flatts lures

[Christian]

what are your favorite/most productive lures you use to fish the flatts.

reason i ask is this morning i was fishing the harbor over some flatts with my pencil poppers. i was having some large fish come up and taking a look but no actual hits. large fish to me are anything i see that could be 20lbs+. i also threw the little gags grabber popper, but they did the same thing as they did with the pencils, swirl, no take. i then tried a sluggo on a single hook, nothing. then figured sub surface might do it, so i switched to a little plastic swimmer, nothing. help?

depth was 4-5ft, pretty clear water, could see bottom, bottom is mud with patches of kelp and rock.

[BigFish]

Hand grenades Christian...... I hate when that happens!

Did you try putting a teaser on ahead of your plug? Just a small bucktail teaser might have done the trick!

[Christian]

no, but my friend was double teaming them with flys.

after they had swirled a bunch of times, i would have one swirl and he would throw a fly in front of it. still nothin.


im thinkin, go back at night, same tide and everything, but with eels.

[Nebe]

whud about a pikie??? that wiggle can drive the fish crazy

[bassmaster]

try a Yo Yo rig

[TheSpecialist]

Hmmm, I wonder where you were fishing????

[UserRemoved1]

Christian, next time you fish that change two things....color and retrieve. I flats fish alot and can tell you that those are two of the biggest things to turn a fish away...SOMETHING doesn't look quite right to the fish, try the retrieve first...gentle twitches etc....try changing colors....light dark combos are the best during the day....

[afterhours]

had same type of experence once. tried everything, ended up using 3/4 oz white/silver bucktail retreived faster than norm. caught a few.

[theSURF121]

The Tsunami rubbah in a silverside pattern works for me.

[Gloucester2]

Also might want to drop down to a lighter fluoro leader . . . them flats fish can be as leader shy as bonito

[schoolie monster]

I think you want to go as natural as possible and as said, go to a lighter leader.

I always like the jerkbaits (ledgerunner, slugo, bass assn) when fishing clear shallow water. IMO, its the most natural action and look. The fish will get a good look at your lure, so plugs may not be so good.

Sounds like you went to the sluggo and your friend was throwin' the fly... you won't get much more natural than those two lures.

Vary the retrieve from fast to just letting it drop to the bottom and sit. I sight fish quite a bit and alot of times I just drop the bait to the bottom and they'll hammer it. Crabs and some baitfish try to bury themselves to escape.

Sometimes fish are just like that.

Saturday I had alot of followers on jerkbaits and live pollock. A few times the pollock swam to the surface and the bass were just laying under it or mouthing it and bumping it. I wrote to a friend that it was like a cat playing with a toy.

I got 11 or so fish (mostly shorts), but I saw dozens more thru the day. Fish have been finicky the past couple trips out.

[jeffsod]

Using a sand eel fly would be my first thought and as mentioned above experiment with the retrieve. When fly fishing the flats you usually have to lead cruising fish by say 10ft or more. Cast out ahead of the fishes path and let the fly (I use bronze eyes like clousers) settle to the bottom. As the fish comes up on the fly you want to start stripping the line in a quick steady pace but most importantly the fly has to be moving AWAY from the fish. If the fly or bait is moving towards the fish then you most likely will not hook up as it is not natural. Works best with small groups of fish too as they will get competitive and one may dart out to grab it where a single cruising fish will most likely spook. This time of year the fish are more skittish due to all the activity around the flats and a lot of guys who fly fish do much better with crab flies. You really have to be able to see the fish so you know when it stops and inhales it because you probably won't feel the take and it will spit it out if you don't set the hook. Riptide makes a real nice rubber crab imitation that Wal-mart was stocking for a while. These would probably be worth trying on a spinning rod. I think they have website too. I also had luck with 3 inch and 4 inch sluggos on 1/8th oz jig heads but not if they are fussy.

[Flaptail]

Slug-go's!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!

[Christian]

thanky for the suggestions

[Mr. Sandman]

two things work well for me...
Slugos with a small leadhead...twitched in their face and they attack it!!

The other are small realistic minnow lures (in brand new condition)lke YoZuri or Megabaits
(sometimes surface plugs are ok too...somtimes not)

all with direct tied (no snaps) to floro leader

I hope to be out on the flatts again soon...real soon