We don’t normally fish a lot of artificials. It’s mostly live shrimp and some finger mullet when we can find them and cut and frozen bait when we can’t. I want to start making an effort to fish more artificials. I have plenty of gulp and DOA’s and use them occasionally with luck. What else do I need to stock up on?
Trout tricks
Zman scented paddlerZ
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Also:
Gulp Jerk shads
2000 SeaPro 180CC w/ Yammy 115 2 stroke
1966 13’ Boston Whaler w/ Merc 25 4 stroke “Flatty”
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i’m still learning a lot about plastics. i keep a few colors of DOAs but haven’t been able to entice many fish with them lately.
http://www.mirrolure.com/softplastics/softshad.html
these “opening night” paddletails outfished mudminnows side by side on trout 2:1 yesterday. the “pinfish” color works great too- something about light purple apparently drives them crazy, even in dirtier water.
i always keep a few topwater plugs in my bag too- red head/white body spook jr is probably my favorite.
I agree with optiker. Especially on keeping it local and the gulp jerk shad. My other favorites are bass assassin jerk shads (silvery ones that look like finger mullet), I also have been tearing them up on electric chicken flavor paddle tails. My old standard is the squiggly tail green or smokey colored grub.
Narcosis
Get a large gold spoon. If you are sight casting you can throw it a mile so as not to spook the fish and bring it right to them slowly. Johnson spoons work great, but I prefer the Red Ripper which drives them nuts. I like the gold spoon with a gold skirt and they have a rattle
2nd the Trout Tricks
experience noun \ik-#712;spir–#601;n(t)s
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the fact or state of having been affected by or gained knowledge through direct observation or participation
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that thing you get just moments after you needed it.
ZMan MinnowZ for trout and PaddlerZ for reds. I keep a bunch of different colors on hands for different conditions, but that covers it about 99% of the time as far as plastics go.
As far as hard baits go, some Super Spook Jrs, some Mirrodines, and a couple of Mirrolure 52s for cold weather should cover it.
Sounds like some good ideas on things to stock up on. Thanks
quote:
ZMan MinnowZ for trout and PaddlerZ for reds.
I second that. I do fish the Paddlerz more often though. In the summer the trout were hammering the 5" Paddlerz rigged on a 1/8 oz flutter hook fish around docks. Now that they are holding in deeper water a 4" paddlers on a 1/8 oz jighead works very well.
Iain Pelto
Sea Hunt Triton 160 w/ 90 ETEC “JB3”
Native Manta Ray 14
I’ve caught as many reds on trout tricks as trout in the last month…smoke and white DOA…also the green grub with the fire red curly tail was very hot for us and the trout a couple weeks ago…and I like to fish a 1/2oz jighead with them…some will say too heavy but it gives me farther casting ability and I am pretty dam accurate when casting even in a light wind…plus I love feeling EVERYTHING on the bottom…
The Morris Island Lighthouse www.savethelight.org
Man, catches a few fish and suddenly he’s an expert.
quote:
Originally posted by DFreedomMan, catches a few fish and suddenly he’s an expert.
your words are hurtful…
The Morris Island Lighthouse www.savethelight.org
Sorry, just got a little jealous.
in addition to what the rest have said, we have a lot of luck on flutter hooks. creates great action that gets the fish fired up.
Had two 14 year olds Wensday consistantly catching 14/17" Trout on Trout Tricks, I was catching larger fish on Mirror Lures on the back of Bote.
I only fished when they started catching fish and I was catching also on Terror Eyes, white, gold as well, so who knows they seem to bite anything sometimes.
I normally don’t use artificials either, but I have been doing pretty good on the trout tricks on flounder. Somehow I read the directions on how to use them for trout, but it’s not working for me. But definately trout tricks so far!
I too am fairly new to artificials. I’ve recently been using Z-man stuff and doing well with it. I always use them with 1/8oz weedless hooks and crawl them along the bottom. Not sure what other techniques work at this time of year.
Question here on scents… I know a lot of guys use pro-cure and the like on their artificials and I just happen to have a jug of menhaden oil here… is it feasible to use that on artificial lures? It would have to be a way to use it so I wouldn’t be getting it all over everything… maybe some in a container that I just dip the bait into on occasion or an eyedropper-type squeeze bottle like I use to put oil in my nail guns?
Dumb idea or brainstorm?
Give it a shot, I can’t believe it would hurt anything. Fish two of the sames baits, dip one in the oil, leave the other one plain. See if there is any discernible difference in hookups.
John(localhero) I think in keeping with what dfreedon Saud, dip one in menhaden oil and use it to find the fish, then use a normal oneonce you get in a school… also if you use a Zman with pro cure you can let it sit still or barely twitch it and reds will still find it! Although I might use a shrimp or mullet scent over menhaden Snell in winter
Hunter P. Hames
11’ Tarpon 100
19’ Sea Fox 125 merc
Well test one happened today. I dug up an old hypodermic-type needle made for refilling ink cartridges and it was perfect to load with menhaden oil and inject into (or blurb onto) an artificial bait. The result? Well I discovered that it’s possible to catch no fish WITH OR WITHOUT THE MENHADEN OIL. I know these findings will be hard for some to believe but I’ll continue testing before I write up the full study in a scientific journal.
It’s been some time since I was totally skunked. I was trying out unfamiliar territory for me and stuck with all artificials which I’m sort of new at but still… I’m hoping to hear no one else caught anything today and that it was just a day off for the fish.
idratherbefishing, How have you been using the trout tricks for flounder? Slow crawl around structure?