Surface Plugs - the initial retrieve

[PrisonFish]

As far as floating needles, metal lips, swimmers...i am adament about letting them sit for about 10 seconds.....many times with reward. Poppers, I'll begin retrieve pretty quickly.

[Flaptail]

Cast to land in a splat

Rest easy 1000-1, 1000-2 to 10

Let her go.

See a disturbance in the force but no real aggression, ler her rest

Got a boil but no tension, sweep hard forward and let her sit

Start retreive but keep in water to rod tip.

Cast and repeat.

[luds]

Zeno did an aticle for OTW which gave a good description of how to work the water with metal lips. I highly recommend that. I watched a friend out fish me while putting it into practice and have since adopted the same methods.

[shadow]

with poppers,pencils included start my retrive right away,metal lips I usually let sit a couple sec. not always depends on the water and spot I cast to.red fins I like dead sticking w/ some twitching easy easy easy meal for any striper hard for them to pass up.

[bloocrab]

I get really intimate about working my plugs so bear with me.

I used to spend alot of time fishing bridges. This gave me the opportunity to watch and see how baitfish get attacked while just swimming along the surface just outside that shadowline, OR a cloud-less summer day for that matter. What I learned I'm not sure I could possibly ever put down in words but what I can say, is that it helped me in being 1 with the plug, without being longwinded let me get back to your question ....

My initial retrieve will vary. It can be either nothing or a few quick turns of the handle or a 1/2 sweep of the tip. I look at it like this...

The second my plug hits the water, in my mind, it BECOMES a baitfish and I am it's puppateer:

Ok, SPLASH, it landed..... It either spooks or gets the attention of a nearby fish. (Spooking is good, they come back ) I'll sometimes let it sit. I've noticed that when single baitfish are being attacked there is a moment of assessment? (they'll freeze when seeing a predator), then they'll take off. A dead standstill shows a baitfish on guard and with just tightening your line, it can give it that very small movement almost preparing it to take off. Just reeling in your slack gives it that slightest action. Sometimes that alone can trigger a strike. A few small twitches against the current also works for me before the retrieve.
Times when the lure makes more of a splash than others, I will retrieve quickly for a few turns then stop. I feel it gives the impression that either this baitfish just jumped or a predator just attacked but the fleeing baitfish got away and it quickly moved out of the attack zone, hopefully a nearby striper attacks it before my imaginary predator returns
Sometimes I just slowly crank it in like a carefree baitfish just swimming along and sporadically make odd twitches and pauses trying to show some nervousness.
The current and wind factor also play a part in how I make my retrieve. I think the most important thing is having confidence in yourself that you are mimic'ing a baitfish to your best ability in the current environment as that also varies, strong currents versus bath-water situations etc.., the rest will take care of itself.
So to me, there is no right way...it all depends on how it lands, my mood, the conditions...how I caught the first one

[Finaddict]

For poppers ... I use a method that Phil Schwinn wrote about in his book "Striped Bass and other Cape Cod Gamefish" ... cast it out, let the rings settle, pop it, let the rings settle, pot it, let the rings settle and continue to this practice ... it can be very effective.

However, fish will respond differently each time you fish, so you need to be flexible in your retrieves -- speed, etc. Don't be close minded to try different techniques if you're not catching anything on your old standby ...

... for pencils, I like to start working them as soon as possible ... my theory is they don't look natural and won't illicit a response from a bass unless they are thrashing about ... in fact, when pitching them from a boat, most of my hits come right when I am pulling it out of the rocks ... so I wouldn't recommend letting pencils sit ...

as for swimming plugs and metal lips ... the guys above have given good advice ... but just be ready to switch it up if your lures are not finding any takers ...

[Canalman]

Generally... I start the retrieve right away. This past Nov 30, I was in SoCo and when my Danny landed... I had a loop sticking out of my reel... so I stripped line off until the loop came out, when I had re-gathered all my line I got ready to work my plug... well I though the heavy surf had rolled my plug into the boulders... that is until it took a hard left 26# fish took the plug down on a dead float. So I may experiment a little more with some dead sticking this season. On other occaisions I have dead sticked bombers at night when there was excessive fire in the water... this is a deadly method works well with floating needles too. Just let it sit there for like 1 minute... twitch reel... another minute.... Slam. Try it.

The other big question has to do with the chase... what do you do when that fish swells up on your plug and retreats... comes back again- big swirl and still won;t take? I have tried a million different things and they all work and they all fail! I'd like to hear some other angles on this.