[Nick Phillips]

Is it just me or do other hard core pluggers find it "totally impossible" to just do a straight retrieve without imparting some kind of erratic movement to the plug.
As we all know some plugs dont really require any extra "life"(feed shallow) to make them work etc.
I just cant do it.
Just a few thoughts while sitting at work.

 

[Andy Mason]

Interesting Nick. I was thinking about this whilst reading other stuff earlier. I think many assume (as I did when I started) that you throw a plug as far as it will go and wind it back in again, sometimes hundreds of times per session. Now what's got me thinking is this whole cheap plug/expensive plug mularchy. Do others that assume a £5 plug will do the same as a £25 plug use them in the same way? Do they all just straight retrieve? If they do then I can see some logic to their attitude BUT I'd put my hand on heart and say most of the more expensive plugs are not designed for straight retrieve. Is this a fair observation and can I/we back up this theory?

Ooo my brain cells....

 

[Mick Ward]

It is true, I never just retieve a lure, surface or diving. I used to many years ago when I first started but soon realised that pauses and jerks really helped. On the topic of cheaper lures and their actions, I did used to look for lures, and prefered the lures I had that had more exagerated actions, more of a wobble or zigzag, but I have found over the years that you dont need such eratic actions most of the time. Big actions and jointed lures have their moments without a doubt. As I used to dive and snorkel alot when I was younger I do remember how fish would act around reefs etc. Big sandeels do indeed look like a jointed lure like a J13 etc when they are milling around, but I found when they were darting when aproached by me or bigger fish they would almost dart straight, which is indeed like the action I try to imply to my lures these days.

 

[Keith White]

Is it just me or do other hard core pluggers find it "totally impossible" to just do a straight retrieve without imparting some kind of erratic movement to the plug.

See this I wrote just this morning.

http://www.thelureforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=145&start=10#p1354

 

[Ben Field]

I've actually had some pretty good results on fast, straight retrieves this year. Ask Nath. We were out one day when I couldn't go wrong really. So it probably depends on the day I guess?! Through no fault of his own Nath struggled fishing 'normally' with all sorts of cleverness. I was just standing on a cliff at one point, 20 feet above the water smashing lures straight out in to open water. With my rod held down low and the lure just pumped straight in, fast, I had 4 fish in 4 casts! No sense to it whatsoever.

Saying that, I have had most success doing this over plain sand. Over and around structure I'm happier putting more action in to lures and pulling fish out of hiding places, but I think over clean ground (with no pronounced current), you can have success with a straight, fast one. No place to hide.

Not necessarily just small fish either.

 

[Mark Sleep]

A couple of the commercial guys I have seen working the reefs in the west do well on surface plugs on a straight retrieve, literally just cranking in at speed. They dont half do well sometimes though. I had my first surface fish by copying them, using a big super spook cranked in at pace

 

[kevin white]

straight retrieves account for lots of fish, i think the fish just can't help themselves, it's just truddling along doing nothing but going in a straight line, makes a very easy target.

kev