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Dannys............Get your line tight, give it a pause, then a twitch and start a steady retrieve.....just fast enough to get the plug working and leaving a wake. Hestitate often and twitch and restart. Fish often attack it on the pause. Every 10-15 feet or so (by day) stop reeling and let it veer sideways to you. Wait a second, then rip it hard to make it chug, restart your retrieve.......you're calling them up. Fool with the line tie loop and your rod tip height (which should lower as the plug gets closer) to keep it swimming right. Try upsizing your belly hooks to sink it lower in the water...sometimes they swim better deeper in the surface film. I like them with only a bucktail (no hook) on the tail.
Pencils/spooks. Line control is key. Stay in touch with the lure by using your reel to keep out slack. Veer it with rhythmic short twitches of the rod tip. Get it slapping back and forth moving towards you very slowly. Throw in some pauses, then fast wild motion, another pause, then a slow rhythmic retrieve again. If you lose touch, stop, get out the slack and get it walking with short twitches again. A cross wind causes trouble (particularly with spooks)....you need more violent rod action to move it. Dropping the rod tip and to the side and keeping you line low can help a little. Remember you are moving it towards you with the rod tip, not the reel. Big fish like gentle and slow, smaller fish wild and fast.
Darters........an underutilized plug. The standard retrieve is to fish it in current. Cast at an angle uptide (about 10-11 oclock), drive it down with some quick cranks and rod sweeps, then commence with a medium-slow retrieve with occasional pauses then several fast short tugs to keep it down. Once it gets past you to @2 oclock crank it in. If it gets shallow, you can sometimes speed up enough to roll it out and have it skid across the surface to avoid obstruction.
An alternative method is to fish it very slow (both in current and still water) keeping it barely subsurface. Try this by daylight first (it only works with some brand darters). Get your line tight, two short tugs to get it slightly nose down then start a painfully slow retrieve at needle speed or even slower, pausing every two or three cranks to twitch and shake it again. It will move barely below the surface film, trying to break to the surface then struggling to get back down. Speed up too much and it will dive too deep. Hang on.
Bottles. Fire them out, sweep hard to vibrate them, start a slow-moderate retrieve, pause briefly, twitch, sweep to vibrate again and repeat.
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