Early (Pre) Season Discussion #4 - Specific Lures

[Tagger]

Spring time I'll do alot of day fishing ..Until the first extended heat wave then I'll go nights . The fish (schoolies ,small keepers ) seem to like small baits .. spooks,, pencils,, needles .. small spooks like the Jigman,,5 3/4" .. or the small Cordell 5 3/4" factory loaded 80's vintage pearl/white . or load and paint the newer ones ..Last year my jiggy wasn't jiving and for what ever reason they were loving the small cordell only .(knocked off in wood for this year). I also do well on my small 6" slow sink olive needle .. These plugs are for May with June favoring the canal with lead and sluggos and all size pp ,,yellow with a pearl/white belly . In certain area's around the herring run 6"-7"wood swimmers ,,, red fins .. I would prefer to catch fish top water and may sometimes be guilty of forcing the issue instead of s#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&g it up and throwing a ducky .. I've caught on darters in the canal .. Couple of years ago first fish of the year was on a (gibbs type) Eben darter .. I don't throw them nearly enough either ,, gotta fix that ..

[vineyardblues]

I like the early Rebels (5inch Broken back) black, and yellow/ silver
A 2nd option for early fishing is sea worms,on bottom.
Best is a bait we no longer can use

[Tagger]

Originally Posted by vineyardblues

Best is a bait we no longer can use

How many 50's and 40's on artificals last year ?? We don't need no stinking bait ..

[Dad 818]

Made a few Dannys this winter and didn't tail weight a couple. With a nice slow retrieve the tail wags on the surface and looks quite tantalizing. Actually had a couple largemouth takes swipes at them when I was testing them in the spring. Maybe they have some karma to them now?

[Clogston29]

in the early season (about mid may up this way) i love a cloudy day, some rollers and alittle white water, but not a ton. go to is a herring colored small mambo minnow (small tattoo swimmer in herring or white is also good, but my favorite is the mambo). work it on the edges of the bar / structure or right in the white water where and when the wave just starts to break - you need to time and locate you cast perfectly for this. you'll need a light leader for this and you'll need to test swim your mambos as i find them to be very inconsistant - some swim great no matter what, some just suck no matter what, and some swim well only on light leader with the knot located at the perfect spot. I need to experiment with loop knots to see if I can improve this. None of the snaps that i've tried that are small enough for these small lures can stand up to even keeper sized fish. Light tackle is fun for this but can get you in trouble. Sluggos can be very effective here too, but I enjoy fishing the mambo more, it seams alittle more cerebral.

when night tides start becoming an option (late may to early june up here, at a few spots, later at most) you can't go wrong with an a-salt bomber on a relatively calm night. yellow if there's a moon or artificial light, blurple if not. slow retrieve with an occasional light twitch (think flick more than twitch - rod tip should only move an inch or two). this method has accounted for most of my better (30-35ish) early season fish. if your getting lots of short strikes, try twitching more often and speeding up the retrieve a bit.

[JohnR]

Nice info gents

Josh, yes, the Mambo is a beautiful (if occasionally temperamental) thing (I prefer the olive / gold in 7") for some of my local inlet fishing.

[luds]

i could get through the may on these plugs alone. the majority of the better fish will (hopefully) come on a bomber at night in late may. one key thing with the 1 oz. bomber is to use a lighter leader and a small snap.....preferably breakaway. it swims significantly better with out a heavy rigging attached to it and the fish seam to agree.

day
white bm danny
yellow bm junior
yellow rm jigsmith
chartreuse small tattoo swimmer
yellow or herring ss 2 3/8 popper
blue mackerel prof m small surf howdy
chartreuse rapala small x-walk
pink 2 oz yozuri pencil
white 3 oz. guppy pencil

night
large blurple or yellow tattoo swimmer
a-salt bomber in yellow, chartreuse, or blurple
red fin in wonderbread or blurple