There is nothing like a bass hitting a top water plug. Just woundering whats your vote for top water?? for me its the zara spook the new big wooden ones:love:

Pencil all the way...

Blitzseeker (Zara type plug), pencil (canal type).........

Zara spook type lure,danny boy with or with out skin, or canal special.

This past year I tried an Al Gag's "It's Alive" and it has become a favorite. You can fish it a bunch of ways.

Toss up......pencil/"Blitzseeker"!:fishin:

I like the "walk the dog" action of spooks, particularly the Tattoo 2 oz Sea Pup, and the lures a friend makes, Fishdoc's "John's Fatty", which gives a broad silhouette in darkness. At dawn the pencil popper prevails.

Pencil popper for sure. I started fishing the Jigsmith at the end of last year and it was definitely a fish finder. I'll be using it more this coming season based on the limited experience I had with it.

If I am throwing plugs, and not eels, it would be a Bernzy Surf Howdy all day long.........

Akespook Ultraglide

Surf Howdy

loaded cordell pencil

Needle on top leaving a wake

the small jigman//jigsmith spook ... pearl white is all you need ..

Spook,,,

"gotta fish" spooook amen

Superstrike popper or a Guppy pencil, or a Salty Sheriff

and the yozuri pencils are great as well

surf howdy absolutely

BigFish Blitzseekers and Gibbs pencils, but just starting to get into the Yo-Zuri Surface Cruisers.

Ah spooks are great. CCT polaris, its old and beat up but still #1 for polaris style.

Howdy, yellow white , is my favorite wooden and Youzuri hydro pencil is fine too

Jigman spook
or a howdy close second

howdy blue/gold

Any big 9-inch spook. Did well with my leadfoot this year, after watching capt. Corey from the Edge work a spook, it changed the way I worked them forever

can't choose one but always in my day bag:

super strike popper 2 3/8 oz.
surf asylum sleepwalker spook
yozuri pencil 2 oz.
mac pencil 3 oz.?
tattoo sea pup
surf howdy large and small
hab's 1 oz. squid popper
1.5 oz. troublemaker surfster

Any big 9-inch spook. Did well with my leadfoot this year, after watching capt. Corey from the Edge work a spook, it changed the way I worked them forever

do tell. :uhuh:

Favorite is different than best

The best (easily) is on the top: Gibbs 2.75 pencil
My favorites (and the most fun to fish) below: Prof M version of Lido Flaptail/ Frech Banana copy

Prob. a CCC tackle pencil or polaris. God i love those. Yes Canalman please tell.

It was a rare sight to see a guy who spends 99% of the season on his boat telling his clients where to cast standing in the surf on a perfect late-May morning, but for anyone who knows Capt. Corey Pietreszek, he has proven himself as a master of the artificial bait. He was casting a yellow Tattoo Sea Spook, the big one, and looking over at his bait while working my own, I began to see that my lure looked incredibly fake.

He worked the bait in bursts that varied in intensity and length. His first few feet of the retrieve were erratic, drawing attention to the bait and from there he worked it with long pauses interrupted by slow swims and erratic, frantic bursts.

We didn't catch much that morning. But the next day, was rainy and I had the day off. I went down there with my leadfoot spook, (the only big spook I had handy at the time) and began working it with the image of a dying bunker in my head. I caught fish until my arms hurt, nothing huge mostly 14-17 pounds with a few 18-20.

There were two eye opening experiences that day, #1 probably 80% of the fish hit the plug while it was standing motionless, and I believe that your spook should sit flat on the water, nose slightly above the tail, not up and down like a pencil. #2 that when a bass nudged the bait or swirled on it, whipping the rod down toward the water while zipping a fast crank on the reel would make the plug leap, 1-3 leaps in succession followed by a short pause... BAM! I was able to recreate this scenario many times during the season, in the canal and all along the south coast. I never broke 30 on a spook this year, but I had my share of 15-25 pounders.

I always worked my spooks to look alive, never in a rehearsed pattern, but the chages in intensity, pauses and leaps, took it to the next level for me.

Why'd you have to make me tell that story, that was like writing a Penthouse Letter for fishermen, now I'll be staring at my rods all day frustrated! :laughs:

Is it spring yet?

-Dave

"that was like writing a Penthouse Letter for fishermen, now I'll be staring at my rods all day frustrated!"

I just laughed out loud

... for anyone who knows Capt. Corey Pietreszek, he has proven himself as a master of the artificial bait.
He worked the bait in bursts that varied in intensity and length. His first few feet of the retrieve were erratic, drawing attention to the bait and from there he worked it with long pauses interrupted by slow swims and erratic, frantic bursts.
-Dave

You mean old 'Doc' Pietreszek...:laughs:

Corey took my brother in law and me out the end of last June and we had pods of bass chasing topwaters - fish in the 30 to 40# range - bringing them off the bottom in gin-clear water taking whacks at the plugs - it was unbelievable - we have a few stills I took but no videos of the day.

I'll tell ya, I've seen broncos buck, gators f***, been to a cockfight and two World's Fairs and I ain't never seen anything like that.

Capt. Corey knows his stuff...:uhuh:

Where's Mikey?

Canaaaaaaaaaal Speciallll! There you go Bill.

The Doc is what I rock.





It would make Johnny Holmes tremble.

is there a doc is the house!

thats how i roll as well

One of my all time favorites is still a Rebel Sea-Gar in bony areas around here - I think I've got a dozen or so left - I prefer the black and silver, pictured below is a mackeral in the middle, casts pretty well at only 5 1/2 inches -

I really liked Bernzy's Surf Howdy, had one of the very first batch and they were killer - tough to come by now, don't know if John will be producing any more, haven't talked to him in a while. Used to murder 'em with the pogie color -

Last season I used a Habs white canal-style pencil that was awesome, got it from Uncle Joe - gotta talk to Johnny about that one...:lasso:

Also used one of Don's Afterhours large pencils on the trip with Corey while those guys were using a Doc - it was pretty sweet, I'll definitely be picking some of those up at show time - :uhuh:

from false to first light,,,,,,,,,,,

i'll launch:
AH Herring Spook and work it rehearsed with pauses,
Danny olive/white; with a pop-pop-swwwiiiiim-settle-repeat retrieve.
Surf Asylum wonderbread Slopoke; Corey style retrieve.
Crazy Chuckie's got wood? cotton candy herring Pikie with tail dressing;
like she was barely hanging on to life, slowly and rolling and pausing and





!!!WHAM!!!

is there a doc is the house!

thats how i roll as well

hey jim!

are these doc's available to Johnny Q?
and if so, where would they be hiding?
:musc: :musc: :musc:

Give Corey a break guys - his bag of tricks feeds his family.

Why'd you have to make me tell that story, that was like writing a Penthouse Letter for fishermen,

At least you know that Story is true.....

Tips on the spook were great...i always get stuck in the rut of working one in almost a Cadence the whole way in.

I don't find myself on the water during full daylight very often so my topwater fishing is somewhat limited. On the occasions when I'm out during daylight I'll use a Super Strike Needle (bright pattern IE: Parrot). The key is a quick retrieve and skipping it accross the surface in short bursts creating a commotion. Skipping Super Strike Needles - a little known technique - try it - even more deadly on calm nights.

DZ

Definitley Gibbs pencil, and afterhours spook.

Creek Chub 1900 series chrome or white pearl with modifications.
Bernzy Howdy in yellow/white
Gibbs 2 oz Yellow or white pencil
My own slant faced poppers, 2.5 oz pearl white.

I prefer a slant faced popper over anything.

Mine has to be a 2 oz white Hab's pencil followed be a 1 oz white Gibb's pencil.

Bernzy Howdy -pogie
Jigman Spook- white
Big Don's Popper- parrot

hey jim!

are these doc's available to Johnny Q?
and if so, where would they be hiding?
:musc: :musc: :musc:

jess


you got mail

Cotton Cordell pencil, smaller size, black/silver, weight and rattle customized with steel shot, single red treble off the back, black feather tail, black feather "fins" replacing front hook. Very very nice.

1.5 oz gibbs pencils.
Medium BM dannies.
Tattoo Sea Pup
Tattoo Juniors

DOC

thanks jimmySly!

those loooook SICK!!

can't wait to launch one of THOSE nasty spooks!!!
:drool: :drool: :drool: :drool: :drool:

what is a Doc?

It's a Musky Mania plug that's 9" at 3 1/2 oz - looks like a vibrator with trebles, basically -

Bone color (no joke intended - no, really) seems to be the color of choice for the most part -

Give Corey a break guys - his bag of tricks feeds his family.

Jay - I don't know about the rest of the family, but after seeing Corey Saturday he still looks pretty well fed...:hihi:

No plug works well if there aren't fish around to begin with - haven't seen one yet that will toll fish from miles away, regardless of what guys will tell you -

Finding fish is what counts - and Corey does it like few others I've seen...:uhuh:

Finding fish is what counts -


No Truer Words Spoken

Pencils just edge out the spook top water baits:fishin::fishin:

do you guys use your spooks at night or are they mostly a daytime lure?

Darters-Tattoo 3oz
Needles-Afterhours 8"

do you guys use your spooks at night or are they mostly a daytime lure?
"

Pretty hard to convince yourself to throw them in the dark, but I had a full moon night when I did very well on small to low medium fish (eating krill) using a surf howdy. You can also retrieve pencils slow and straight and they work like a floating needle.

Pretty hard to convince yourself to throw them in the dark, but I had a full moon night when I did very well on small to low medium fish (eating krill) using a surf howdy. You can also retrieve pencils slow and straight and they work like a floating needle.

good to know thanks. I didn't think so but seems like a lot of guys are catching fish on spooks during the day then anyother plug other then pencils.

It's a Musky Mania plug that's 9" at 3 1/2 oz - looks like a vibrator with trebles, basically -

Bone color (no joke intended - no, really) seems to be the color of choice for the most part -

Wow, thanks for the info. Never heard of 'em. Do you replace the trebles right away and is it hard to work a 9" 3.5 oz spook or do they slide around easily? I see that they make a smaller size as well.

31681

good to know thanks. I didn't think so but seems like a lot of guys are catching fish on spooks during the day then anyother plug other then pencils.

Things go in fads and spooks are "in" right now (for good reason). Old school guys liked very big poppers (Capt Bill, Cuttyhunk, Point Jude, Russo, Gibbs....all made poppers nearly as big as their largest swimmers). Poppers get a bad rap as a googan's plug, but there is much more to them than for which they get credit. I've been badly outfished on decent bass (up to 36 lbs) by Flap while he was working his big popper and I was throwing pencils, spooks, conrads, atom jrs, and dannys with much less success. I know of several 50 lb fish that have crushed poppers tossed by inexperienced fishermen in the middle of the day. Luck, yes.........but there has to be something going on with the plug for a fish that size to come off the bottom and take it in broad daylight.

31681

Ray...:uhuh: