Lures

[Patrick]

If you fish from boats and docks, I would go with something like a WindCheater. They work really well in deeper water. Rebel makes them and if you need any proof if they work, the current world record was caught on a black over silver one.
If you want to go cheaper, get some bucktails or pour your own. You will increase your chances if you use a trailer like a fin-s or a mister twister or a pork rind. Bucktails work at all times of the day and night while other lures have a better time. For example, swimmers work better at night and poppers are best at dawn or dusk. Bucktails will catch fish at any time. You can get by with a ball jig but if I am fishing calm water, I like to use a smiling bill jig. If I am fishing a current, I like to use a lima bean jig. The lima bean jig has less drag in a current so that means I can use a lighter jig then if I went with a round jig head.

A smiling bill has a lip in it that gives it good action in calm water. Plus, if you are fishing a beach, the v-notch lip kicks up sand.

The downside of jigs are that if you are fishing one right, you will lose it sooner or later. And you also need to carry a variety of sizes. I carry anything from 1/2 oz to 1 and a 1/2 oz. I fish LI sound so that is all I need. Some open water surfcasters use up to 4 0z.
Important things to consider are how the jigheads are painted, how they attach the bucktail hair, and what kind of hooks they use. On a cheap bucktail, the paint will chip off in one crack to rocks, the bucktail hair will fall out of the threads and hooks will straighten out.
I know of one site where they sell jigs that these two guys make. They say they use forged hooks, they secure the bucktail not only with thread but Zap-A-Gap glue and I think they bake the jigheads. Now I have never used their jigs before but if what they say is true, they make one high quality jig. I once bought a pack of 15 bucktails for 6 bucks. What a mistake. Half the jigs fell apart. And then I got one big sea robin on one of the jigs and the hook straightend out on me!

Jigs work!