Inshore Soft Plastics and Jigs

[Jighead]

Made more "mojarra ghost" colors:



The top four are white and blue and the bottom five are white and chartreuse.

I used the white and chartreuse today at the beach and caught a 16ish" snook and a small jack. I'm going to fish the Indian River Lagoon tomorrow so I may make more junebug color grubs for the dark water.

[Jighead]

Only two viable from this batch but I got a nice swimbait out of it. I think the issue is that I'm not heating up the injector properly. I have about an inch of hardened plastisol in my injector at the end of every injection.

[Jighead]

I went out wade fishing with a friend of mine this morning. Caught a snook on my mojarra ghost grub using my 704z.



I lost two others and had one chase the lure right up to me.

[quang tran]

I use jig with Mister twister curly tail , paddle tail or slug-go style tail never use grub as you have . Early day fishing with plastic worm I save broke up worm mix all color together and pour to a mold made with chop stick press in clay and still catch bass , they eat these for reel as if you don't set hook quick you will hook them in the gut

[Jighead]

I use jig with Mister twister curly tail , paddle tail or slug-go style tail never use grub as you have . Early day fishing with plastic worm I save broke up worm mix all color together and pour to a mold made with chop stick press in clay and still catch bass , they eat these for reel as if you don't set hook quick you will hook them in the gut

Are you using the curly tails for sea trout and redfish? I've tried them for snook but haven't had luck with them. My go to has always been paddle tails but I want to branch out. I'll probably get a paddletail mold next, though.

[quang tran]

I use curly tail for crappie ,small mouth and walleye , lately I caught few good size sea trout with slug-go tail and surprise they took quite big bait . Paddle tail always been popular for sea trout and red . Never caught any snook . they sell mold for plastic bait too expensive also need few more tool to inject to mold so I never try

[Jighead]

came out okay. more chartreuse, less blue, and a lot less glitter next time.

[jurelometer]

From an artistry perspective, those grubs look very nice.  But don't be afraid to throw the rejects when none else is looking 

I think that  there are two paths we can take in our choices in lure making.  One path is fishing effectiveness, the other is artistry.  There is some overlap, but the longer I keep doing it the more that I find that one tends to get in the way of the other  At least for me.

Don't want to get us off topic again, but snook fit a evolutionary visual niche that favors general sensitivity over acuity and color vision, and giving up some ability to clearly see objects in relative motion.

In this stituation, light vs dark matters.  Flash vs dull matters. General size and shape can  matter a lot. The color of the water the fish hunts in is a good clue about where spectral sensitivity is strongest (which colors it can see best or even at all).

I used to read up up a bit on each species that I target, but now realize that the same general rules apply, and it is not too tricky to be mostly right by looking at the environment and target prey.   You can do the same for the species that you target.

-J

[Brewcrafter]

I slammed a yellowtail with one of Dave's swimbaits (smaller, not like what he has) on a Long Range when we nipped into the coast by Natividad.  Still have it; held up great.  I need to use it this June even though I take too much gear... - john

[JasonGotaProblem]

Hey Dave, have you made any good snook baits? I know they're far away, but I also know that you've visited.

[Jighead]

Yes, I'm throwing all of these. I mostly fish inlets for snook at night and use chartreuse and blue flair hawks. I want grubs and flukes in this color scheme as it's what I've caught the majority of my big snook on at night. Chartreuse/blue and junebug at night, natural colors during the day is usually what I do.