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Texas saltwater tackle box "must haves"

10,337 Views | 49 Replies | Last: 8 yr ago by gillom
rilloaggie
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I'm headed to Rockport this week and will be fishing the piers and wade fishing in the area. Wondering if ya'll had to put a list together of your go-to lures and tackle what would it include? I'm not above using live and dead bait as well, just want to catch some fish. Hoping for trout, redfish, and maybe flounder if I get lucky. The following is in my box already:

Lures: gold, red, silver spoons, DOA shrimp, spec rigs in several colors, few different topwaters, various jigs and soft plastics.

Other: couple different popping cork setups, spec and flounder rigs with weights leaders and hooks, various weights(pyramid, "sputnik"), hooks, leaders, double drop rigs.
Dirty-8-thirty Ag
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Hogie spring Jigheads
Gambler Key Lime Pie & Port O'Copper arties
Mirrolure top water lures.
"New penny" Gulp Shrimp.


citizenkane06
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Good thread topic. That's everything I have, plus I always carry a small pair of needle nose pliers to remove tough hooks and to snip line.
George08
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A hard head flipper
http://www.academy.com/shop/pdp/hh-lure-catfish-flipper

Speck rigs
http://www.academy.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Product_10151_10051_86243_-1?cm_mmc=pla-_-Fishing+Baits+Lures+Soft+Baits-_-Google-_-H+H+Lure+3+Speck+Rig&sku=008123044&gclid=CIqNnrjD-swCFQYIaQodgA8DMQ&kwid=productads-adid%5E87197257518-device%5Em-plaid%5E121192335918-sku%5E008123044-adType%5EPLA
TommyGun
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My box basically had these four when I lived on the coast.

Super Spook JR in bone color
TTF Killer Flats Minnow in Texas Roach/Chartruese color
TTF Texas Trout Killer in Pumpkinseed/Chartruese color
TTF Hackberry Hustler in Who Dat color

As for tools, I basically have pliers, snips, and a Rapala fish grabber. The fish grabber may not be totally necessary but I almost had my fingers bitten off by a bull shark in the Bolivar surf while picking up a trout, so it became a permanent part of my set-up.
ccolley68
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quote:
My box basically had these four when I lived on the coast.

Super Spook JR in bone color
TTF Killer Flats Minnow in Texas Roach/Chartruese color
TTF Texas Trout Killer in Pumpkinseed/Chartruese color
TTF Hackberry Hustler in Who Dat color

As for tools, I basically have pliers, snips, and a Rapala fish grabber. The fish grabber may not be totally necessary but I almost had my fingers bitten off by a bull shark in the Bolivar surf while picking up a trout, so it became a permanent part of my set-up.


Most of this. The TTF soft plastics are my preference. They are a little heavier, and they hold up better against trout teeth than Saltwater Assassins. I would have a couple bags of white, a couple of bags of red, and a couple of bags of a pumpkin variety, to accommodate for different clarifies.

Super spook in bone is a must, maybe get a couple of colors for the reasons about with the plastics. I also really like Rapala Skitter Walks for top water.

Throw the DOA's away

The Gulp New Penny for when you are wade fishing.
76Ag
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I have all that stuff but it seems I'm a tackle collector when I should be a fisherman......
CEPhD
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quote:
My box basically had these four when I lived on the coast.

Super Spook JR in bone color
TTF Killer Flats Minnow in Texas Roach/Chartruese color
TTF Texas Trout Killer in Pumpkinseed/Chartruese color
TTF Hackberry Hustler in Who Dat color

As for tools, I basically have pliers, snips, and a Rapala fish grabber. The fish grabber may not be totally necessary but I almost had my fingers bitten off by a bull shark in the Bolivar surf while picking up a trout, so it became a permanent part of my set-up.


Agree with the above for wading and I'd add white speck rigs and pearl/chartreuse bull minnows and 1/8 or 1/4 jigheads for trout under the lights off piers.
sunchaser
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1...Johnson Sprite with treble removed and single hook added with a 4" red curly tail. You can wobble it over grass, on the surface or at depth.

2...TTF Trout Killer.....Special pour color. I also use Reaction Strike(they have more action) in a color called Red Tide which was a special pour by Roy's. Very similar color...no longer available.

3...Really small Rapala in a shad type color....slightly over an inch.
Tony Franklins Other Shoe
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Throw in some plum/chartreuse, worked real well for me last outing.
Kurt Gowdy
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Croaker rattlers
6/0 hooks
Leader line
Swivels
Split shots

....and hang on....
javajaws
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+1 on Bone Super Spook Jr

silver/gold spoon

Fishbites in shrimp and crab flavors
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Tony Franklins Other Shoe
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quote:
1...Johnson Sprite with treble removed and single hook added with a 4" red curly tail. You can wobble it over grass, on the surface or at depth.

What is your preferred curly tail material if you are willing to tell?
CharlieBrown17
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Sort of piggybacking off this.

What would kind of rod/reel/line combo are y'all using? Never fished salt and interested in trying.
76Ag
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Shimano Curado Bantam SF with Suffix 14 test mono.
TommyGun
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quote:
Sort of piggybacking off this.

What would kind of rod/reel/line combo are y'all using? Never fished salt and interested in trying.


Shimano Chronarch 50E paired with a Waterloo Salinity 6'6" rod is my go to. I also have several Curado E7s paired with either Castaway or older All-Star rods. It's hard to beat Shimano IMO for saltwater. There are some good competitors but I've never had a bad experience with Shimano.
76Ag
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A Castaway rod because I was using an Allstar that broke for no reason at all.
Salt of the water
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quote:
Sort of piggybacking off this.

What would kind of rod/reel/line combo are y'all using? Never fished salt and interested in trying.


Price range? More comfortable with spinning or baitcast? From your yak?
Salt of the water
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Always been a gold spoon fan. Weedless or single hook sprite like sunchaser describes. I buy 2 or 3 inch white curly tail grubs from the crappie section for spoon trailers.

One of my favorite soft plastics when the mullet are thick is a tuxedo cocahoe.

When the water is really stained, I like the black with a chart tail color combo.
ccolley68
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Shimano Curado, custom 7' rod, FINS braid.
CharlieBrown17
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quote:
quote:
Sort of piggybacking off this.

What would kind of rod/reel/line combo are y'all using? Never fished salt and interested in trying.


Price range? More comfortable with spinning or baitcast? From your yak?
Under 200 most likely. I'm comfortable with both and use both depending on what I'm throwing. I do prefer spinning on a kayak instead of baitcasting but I do both every time out. Most likely would be either wade fishing, on a pier or from a relatives boat.
Salt of the water
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A shorter rod is nice for controlling fish close to you while wading. A longer rod is nice to reach around the bow of your yak while you're fighting a fish.

A 2000-3000 size spinner with 10 or 15 lb braid (2lb or 4lb mono equiv.) is what I prefer. I like light or med-light action rods so I can still get decent distance with a lightweight lure. I'll throw top waters or heavier lures with a baitcast, but to me they just don't get the same distance throwing light stuff.

My favorite rig right now: Penn conflict 2500 (is on sale for 100 on amazon) a 7 ft med-light castaway skeleton (watched and waited for it to go on sale at Academy for 100) .
JSKolache
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I like 12-lb line with double rigged jig heads & green gulps. But when I was on the coast a few weeks ago, we all got smoked by a gal using a treble hook and live shrimp. Pulled trifectas the whole weekend.

ATX_AG_08
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Gulp shrimp
(Maybe try under a popping cork. Haven't fished with a cork in years but I hear mid coast products are the new thing)

27 MR mirrolures
Paul brown fat boys
Gold spoons
CharlieBrown17
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Thanks for the rod/reel advice all
Hwy30East
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Try some Chickenboy plastics.
Funky Winkerbean
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Insect repellent and beer.
sunchaser
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If I can find what I like I will buy all a store has....and start looking again once I get low. Not anything exotic. A 4" curly tail is not real big. Red is hard to find as is a really soft plastic....and that is my preference. Reaction Strike has some really good jerk baits. When they first came out they had a Jerk Jr..4.5" and a Diet Jerk Jr..4.5".....The only difference was the plastic formula. The Diet had much more action. They dropped the Diet because I was the only one in the USA that didn't care if they tore up easily......others wanted a bait that they could use all day.....I was looking for more wiggle(The same thing Centerpole looks for on the front of his Maverick.)

Here is Sean with his trophy on day 1 a couple of years ago.



I also prefer copper over gold and gold over silver...The spoon on the left was retired a couple of years ago.

rgarza35
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One of these
Sublette County
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For soft plastics, I really like MirroLure Lil' Johns, especially in the Chartreuse Ice color in pretty much any water clarity. They're small, really durable, cheap, and trout eat them. A guide on Calcasieu turned me on to them last year.
Dirty-8-thirty Ag
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quote:
Try some Chickenboy plastics.


Chicken on a chain & Electric Chicken are great arties too.
SanAntoneAg
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While I have tackle boxes full of lures from purchases over the years I've really cut down on what I take on the boat lure-wise. In fact, I hardly take along a tackle box anymore.

In my dry box are a few packs of 1/16 oz. screw lock jig heads, spool of 20 lb. flouro leader material, barrel swivels, popping corks, a few packages of assorted plastics and gulps, a handful of gold Johnson Silver Minnows and a topwater or two.

As an aside, back when I used to wade all the time I almost exclusively threw topwaters. Now that I mostly drift, plastics.

Oh, and while Saltwater Assassin products may be softer than other plastics, they have more action as a result.
jswags
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Limited out two weeks ago in Copano only throwing lil johns.
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