Bass Fishing
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Scroggins' Donkey kicks an early morning Florida bass.
Terry Scroggins' Dependable Donkey
02/13/2012
B.A.S.S. Elite Pros Terry Scroggins and Gerald Swindle act up like 14 year olds on the PAA stage; two guys enjoying life. The two friends fished as a team in the tournament; more fun than the last major event the two fished -- the B.A.S.S. Elite Post Season -- when they were paired to fish against each other instead of with.
Big Show and Swindle share a lot of time and talk during the season. It’s hard not to smile when Scroggins tells the crowd that he introduced G to the Donkey.
“I call it the Donkey,” Scroggins said. “It’s a Smithwick Devil’s Horse. It’s slow and steady, and packs a punch.”
Certain lures come to be associated with geographic areas. The Devil’s Horse is definitely most at home in the South (although friend and outdoor writer Vic Attardo taught Maine’s Penobscot River smallmouth a good lesson with the lure last summer).
Any time fish are up shallow and the water temperature above 60 degrees, Scroggins considers the Donkey. Last week (Jan. 30-Feb.2) on both the St. James River and Harris Chain, plenty of beds freckled the bottom as big bass moved up shallow and roamed big grass-covered flats. The Donkey has a knack for getting some love from big female bass as they move to the weed edges in preparation to bed.
“It’s a big-fish bait,” Scroggins said in the Orlando Bass Pro Shops parking lot after picking up the fifth place check at the PAA. Swindle had learned the power of the Donkey with an 8.3-pound bass that boosted the team’s bag to 21.84-pounds. “You can work it really slow but it makes a lot disturbance on the water. Big fish can’t stand it.”
The next morning I sat in the passenger seat of Elite Rookie Cliff Prince’s boat on the Harris Chain tracking down the story of Lance Walker’s 14.5-pound Pickwick largemouth on my Blackberry and didn’t even see the fish strike. Prince was on the trolling motor throwing the Donkey along the edge of shoreline lily pads. When the fish rolled on the surface I threw down the phone and grabbed for the camera. Having grown up nearby, Prince already knew the Donkey’s power and he lipped the big bass and brought her into the boat.
“The Donkey is best in the springtime,” Scroggins said, “when the big females are looking to spawn just due to the fact that it’s such a great target-fishing bait. You can throw it against eel grass lines, holes in the grass, against logs – it stays in the strike zone a long time.”
Slow is key when fishing the Donkey. The front and back props create a lot of surface disturbance yet the lure itself doesn’t move far with each twitch. Scroggins suggests letting the lure sit for up to 10 seconds or so after the cast and between twitches.
“Give it a quick pull,” Scroggins said, “so it creates a disturbance on the surface and then let it sit again. Most of your strikes will come within the first two or three pulls of the bait. After that I reel it in and shoot it to another target. “
He takes the front hook hanger and moves it forward on the bait (using the front hole as the back hole and drilling a new front one, filling in the original back hole with silicone). He replaces the hooks with one-size larger to help the lure ride level on the water, a characteristic he feels is essential to getting the big bites. He may go through a few baits to find the one that’s just the way he likes it. The final enhancement is a full rotation backward on the front and back hangers so the props have a little more room to spin.
“You can go a whole turn because the screws are so long,” he said. “When you’ve got one that’s right you can hear the props spinning when you cast. Even when the lure is sitting still those props are still moving and I think that triggers strikes.”
Zell Rowland says that the props can be bent forward to create more water disturbance and resistance, thus moving less each twitch and allowing him to more thoroughly work a piece of structure. Scroggins worries more about making sure they’re twisted at the maximum angle to catch water and spin.
The key to the lure’s productivity is its ability to create a lot of splash and surface disturbance but not move forward much. Anglers can work a certain piece of cover or sparse weed edge efficiently to pick off big females as they move toward and into the inside edge of shallow cover.
The basic retrieve is slow, pausing as long as possible between twitches or quick rips. Prime times are prespawn, postspawn and fall (times when bass are holding shallow). Early morning/late evening and at night during summer is also a good time, as well as on schooling bass any time.
Scroggins likes the chrome/black back/orange belly Donkey in his home waters of the St. Johns and other Florida waters but other color patterns are go-to at different waters throughout the South. Up North on the Penobscot River last summer Vic Attardo caught the biggest smallmouth of the trip on a Bullfrog pattern Devil’s Horse.
Big Show throws the Donkey on 14- to 17-pound mono, copolymer or other floating fishing line on a rod no longer than 6-foot, 6-inches. The shorter the rod, he says, the more accurately he can cast.
“Last year in the FLW Open at Okeechobee I finished fourth with 100 pounds of fish and 60 percent of them were on the Devil’s Horse,” Scroggins said. “That was in February. The year before I was at Santee Cooper in the late fall and I caught 90 percent of everything I weighed in on that lure. It works year-round.”
Big Show and Swindle share a lot of time and talk during the season. It’s hard not to smile when Scroggins tells the crowd that he introduced G to the Donkey.
“I call it the Donkey,” Scroggins said. “It’s a Smithwick Devil’s Horse. It’s slow and steady, and packs a punch.”
Certain lures come to be associated with geographic areas. The Devil’s Horse is definitely most at home in the South (although friend and outdoor writer Vic Attardo taught Maine’s Penobscot River smallmouth a good lesson with the lure last summer).
Any time fish are up shallow and the water temperature above 60 degrees, Scroggins considers the Donkey. Last week (Jan. 30-Feb.2) on both the St. James River and Harris Chain, plenty of beds freckled the bottom as big bass moved up shallow and roamed big grass-covered flats. The Donkey has a knack for getting some love from big female bass as they move to the weed edges in preparation to bed.
“It’s a big-fish bait,” Scroggins said in the Orlando Bass Pro Shops parking lot after picking up the fifth place check at the PAA. Swindle had learned the power of the Donkey with an 8.3-pound bass that boosted the team’s bag to 21.84-pounds. “You can work it really slow but it makes a lot disturbance on the water. Big fish can’t stand it.”
The next morning I sat in the passenger seat of Elite Rookie Cliff Prince’s boat on the Harris Chain tracking down the story of Lance Walker’s 14.5-pound Pickwick largemouth on my Blackberry and didn’t even see the fish strike. Prince was on the trolling motor throwing the Donkey along the edge of shoreline lily pads. When the fish rolled on the surface I threw down the phone and grabbed for the camera. Having grown up nearby, Prince already knew the Donkey’s power and he lipped the big bass and brought her into the boat.
“The Donkey is best in the springtime,” Scroggins said, “when the big females are looking to spawn just due to the fact that it’s such a great target-fishing bait. You can throw it against eel grass lines, holes in the grass, against logs – it stays in the strike zone a long time.”
Slow is key when fishing the Donkey. The front and back props create a lot of surface disturbance yet the lure itself doesn’t move far with each twitch. Scroggins suggests letting the lure sit for up to 10 seconds or so after the cast and between twitches.
“Give it a quick pull,” Scroggins said, “so it creates a disturbance on the surface and then let it sit again. Most of your strikes will come within the first two or three pulls of the bait. After that I reel it in and shoot it to another target. “
He takes the front hook hanger and moves it forward on the bait (using the front hole as the back hole and drilling a new front one, filling in the original back hole with silicone). He replaces the hooks with one-size larger to help the lure ride level on the water, a characteristic he feels is essential to getting the big bites. He may go through a few baits to find the one that’s just the way he likes it. The final enhancement is a full rotation backward on the front and back hangers so the props have a little more room to spin.
“You can go a whole turn because the screws are so long,” he said. “When you’ve got one that’s right you can hear the props spinning when you cast. Even when the lure is sitting still those props are still moving and I think that triggers strikes.”
Zell Rowland says that the props can be bent forward to create more water disturbance and resistance, thus moving less each twitch and allowing him to more thoroughly work a piece of structure. Scroggins worries more about making sure they’re twisted at the maximum angle to catch water and spin.
The key to the lure’s productivity is its ability to create a lot of splash and surface disturbance but not move forward much. Anglers can work a certain piece of cover or sparse weed edge efficiently to pick off big females as they move toward and into the inside edge of shallow cover.
The basic retrieve is slow, pausing as long as possible between twitches or quick rips. Prime times are prespawn, postspawn and fall (times when bass are holding shallow). Early morning/late evening and at night during summer is also a good time, as well as on schooling bass any time.
Scroggins likes the chrome/black back/orange belly Donkey in his home waters of the St. Johns and other Florida waters but other color patterns are go-to at different waters throughout the South. Up North on the Penobscot River last summer Vic Attardo caught the biggest smallmouth of the trip on a Bullfrog pattern Devil’s Horse.
Big Show throws the Donkey on 14- to 17-pound mono, copolymer or other floating fishing line on a rod no longer than 6-foot, 6-inches. The shorter the rod, he says, the more accurately he can cast.
“Last year in the FLW Open at Okeechobee I finished fourth with 100 pounds of fish and 60 percent of them were on the Devil’s Horse,” Scroggins said. “That was in February. The year before I was at Santee Cooper in the late fall and I caught 90 percent of everything I weighed in on that lure. It works year-round.”
