOL!!! After ONLY getting two muskie bites last Saturday and losing them both at boatside, I was beginning to think all the accolades I was getting in the other species forum had jinxed me. Then I realized my hat was the problem. It was too warm for the fur, and the ballcap just wasn't getting it done. ? Oh well, I ended up with 15 last week and lost 5 more. Can't complain about that. I'll be wearing the fur hat when I get back out Thursday though.

7 hours ago, Team9nine said:

The last of the skim ice was just floating downwind when I arrived at the pond this afternoon. Nothing going on bottom after a quick pass through, so switched to a Husky Jerk and got to feel the rod load up on 10 bass during the fish back. High briefly hit 45 today, but no sun. Sprinkles but warmer (high 40s/low 50s) over the next few days, so waters should stay open for a while longer.

 

We're supposed to be calm today. Do you find that it affects the jerkbait bite? I ask because yesterday was pretty near calm where I was and your results go against my usual thinking. I drug a Dark Sleeper around and hooked and lost one. Pretty slow so I want to redeem myself today.