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Wonderbread sucks for me too mike! Lol I'm glad I'm not a lone there.

A few years ago I was talking to a charter guy from Ludington that told me that his best big king lure was an Ace High plug mother of pearl with the black ladder back on a SWR. If there are kings around it always seems to produce for me. Big lakers seem to like it too.

I never have good luck with plugs. I feel like my problem when I use them is that I only put them out when its a dead day and NO lures are working for me. one of these days I need to actually just keep a plug out there and give them a chance.

73rr wrote:

I never have good luck with plugs. I feel like my problem when I use them is that I only put them out when its a dead day and NO lures are working for me. one of these days I need to actually just keep a plug out there and give them a chance.

I agree on the idea of to keep plugging along. I only fished 5 inch plugs. Now I have some 4 inch ones to try. Maybe that will be the icebreaker for me for more consistent action while trolling plugs. Seems like the fish I do hook up on plugs get into the live well for me also. Lastly the fish are bigger sized fish.

Agree on the size. Back in the heyday out of Sturgeon Bay, it seemed all our 20+ fish came on plugs. I ran a spread of only plugs one morning and got one big fish, nothing small, when a lot of fish were caught by others. Even today, I have one on in a 6+ rod spread after the 4th of July. Been a while since it's produced.....

At Sturgeon Bay I bet you used pearl or wonderbread. Those were top producers for me up there. As I said earlier, they suck down here on the South End, at least for me. It wasn't until I first went up to Door County (shortly after the Glacier retreated) that I was turned on to pearl and W-bread plugs. We used green ladder backs and silver bullets down here. I came home with a few "white" ones, thinking I had the keys to the universe. Didn't take long for me to go back to green ladderbacks and silver bullets.

I prefer to tie directly to the bead chain not using a snap swivel allowing the plug body to float up the leader when a fish is hooked. I also think it helps the action and have been able to retrieve floating plugs after snagging the bottom at the river mouth and breaking off. I think the reason plugs aren't as effective as they once were is the lack of Kings after the spring flurry. Our Flasher Fly presentations all but die also once we settle into the summer fishery. Every day is a new day and even moving from one location to another can change everything. While in Ludington last fall I noticed a lot of boats in the harbors had J plugs on their rods. Boats at the bottom of the lake were perch fishing.