"Secret" Striper Plug: Musky Mania Doc - On the Water
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Jimmy Fee, co-host of On the Water, recently spilled the beans in an article for On the Water Magazine on the Musky Mania Doc, a “secret” plug used for catching stripers. In it, he describes his introduction to the plug, comparing it to an over-the-top drug deal in a parking lot:
“Matt looked over each shoulder, scanning the Lancaster Avenue parking lot at Villanova, before popping open the back of his truck. It was a Friday evening in the early spring, just after mid-terms, and I had no doubt that similar-looking transactions were taking place elsewhere around the campus. ‘Here it is,’ he said, ‘but seriously, you can’t tell people about this.’…In the decade since that parking lot plug deal, I’ve had no less than ten fellow fishermen tell me about the Doc, and everyone ended the conversation with, “but don’t tell anyone about this.” It felt like I was the only one keeping the secret.’’
Image Courtesy of On the Water Magazine
According to Fee, the plug was a response to earlier wooden lures used to catch muskies.
“The Doc is made by Musky Mania Lures, a company founded by freshwater-fishing legend Pete Maina, because he was tired of losing muskies on traditional wood lures.With a wooden lure, instead of the hooks lodging into the muskie, the muskie’s teeth would frequently lodge into the lure, making for poor hooksets. Beginning with the Burt jerkbait in 1992, Maina began designing lures out of high-impact plastic that couldn’t be penetrated by a muskie’s teeth, allowing for better hookups. Musky Mania now offers more than a dozen muskie lures, but it’s the mesmerizing side-to-side action of the Doc that has walked its way into the plug bags and tackle boxes of Northeast striper fishermen.”
Fee describes the plug as having a seemingly magic “pull-a-fish-from-nowhere” quality to it. This is probably due to the “lure’s wide-walking action and knocking noise” which can “fool the fish into striking even when they aren’t hungry,” according to Fee.
“If you’ve seen a striper attack a Doc, you’ll agree that the fish seems more motivated by anger than hunger, punishing the plug with its tail and snout before engulfing it.”
Fee says that the lure is also used by fly-fishermen, who prefer a hookless version “to bring stripers into fly-casting range, while surfcasters use it to prospect for bass along rocky and sandy shorelines in calm conditions.” Fee also recommends “beefing up to tuna-grade hardware” when pursuing trophy stripers using the Doc “which,” he says, “is credited with landing several 50-plus-pound stripers for fishermen from New Jersey to Massachusetts.”
Fee describes the two sizes of The Doc, saying:
“the original 9-inch and the 7-inch Li’l Doc. Both Lures catch stripers - and presumably muskies - but the smaller version lacks the ‘pull-a-fish-from-nowhere’ magic of the original. The Li’l Doc is thick for its size and doesn’t have the wide walk or loud knock of the Doc.”
Image Courtesy of On the Water Magazine
While this lure is often touted as a secret, Fee dismisses that notion, saying, “Truth is, the Doc’s secret has been out for years. It’s been prominently featured as a striper lure on TV shws, in national magazines, and through countless social media posts and videos.”
He finishes by saying, “You’d be wise to grab a couple for this year’s spring run - just don’t tell anyone about it.”
Check out the full episode below to see the Doc in action on S17:E2 of On the Water.
S17:E2 Newport’s Striper “Doldrums”
