I have used the 61 guns and they are good, Flutter Guns are another type of "gun" but nothing like a DB.
He does sell a look alike DB that they say say works fine, but myself I have not used them.
Im my rookie opinion (I still consider myself a rookie) I think the best overall he has right now are the Smelt Guns. At first my plan was to use them when the YOY Smelt were the main source of food for the Salmon, mid summer on. But we tied a few on early in the season and had great luck with them, so we used them all year, caught several 5+ pounders and also a 6+ pounder. And it's no secret, as it was in a photo, so I guess I'm safe mentioning it here, Big Dave's 9 pound laker was caught on a Smelt Gun.
However, and it's only a few of us that agree on this, the runt Salmon are very fond of the smaller spoons like the Smelt Gun. We took them off last weekend as we started to catch too many runts late morning, we switched to DB's and it helped. Also fly's don't seem to pick up so many runts, strange happenings in the deep.
I have a slew of them all, DB's TG's, SM's, Suttons (real and otherwise) etc. But on Squam, with only 2 or 4 lines, I'm very limited to what I can tie on. Whether or not they are any good is a allways a crapshoot as some days (many days) they wont bite anything. Same stuff has been working well on Winni and we can see a definate pattern the last 3 weeks as noted in my reports. One day with Salty and twice on my own boat, all the same pattern as far as spoons, fly's, time of day, etc.. Nice when it sets up like that. On Squam the only consistant pattern is the amount of time needed to catch fish, lot's of it.
On Winni however, I can try all my own taped stuff and get a good feel if they are good or no good.
I think the runts will bite anything that flashes brightly and is small, they will learn and next year wont be so quick to take a bite.
Have to make a Correction That Laker was 9 1/2 pounds LMAO Geez they call me a backwards Donkey Frenchman for 3/4 of the season now there trying to steal a 1/2 pound from me LMAO Take Care God Bless and Tight Lines LOL Dave From up North P.S. Don't forget there was a big bass tournament the day we first launched the barge on Winni!!!!!!!
John - wondering if maybe you can move up to the "regular" sized trolling spoons now that the action is so hot (2-3/8" or whatever the top guns and mooselooks are)?
I suppose so, allot of people "in the know" use the regular stuff now and all summer for that matter, we did good with DB's last week when we took the smaller stuff off.
If I go back to Winni this year (does a bear s--- in the woods) I would start with Sreamers and go right to the DB's or Suttons after the bite slows, maybe keep a Smelt Gun on for good luck, I have a real hot one.
