I needed a little surf action for my upcoming semiar/video and Tattoo suggested I meet him in Newport.

The water was white and the conditions were hot.

http://fisheye.striped-bass.com/images/october03/whitewater6.jpg

When I showed up with the camera Tattoo had already nailed a good number of fish. However, when he put on a silver and white Tattoo Spook things got more interesting.


http://fisheye.striped-bass.com/images/october03/tightline6.jpg

It cast surprising well for a lure of its weight and design...and when you make it dance, this happens:

http://fisheye.striped-bass.com/images/october03/fishon6.jpg

Yep, if the rod wasn't loaded...

http://fisheye.striped-bass.com/images/october03/loaded6.jpg

the lure was loaded...loaded up with a bass AND a blue at the same time (have it on video)...here's the bass

http://fisheye.striped-bass.com/images/october03/release6.jpg

BTW, there were other anglers around and the only one killing 'em was the man of ink and his lure that doesn't stink!

Joe doesn't love me. I haven't gotten my spooks yet in the mail. :crying: But I'm waiting eagerly. :D

Originally posted by fishweewee
Joe doesn't love me. I haven't gotten my spooks yet in the mail. :crying: But I'm waiting eagerly. :D

Weewee, I love your avatar! Go Sox!

What !!!! Fish in the daytime !!!!!!!!???? What am I doing wrong?

Instead of video I thought I would create an animated gif -- to safe disk space, and to make it viewable by everyone.

This shows a couple of the MANY nice fish taken by Tatto on his spook, you just might make out the fact that there is both a blue and a bass on the lure in the wash...the blue slid off in the last seconds but left the man of ink with a nice bass.

http://fisheye.striped-bass.com/images/october03/spook.gif

Does this load up quickly for you folks?

How's the quality...given it's highly optimized?

Awesome stuff loads up nice an quick here.

That is not Tattoo :) GO SOX !

Where is Iron mike ? In the surf putting them fish on ..lol
Go SoX

VB

I got a package in the mail with 8 tattoo plugs and 6 of them is spooks . Sweet looking plugs Mike and thanks Joe for a prompt delivery ;) knucklehead too .

wee wee you must of done something bad . now go whack your weewee

wickid awesome :) There is too mcu good structure near my house not to go fishing today, I'm out lol

holy poop.:eek: :eek: :happy: :happy: :eek: :eek:
that wont help you sell those or anything.

Mike - I'm glad your pleased with the outcome of all the work that went into them. It's easy to convince yourself they work, but convincing others is the hard part.

If you remember two years ago when you mentioned it to me, I thought it would be an easy task. Well, I was wrong.

Many, many prototypes have been made in order to get the plug to where it is, and I am thankful for all the support and recomendations that you and HAB have provided on this project.

I'm headed out now for some more "testing".

Hopefully that fish the made the 4 foot boil on it will inhale it this time! You got that on video right?

any way that we could see the vid?:D

Go Mike!
There is lot to be said for a video feed - it has a way of silencing the critics...don't you agree?

Well that's a pretty good ad.... (and a great plug turner and fisherman !) :)

Shoot thats tatoo?? I've fished next to him a couple of times on brenton point.

That's awesome, Tattoo. Is it best to use on what condition? I noticed that you pop the spook like a popper except that it's like a pencil popper. When you say that a person has to put it in effort on the spook, like to make it pop harder or what?


Mike, can you make a video that runs slower? I would like to observe his techniques.

I have got to get me some of these!!!

http://surfcasting-rhodeisland.com/StoreImages/spooks.jpg
http://surfcasting-rhodeisland.com/storepagetwo.htm

Hello folks,

I didn’t set out for this to become an informercial about the Tattoo Spook; it just so happens that the facts speak for themselves.

I’m also very proud to have played a role in bringing this product to market. Several years ago I started to do some side-to-side comparisons between various poppers and a Zara Spook. When there were lots of active schoolies around, I would walk the dog while another angler would chug a popper; hands down the spook would draw more hits, I would say almost four to one!

My theory is that ANY popper mimics a squid, not a baitfish. Why? Because the only thing that behaves like a popper on the surface is a squid that’s darting away. Now everyone knows that squid are inhaled by just about everything that swims, but a fast fleeing squid, in good health, will offer pretty fair chase to a hungry predator. However, a wounded fish that is acting somewhat spastic has got to be the easiest prey to attack. It’s almost like teasing a cat with a ball of yarn; they can’t resist the impulse to pounce on it.

My problem was that nobody was making a decent size “walk the dog” product in wood. I wanted a lure between 6 and 8 inches long (big bait-big fish) that was through-wired, equipped with good hooks, and would be able to “kick” from side to side with a simple twitch or yank of the rod.

About three years ago to the month, Hab knocked out a beautiful black and orange belly prototype. We got a late start one afternoon, made a little later by a visit to the blooberry patch at Coddington Brew. Because we didn’t have a lot of time to spare before the sunset, we raced over to the Van Zant Pier next to the Newport Bridge. I wasn’t looking for fish as much as I wanted to study the action of the lure. We got to the end of the pier and I fired off a cast in the direction of the bridge. As soon as the lure hit the water – fish on! We couldn’t stop laughing, in fact I suggested retiring the lure at that moment and then marketing it as 100% effective. I managed to drop that first fish (which was obviously dumb luck and I probably hit it in the mouth with the lure) and quickly got off another cast into the same area. I let the lure sit for a minute while I studied how she sat in the water. She sat with an ass down posture and when I twitched the rod, she kicked to side – and hard! I twitched again. Another hard kick to the opposite side and then another schoolie jumped all over it. I landed that fish and continued to annihilate the hungry schoolies that were in the area. We were in hysterics. I then went to the other side of the pier and began to work the lure; within seconds a respectable fish was finally giving my drag a workout, when all of a sudden the line when limp…the lure was gone. I had walked the dog and now it was dog gone. I turned to Hab and said, “No sweat, when you get back to the shop, just produce a bunch more from your other prototypes.” I didn’t like the look on John’s face when he replied. “What other prototypes? That was it. Don’t worry I know what I did, and I’m sure I can duplicate it.”

Well, we all know how busy the Hab’s Guy is, and getting another series of test lures took months and a lot of prodding. They looked beautiful and had pre-tested okay in fresh water. When we got them into the brine it was another story. They either didn’t sit just right, or it took too much effort to get them to go side-to-side…back to the drawing board. Again, with John’s growing popularity, he could barely keep up with orders; never mine devote time to the arduous task of trial and error plug designing. He made a batch of test lures to try out in Costa Rica and as you would expect, they were gorgeous works of art, however, they just didn’t have the action of that first lure. A year later and along comes the “young apprentice” -- a nickname I know that Tattoo just loves – and he was more than up for the challenge. Suffice it to say that the finished product was the results of a lot more trial and error, a few blooberry beers, and a lot of anticipation. Last year I captured video of the man of ink crushing the stripers on his nearly perfected Spook. A lot of people saw that video at my seminars and were impressed with how effective that lure was. Well, now it’s a year later and the finished product is catching fish up and down the coast.

Part of the reason I love fishing them is that YOU are in control of the action. YOU are the reason the lure comes to life. YOU can vary the dance and YOU earn the fish a little more than if you were just straight retrieve a jig or a swimming lure. In calm water, you can alter your retrieve from slow to fast and periodically stopping the lure will often result in a hit. On rougher days a steadier cadence seems to work best. The nice thing about Tattoo’s product vs. a pencil popper is that you don’t need to wobble the rod tip violently, like to boys at Montauk like to do. How much effort you will have to put into making the lure twitch will depend on how fast an action your rod has.

As for being able to see the video, the East Bay Angler show in January will contain a few minutes of hot surf action staring Mr. Hollywood and his doggy. Tattoo likes that show. He was able to get in for free, just by agreeing to get on stage and disrobing…something he’s apt to do anyway. Here’s a look at what the crowd saw.

http://fisheye.striped-bass.com/images/october03/tattoo.jpg

sweet, porn...

ink-man, i still owe you a dollar from the strip tease you gave us at the last e-b-a show..or was that 2 years ago?

yeah, this plug does work pretty nice. that is proven. see what happens over a couple (dozen) drinks at the gin mill.

My pants are too tight.

Spooky!

your my idol.