Lures: Frank Sargeant

By FRANK SARGEANT fsargean@tampabay.rr.com

Published: Apr 30, 2004

Classic lures don’t come along every day. But when a lure that’s truly different arrives, it quickly makes an impact on anglers – and fish. Among the classics of the past 50 years are the plastic worm, the Rapala, the Trout Tout plastic-tailed jig, the crankbait, the Rat-L-Trap vibrating lure and, more recently, the DOA Shrimp, a plastic that looks real enough to dip into cocktail sauce. It’s starting to look like anglers soon might add one more to the hall of fame: a series of new lures known as swimbaits. They originated with bass anglers, and lures such as the Castaic Minnow and the Megabait have accounted for countless lunker largemouths the past several years. Now, lure makers have turned to saltwater with similar baits, and they seem to be reaching critical mass as word spreads of their effectiveness.

A swimbait is basically a soft plastic body molded around a jig head, so the head is enclosed. The big advantage over add-on tails is the molded body stays in place until it’s bitten off; fish can’t pull it off as they do with slip-on tails. And, the shapes that can be molded with these bodies allow different action from conventional jigs. Most behave much more erratically, particularly the new models designed for saltwater, which have an amazing darting, diving action that looks almost too fast to be attractive to inshore fish. But, it clearly is not. Fish love the things. The best-known brand is probably Tsunami, from Bimini Bay. An interesting sales pitch is printed on the bag these lures come in: Warning: Excessive use of this product may deplete fish species. It almost could be true – at least until the fish wise up to the new shape and action, as it seems they eventually do when a lure gets hot. Impressive Results

These lures had devastating effects on trout this spring at St. Joseph Sound north of Clearwater, where anglers in the know said they were outfishing live sardines. They also have proven to be remarkably effective on snook, a species chronically suspicious of anything but live bait. They even catch flounder, another species that generally eschews – rather than chews – most lures. Why are the new lures working so well? One theory is they imitate sand eels, a sort of filet mignon among predatory fish. Bob Shipp, author of “Fishes of the Gulf of Mexico,” said there are dozens of species of eels in the Gulf, ranging from a few inches long to the giant king snake eel, up to 8 feet long and a foot thick, and equipped with bad teeth and a bad attitude. The eels that seem of most interest to snook, trout, reds and tarpon are 4 to 6 inches long, and of a milder disposition. Shipp said they’re abundant in most parts of the Gulf, but rarely seen because they stay burrowed into the sand except for short feeding forays at night. These eels are different from the American eels, which grow to lengths of a couple of feet and swim pretty much from birth to death. The American eels are favorites with cobia, but seem less appealing to other species. Not so with the sand eels, however; it seems that just about all inshore fish eat every one they can catch. There’s a bit of a learning curve in fishing swimbait lures, however. The standard hop-and-drop retrieve used for conventional jigs doesn’t do much good with them. The trick is to raise the lure a foot or two off bottom, then let it fall on a nearly slack line, keeping a finger on the line so you feel any telltale tap as a fish eats it. If there’s no bite, you raise the lure and let if fall again. It zigs a different direction on each drop, and fish usually strike it as it drops. Microfiber Lines Popular

Because it takes a touch to sense the bite, most anglers are fishing them on microfiber lines, which are thought to transmit the bite more sharply than mono. A couple feet of clear mono shock leader in 20- to 25- pound test are added just ahead of the lure, which is tied on with a loop knot to allow it the best action. Some swimbait models are fitted with plastic eyes and have a line of glitter down their center that shows through the semi-transparent body, giving an impressively life-like appearance – perhaps another factor in their effectiveness. Blowfish are anathema to the lures, because they chop off the tail and render the lure immediately useless. I’ve tried adding slip-on tails to ruined swim baits. While they catch some fish, they’re not nearly so effective as the original body because the darting action is gone. The cost of some early swimbaits approached $15 a copy. The saltwater models sold by Bimini Bay and others are around $7 for a pack of four to six lures, making them very affordable because one lure might last through several dozen fish – so long as that hungry blowfish doesn’t come munching along. Only time will tell if swimbaits become one of the classics that will populate anglers’ tackle boxes a decade from now. But for the present, they definitely appear to be lures that most will want to test drive.