Vintage Gibbs Needlefish ~ Rare Surf Fishing Plug

As I am aware of it, this was one of the first mass-produced Gibbs needlefish.

This early Gibbs needlefish model has heavy screw eyes. Within about the next season, Gibbs came out with a little wider body shape and a through-wired model, and these more slender screw eye models were discontinued then.

The historical or collectible significance of the screw eye model is that this is one of the very first needlefish of any kind that many Rhode Island anglers could get their hands on, and they caught an awful lot of big bass on it. There really were no other brands or models out there around that time that I am aware of, just the original wood Super Strike needlefish (which had very limited access), plus the older, flimsy Boone and Classic screw eye models, which didn't hold together. The Gibbs screw eye model here was made of denser wood and far heavier screw eyes than the Boone or Classic. So when this screw eye Gibbs model hit the beaches, it was available in sufficient quantities to arm entire gangs and armies of Rhode Island surfcasters who were equipped with them.

The Gibbs screw eye needles were light (3/4 oz) and also high-floaters. They were best to me for slack tides, light surf, and especially in cut-off kinds of tide pools up close to shore. For me, since I had other needlefish options, the screw eye Gibbs were a light tackle needlefish to use on the same relatively light spinning gear and same kind of spots as I'd use a 5-1/2" Red Fin in many cases.

But for the Rhode Island surfcasters, it was one of the only and best-made needlefish available, so they used it under all conditions, and clobbered monster fish with it under any and all conditions.

One of the most effective ways that some of the best Rhode Island super-sharpies used them was to cast straight out in front of you, and just keep the line taut as the needlefish swung in a semi-circle down tide. Often the hit would come when the bait was parallel to the bank directly downtide from you, only a second before the surf spit the plug out onto dry sand. You couldn't do this, get these close-in hits on a short cast. You had to let it swing down, which took patience. Most guys were too impatient to do it. Most guys never got out of the mode of cast, reel, cast, reel, cast again. Meanwhile, you would make one cast with the Gibbs needlefish - and just drift it, not even turning the reel handle. You couldn't do this in a line-up - or even with one other guy downtide from you. Your plug would be down past the next guy before it got into the thin band of the shoreline strike zone. Whether fish were leisurely following along behind the plug, and belting it only when it got too shallow for them to continue to follow it - or whether the plug only got into their range within inches from the shoreline? Who can say? But you couldn't do it on a short cast. You had to cast long, and let it swing down. Maybe your immediate presence on a short cast alarmed them - or maybe you just weren't getting it out far enough where they were - then they would tail behind it all the way to shore. The split-second before the plug popped out onto sand forced the bass to make a decision. Ka Boom! It may have something to do with the fish conserving its energy, tailing the plug and not wanting to expend a lot of energy to strike in open water where the plug (bait) had plenty of space to evade the attack. So the fish just follows the plug (bait) until it has no more room to maneuver or evade the bass - until the bass had it pinned against the shoreline. At the very last instant, the hit would come. At that point, you were practically standing on dry beach anyway, so you could simply walk down the beach, reeling in line as you go, and land your cow on a short line without much fanfare.

As I say, some of the Rhode Island sharpies were lethal at this trick tactic, and it worked as well by day as by night. It seemed there'd always be one of these guys as the very last man on the end of a line-up, and he'd be using this tactic. But even when they had an entire spot all to themselves, this same tactic was every bit as effective. About the best at doing this was a Rhode Islander named Stormin' Norman De Lisle. Often, as the daybreak action ended and everyone else went back to their buggies to retire, that was the moment Stormin' Norman went into action. He'd go down to the spot as it emptied out of surfcasters and he'd start doing this trick with the Gibbs needlefish. You'd swear for sure that Stormin' Norman's lure had washed up and beached itself - until his rod doubled over - again and again and again! There wasn;t much fight involved, just running down rhe beach, reeling as you go, anf snub the fish out of the wash onto the sand. Stormin' Norman had this tactic down pat.

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For more detailed information about this and many other surf plugs like it, please read the full story of:

Surf Plugology ~ by Russ Bassdozer

Thank you.