How I Like to Fish Metal Lip Lures for Striped Bass

The metal lip might just be the quintessential New England surfcasting plug.

Unlike needlefish plugs it’s near impossible to break metal lips down into any kind of nice and neat categories. 

There are simply too many different builders, each with their own styles, designs, unique action, capabilities and purpose. To really begin to understand the metal lip, the surfcaster honestly needs to put time on the water experimenting with, and fishing these plugs. 

Metal lips generally fall into three rough categories.

To further complicate the matter, and depending on the plug and the style, some metal lips can also be “tuned” to run at different depths.

The Pikie for instance can be tuned to run on the surface by gently bending the line tie and the lip down. It can be made to dive deeper by bending them slightly upwards.

Generally metal lips shine in the open surf, in white water, and especially when big baits like adult bunker, herring and mackerel are the primary forage.

Popular Metal Lip Brands

Today the world of metal lips is dominated by flashy builders, an obsessive sub-hobby of plug collectors and enough different styles and paint jobs to make the average anglers head spin.

The list of companies and builders producing a quality product is extensive to say the least but RM Smith, Beachmaster (BM), Afterhours, Gary Hull, Leftys, Lordship, Tattoo and Gibbs (to name just a few) are all proven names in the game.

Every builder has their individual style and because they are made of wood and not mass produced, each individual plug will have its own character and swagger on the retrieve.

As with many other wooden plugs, metal lips tend to run on the pricier side. Expect to see most builders charging somewhere in the twenty to forty dollar range for each unique plug. That said in my opinion the fish catching ability and the unique experience of fishing a metal lip is well worth the cost of entry.

If you are interested getting your hands on a couple of metal lips, or just want to add another to your collection, then Beachmaster makes some of the best plugs on the market. 

BM’s are generally fairly priced, there’s a large second hand market for them, and most importantly the build and action is very consistent and of good quality.

When To Use A Danny Versus A Pikie

The style of metal lip plugs that I carry and fish is dictated by the specific conditions and the location I’m planning on fishing. Regardless, both the Danny plug and the Pikie usually have a spot in my bag.

Both plugs are fairly universal metal lips, produced by a number of builders and offered in dozens of sizes and paint jobs.

The Danny is the quintessential surface metal lip. It shines in the shallow waters of a boulder field where you can slow roll it through the rocks.

A well built Danny should gently roll or “wag” across the surface of the water with a deadly action that predators just can’t seem to resist.

The Danny is a versatile night or daytime plug and is a great “search” bait that will often get a rise out of fish if they are present. The Danny can be incredibly productive when fished in white water but they do equally well in calm conditions and gentle surf. It’s also important to note that it’s best to avoid swimming a Danny plug in heavy current.

When fishing bigger surf, heavy current or when a subsurface approach is necessary a Pikie metal lip is the better choice of plug. A Pikie plug fished with a slow retrieve should dig into the water with its lip while its body and tail wiggles with a subtle side-to-side slow rolling action that seems to drive big bass crazy. Personally I feel that the Pikie is best fished at night and it's especially effective when there are big baits in the water.

"Tuning" Metal Lip Swimmers

One issue that tends to divide the plugging community is how and when to “tune” a metal lip plug. When you tune a metal lip, you bend the lip or the line tie to change its action on the retrieve.

I tend to feel comfortable tuning plugs like the Pikie when necessary. I will adjust both the tie and occasionally the lip on a Pikie to achieve the desired action. However I never touch the lip, and very rarely tweak the line tie on a Danny plug. 

Of course that’s just what works for me and I’ve found that half of the hardcore plug guys I talk with tend to agree with me on this issue, while the other half think it’s base sacrilege to even consider touching the lip.

Just remember that any tuning you do attempt should be carefully done, and you should only make small, incremental adjustments to the plug, starting with the line tie.