Thanks very much Englishman! And you can thank your wife for her concern! I definitely always wear a lifejacket now, it is one of the inflatable keyhole mustangs so not that visible. They are a great investment, I don't even notice it and half the time I am still wearing it when get back to the house.
Regarding the plug... it was a 4# tomic that I picked up last week for lake trolling (i forget the # but a rainbow trout type colour pattern-not unlike the standby army truck in base colours). Figured I would throw it down rigged as it was for the lake (8lb test which made the tailing even more touchy). All three fish hit the tomic. I had an anchovy down on the other side and one shaker was all it touched, go figure.
Tight lines.