New Redfish Lure Designed For Getting Strikes In Calm, Shallow Flats
- By: Luke Simonds
- on
Is it possible to catch smart fish in heavy-traffic areas with artificial lures?
These fish are getting lures tossed at them all day every day, and the big ones are big for a reason — they’re smart enough to have not gotten caught and eaten yet.
Plus, when the water is calm and clear, the fish are extra spooky and are more aware of your boat.
So, can you catch these fish with artificial lures, or do you need live or cut bait?
Most people think you need live or cut bait, and that works, but you can catch them on artificial lures, too.
In fact, I’ve been catching some monster snook, redfish, trout, and even flounder recently in areas that are really popular “live bait only” spots.
What you need is a lure that doesn’t make a ton of noise or vibration and spook the fish off… but it still must have great action underwater to trigger a reaction strike from even the smartest fish.
A split-tail jerk bait checks all of these boxes. And if you want to see proof that it works, as well as which jerk bait is our favorite, check out the video below.
Best Lure For Spooky Fish In Calm Water
The footage below was taken from my first hour of using the new lure that we just recently developed called the Alabama Leprechaun:
Click here to grab a pack of Alabama Leprechauns
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Equipment Used
- Lure: 5″ Alabama Leprechaun
- Hook: 3/0 Owner TwistLock with 1/16th oz weight
- Line: 10 lb PowerPro
- Leader: 20 lb Ande Mono
- Reel: Quantum Smoke 30SZ
- Rod: Bull Bay Stealth Sniper 7’6″ MH Power
If you’re fishing in calm, clear, shallow water, the fish are usually on high alert.
Lures that make a lot of noise or vibration in the water usually scare the fish off, but a simple lure like a split-tail jerk shad is perfect for these conditions.
Rigging it on a weighed hook (3/0 Owner TwistLock with 1/16th oz weight) and retrieving it with a twitch-twitch-pause retrieve makes it erratically dart through the water.
This mimics a scared shrimp or injured baitfish so it’s irresistible to predator fish like redfish, trout, and snook.
Now, we just came out with the Alabama Leprechaun, which is a green jerk shad with lots of gold and red flash.
It’s also infused with real shrimp and baitfish to give off a fish-attracting scent.
As you can see in the video above, big fish love it, and you can get a pack of them for yourself here.
Have any questions about these lures?
Let me know in the comments below.
And if you know someone who is frustrated by not catching spooky fish, please TAG or SHARE this with them!
P.S. Click here to grab your pack of Alabama Leprechauns.
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STOP WASTING TIME ON THE WATER!
Do what the “SMART ANGLERS” are doing and join the Insider Club.
Here’s what you’ll receive today when you join:
- Weekly fishing reports and TRENDS revealing exactly where you should fish every trip
- Weekly “spot dissection” videos that walk you through all the best spots in your area
- Exclusive fishing tips from the PROS you can’t find anywhere else
- Everything you need to start catching fish more consistently (regardless if you fish out of a boat, kayak, or land).
Redfish eat anything you throw at them. There is no special lure for that. They even eat jalapeños.
There always some days when any species will eat anything that they see. But there are also many situations when they aren’t feeding aggressively which is when we have to put some focus on using lures that generate strikes even when they aren’t actively feeding.
Just wanted to chime in and say I had to place another 4 pack order of these lures because I’ve been catching so many fish on them! They trigger an awesome Bass bite and I managed to catch my personal best trout and redfish in the past two weeks on the flats! Not to mention all of the nice snook in the mix. I’m a big fan and encourage others to try them out too!
Thanks Luke- Am I correct in assuming that you generally stopped using Gulp?
Yes. I very rarely use Gulp anymore since they changed their material to be much weaker… gets torn up by pinfish way too fast.
I have my packs of the Alabama Leprechaun, but I am doing so well with the Slam Shady 2.0 it’s had to put another lure on. I have to force myself to try.
Can not wait to try this lure out. That’s for the info. I need all the help I can get.
I hope you enjoy fishing with this lure as much as I have while testing it out.
I will definitely check those out
I received mine yesterday but was surprised because to me they look like root beer with gold flakes and I even compared them to some gulp ones that are root beer that have gold flakes and they are very strikingly similar the Alabama’s are just a slight bit lighter in color then the gulps and the gulps gold flakes are more like a sand diameter where as the Alabama’s are more like flakes and are about 2 to 3 sizes bigger then the gulps was a little disappointed also in that I could not dye the tail chartreuse like I wanted to the Alabama’s don’t take to spike it Flo but the zman don’t either so no biggee also am surprised you guys think it sometimes resembles a fleeing shrimp never seen a shrimp in that color before but you do have photos of it working so I’ll take your word on it and although I don’t have clear water here in old Jacksonville part of Florida gonna try them anyway because root beer is a great color for the tannin stained waters here thanks for the info and all you do
When you get it out in the sun, you should see the green core color.
One of the reasons I really like green is because the best tasting prey will almost always naturally take on the color of their surroundings for protection. So in areas with grassy and/or dark bottoms, the local shrimp and even some baitfish too will often take on a greenish color… and the predators are on the lookout for them. This color seems to do a great job at keeping the color similar to what they are looking for (green) while having just enough gold flash to catch their eye from longer distances.
The shrimp imitation I referenced was more about the motion in the water (short darts followed by a slow descent)… the motion of lures will often be more important than color in generating strikes.
So what kind of material are we talkin about? Z-Man like or Zoom like or something else? Floater or sinker?
It’s material strength is not as good at withstanding attacks from toothy critters as much as Zman’s Elaztech material, but it’s at least a bit stronger than the Zoom super flukes.
It does float if in the water without any rigging.
Thanks Luke
Been using Zman jerk shad for years and most days out fish live bait fishermen. Just curious is this a zman product because of all the toothy fish around here other soft plastics just don’t last. This has been deadly on flounder for me but because of depth and current usually fish on trout eye jig head.
This alabama leprechaun lure is not made by Zman. Its material is not as good at withstanding the toothy fish as Zman, but it is much easier to rig.
Got mine today using them in morning!!!
Great news! I hope you have a blast out there tomorrow.
what weight Twist lock hook are you using
My favorite one is their 3/0 with a 1/16th oz weight on it. Make sure to order from the online store so that you can claim the 20% Insider Club discount… you can just select in-store pickup so you don’t get any shipping charges and your items will be waiting on you when you get there. Here’s a link to those hooks: https://shop.saltstrong.com/products/owner-twistlock-hooks-for-soft-plastics
Thanks that’s great to know.