I've fished with Scroungers for a long time and I live in a fishing community.  Recently I took out a not too experienced father and teen age son;  rigged them with scroungers, and they smoked 'em;  smallmouth, largemouth, spots, and white bass.  We all know that fishermen love talking about fishing.  I was amazed that not one single person knew what a scrounger was, and no tackle shop within 25 miles stocked them.  Since I have no one else to compare notes with, I would like to hear tips from some of our members.  I use sizes from 1/16 to 3/8, and mostly use a 3-4 inch fork tail minnow with a straight retrieve.

Yeah, I’ve heard of em!

 

Yup, got a video on that as well.

 

 

 

Have been fishing Scroungers since the early 80’s when Sluggo’s 1st came out.

The original Scrounger was trade named and invented by local salt water surf fisherman John Walters in the early 70’s and packaged with a soft plastic spear worm.
The 1st Scroungers had a smaller size zinc plated hook that I ended up straightening out and tying a 6/0 round gap worm hook onto using tightly wrapped mono and super glue, worked good for Sluggo trailer.

My modified Scroungers were 3/4 oz with trout color 6” Sluggo, caught lots of DD size LMB using for a few years before the word got out.

Still use the Scroungers!

The bill helps the Scroungers go though crush cover without snagging and can be at nearly any depth. Vary speed until you find a cadence that works. If you feel bumps speed up!

Tom

30 minutes ago, Glenn said:

Yup, got a video on that as well.

 

 

 

Saved to my watch later list. I'd never heard of them before. 

Never heard of them until a few weeks ago when a pro was using one in a tournament.

1/2 Scrounger with a Basstrix is a killer at Clear Lake.  They are more stables than you would believe.  

I’ve never fished them, but know what they are.  After DC crushed the fish on gunnersville with them they caught my attention again.  Similar but different bait is a bladed jig blade on a plain jig head with a plastic if your choice.  I was throwing one of them on Wednesday. 

Scroungers got real big in the early 2ks.  I had heard of them, but all of a sudden, they were everywhere.  I've seen guys do well on them, but Ive only a seen a couple guys really get proficient with them.  They told me that they work best fished like a jig on the bottom or tracing the bottom. 

Really funny timing. I just saw this video pop up on YouTube. Is he a member here?

 

 

 

 

Damiki armor shad and Deps death adder are under rated plastics for the back of scroungers.  The death adder has a tight S swim that's a fantastic shad/shiner imitation and very effective in the cold too.  I'm a fan of scottsboro heads, the new pro series sniper head has a great ML wire hook with a nice gap.

 

scott

 

Didn't AMart make these popular for awhile?

I know i bought some but never used em,  maybe i should bust em out.

Nothing new...lol...@WRB-2.0has been talking about scroungers since way before my time here.... dozens of times.  Got my attention years ago.  I really like the versatility of scroungers; skirts,  no skirts, wide variety of weights, any trailer imaginable, low, high, fast, slow, erratic, straight...Other than being challenging across grass, they can be fished successfully a ton of different ways.  My hookup ratio isn't always great, but they do draw attention of good fish.

SHHH you guys are killing me. I use a 3/4 oz with a 7inch fluke when the fish get on deep rocks here in summer. its deeper than i can get a crankbait and sometimes you need to get a reaction bite that the c rig and football jig wont get.

I've heard of it but never seen the action until the above video. Now I'm interested. Seems like a step between a swim jig and a bladed jig.

 

@Swamp Girl this seems right up your alley. 

On 6/15/2025 at 9:35 AM, casts_by_fly said:

I’ve never fished them, but know what they are.  After DC crushed the fish on gunnersville with them they caught my attention again.  Similar but different bait is a bladed jig blade on a plain jig head with a plastic if your choice.  I was throwing one of them on Wednesday. 

Good idea;  I'll try that with a Stealth bladed jig, no skirt.

On 6/14/2025 at 5:56 PM, WRB-2.0 said:

My modified Scroungers were 3/4 oz with trout color 6” Sluggo, caught lots of DD size LMB using for a few years before the word got out.

 

15 hours ago, Don Preller said:

. I use a 3/4 oz with a 7inch fluke

 

 

Y'all pay attention, this is the juice for big fish. They don't always want this but when they do they will absolutely rocket off the bottom to come get a big meal. First time it happened (saw it on livescope) I didn't even know there was a fish there. I wish there was some sort of line through scrounger, the heavy ones are easy for the fish to throw. 

Think a spunk shad would work well on a scrounger?

27 minutes ago, woolleyfooley said:

Think a spunk shad would work well on a scrounger?

Yep. I use a crush City freeloader which is pretty close to the same.