More on Plugs

[Sea Dangles]

Originally Posted by numbskull

Now I'm really confused. So if Steve Campo was such a good fisherman, what did he and his friends want the plugs for? Wouldn't eels do instead?

There are times when bait is not practical or attainable. I have set out to fish and if I can't make bait I go home. I can't reach the center of the ditch with a pogie head so in this instance I swallow my pride and throw a painted piece of wood with hooks stuck in it. Different applications call for different methods.

[Joe]

Eels are very effective, but they cast like crap and they cost money and they need to be tended to. Every three bass, or one bluefish, you catch on lure, the realized cost of the lure depreciates by the price of one eel. If you are selling fish, dealing with eels and deep hooked fish slows you down more than popping them off a plug.

I've read many times where people started experimenting building plugs and then it grew into a commercial venture. Also, the reasons people do things originally, and keep doing them later on, is not fixed. You might start a venture for one reason, and find yourself doing it five years later for different reasons. Motivations are personal and transitory; they expire with the passing of the people who held them, what is left is legacy. The legacy of the original plug builders is greater and more secure now, than ever.

[numbskull]

Sooooooooooo..... then this fisherman's fisherman, Mr Campo, that everyone respects so much primarily fished eels and only collected plugs for conversation and the rare occasions when he couldn't throw eels downwind? Surely somebody here knew him and confirm this.

And Mr Gibbs, Mr Musso, and Mr Pichney liked eels best, but used plugs as a way to make a quick buck off less knowledgable fishermen? Is that true?

Enquiring minds want to know?