Lemire’s Plugworks Sea Fly
Lemire’s Plugworks Sea Fly
www.lemiresplugworks.com
By Captain Bryan A. Oakley
One of my many fond childhood fishing memories, and one of the few involving fresh water, took place on a lake in New Hampshire when I was about 12, fishing in a canoe with my father and brother. I was aimlessly trolling an Arbogast Jitterbug as my father paddled across the lake to try a new spot, when a sizeable largemouth bass rose up out of the middle of the lake to crash the surface lure. The famous glub-glub action of this classic lure had brought a 5-pound largemouth up, out of the depths in the middle of summer.
Almost two decades later, I was in a local bait shop after hours, rigging some eels in preparation for the approaching season with the owner and some fellow members of the Narragansett Surfcasters. Across the room on a wall display were a variety of plugs from a manufacturer I had not seen before. It is rare to see something “new” on the walls of wooden striper lures, but the design of these plugs stood out. I found one unique plug particularly interesting; it had a huge metal lip that caught my eye. Closer inspection revealed a solid wood plug with a wide-cupped metal lip that bore some resemblance to the original Jitterbug. This 5-inch, through-wired, 3-ounce monster was very different from the screw-eye freshwater versions however; it was a Jitterbug on “steroids” if you will.
Some discussion with the shop owner brought me up to speed. Lemire’s Plugworks was a new builder on the scene that was getting some positive reviews from anglers fishing in Narragansett Bay and around Block Island. The owner and builder is Alan Lemire, who splits his time between the mainland of Rhode Island, and Block Island, where he works as a chef at a popular Block Island restaurant. After taking a hiatus from a childhood spent fishing, Alan was bitten by the striper bug again while working on the island. Not long after he started back to fishing, he quickly became interested in making his own plugs, and like many amateur builders, he set his sights on a needlefish.
A few batches of plugs later, demand from friends and charter captains based on Block Island were quickly out-pacing his plans to make a few plugs for himself and friends, and he entered the world of commercial plug building. While working with wood was not part of Alan’s career in the culinary arts, his family has a history of woodworking, including his grandfather, who showed him the ropes with a lathe and with whom Alan credits with getting him started.
Sufficiently intrigued, I took some of these plugs home to try in some of my favorite spring waters. My first impression of these plugs was that, while they had a simple body design, they sported an impressive paint job, good hardware, and most importantly, a reasonable price tag. My first stop with the Sea Fly was a well-known cobble bar along the south shore of Rhode Island where fish often cruise in less than 3 feet of water. My first cast brought good distance, although some experimentation revealed that the Sea Fly could definitely cast farther with a lob cast, letting the rod load and do the work. I found that too much snap brought some tumble into the cast, causing the lure to fly like a knuckleball and reducing casting distance.
Aimlessly tossing the plug into calm seas, I was watching the wake produced by the wide profile of the metal lip. Alan recommended I fish the Sea Fly with a mixture of twitches, and a slow, steady retrieve. He suggested letting the plug sit for several seconds when it first hit the water, before giving it a few twitches and then letting it sit again. He then instructed a steady retrieve, which is where the huge metal lip really does its job.
The plug creates an enormous disturbance across the top of the water, leaving an enticing wake that rivals the best Danny-style swimmer. The small squid skirt on the Siwash tail hook darts enticingly from side to side and has a different action than the traditional bucktail. A few more twitches and pauses on the retrieve will often entice a strike from wary bass. On this day, the bass were less than cooperative, and I was debating switching to a small bucktail jig, as the predominant fish that time of year were school-sized stripers, when a flash behind the Sea Fly caught my eye. A few cranks later, a very feisty 5-pound bluefish was firmly attached to the 3/0, 4X VMC belly hook. After sending my first bluefish of 2009 back to swim with his brothers, I gave the plug a once-over, fully expecting the paint job to be marred with tooth marks from the small bluefish. Remarkably, the hard automotive finish Alan puts on these plugs really stands up, and only a few light scratches in the clearcoat bore any evidence of the attack. Obviously, the soft rubber squid on the tail hook is susceptible to bluefish attack, but it can easily be replaced, either with another squid skirt or with another dressing of your choice. After a few more casts, I was suitably impressed with the Sea Fly, and I headed for my truck, convinced the Sea Fly was worthy of a spot in my plug bag.
As the season progressed, I have had the best luck using the black-over-purple version on calm nights, fishing over shallow cobble and boulder bottoms, where the plug can throw a wake without hanging up in the ubiquitous Rhode Island bubble weed. While this seems like a bit of a niche application for a fishing lure, the added distance this plug provides over a metal-lipped swimmer has helped me reach fish I may have missed in the past. The fish-catching ability of the Sea Fly is not limited to the nighttime surf; reports from Narragansett Bay during June of 2009 indicated that several of the charter captains were having great success catching 20- to 30-pound bass on the menhaden pattern during the day, in lieu of live-lining the real thing. I even removed the belly hook and tossed the Sea Fly into my offshore bag, with the hope of tossing it for breaking yellowfin tuna, although that opportunity has yet to present itself.
In addition to the Sea Fly, Lemire’s also features a slow-sinking needlefish, which has become very popular in the boulder fields of Block Island, three different swimmers, three poppers (including the Sea Fly) and a very large spook-style lure known as the Wave Jammer. While the plugs were originally offered in a myriad of colors, (Alan admitted he doesn’t remember quite how many variations he was making), for the 2010 season, the color selection will be whittled down to the most popular and effective color patterns, in order to keep up with demand. While this means some of the more unique color patterns may go by the wayside, you can always contact Alan about special ordering your favorite colors. So, if you are looking to try a new plug in your proven fishing grounds, or want to fish something that harkens back to a childhood spent fishing the sweet water, give the Sea Fly a try.