Get to Know Metal-Lipped Peanut Swimmers – On The Water
A gentle surf lapped at the edge of Island Beach State Park where, on the sand, dozens of vehicles and hundreds of anglers spread along the beach. Just a few yards offshore, oblong dark stains broke up the cool green of the late-October ocean. Peanut bunker were in.
I had a soft-plastic swim shad clipped on as I waded in, but as I looked up and down the beach, I saw that most other anglers had the same idea. Paddle-tailed soft plastics, both those matched to jigheads and the ones with integrated weights, are near-perfect peanut bunker imitations in size, profile, and action. They are the smart choice, but not the most romantic—and for an event as romanticized as the fall run, sometimes one needs to select plugs with the heart instead of the head. I removed the swim shad and replaced it with an RM Smith Peanut Swimmer. The lure was well loved—for a time, it was one of my only custom wood striper plugs. There was a half-moon of bare wood above the belly hook hanger where, through countless casts and dozens of bass, the paint and finish had been raked away. Like so many other plugs that survived a few seasons in the surf, its wood had been imbued with history, personality, and a sort of magic that, in the depths of winter when I’m feeling homesick for the high surf, makes it a conduit for my favorite surfcasting memories.
A peanut swimmer is a small metal lip, in the 1- to 1½-ounce range, that is between four and six inches long. It has a rounded nose and a wide body that tapers to a thinner tail. It can swim on the surface or below it, depending on retrieve speed and how the line tie has been “tuned.” Bending a line tie down causes the lure to swim higher in the water column; bending it up causes it to swim deeper.
I cast the plug out to the far side of the nearest school of peanut bunker, and began reeling, feeling for the right rhythm to let me know I was retrieving at the proper speed for the conditions. When I felt a steady pulsing, I locked in the speed and worked on the cadence. A brief pause to let the plug float up a few inches can often trigger a strike (especially just after resuming the retrieve), but I’ve always favored increasing the retrieve speed for a couple of cranks or popping the rod tip to make the lure dig in and even roll out momentarily to mimic a panicked or injured peanut bunker.
The success of peanut swimmers isn’t limited to areas with thick schools of peanut bunker. They are excellent prospecting lures around jetties, in quiet bays, and on open beaches from late spring to fall, regardless of the baitfish present. They fish best in slower-moving current but can handle considerable surf.
As the tide began to flood, roving packs of stripers found the schools of peanuts at Island Beach and the bite turned on. For a bit, the bass pinned the bait to the beach lip. While that was happening, my small, shallow-running metal lip enjoyed a brief advantage over the soft plastics, which up until then had been outfishing the plug at a rate of 3 to 1. Cast after cast, I watched the plug disappear in a violent swirl as bass snatched it right off the back of the rolling waves.
When the bass and bait eventually dispersed, I put the plug away, admiring its newest scars, and headed for the truck. It had been a morning of fall-run fishing as it should be: highly visual, fast-paced, and over too soon.
Peanut swimmers are a looser metal-lip category than pikies or Dannys, so there can be considerable variation between lure builders. Ryan Smith still builds his 1-ounce peanut swimmer as he has for the last 20-some years, offering them for sale at his website RM Tackle, when he has them available. Lonell Rodgers of Potomac Plug Co. makes a peanut swimmer that I’ve had great success with this spring on the south side of Cape Cod, so I look forward to fishing it when the peanut bunker finally show. His plugs can be found at Angler’s Marketplace, an online “flea market” where custom lure builders offer their wares.
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Source: https://onthewater.com/metal-lipped-peanut-swimmers
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