The days before needlefish...

[goosefish]

chunks

[Saltheart]

There was a time when the only plugs I had were black and silver rebels , big danny swimmers , Atom swimmers and atom poppers. That was it. We also carried metal like hopkins , some big spoons and some bucktail jigs.

[FormerUser]

Kastmasters,Atom poppers,Bombers,Cordell Redfins,Rebels and Mirrolures were what I used throughout the 80s with good success especially on blues.They also worked quite well on freshwater stripers and hybrids when I was stationed in TX.I even took some decent redfish and specs on them when I made the journey down to Port Aransas and Corpus.

[Crafty Angler]

Tin squids.

[BrianS]

Ya know
One thing I loved, and I havent seen them in a long time....

Were these metal sand eel replica's. They were white and jointed, one hook...
I caught my first keeper on one of these.

I gotta see if my grandfather has any hidden away.

[Bill L]

What plug did you use before you used the needlefish, in the places you now see as "go to" needlefish spots?

I am a relatively new convert to needlefish. I got a few in the late 80's when they were written up a lot, but I never really did fish them. I dont think I had any confidence, and other stuff was working.

Some of the places I now see as "go to" needle spots are shallow rocky areas, where I like to work the needle on top in the wash, with or without a teaser. The plugs I used to use a lot here were poppers for low light conditons, and bombers at night. Now the needle is the first out of the bag, and many times its all I use, besides switching up colors and sizes.

[zimmy]

I certainly don't qualify as an old timer...but I have had this discussion with my grandfather. He started fishing the salt fairly seriously in the mid 1950's. He has never used a needle. Said he didn't see them untill later and never saw a reason to try them. "There's always something new." Back then he used eels, tins...like hopkins, bucktails and various wooden plugs, atoms and such. When the rebels and redfins came around, they were used much of the time. Luckily, he has some hoem movies from the late fifties and sixties of he and my grandmother and friends fishing. The buggies, the lack of any buildings along most of the beaches, really incredible and inspiring to see...

[Mr. Sandman]

going back in time.... while todays go-to is the needle, in the late 70's and 80's it was the gibbs bottle for me. Prior to that it was the rebel.

Funny I don't fish the bottle or rebel that much anymore..I love the plug but todays customs are more fun, in fact, as for the future...while I still fish needles a lot, I am moving away from them more and more. Fishing more swimming custom plugs. Needles offer castbility and a range of fishing options that few plugs do. I think it will be around for a long time. Last year my "go-to" was the big surf howdy (although fished like a needle) followed by a pike then 2.5 oz habs needle. Whatever seems to work finds its way to the top. After last spring, I found myself fishing the Salmo Fatso....with VMC hooks. I took several nice fish with that plug last year. Looks like a real fish, no lip but wobbles nicely and looks real! However, once the spring run was over it did not catch as well as the others.