The "Buck Perry System," ... or Spoonplugging - Part 3

Edited from an article series in the long-gone, regional newsmagazine, "Fishing News," 1967

This is the fifth in a six part series that outlines the fishing methods of Buck Perry. This method is known broadly as, "structure fishing," or, as Perry called it, “spoonplugging." When first published, this was a barebones summary. I added modern updates and reinforcements for today's more sophisticated reader. All credit given the original authors

Intro 
If you have made it this far, you may have what it takes to be a structure fisherman! Just coming in? I encourage you to read parts 1 and 2, and open your mind.

Everything discussed so far is in a purposeful sequence, leading you to consistently CATCHING big game fish. Some have called these methods, 'dogmatic,' or inflexible, and they are to a degree. Like a golfer, or painter, we focus on knowledge and specific actions that deliver success for THIS method.
    Once understood, get as creative as desired thereafter.

    We concentrate on the largemouth bass, not because he is fashionable, but  because he is universal and is the model species for this work. But this applies to most gamefish in both salt- and freshwater. In short, you can't catch them if you don't have a repeatable system for finding them where you expect.    

    On the flipside, I say very little about tackle, or gear brand names, or where to buy stuff. This is because we are not trying to sell you tricks, tips, or trendy, "flavor-of-the-week" tackle products. 

Buck Perry avowed that certain gear and tackle TYPES are best suited to this work, but his main focus was that knowledge is the key to success, not gear.
Our ultimate goal, then, is to educate and increase your fishing success.
To do this...

You - Eliminate dead water
You - Locate the fish
You - Concentrate on productive areas

You - Know why

In this installment, we take The Way Back Machine to 1967, 55 years ago... 

Part III: Finding The Hot Spots... Keeping Track

  In part two of this series, we clearly covered the idea of using maps to find suitable structure in a lake, upon which you might practice the method known as spoonplugging. Several Key Facts were added to our study of this methodology. These had to do with where big fish live, and how to identify the structure in an area that fish will use in their movements from, and back to, their deep water homes.

    To review, the would-be 'spoonplugger' is advised to accept the following Key Facts as they relate to catching big fish:

Part 1
1. The deepest water in an area is where big fish spend most of their time.
2. These fish migrate from this deep water, once or twice per day, following the same, recognized routes along underwater bottom structure.

Part 2
3. Big, adult fish rarely come very far into the shallows, and they may not come into them at all, depending on water and weather conditions.
4. Your fishing problem is an open water problem - how to find and catch big fish away from shore.
5. Using lake maps to guide you, you focus your efforts on structure that leads all the way to, or which is adjacent to, the deepest water in an area. In this way, you intercept fish in their migrations and movements, to and from deep water

    No longer are you tied to the common thinking that you catch big fish in places where they MIGHT end up - if they happen to go that far. You are going after them before they get there.

------ ------ ------ ------

Finding The Hot Spots... Keeping Track - Part III

    Maps, Maps, Maps. These help guide you to underwater structure; the bar, the reef, the drop off. These are crucial features you can't see below the surface, but which the fish can. You need to know where they are, and you use maps to get you in the vicinity.
    Once there, however, the fun is just beginning. That's because the maps don't tell you everything about what's below... they lack details and their highest purpose is to get you close to the structures location. You have to then discover and pinpoint what might be of value on that structure.
    Added to this is the fact that the schools of big fish may not use the structure you have selected, at all. If they are using it, they don't just roam around, all willy-nilly.        Rather, they are quite habitual in their movements, because they are moving to what they perceive as the the next spot. To do this, they follow particular paths upon the structure to get where they are going.
That was Key Point Number Two, if you remember

The Rest Stop - "Breaks"
    Along these migratory paths there are also familiar features the fish use as waypoints. I often describe this whole movement scenario with the example of deer following a trail; it is really no different. And just as on any trail, there are landmarks along these migration routes that the fish can see and use as marshaling points.
    The name Buck Perry gave to these changes, objects, and landmark spots where the school pause in their movements is, “breaks.”
It is as good a name as any, and we will stick to it hereafter.
    Think of these 'breaks' as rest stops along the fish's travel route.




    At breaks, they take a literal break to orient themselves to the route, and to ascertain the weather and water conditions in that area. If all is favorable, they move on. If conditions are not to their liking, they may go no further. We shall say more about that in following installments.
    However, there must be a break along the way, or no fish will be congregatin'.
    These breaks along the way can be most anything, too, and they may be quite small compared to the surroundings. 
    What ARE breaks, then? Well, they may be just a few rocks, or a small hump, maybe an old sunken log. To further exacerbate our fishing problem, these breaks are generally small, and the water is big - so they are also NOT found on the maps that get us to structure. That kind of detail is not possible yet.
Still more, the difference between these landmarks being there, or not, can be a matter of yards.

    Now you see why we are so interested in precisely locating and defining structure...it is so we can narrow down further and find the breaks.

    But once these stopping points, or breaks, are found, they produce fish reliably time after time.

    What it boils down to is, these spots have something that differs from the rest of the structure - BUT they are associated with the breaklines migration routes the fish use on the structure.
The fish move up the structure breaklines like a sidewalk, or trail, but the small breaks on the route are way points that hold their attention and assure them they are on the right path.
They may be big, or small, but they exist and attract the fish as they move up.
                                                

    If I sound like I'm repeating myself, I am. This is important.

Finding The Breaks
    These breaks are sometimes found using sonar, but that's not assured.
Just because you see something on your screen does not mean the schools of migrating fish use it as a break in their movements.
    The break has to fit into the larger structure puzzle to be something the fish are using. 

To solve that puzzle, you have to work the structures methodically to ascertain how they run, to verify the maps accuracy, and learn if there is anything there worth spending time with. Looking at them on a map is one thing - working them in person is another.
    When Buck Perry started all this, there was NO sonar. How the heck did he figure out what structures were down below, if there were breaks on them, and if the fish were using them?

    It may seem magical without the modern technology we take for granted, but Perry learned what the bottom structure was like by casting, drifting and trolling the breaklines along the structure.
    If you recall, we introduced you to the breakline in Part 2. 

Breakline: “A line running along structure where there is a definite increase/decrease in depth, either gradual or sudden."

    His primary tool for this was trolling parallel to the shore, along the breaklines - and this is where many of us will fall flat.

    You have no doubt heard of trolling, but almost no one is taught to troll this way, and not for this reason. If we do it at all, it is usually mid-water, hoping for striper, walleye, lake trout, and so on. Pretty much no largemouth bass angler does it, at all - they're throwing lures at weeds and docks. You know, like everyone else is taught to do.
    But trolling breaklines is exactly how Buck Perry made spoonplugging into a nationwide success, with no sonar to guide him.
    Here is how it goes, in a nutshell.

Troll to Probe, Learn, And Contact
    Perry starts by running near shore, observing his surroundings and looking for suitable structure; let us say he discovers a good point and its associated bar.

    He begins his trolling pass at one side of the point, where it starts jutting out from shore. He motors along the shallow shore of the point, first, running his lures at about 2-4 feet and parallel to the shore... following the first breakline out from shore, in other words. 

    Because he knows big fish only rarely penetrate deeply into the shallows, Buck's goal at this point is not so much to catch fish - it is to keep his lure in contact with the bottom as he trolls.

- If it plows too hard into the bottom, he moves out from shore until it is just tipping bottom.
- If the lure starts free running, losing bottom contact, he turns back towards shore until he feels it just touching again.

    He continues this snaking path along the breakline, trolling his lure behind until he rounds the point and reaches the other end, where the point rejoins the shore.
    If he catches no fish during this run, he is not surprised. He knows it takes specific conditions for them to come this far, so he will work out, step-wise, in successively deeper trolling passes. 

     He turns the boat around, switches to a lure that runs 4-6 feet, and moves further out. 

He follows the same shore paralleling process....tick, tick, ticking the bottom and learning the depth on structure. 

     With each of these passes, he goes out a little deeper. 

    In this way, he forms a mental image of the structures shape, depth, and relative size. More importantly, he is running parallel to each depth breakline. If the fish are moving in across the breaklines and if a break os there where they are pausing, he will intercept them eventually.

    If he reaches 25-35 feet in depth without contacting any fish, the features of that structure are noted and it is abandoned for now. This depth is where your ability to control your lures starts to falter, so it is a benchmark to change tactics.
    The temporary premise at this stage is that the fish aren't moving on that structure AT THAT time, so he moves to the next one.

    If he DOES encounter fish while making these runs, he lets out a WHOOP!, and stops trolling. A marker buoy is immediately thrown out behind him, before the boat has even stopped; this marks the contact point. 

     Now, he drifts the spot and fan casts around the marker, using a lure that gets right down to the bottom where the first fish was caught. If he catches one or two more fish, he knows he has hit a school on a break, and the anchor is laid out.
    This is when the action starts. He keeps casting to the break area until the action slows, or dies. This usually means the school has spooked, or continued on its way.
    But by then, he may have put half a dozen fish in the boat. 

     In one instance, he made 40 casts to a break, and caught a fish on each cast. Unbeknownst to Buck, there was a tournament going on that day and a couple of baffled pro anglers were watching him do it…

     When he saw them there, he waved them over and coached them to do the same. But they were stuck in thier ways and wouldn’t follow his instructions. They kept right on fishing their usual way.

    Buck Perry - 40
    Pro's - 0

    Such is the degree to which we have been indoctrinated by the industry.  

    Okay, back to trolling the breaklines. 
    With the mental imagery developed in this way, Perry forms a picture of the structure he was working, and he knows he has found a "break" on the structure where fish are congregating. He doesn't really know, or care, WHAT the break actually is - just that it is there.
    He has quite literally intercepted them as they move in from deeper water, while they are stopped at a break along the breakline. 

        If he intends to return, he will probably draw out the structure on paper. He will mark the location on the structure map, including any pertinent details that he discovered along the way, as well.

    And all this was done without ever seeing the first dock, rock, weedbed, or nosy Karen homeowner!

    In summary, when you catch a fish on a suspected break, mark the spot with a marker buoy. Then, if you catch several, maybe even on different days, you've got a hot break. Now, you will want to return to that spot in the future, but he the spot is down below - somewhere - and it is probably small.
Precisely caturing its location in your notes, and on your map is important.

Marking Hot Spots - "X" Marks The Spot
    So youve caught a couple of nice fish in a spot. But wait... can you actually find it again? The spot is small, remember, and the water is big.
Just how DID you take note of the exact location?

    The first thing you have to do is stay alert to your track, and current whereabouts. That way, you know exactly where you are when you catch a fish. Watching Buck Perry in action, its obvious he does this.

    Unfortunately, in our day, you are probably distracted by any number of things while on the water.

- Maybe your cellphone goes off.
- Perhaps you're fiddlin' with your GoPro mount.
- It could be you're keeping a safety eye on an approaching pontoon boat…, you expect the pilot is drinking and is himself distracted by the bikini babes on board.
- But just as likely, you are constantly peering at your fish finder looking for fish, and forgetting what you are trying to do in the first place.

    There are lots of distractions.

    So first off, you must keep your head on a swivel at all times, and be able to pinpoint with accuracy where you catch fish on the 'breaks' down below.
Once you've caught several fish in one place, and have tossed out a floating marker to pinpoint it, you can use one of two methods to capture the precise location.

Marking Location, Method #1 - Old School
    The first marking technique is the traditional, "rifle sight," or, “bi-lateral sight line.”
This is the surest of the two methods we cover here.

    To do it, look around and line up 2 objects some distance apart on the shore, and be specific. For example, you spot the peak of a boat house roof where it lines up with the center of a cottage window.
Make sure you select objects that are permanent, too, things which won't be gone by tomorrow.

    Then, turn 90 degrees and select two more objects at right angles from your first "rifle sight." Mark and note these sight line points in your notebook and on your map.

   To return to the spot later on, pilot your boat back to the same area and line up the first two objects you noted.
Then move out along this line until you line up the the second two. Adjust your position until you have created the exact bilateral sight line you initially observed, and Voila! You can't miss.

    In practice, this is easier to do than it sounds. Once you get used to doing this, it becomes second nature. And you want it to, because the next method has some inherent flaws.

Marking Location, Method #2 - Techno Tricks
    The second method is the modern techno version, and it uses global positioning satellite technology, or GPS.




    You may wonder why I said the old-fashioned sight line is the surest way to mark your position. After all, we have GPS nowadays, so that must be the better choice.
Right?
    I mean the satellites do the triangulation for you.... score one for technology.

    But the GPS method has some drawbacks:

1. The GPS method requires you to have a capable gadget on board.
    It may be a hand-held sat-nav, or more commonly, a fish finder with GPS plotting functions. And while this is a "no-brainer," it is yet another thing you have to buy, it must work under any conditions, and you must know how to use it effectively.
The sight line technique, by contrast, needs no gadgets.

2. You may not be “tech savvy.”
    Surprisingly, I hear this one a lot in local fishing groups. Some people are just “old-school” and aren't into gadgety things. They get baffled by the tech stuff, and would rather fish simpler, or cheaper, and something like GPS just complicates things.
The sight line is self-supporting and uncomplicated.

3. Your electronic GPS gadget can fail.
    The battery may die, your fat friend might sit on it, or the device can stop working for several other reasons you may know nothing about.
    It is a radio receiver that depends on a microwave RF connection to satellites somewhere overhead.
    It demands unobstructed line of sight reception, an operating environment free of EM interference, proper set-up and installation, and who know what else.
    It is not likely to happen, but if it craps out - then what?
    Yep – the sight line.

4. The GPS still only gets you close
    After all that, it is somewhat sobering to find out that the average GPS accuracy is about 20-30 feet on a good day, and that is on land under ideal conditions. Still pretty good. But if a break used by fish is maybe a few yards in size, well...on the lake we'll have to call our GPS close, but not pinpoint precise.

    All you tech-geeks out there are probably howling about now. But don't take this as a black eye for the GPS. In fact, even low-end GPS set ups offer a strong benefit, and here it is....
    Once a marked point is logged into your GPS unit, you can retrieve it at any time and steer a course directly there without any other reference or sightings.
You can have an entire library of these hot spots in digital format, at your fingertips.
    You can have that with a notebook, too, and you should be taking notes for future reference. But the GPS unit makes location data available with just the click of a button. And unlike a notebook, your GPS probably won't be hurt by a sudden rain shower or spilled beer. Probably.
    Regardless, it gets you in the ballpark and is a big player in your efforts to get back on good fishing spots.
    Then, once GPS gets you in the vicinity, use a sight line bearing as a cross check to ensure you are in exactly the right spot.... which is why I made sure to explain it so you can use it.

"X" marks the spot

To review, the would-be 'spoonplugger' is advised to accept the following Key Facts from part 3, as they relate to catching big fish...

6. Use maps to find the likeliest "trails" on structure that the fish might use to migrate from, and back to, deep water. They are habitual in this usage, and predictable. 
7. Look for specific breaklines on structure that lead to deep water, and scour them with lures.
8. Seek the stopping points along the breaklines where fish congregate in their movements - these are called "breaks." Pinpoint them by trolling, drifting, and casting lures to them.
9. Learn to PRECISELY mark the locations of these breaks where you catch fish, so you can return to them time and again.

In Part 4, we'll get into the meat of fish movements - just what constitutes a good movement, and the factors that influence it.

Thanks for reading and I hope you learned something. If you enjoyed it, a like and share is appreciated.

If you are interested in a no drama, Facebook fishing page, please come visit us at: Palmetto Fly n Fish

Tight Lines,

David
Palmetto Fly n Fish
All rights reserved, 2022

references

1. The "Buck Perry System," or Spoonplugging, 'Fishing News,' 1967

2. "Spoonplugging," Elwood 'Buck' Perry, 2nd Edition, 1974

3. Mr Peabody, Sherman and The Wayback Machine open sourced, J. Ward Productions 

4. The internet