- Another oldie but goody, this is one of my all time favorite lures for seatrout. I have two colors- red and white, and a white/yellow with red and black spots.
- This is another pure topwater splasher type lure. It was a staple of many commercial seatrout fishermen in years past – it caught more fish for them than live bait.
- Like the Top Dog, it stays on the surface, but unlike the Top Dog, it is more designed to make a splashing commotion on the surface than a rhythmic retrieve.
- Seatrout tend to be drawn to splashing commotions on the surface, particularly if they are in a large school. My theory is that competition for food makes them react to a commotion, looking to get to the scarce food source before others in the school. The Dalton provides just that commotion.
Dalton Special
- I could spend many days writing about all the new plastic lures on the market. By plastic, I refer to the molded grubs and swim tails that have evolved over the years from the original Crème worms of the 1950’s that put black bass fishing on the map.
- Virtually every lure manufacturer offers some type of soft plastic lure line. These plastics may be use on a bare hook as a swim bait or on a jig head.
- Called grubs, swim-tails, screw-tails, and variety of other names, they are all basically the same, and they are all offered in similar color combinations – when one company comes up with a new color combination that gets hot, other companies quickly follow with that same color.
- Some have soft bodies, some have harder bodies. Some have swim (curl) tails, some are straight. The choices can be mind boggling, so I will give you what I like and the reason I like them.
- I actually prefer a softer bodied plastic, and I prefer it because I prefer a swimming action. Harder bodied plastics have to be moved much faster in the water to get the tail movement a soft bodied plastic will provide. I am simply a believer that the tail motion makes a difference in my strike ratio. So – swimming tail and soft body.
- I also prefer to use all my plastics on a jig head - usually a ¼ ounce jig with a 3/0 wide gap hook
- I prefer what the industry calls a shad tail to the curl tail. Why? – I began using them and I have success with them. Do curl tails work? Yes! Straight tails and blunt grubs also work, but I don’t just fish with them. I tend to stay with what has worked for me in the past.
- My all time favorite color in plastics is pink and chartreuse. You have seen that color reference in many of my articles, and there is a reason. It works! It catches seatrout, red drum, flounder, bluefish (heck almost anything you throw will catch a bluefish!), black drum, and even grouper and snapper.
- If the bite slows on pink and chartreuse, I will go to a white with a pink head. Sometimes a color change will pick up a slowing bite – something new to the fish that gets them going again.
- I work my plastics erratically, similar to other lures. I almost never use a straight retrieve back to the boat. Twitch, twitch, reel twice – twitch, twitch, reel twice. Sometimes an extra twitch – sometimes only one twitch..
- I also work the water column. I’ll try just under the surface, or let the jig sink a little deeper on the next retrieve. Sometimes I will bounce the lure off the bottom. It all depends on what the fish want, and I explore the water column to find that out.
Soft Plastics
Bottom Line
I have mentioned a few lures here. I have given you my personal methods for using them. But, you need to know that methods vary from successful angler to successful angler. Lure choices vary as well. There are hundreds of lures on the market – most all of them are capable of producing fish under the right circumstances.
The difference between one lure and another has more to do with confidence than anything else. If I try a new lure and don’t get a strike, I tend to go right back to the lures that I have used successfully – I have confidence in them.
With a new lure, no strike means the lure isn’t good. With an old reliable lure, no strike means the fish aren’t there. In actuality, both lures may be fine – I just have more confidence in a known quantity.
The lure you use will depend on your personal preference. But remember – you need to stay with something long enough top gain that confidence. Not getting a strike may have more to do with the fish not being there than the lure not working for you.
