Quote:
Originally Posted by SCP911
Old thread, I know. But it took me a long time to figure this out.
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Me, too........although I'm not sure how much it helped me.
I spent even longer figuring out how to make needles swim (i.e., wag during the retrieve). Pretty sure that didn't help me either.
At this point I've come to the conclusion that you can drive yourself crazy over-analysing needles. They all work. Some do better than others in certain conditions/situations but they all have their time and place. I don't consider myself a master of this plug (not like Flap or supposedly BM were) but I follow a few tenets.
If it is rough I throw big, heavy tail weighted stuff since it bobs around less and I assume this is good. In calm I throw smaller more level running stuff (usually with a hackle tail) and fish it slower.
DUH.
What I don't do is fish floating needles, because I'm a conceited idiot and convinced myself they look stupid and shouldn't work. In fact floating needles apparently work great. Mike Mullen slays big fish with his huge versions. Flap's favorite needle was an Eelpunt version that floats level. Both of those models have accounted for fish over #50 which is bigger than anything me and my sinking needles have ever taken. Sauerkraut, who is ALWAYS wrong when it comes to plugs, catches impressive bass on his skin needles that often......float. Bassmaster, in his famous stream of consciousness thread about needles (SOL) concentrates on floating versions.
Let's not forget about level weighted slow sinking needles such as Dave Anderson's flat glide or JLH's deadly stuff. They are basically needle gliders.....sneaky cheats.
And then there is this whole bit about dead drifting sinking needles. I've no success trying this (I just get snagged) but if you read the Bassdozer tome you'll see he was a BIG advocate of dead drifting these plugs (and sinking rebels) in hard current. Maybe a forgotten canal technique?
And how about retrieve speed? Slow. slower, slowest.....right? Or not. In "Reading the water" there is a description of a famous NJ and MV fisherman, Sergei di Somov, fishing needles back in the 50's and 60's commercially and he reportedly ripped them across the water.
Do you "tune" your needles? I don't but Bassdozer says you should (although how this would matter if he was dead drifting them is beyond me).
But what do all those guys know?
The other thing about needles, of which I am convinced but counts for little, is that color matters more often than with other plugs. I'm not sure I understand why, but it seems to me that nights where one color works much better than anything else the bite is often on needles. Which sucks because it means you want to carry a bunch of these things when plugging and inevitably cram 6 into one tube which means they all come out in a tangled mess when you go to change plugs and you end up needing your light which immediately makes other fishermen aware of your presence so they stop using their lights and then you can't tell what they are catching after that so you don't realize there are fish around and so you go on fumbling and swearing at needles when you really should change to a slowly crept darter.
Too bad Lud's doesn't post anymore.