sluggospeeds
 

I need to vent a little...hopefully someone can offer me some insight after too..

Last week I was fishing with tins and hooking up cast after cast. They were all a little under and just barely keeper size fish caught in the upperbay..they were all hanging around on the top of the water column eating small pogies and shiners or something..

OK heres my dilemma, around sunset-into dark hours i put on a black "rigged" sluggo and get only say 5or6 hits, all missed. The rest of the day I was skunked...I was retrieving the sluggo at pencil popper speed with short pauses in between. All hits came on the retrieval, not the pause.. The bass must have been nipping at the tails because none of the tails were "biten off by blues" and my rear hooks are set pretty far back...

I guess my question is why do they say bass go for the head all the time..I know the majority of the time they attack prey head first but, every single one of my "few fish" caught on sluggos have all hit the rear hook.

Am I just going to fast for them maybe..I dunno..frustrating I tell ya.. Do you all go fast and with lots of action and pauses inbetween (to keep it midcolumn) or prefer slower methods? I try to heed all of Mr. Mckenna's advice (he is the sluggo man) but damn...missing hits with rigged sluggos...(also, I dont fish anything quite as fast as these sluggos, except pencil poppers) maybe i am going a lil to fast?..I really want to dial these in b/c as steve has shown ..they work. Im sure more time spent on the water with them will help me dial them in..sorry, I need to vent a little..
:hidin:

Maybe slow down a bit.. but usually tail grabbers = small fish...

I go sloooow and try to bounce it along the bottom while it drifts with the current. It has always worked great for me when I am fishing rips off my boat and drifting. I reel in twitch, let it sit and then reel in a little.

Also if they were feeding on bunker, maybe sluggo's weren't the right lure to be using as well.

I agree..Small fish..Move on.:walk:

Vary the speed until you find out what they want. You may be going alittle to fast. A fast retrieve always works best for me but everyone's definition of fast is different.

I find that 25% to 50% of my bass come on the rear hook. I think part of it is with really sharp hooks, whatever hook comes into contact with the flesh first is the one that hooks the fish. So they can engulf the hole thing and still get hooked with the tail hook.

For me, I've never had much luck with weighted sluggos worked quickly in calm water (I'm guessing it was pretty calm based on the upper bay but I don't know). Try unweighted ones worked slower or bombers/small metal lipped swimmers in that situation.

Yeah I agree..w/ yall RI&F18, probably all small fish..(then again I dont have much experience with LARGE. but the upper has supposedly been hot w/ LARGE...I was in my tin "r.o.w." :bl: boat at the mouth of a certain river..catching tons of barely legals at sunset...and yall also made a good point, since they were feeding on small bunker the sluggo was probably not best choice to use that night...

should I have kept on the tins (at night)? (all afternoon small kastmasters seemed to be the only thing they wanted, no takers on small storms):huh: or small black swimmers I suppose.

I'm really still just (actually always) learning about sluggos and bass fishing in general, this season more than last. And trying to use them as much as possible to find what works and when.

I was using the 9" black, w/ sharp 7/0 gamas and weighted 3x, stevie style.. yeah clogston upper bay, when i threw the sluggos on it was dead high..calm water. thanks for the tip..do you find the smaller sluggos work better in the upper?

thanks for the tips guys...

I've been using this at night and doing well.

[M} match the hatch <><><><><:eyes:

F-18 isn't that the alien... that thing is cool dude..:kewl:

I know Clammer....good point...so stick with metal / small swimmers then huh. (when the bunker is prevalent source of food at least) :tooth:

But..... :huh: Don't see why not to use big 9ers..my friend's dad has been potting eels close in these waters by the boat load..

I think I gotta find those bigger fish and slow my sluggos down a lil bit..
:rolleyes:

No, I made and Canalman painted them.
I'll send you one , will be done soon.
PM me addy.

Most years the Upper Bay starts to get tougher around June 1st, particularly for shore anglers. This year the fish are hanging in a little longer due to the bunker, but often it seems to be more of a boat game. There are certainly fish out there, but they're usually in deeper water even at night, or in places that are for the most part tough to access from shore. Prudence, Rose Island, etc.

Maybe move further South, I think you'll have much better results with the Sluggos on the rocks along the open ocean no matter what speed you work the Sluggo. I'd slow down though.

slow and low.. that is the tempo.

I fish slug-gos and my own rubber just like i would a habs needle. slow and low.. light twitches now and then, but real slow. If your not touching bottom once in a while, slow doooooooown.

Were you talking to me :usd: I need one to :uhuh:

I'm from MA so don't really fish the bay. But in general, if I'm fishing protected areas I like the 6" sluggos in white or bubblegum on a 5/0 o'shaunessy style hook with one of the 1/32" sluggo weights, especially if small bait is present. You need a pretty light action rod to work them to. I work them pretty quick with some pauses thrown in compared to my usual retreive but, again, its all relative and fast to one person is moderate to another so experiment. Basically I like to keep them in the top 2 or 3 feet of the water column without having them breach the surface. Hope that helps. To me, the 9" sluggos really belong in bigger water with some surf. The 7.5" are more versatile and can be used in pretty much all conditions. Try bubble gum at dusk and dawn.

Yeah..I assumed low and slow..when I first started using them..and thats what my uncle has told me also..(thats where the bass are and thats what the bass want) although I havent really given that technique as much "reel time" as I have (since steve's seminar) working it like a pencil..

If I recall correctly.."Sluggo Steve" says work em at moderate-fast speed with pencil popper like twitches and pause, let em drop...and repeat..I trust his advice..its a proven catcher..I just need a hefty cow to become a true beliver..I've also seen the underwater videos on surfcastingRI and they look like they're moving em FAST! (as I am) I have been using that technique the most..

I guess I will have to spend more time experimenting with techniques/speeds/sizes/conditions and colors with em and find what they want.

Next time I go out I will just vary every other cast..low slow, fast, medium, ect..and see what happens..

I really wanna get these down to a science before the eels are banned.

Nebe, Do you rig your hogs or just go with single hook in the head?

I'd like to try one of those one day..any chance QL will have them any time soon?

thanks again for all the tips n technique tricks guys.
best of luck and tight lines out there this weekend.

:kewl:

How do you prevent the double hook surfhog or sluggo from snagging if your hitting bottom.

I have had much luck using single hook rigged sluggos ripped extremely fast on the surface - forget pencil speed - faster.

I use a 7 ft Loomis and a Penn 360 slammer with braid - I tried using bigger gear but at the speeds I fish the sluggos I was worn out in a 30 mins.

Wed June 7th fished the Mack with my brother - 42 bass all over 30" all caught on fast twitched sluggos.


http://brianmullaney.com/fishing/alb..._009.sized.jpg

interesting. . :kewl:

At least you got some action with them. I have been using the 9" in Alewife,white and black without a sniff. Gonna try slow and low.

I can seem to keep the sluggo on a hook when using a surf rod. Light tackle rod no problem. Yes I have line half hitched up the hook shank and they are super glued. I have to gently lob the things w/ the surf rod so they stay on. I have contiplated just going back to the double rigged configuration.

some related info/experiment...

I made a few last week and glued them with devcon epoxy (ran out of zap-gap,) and the expoxy did not hold at all.

take my advice... dont use devcon epoxy to hold the hooks in. :hs:

I've never had a problem with zap-gap.

smac, maybe wrap the shanks a little thicker next time?

Half hitch knots up the shank with squidding line double, finish off with overhand knot cinch.

Yeah thats what I have done. Usualy 7or 8 half hitches and Push the sluggo to the first halfhitch, apply the glue and push the sluggo up the shank. I will try to double up the halfhitch's and try it.

nice fish!!!!!

^^^

looked like a nasty day.

I second the fast retrieve. We will sometimes troll unweighted 7-9 inch sluggos on the flats of CC Bay. The fish just nail them.

Fish the Slug-go fast , "bouncing" the rod while retrieving medium to fast depending on sea conditions. Keep the lure sub-surface at all times. DO NOT PAUSE lure while retriving. Missed fish are usually dinks. It takes some time to learn, but the Slug-go is the best artifical you will ever use for bass- BELIEVE ME!

I used to fish them slow and they work that way, but since i started fishing them faster ive noticed more and bigger fish. I would have never thought this, cause like most bass guys slow and slower has always been the ticket for me, but sluggos are defidently different.

Addendum; halfway back on the retrieve keep yhe rod low and to your side, this will keep the lure sub-surface which is very important after dark.

Addendum 2; It's been my exprience that the 9 inch black sluggo will work any time regardless of what bait is around. It' just works.

What is the downfall of rigging them with the big single hooks that are meant for them? Especially if you leave the hook exposed and do not rig it "weedless"?