Favorite AC Plugs?

[Gvec]

Hey guys, what is your favorite AC Plugs and color? Right now they are having a 2 for 1 special. Looking to pick a bunch up, but want to get the right colors.

Also, it sounds like most people get the 9" or 12". Any point in getting the smaller versions for casting?
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[lvfishingdude]

none of them, they cost to much
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[BillyH]

I used to LOVE the AC plug and fished it exclusively on the river. However, the quality of lure has gone down and anymore i have caught more quality fish on everything but AC Plugs. The price is not worth the catch....or lack of catch. That being said at the time my favorites were 9"-12" minnow and 12" original.

as for color....I used rainbow and baby rainbow but i recently sanded mine down and painted them with an air brush to actually look like the trout in the river. If you have seen the trout on the river, they are not green, more of a silver color and out of my 100 plus trips to the river i have learned that the big fish are all to familiar with the same plugs trolling path them every day...its good to be different.

One of the reasons why they work (sometimes) is they are a top water plug with "decent" action. You can, and will, catch more fish on most large lures that stay in the upper water column. I will say this and not calling out names but i have personally seen the so called die hard plug users live lining trout and claiming it was AC plug when they report on the catch.
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[TheWhizzle]

[quote BillyH]I will say this and not calling out names but i have personally seen the so called die hard plug users live lining trout and claiming it was AC plug when they report on the catch.[/quote]
They better claim that it's an AC plug, or the wardens will be right up their a$$$$.

I'm with Billy. There is WAY too much hype about AC plugs. Sure, they catch fish. But so will everything else!

The new guy on the forum here that we met at Willow Beach a couple weeks back (Mark) caught his fish on a 4" YUM Money Minnow.

It's like saying that you can go to Lake Mead and only use one lure all the time. Sure you'll catch some fish, but the patterns are going to change. They might bite well on a fast trolled AC Plug one day, but they don't want it the next. We need to learn to adapt, and realize there are other options.

Not worth spending hundreds of dollars on them.

I'm putting out a challenge. I want to see you guys catch a fish on the river with something OTHER than an AC Plug.

I bet we will discover something important. You don't have to fish AC Plugs to catch river fish. My best day on the river was with an 8" Castaic Swimbait that I bought for $7 at Wal-Mart. Just sayin'...

And Like Billy said, the quality of the AC Plugs is awful lately.

If you want good river baits, look at names like [url "http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Huddleston_Deluxe_8_Trout/descpage-HD8T.html"]Huddleston[/url], [url "http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Spro_BBZ-1_Swimbait_8_Slow_Sink/descpage-SPBBZS.html"]Spro[/url], [url "http://www.mattlures.com/"]Matt Lures[/url], [url "http://www.castaicswimbait.com/"]Castaic[/url], and the like. Hell, who's gonna be the first to live-line a 1lb goldfish or carp out there?

There are other ways.
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[BillyH]

Challenge accepted! Now im motivated to go to the river. Ultimate set up that i have been contemplating....

LARGE umbrella rig running 3 or more of the 8" Casitas type swim baits. A couple of those rigs out on Planner boards running in the upper water column off each side of the boat.

Either a brilliant idea or an epic failure but the fish stories that follow may be interesting.
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[AidanInSpace]

You should try varying sizes in the umbrella rig. The ones they use on Long island always have the center lure (the furthest one back while trolling) as a larger size, with the others as various smaller sizes. I've trolled for stripers out of Montauk a few times and the umbrella rigs always did the trick. Of course they used the plastic tubes that are supposed to look like eel rather than swimbaits. I wonder if these stripers out here remember they are supposed to like eels...
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[iamthesmf]

Here are some rigs to consider. But I do like your 8" Casitas idea.

[url "http://www.junebugtackle.com/prod_umbrella.php"][/url]http://www.junebugtackle.com/prod_umbrella.php[/url]

[url "http://www.alltackle.com/chesapeake_bay_fishing.htm"][/url]http://www.alltackle.com/chesapeake_bay_fishing.htm[/url]


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[vegaskid]

By law unfortunately, you can only have two lures on any one line at one time. A-rigs which usually come with 5 wires, (they do have 3 and 7 I think) would have to have the last three wires filled with blades or decoys. You can have up to three baited hooks on one line I believe, but only two artificials regardless of hook count per artificial. Of course im not sure that the rangers would be looking for people throwing A-Rigs if they even know what they are.[fishin] It does sound like it would work well []
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[iamthesmf]

We have had this issue come up at our NSC meetings.
NDOW and NPS at our meetings and you can use the umbrella rigs with a christmas tree full of decoys. You are only limited to the number of hooks,

Nevada alows you to use three hooks, the only eception is Lake Mead were you are limited to two hooks.
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[vegaskid]

Well maybe you can ask them to clarify if someone can use 3 artificial lures (multiple treble hooks per lure) or only 3 hooks. (single hook swimbaits). I thought the law was statewide and not just at Mead. So Lake Mohave and the river are 3?
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[BigE]

[cool]I'm in with the both of you. I have caught an 8lber on a Tomic lure and a 6lber on a LA slider. The Tomic was white and blue and the slider was rainbow. There are alot of great lures on the market that will kill them on the river. My buddy in Calif. has a few that are awesome. We will report our efforts when we hit the river next time.
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[TheWhizzle]

Just got off the phone with NDOW, and they said that on mead AND Mohave, they have changed it to 2 baited hooks, which means that you could run an a-rig with 3 decoys and 2 swimbaits with hooks.

I asked if that makes a spook or jerkbait with three hooks illegal, and he said no, it would be considered one bait, of two allowed. So, technically, you could tie a spook on, and tie a jerkbait to the back, and it would be legal.

But it sounds like for Mohave and Mead, only two of your setups can have hooks.

I will be getting a call back in the morning from Ivy Santee to get further clarification. I'll update when that happens.
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[Erawk]

Great info here, guys. I can also attest to the declining quality of the handmade line. I don't think ol' AC give a carps hind end about crafting quality lures anymore (except for maybe his personal baits). You'd probably do just as well with the licensed optimum baits at half the price. You can find the on tackle warehouse and ebay.
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[iamthesmf]

Okay I got two Casitas and a 4-arm umbrella, look out Stripers.[inline Casitas.jpg]
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[ChuckStreamer]

lvfishingdude,
Didn't you say that you caught your big striper on an ac plug? I know you are posting on his forum....[fishin]
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[Sil240sxrwd]

[quote ChuckStreamer]lvfishingdude,
Didn't you say that you caught your big striper on an ac plug? I know you are posting on his forum....[fishin][/quote]
Ditto..
I thought I read a post on AC plugs forum that you said you caught that big mead striper on an AC Original ?
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[lvfishingdude]

don't always believe what you read.... the lure i caught it on was LUCKY
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[LLOMichalchik]

And if you're going to make a rig with the sassy shad, be sure to check out our selection. Make them right here in the USA!
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[TheWhizzle]

Curious why you are giving AC the free advertisement.

You should just say you caught it on one of these
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[wolfs4evr]

lol
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