Spooks vs. Pencils

[Tagger]

I think there's alot of criss cross in the 2 plugs as far as weighting . who's spook ? who's pencil ? To me a spook should be the winner hands down if your looking for a plug to walk on top . Proper weighting dictates how much effort you have to put into working the plug and how well it walks . Best results from a spook would be little effort to produce a tight "S" walk on top .. We all have our favirote .. No secret who mine is .(jigman).. Works best in moderate to flat water..
People look for different things from pencil poppers and are buying and making them to suit themselves. A few examples of different pencil poppers looks are
1. walkers .. weighted much like spooks .. sit like 45 to 30 degrees dead in the water.. some folks like to walk them ..
2. slappers .. Some fishers look for a slapping action of the kneck of the pencil slapping at the water .. this is a comotion ..
3. bouncers or canal pencils .. Lots of fishers on the canal prefer a dead arse heavy pencil popper like a Hawg Hunter that the tip is just exposed at rest ,,to even a sinking or slow sink custom pencil popper .. This pencils action I call "trying to get the hell out of the water look " sitting low .. and rising to exit .. or bounce.. #3 might shine in the canal but be very dissapointing as a walker.. so many different plugs that look the same in your hand but far different in the water . Alot of people call Bernzy's Surf Howdy a spook .. Bernzy will tell you himself its not a spook, even though you can walk it . Most tend to sit almost straight up and down at rest similar to the bait it was fashioned after.. Cordell Howdy.. a stickbait ... There's no wrong .. its all good .. I carry a spook and a pencil .. as well as my jiggys cast the pencil is still the reacher ..

[MVbluefish]

Spooks always get me the most memorable topwater explosions. Sunrise in rough water has brought me many spooky acrobat feastivals over the years. It is true there are a lot of misses but the excitement they cause is worth a miss or two.

[stripercrazy]

I've been haveing better luck with spooks this year in the prov river...big bait...spooks to 6.5 oz 9-10 inches...I think spooks have better action, but pencils more distance...both are great plugs...in the river the pogys are 1/2 dead and the blues are picking them off...there not acting like a reg popper...more sideways movement swimming in circles when the blue is on them they dart left or right and swim as fast as they can with there forehead just about breaking the surface..I've been slow swimming pencils with there nose sticking out, with good luck...but there really hitting spooks...slapping them back and forth and then slow swimming them. one place there may be up to a 100 people in a line and who ever's throwing a spook is catching 5-1 over reg poppers.....funny thing is most people don't have spooks, the people on the fourm boards do.

[stripercrazy]

heres thimber w/a 7-8 inch,2-3oz spook caught fish. with that light action rod and a spook(red ceder)with alot of pop...thimber out fished us all that day

[nightfighter]

Friday night, rain, cloud cover, a little less surf than expected, was fishing local reef beside TDF. I had a number of hits on topwater and swimming plugs. But surprisingly, when I pulled out a white Salty Big Dawg spook, it out fished eels four to zip...... weird but good for me. Haven't heard what Kevin did ater I packed it in at 11pm.
That said, pencils are the lures I have most confidence in at dawn and dusk. But always have a spook.

[Finaddict]

Excellent, excellent points above - for me it depends upon the situation. My preference is always start with a pencil popper and I too vary the retrieve throughout the retrieve and then at other times by cast ... either super thrashy kicking up a lot of water while trying to keep them in the same spot as long as possible, sometimes slightly less thrashy and a little faster or sometimes just like a spook - with long and slow zig-zagging backing and forth across the water.

I find in faster currents and around the white water, kicking up extra water raises the fishs' attention more readily than working the plug too quickly without kicking up enough water.

But there are many times when the spooks will outfish the pencils ... you have to try them both each time you are plugging if one doesn't work over the other.

Similar to Nightfighter above, I found the spooks this past weekend were far more effective along the shoreline I was fishing.