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Trout tackle arsenal varies among anglers PDF Print E-mail
Written by David Sikes   
Monday, 10 March 2008
LURING THEM IN: The pink Corky plug is becoming a favorite winter trout lure this season in Texas, while other hot lures and colors also will bring in big winter specks. Photo by Kyle Tomek.
LURING THEM IN: The pink Corky plug is becoming a favorite winter trout lure this season in Texas, while other hot lures and colors also will bring in big winter specks. Photo by Kyle Tomek.
Each generation of big trout anglers has its favorite tools.

Legendary lures such as the King and Queen Bingo, Hump and the Plugging Shorty Shrimp Bull now sit in shadow boxes to make room for newer models. Today’s coastal practitioners fall into a category that is as elite as the upper-class specks they seek. And the lure types in their arsenal are few.

Odds are that several or all of the following lures occupy space in the tackle boxes of most Texas big-trout hunters. And if there is a favorite among trout waders, it surely is the standard Corky plug. Arguably it held this top spot even before Jim Wallace caught his then-state record 13-pound, 11-ounce trout in 1996.

Wallace’s was chartreuse, but lately pink seems to be the rage.

Cliff Webb, notable Upper Laguna Madre/Baffin Bay guide and big-trout master, uses these soft pliable plugs almost exclusively, especially in winter. The original Corky, created and still made by Houston-area resident Paul Brown, is a slow-sinking or suspending lure. In Baffin Bay’s high salinity it’s even more buoyant, making it fall even slower than in other bays. The standard Corky mullet imitation is 4-inches long and weighs 5/8 ounce. They come in more than a dozen colors with endless combinations.

Most of today’s Corky plugs have a rattle inside with two dangling treble hooks. Brown makes three models of his standard plug. Each sinks at a different rate. And Brown now offers a smaller plug with a rear spinner, a broader profile Corky Fat Boy and the long-tailed Corky Devil.
The accepted best technique for retrieval is easy to explain, but difficult to employ or master. Most anglers must force themselves to resist retrieving this rubbery plug too quickly. Arguably a winter bait that works equally well in all seasons, the Corky is designed to imitate a lazy baitfish.

The slightest twitch of a rod tip will result in a complimentary juke of this plug. The action is natural if done right. Work it more quickly and the lure remains just below the surface. Bring it in faster still and it becomes a surface plug. There are many imitations, but most elite trout hunters wouldn’t have any of them. The Corky’s reputation is Brown’s greatest marketing asset.

If you see them in a store, buy several. Most Corky plugs are sold online or from Brown’s garage.

This next lure is from the same family. Paul Brown’s grandsons, Jake and Jason Brown, have created a firm, soft-plastic bait called a Devil Eye. The smaller version is called a Sea Devil.

Both resemble a traditional soft jerk bait with a weight problem, but only the Devil Eye has bulging eyes.

Baffin Bay guide Aubrey Black uses them almost exclusively on 16-ounce Hogie spring-head jigheads year round for trout. For big winter trout, Black lowers his lure slowly to the bay bottom upon casting and then tries to short-hop it two, three or four times about 6 inches off the bottom, maintaining a taut line.

For fishing around rocks, Black said the Devil Eye seems to avoid hang-ups better than traditional soft plastics. Black believes the fat head may be the reason it bounces off Baffin’s submerged rocks without getting snagged.

These next favorites are throwbacks to the previous generation. The 51M MirroLure and the more modern Catch 5 and Catch 2000 are waders’ plugs with a long history of success. Port Mansfield’s Mike McBride said the 51M has earned his confidence as a shallow-water trout plug. But it also serves as a wintertime slow-sinker in the super salty Laguna Madre, where anglers twitch it like they would a Corky near the bottom.

This cigar-shaped hard plastic plug sinks at the rate of about one foot per second, McBride said, adding that it’s not too noisy, casts like a bullet even into a breeze, and yet enters the water unobtrusively. In skilled hands, it can negotiate structure and can be retrieved quickly or manipulated to control its depth. In a word, it is versatile, McBride said. Straying from conventional wisdom is Rockport guide Jay Watkins, who catches more than his share of big trout using a 5-inch shad Bass Assassin regardless of conditions. Watkins prefers a plum or plum/chartreuse Bass Assassin on a 16-ounce No. 2 chartreuse Screw-lock jighead.

Watkins said this staple soft jerkbait is best worked with a medium-action rod over shallow scattered oyster shell, but also is effective in deeper water during winter. A lightweight jighead with a shore-shank hook makes it versatile in most all situations, Watkins said. When conditions make fishing tough, Watkins switches to the Bass Assassin Blurp, a scented version of the original soft plastic, which also comes in a paddle-tail model. Probably a dozen manufacturers make several versions of a soft plastic jerk-bait. And, generally, preference is what sets them apart.

For pure enjoyment, the topwater plug makes this list. Corpus Christi’s David Rowsey said while nearly every trout angler has a favorite surface plug, he allows conditions to dictate his choice.

Often dismissed as a warm-water lure exclusively, many trout stalkers have found success with topwater plugs in cooler bays. They say the surface commotion excites lethargic trout, and some anglers use them to locate fish. After getting the fish’s attention, they might switch to their favorite subsurface lure for the catch.

The MirroLure line of Top Dog plugs, which include She Dog, He Dog, Top Pup and several more, is a good all-around plug. There’s a size weight and rattle tone for nearly every condition. For a slightly different look and sound, the Rapala Skitter Walk may have recently surpassed the Top Dog series in popularity.

The Heddon Super Spook and Super Spook Jr. also are top preferences.
Last Updated ( Wednesday, 12 March 2008 )
 
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