I haven't done a lot of saltwater fishing in the past, but am looking to do a bunch this year and am currently building out my tackle collection.

What's your favorite/go-to saltwater lures (artificial only)? This would be for typical inshore fishing - specks/reds/founder.

Based on what I've been seeing, I'm guessing a top five might look like this:

Super Spook Jr in Bone
1/4 oz Gold Spoon
Gulp Shrimp (New Penny) or DOA Shimp under a popping cork
Corky (Original or Fatboy)
TTF KFM on a jig head (Morning Glory/East Beast, Mumpy Glow/Liquid Shrimp/Bone catcher)

??

Cocahoe minnow. Chartreuse spoon.

I know a lot of folks fish their Gulps under a popping cork, and I do during winter when there is a need to fish more slowly, but I prefer them during warmer weather on a 1/16 oz. jig head bounced off the bottom. And I seem to be having more success recently with jerk shad rather than shrimp.

I have everything else you listed in my tackle box, but soft plastics are bread and butter.

[This message has been edited by Sgt. Hartman (edited 5/2/2013 4:29p).]

Live Shrimp or Croaker. It's best to not stock up too early though.

I'm usually a Fly-Guy in the flats, but when I'm chunking plastics, it's usually:

1. Spook Jr. in Bone (Hooks are singles)
2. TTF Killer Flats minnow in Who Dat or Liquid Shrimp.
3. Gulp Shrimp in New Penny
4. TTF Hackberry Hustler in Morning Glory
5. Buggs Bait, Curl Tail Jig in Blue Crab Color

Gulp jerk shad fished weightless
Gulp Riptide minnow on 1/16 oz jighead
Gulp Shrimp on 1/16 oz jighead
Gold spoon
Floating Rattle Trap

I like live shrimp or cocahoe minnows. But when fishing plastics:

5. Chicken on a chain
4. Electric chicken
3. Gulp alive - ten penny
2. Zman
1. Gambler- key lime pie

Brown Devil Eyes
Brown Flappin Devils
Gulp Shrimp
Chicken Boy Shrimp
Norton Sand Eel

1. Rattle cork, to be used as needed with plastics.

Not specific to any brand:

2. Dark colored swim bait
3. Light colored mullet immitation
4. Gold spoon
5. Gulp new penny Shrimp

I suck at using hard baits, but a bone catch 2000 is one lure I ahve luck with.

1. Chrome Blue Skitterwalk
2. Black/Ch She Dog
3. Pink Skitterwalk Jr.
4. Ch. Super Spook Jr.
5. Avocado Bass Assassin Eel

One that I'm starting to like is the Brown soft plastic paddle tails. They catch big fish.

Some others to consider are the speckled trout pattern plugs, namely Skitterwalks. They catch BIG fish when they're in the area.

I'm partial to topwaters, as you can see.

1. White/red head Skitterwalk (redfish)
2. Root beer/ chartreuse Sand Eel Jr
3. White curly tail grub
4. Chrome/ black back Spook Jr
5. Chartreuse Shifty Shiner (old suspending plug)

[This message has been edited by Troutslime (edited 5/2/2013 6:37p).]

Black and white cocahoe for specs and Silver Buddy for reds.

quote:

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Corky (Original or Fatboy)

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Absolutely, the Paul Brown's Fatboy is all I use these days.

You have a favorite color for Corkies?

I was real impressed with the new vudu shrimp I tried under a popping cork.

White gulp
Every other color gulp
Chicken boy lures (pink passion or something like that)
All other chicken boy lures
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Dynamite

1. Super Spook Jr...bone or blue/chrome

2. She Dog...blue/chrome, black/chartreuse head, bone/silver/bone

3. Corky Fat Boy...day glo, chartreuse/clear glitter, pearl/black back

4. 51MR Mirrolure...808, chartreuse/silver/chartreuse, 11, pink/silver/pink

5. Various plastics(i prefer the Norton brand) on an 1/8 or 1/16oz jig head depending on water depth...plum/chartreuse, pumpkinseed/chartreuse, limetreuse, black magic, and bone diamond.

6. 1/4oz gold spoon

I know you only said 5, but i had to throw #6 in there. If you can't catch fish on the lures above, then they're just not biting that day and you might as well go sit on the dock and drink beer.

Gulps are for potlickers.

They work when nothing else is. Saves a trip sometimes.

nm

[This message has been edited by 230Ag (edited 5/3/2013 12:54p).]

will someone please tell me how to fish a Corkie?!?!?

The first arties I used in saltwater were topwaters. At the time, more often than not, it was a Producer Ghost. That'd have to be my #1. I've probably caught more fish on these than anything since. Bone was always good, as was chrome w/ chartreuse head.

#2 is a Queen Cocahoe Minnow. As for color, red with white tail is a favorite. Pumpkinseed/chartreuse and black/chartreuse are great, too.

Johnson Silver Minnow, 1/4 oz. on gold rounds out the #3 spot.

4 is a DOA shrimp, 1/4 oz., either natural or natural with Chartreuse tail.

5 would be any of the vast assortment of Gulps. As with any soft plastic, rigged on a 1/16 oz. screw lock jig head.

quote:

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will someone please tell me how to fish a Corkie?!?!?

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Very slow, with an occasional twitch of the rod tip or slow rod sweeps with pauses usually works. The main thing is slow, slow, slow.

Cocahoe minnow. Strawberry/white tail. 1/4 oz head in deeper water, 1/8 oz in swallow.

quote:

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Cocahoe minnow. Strawberry/white tail. 1/4 oz head in deeper water, 1/8 oz in swallow.

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Curious, what do you consider shallow? To me that's 2' or less. I can't see how 1/8 oz. would be favorable in that situation over 1/16 oz.

Maybe I don't ply water deep enough for it to apply, but to date I haven't found a use for a 1/4 oz. jig head on the flats/bays.

These are Shifty Shiner copies..

http://www.thetexasflashlure.com/

quote:

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You have a favorite color for Corkies?

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When the water is not clear (i.e. Paul's Mott in Aransas Bay) then I use the Pink back with a pearl belly. This year I used a Bone color that was great when the water was a little more clear (i.e. over in Mesquite Bay...Cedar Bayou area..etc. etc.) I'm far from a pro, and I typically power pole in and walk into the coves. Those things have never failed me.

I swore by free lining mullet, or pop corking live shrimp in the flats, and then I was taught how to use the fat boys....I'll never go back.

The best inshore saltwater fisherman I ever knew told us IF he had to fish to eat/survive and only had one lure to use, it would be a 1/8 oz weedless gold spoon, preferably with orange specs on it.

Cannot dispute this with him, as he passed away several years ago. However, I saw how effective this lure was, both in person and in photos. I also know, that when people knew he was at camp (Fulgum's back then) that people would wait for his boat to leave the dock and follow him to the general area he was fishing.

Don't get me wrong, he used a bone colored jumping minnow, and cochahoe plastics, but no bait.

But if he had to eat.....

I have searched high and low for the 1/8 oz gold spoons with orange specs, but evidently they are no longer produced. Sometimes it's hard engough to find a 1/8 oz weedless spoon.

When, hopefully I get back to fishing like I used to, I will make a template and paint on the orage spots on those spoons. I have seen the results, and it was effective with extreeme predudice.

Almost sounds like a Hot Shot spoon. Gold 1/8 oz. but with one fluorescent orange spot rather than multiple.

Saltwater assassin in 10w40

SanAntone Ag,

I have tried to replicate with stick-on eyes, with a little more success that the plain ol' spoon. Those things I write about were like mini-specs.

I saw some of the damage. I saw pics of much more, and he would hang the broken spoons on sleeves of pics (saw that display also).

He decided to take pics one year of "limits", most of which were the spoons. One and a half year covered a wall of his cabin from top to bottom x 10 ft. length. And he fished on weekends at that point.

Today's man does not catch reds with specs mixed in at the rate I saw.

His last name was Bennett. On aerials I have seen of Pringle, his name was on part of it. Bennett's Flats.

He and a few others, my Dad was one, were the first to run tunnels on the back bays of that area. They ran cheap. Aluminum boats, no platforms, no anti-feedback steering, etc. They'd figure out the right trim, stand on the bow, and lean which direction they'd want to go looking for reds. No one at the wheel, Alone in the boat.

Insane? Hardcore? That's what we'd say now. They called it fishing.

I worry about drifting too shallow and having to pole out (albeit with my wife and young son). I asked him about riding bow one evening at camp. His answer was if you are going to fall, jump out of the way of the boat.

Drinking beer with those guys gone, is going to leave a hole in the conversation at camp. Dad gave up fishing this year. He tried to give me all his fishing gear last week.

He is giving up, and it sucks, hard. Quit hunting, fishing, and golf within 12 months. In the mid 90's,he was still riding bow. Now, he just wants to watch TV.

This scares me, as he is/was 30 yrs my senior. I am 40 yrs senior to my son, and I used to be much more adventurous that I am now.

If he was still doing all that in his mid 90's I'd say he was very fortunate. One day we'll all have to give it up and hopefully I can make it that far.

Old Sarge,

That is great stuff. I love hearing tales of how things use to be back in the glory days of the hunting/fishing world.

What was Mr. Bennett's first name? If you don't mind saying....

Thigh deep or less, or if I'm trying to stay out of the grass.

Sarge....Little Cleo had painted spoons long ago. I remember a gold with an orange strip and a yellow with orange dots but no gold and dots. It was not a weedless....sort of a Sprite with a hump in it.

I have used a single color combo since 1986 that was on the market for a three month trial period. I use it about 90%....maybe more...of the time.

If I'm fishing over matted or grass right under the surface I will use a 1/4 oz copper Sprite with a single hook and a red curly tail.

The only other lure I have used in the last five years is a Yozuri Pins Minnow drifting in an area like Brown & Root.

[This message has been edited by sunchaser (edited 5/5/2013 7:05p).]