What kind of artificials?

[CLL2437]

I have never done well fishing with artificials so I always use bate. Wednesday morning I went fishing with a friend of mine and had to use dead shrimp. I did all right and caught a few sand trout. My friend was using plastic artificials and was killing them. After a while of me watching him; I asked if I could give it a try. He gave me few pointers and let me try. To my amazement I began to catch fish too. This might not be a big deal to some, but it was the first time to catch a fish with artificials. Later that night I headed of to Academy and looked into getting some plastics. I asked the sales guy I what kind of plastics I should buy for saltwater fishing. He looked at me as if I asked him to cure a dreadful disease. After about 5 min of looking a the lures he said, "If I were a fish I’d eat these." Not the answer I was looking for. So I stated, " that all well and good if I was trying to catch a sales associate."

I left and thought I would ask the same question here. So, what color or color combo is good? Also what style should I look for? I mainly fish for reds and trout in the bays.

-Charles

[boat_money]

if just starting with plastics, shad or paddle tails help because they create their own action just by reeling. vibrations off that paddling tail also attract fish. go with limetruese or chartruese, pumkin seed/chart tail, red/white and you're about covered. there's other colors out there that work, and i buy them all, but throw either limetruese or pumkinseed/chart 90% of the time i throw plastics. just wait til you catch one on a topwater... talk about an addiction. oh and go with 1/8 oz jig ahead.

[Mr. Breeze]

Red with White tail and Glo with Chartruese tail. Kelly Wiggler, Salt Water Assassin, Bass Assassin, Norton Shads and Sand Eels, that will get you started. Watch out, its addicting. Get a 1/2 ounce Gold and Silver Spoon for the surf and Bays. Watch Out, its addiciting!

[parrothead823]

First: Never! And I mean Never! Go to Academy to ask those people anything about fishing. All they sell there is second rate equipment and bad service.


Second: 1/4 oz gold spoon in the bay. Fish is slow.

[Porterhouse]

I like the norton bull minnow in the late spring and summer early fall, then switch to the assassin in the fall/winter early spring. On the norton or other paddel tail type bait I like the assassin 1/8 oz. screwlock jigheads with the short shank hook ... the extra weight gives them better stability and makes the "track" better in the water....also since you are doing more reeling with this style of bait, that heavier head won't give you that much trouble with the grass....colors I throw in this bait are needle gar, habenero, tequila gold, shamu, pumpkin, marti gras, margarita (all depends on what the water looks like). On the assassin, i stick with the 1/16oz screwlock jigheads with the short shank hook. As for color, keep it simple...if the water is stained or muddy go with either a dark bait like morning glory, black, plum, etc or a super bright like limetruese, truese goose, firetiger, etc.; in really clear water go with something natural like pumpkin, pearl, green, etc., my favorites in the "margarita green trout water" is the rootbeer/redflake, native shrimp, or the glow chart.....although I just picked up a few bags of wd40, and they look great.

All in all, you will do fine regardless of make and model if you just pick a few colrs and get out there and fish them. I fished for many years throwing nothing but either red/white tail, pearl chart tail, and pumkin/chart......now I have untold hundreds of baits that hardly ever get fished....but it makes it fun since opening the tackle bag is sometimes like Christmas...never know what you might find.

Hope this helps and welcome to the grind.

[Sunbird]

Match the hatch! Plastics rigged in almost any fashion are "swimming lures." The paddle tail plastics such as the swimming shad, sea shad, Bull Minnows, cocohoes, etc. are all designed to emulate bait fish that swim. Plastics such as the Assassins, Texas Trout Killers, Norton Sand Eels, and if you are old enough to remember, Touts or shrimp tails, etc. more closely emulate shrimp, sea worms, or eels.

You don't need to buy $200 dollars worth of plastic to be fully equipped. My suggestion is to get a 10 pack of each of the two types - swimming baits and shrimp type baits - in three colors. You need a bait color for clear, semi-stained, and very sandy off color water. My choice for these thee conditions are as follows:

Clear green water - clear plastics with blue, red, gold, and/or silver metal flake
Semi-stained - Darker colors such as deep red, avocado, purple, fire tiger, or my personal favorite, Morning Glory
Very sandy/offcolor in daylight hours - chartreuse or limetruese

When fishing other than clear water which we seldon see in the upper Gulf coast area, almost any combination of the colors outlined for the other two water conditions will work, especially in combination such as chartreuse tails on a Morning Glory Sea Shad.

Six packages of plastic will cost approximately $20. Add $10 worth of good quality jig heads in 1/8, 1/4, an 3/8 Oz. size and a sectioned plastic box to hold everything, and you're in business.

[Redfish]

Sorry if this seems like such a newbie question, but is there a certain way to attached the jighead to the plastics? I've only fished with live bait/dead shrimp all this time and I've been wanting to try some artificials. Any help would be appreciated.

[Porterhouse]

Sorry if this seems like such a newbie question, but is there a certain way to attached the jighead to the plastics? I've only fished with live bait/dead shrimp all this time and I've been wanting to try some artificials. Any help would be appreciated.
Yes, buy the screwlock jigheads....they are the one's with the little wire "spring"coming out of the lead and down around the shank of the hook. Lay the jig head alongside the soft plastic so you can see where the hook is going to come out of the plastic....then go straight into the nose of the bait with the point of the hook staying as straight down the body as possible, then just as you are getting close to the "mark" where the hook will exit ( if you use norton bull minnows and the assassin short shank (2/0) jigheads the hook needs to exit right behind the 2nd "L" in BULL), start curving the point up and out through the back of the bait (if you are using assassins skip this part, let the hook come out into the belly slit, twist on and fish, better action this way I think)...now all you have to do is start "screwing" the spring into the nose of the bait by turning and then flipping the tail over until it is nice and snug...use a loop knot on a 20 lb flourocarbon leader and you are good to go.

Best to practice at home....you'll waste a few baits getting the hang of it....but it beats fooling with it during a hot bite

[TOP FLIGHT]

After just reading posts for about a year, I decided to register. So, hello 2 cool!

I agree, the resources at Academy are limited. The best advice is here on the board.

I bought some Norton Sand EELs today and they seem more durable than the Assassins. However, they are dry. This can be solved with "Spike It GARLIC OIL SPRAY". Has anybody tried The GALIC OIL SPRAY and noticed a difference in bite?

Also, if you don't take your plastics out of the ziplock they come in they won't dry out. (Sixtoe's tip)

Buy a good tackle bag to protect your investment (water resistant). It's a real pain to spend a small fortune only to find everthing rusted on the next trip!

Buying tackle is addictive. Gotta say I'd much rather buy bay tackle than offshore tackle.

John

[wascoach]

Boat Money is right on! Follow the KISS principal when learning. Some folks like the screwlock type of jig but I much prefer the shortshank gold hook plain lead jigheads sold in bulk in many places around here. Look for the ones with the larger, sharper bait holding fasteners as they secure the soft plastics very well and you won't get your "skirt pulled down" as often. And NEVER, NEVER ask the guys at Academy for fishing hints - many have never wet a hook.

[79_ag]

I try to match the hatch but when all else fails I go with Red Shad.

[texsport68]

Try tipping those soft plastics with a little of those fresh dead shrimp. We fished with nothing but live bait for flounder for years, and my uncle tought me how to fish for them with soft plastics tipped with fresh shrimp.We have caught more flounder and larger ones in the past 3 years than ever before on live bait. I've even fished them side by side, and if the flounder are there and feeding they will hit the soft plastics as good or better than live. Our #1 producer is a 3-4 inch curl tail in pumpkin- char.; Smoke-char; and glow-char. Fish them slow skipping accross bottom in 6-8 inch hops.

[Trout Sniffer]

If you are used to fishing with live bait, and want to switch over to plastic, then try rigging up a rattle cork with about a foot leader line and tie the lead head at the bottem and choose your plastic. Throw out and pop that rattle cork. Trout love it.

[Wading Mark]

Kelly Wigglers are all that I use. I used to use Saltwater Assasins but I find that they aren't very durable. All of the colors mentioned above are excellent.

[Redfishr]

Silver spoons 1/4 or 1/2 depending on depth, lighter for shallower.
Surf favorite. 1/2 oz.