The Structure Cafe: August 2015

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August 2015

08/27/2015

In Remembrance - Jack Crawford

Speaking of Jack, it's been 16 years since his passing:

Posted Jul 13, 1999

ROCHESTER -- The funeral for Jack Crawford will be 1 p.m. Wednesday at West Lawn Memorial Park Chapel in Racine, Wis. Burial will be in West Lawn Memorial Park.

Mr. Crawford, 83, of 634 15th St. N.E., a retired tool and die maker, died Monday (July 12, 1999) at his home following a lengthy illness.

He was born July 22, 1916, in Ohio and lived in Racine (2425 Thor Ave.) for many years before moving to Rochester two years ago. He was a top Wisconsin fisherman in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, and operated a charter boat on Lake Michigan for a time. On May 28, 1938, he married Margaret E. Lindmeyer.

Survivors include his wife; two sons, John of Pittsburgh, Pa., and Michael of Rochester; four grandchildren and one great-grandchild.

Friends may call an hour before the service Wednesday at the chapel.

Johnson Funeral Home Services in Rochester is in charge of arrangements.

Posted at 09:47 AM in Everything Else | Permalink | Comments (0)

08/24/2015

Jack Crawford Jigs

You can't thumb through the pages of a Fishing News or Fishing Facts magazine from the late 60s and early 70s without reading about Jack Crawford jigs. Word is they were eventually bought by Mister Twister who renamed them Nature Jigs but basically kept most of the existing patterns and ties. Here are a few I've picked up, some to fish and others to collect.

Posted at 09:27 PM in Everything Else, Fishing Facts, Fishing News | Permalink | Comments (0)

08/16/2015

MAPPING and INTERPRETATION

The importance of knowing how to map a structure situation cannot be stressed enough. Mapping and interpretation are the "key" to catching fish consistently. One common problem that keeps anglers from catching numbers of fish, casting or trolling, is due to a lack of mapping a structure situation before trying to fish it. Similarly, another common mistake made by some is trying to map a structure while trolling a lure behind the boat.

Phase I of the mappping process, finding the "breakline" and what should be the "contact point," the sharpest "break" into the deepest water in the area, as well as placing a marker buoy should be done without a lure in the water. This is where the depth finder becomes an aid and should be used for that purpose. Once Phase I of the mapping process is complete, Phase II, presentation of lures on structures, taking line sights and shoreline references, are fairly easy to accomplish.

The mapping and interpretation done prior to putting a lure in the water should not take a long time. An experienced Spoonplugger can map most structure situations in 15 or 20 minutes, even wide sweeping bars. The Spoonplugger's interpretation of the structure should identify the contact point during the mapping process. A marker should be placed on the structure near the contact point. That ONE marker is the ONLY one the Spoonplugger will need to map and fish the structure.

-Terry O'Malley

Posted at 10:31 AM in Spoonplugging/Buck Perry | Permalink | Comments (0)

08/14/2015

August Club Catches

Posted at 06:27 PM in Fishing Reports | Permalink | Comments (0)

08/12/2015

Tom Ferencek - Then & Now

Fishing Facts, 1975-76

Somewhere in Florida, 2015

Posted at 07:15 PM in Everything Else, Fishing Facts, Spoonplugging/Buck Perry | Permalink | Comments (0)

08/10/2015

Hank Parker Q & A

Q. Who were some of your earliest fishing heroes?

A. Blake Honeycutt and Buck Perry. Blake lived down the road about 30 miles in Hickory, N.C., and I'd go down to these little tournaments and watch him blow everyone away. Buck Perry was the original structure fisherman. He had that old Spoonplug and was catching them off structure way before depthfinders were out.

-Hank Parker
Bassmaster, Feb. 2010

Posted at 12:09 PM in Everything Else | Permalink | Comments (0)

08/08/2015

The Rise of Bill Binkelman - Starting Fishing News (Part III)

We continue with another excerpt from the March 1980 Wisconsin Fins & Feathers interview with Bill Binkelman, this time focusing on the beginnings of Fishing News, the breakthrough "magazine" (original issues were all in newspaper format) that helped launch the promotional fishing and writing careers of many of the most recognized modern day anglers.

"Buck was not able to do that promotion I had counted on, so I found myself sitting with $20,000 in Spoonplugs on my shelves...in December! In effect, I started Fishing News as a way of unloading all those Spoonplugs. But the newsletter was something I'd been working up to for a long time while feeling bad about all the other fishermen around me who couldn't catch fish. I hoped it would be good for the store and everybody else if we could share with fishermen some of the 'rules' of fishing I was learning.

The original Fishing News copies were free, for they were part of the Boston Store's promotional efforts. Production of the newsletter was handled by the staff of the store so all I had to do was scribble some ideas and stories and other people would turn out a finished newsletter. The response was so enthusiastic we soon saw we should start charging a little for it. Those were exciting days. I used to take the bus to work so I'd have time to write. We all had a sense of discovery and progress.

"When it came time to leave the Boston Stores I went directly into full time editorship of the magazine. We changed the name to Fishing Facts because 'News' sounds like something that will be outdated in a day or two. The magazine dealt almost exclusively with Spoonplugging at first. As time went on we began to use the term generically to refer to a whole approach to fishing: 'You can Spoonplug a nightcrawler!' The basic idea was that you had to understand the environment of the fish (structure) and learn how to fish deeper water, whether you did it by drifting live bait or speedtrolling a Spoonplug."

Posted at 08:28 AM in Bill Binkelman, Fishing News, Spoonplugging/Buck Perry | Permalink | Comments (0)

08/05/2015

The Rise of Bill Binkelman - Buck Perry and Spoonplugging (Part II)

More from the March 1980 Wisconsin Fins & Feathers interview with Bill Binkelman.

"One of my problems back when I was enjoying great fishing on the Milwaukee lakes was that, according to the outdoor magazine experts I was reading, I was fishing "all wrong"! Much of what worked for me ran exactly counter to the advice I read in print. But when people like Tom McNally began to write about Buck Perry and his theories I suddenly heard another voice saying many of the same things I had found to be true. Buck got quite a bit of publicity back then because of the fabulous catches he made with outdoor writers in the boat.

"A lot of fishermen thought of Buck as a kind of nut trying to sell another oddball lure. I didn't. I read everything I could get about his theories and techniques. I admit I didn't read his book - never could get through it - but I absorbed his message through all the articles written about him. Buck was probably the first person to take serious notice of the shape of the bottom, which was what my Oconomowoc experiences showed me was so critical. Bit by bit, the pieces of fishing's puzzle were falling into place.

One day about 1964 a tackle sales representative for Buck's lures called on me at the store, all apologetic at first because he knew my reputation for hating gimmicky lures. I said, "Young man, I probably know more about Spoonplugs than you do, and I intend to be the exclusive outlet for them in the city of Milwaukee.' And I wrote a check for $20,000 worth of spoonplugs right on the spot, on the condition that Buck would come north to run a promotion on them.

"I got into Spoonplugging then. For two years it was about the only way I fished, then I quit and never went back to it. Don't get me wrong - the Spoonplug was highly effective and I learned a lot while fishing with it. I just finally admitted to myself that I did not like motor trolling. Some people like strawberries while some people like apples; I just don't care for motor trolling."

Posted at 08:26 PM in Bill Binkelman, Fishing News, Spoonplugging/Buck Perry | Permalink | Comments (0)

08/03/2015

December 1963 - The Rise of Bill Binkelman (Part I)

While 1957 goes down as the year that Buck Perry made it to the Midwest and "shook 'em up" with his talk of structure fishing and on-the-water spoonplugging demos, 1963 is the next milestone year, marked by the creation of Fishing News, a short but all-fishing publication spearheaded by Bill Binkelman, and initially focusing almost exclusively on spoonplugging and structure fishing. Of Binkelman, Ron Lindner once wrote, "If Perry fired the first shot in the modern angling revolution, Bill Binkelman was its relentless Paul Revere, and together with Carl Lowrance, they changed the ways that people fished."

In a March 1980 Fins and Feathers article by Steve Grooms, as well as a March 1984 Midwest Outdoors column by Hal Walker, they listed the following industry "breakthroughs" attributed to Bill;

Owned one of the first depth finders in the Midwest and popularized the fishing use of sonar gear.
Discovered hydrographic (fishing contour) maps and publicized their usefulness to fishermen.
Was a leading promoter of spoonplugging (speed trolling) teaching many Midwest fishermen the principles of structure fishing with bottom bumping artificials.
Popularized the Jack Crawford natural pattern jigs (now sold as Mister Twister jigs), designing several of the patterns.
Hosted the first all-fishing television show.
Developed the technique made famous in the book he wrote, Nightcrawler Secrets. The book was far ahead of its time and did much to change fishing. It presented the technique, invented by Binkelman, of hooking a crawler lightly through the nose.
Popularized the use of worm inflators.
Discovered cork jig heads, improving them for Midwestern waters, and taught their use.
Founded Fishing News, forerunner of Fishing Facts, the first all-fishing publication and a major communicator of the new fishing techniques.
Helped develop the concept of a fish "calendar" which recognized such major events in a fish's year as spawning and lake turnovers.
Discovered and refined a set of tackle and techniques which would reliably catch deepwater gamefish.
Started many fishing clubs, clubs of a new type. Rather than being local sportsman's organizations, they were all-fishing and geared toward fishing education.
Organized a major fish observation project, leading to the series of "Blue Books" which Binkelman wrote.
Created a special line of tackle (emphasizing fluorescent jigs, jigs for vertical jigging, and jigs with slimmer profiles) and popularized the special techniques associated with this tackle.
Created a mail order tackle business selling his own unique tackle and other equipment not easily found. Emphasis on live bait fishing.

Posted at 10:46 AM in Bill Binkelman, Fishing News, In' Fisherman/Al & Ron Lindner, Lowrance, Spoonplugging/Buck Perry | Permalink | Comments (0)

08/01/2015

"5%" Doesn't Mean "Never"

Topwater or weedless baits are sometimes referred to as "five percent lures" based upon the typical amount of time Buck suggested you would appropriately use these lures. Where some guys get into trouble is by over-using, or in the case of some Spoonpluggers, never using them. Like every type of lure (there are basically 4), fishing success comes down to right place, right time, and fishing in the right manner. Sometimes weedless or topwater baits are the "right manner."

Earlier this week when faced with a matted weed situation when checking out the shallows, I pulled out a hollow bodied frog and made a pass through the area covering the shallowest water quickly and effectively. It ended up resulting in half a dozen bass, including a nice 4 pound fish. The lesson here is to not overthink or overcomplicate things - and don't ignore any aspect of appropriate presentation. Fishing success is simply predicated on following proper procedures and guidelines.

Posted at 04:12 PM in Fishing Reports, Spoonplugging/Buck Perry | Permalink | Comments (0)

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