Catching Great Slam On Lures While Exploring New Spots
- By: Luke Simonds
- on
This fishing report shows a fun example of how rewarding it can be to pick good spots and the right lures based on the given conditions.
While on a recent vacation, I had the pleasure of exploring some new waters with Lowe Morrison and Leiza Fitzgerald.
I had the honor of selecting the first spot, so I used the Smart Fishing Spots system to find a spot that ended up producing some very nice fish right off the bat.
And then we hit some other spots and adjusted lures accordingly to help keep the bite going as the day progressed and the tides changed.
Details are shown in the video below:
Gear Used On This Trip
Medium Power Setup
- Rod: Slot Machine Rod – Medium
- Reel: Otis 2500
- Mainline: J-Braid 8 Grand – 10 lb
- Leader: 15 lb mono with 30 lb mono bite tippet
- Lure 1: Wake Mullet – Mullet HD
- Lure 2: Skinny Lipper – Slam Shady
- Lure 3: Mulligan 4″ Gold Digger rigged on 1/4 Weedless Round Eye 4/0 jighead
- Lure 4: Prawn USA (OG) rigged on 1/4 Weedless Round Eye 4/0 jighead
- Lure 5: Prawn USA (Junior) rigged on 1/4 Round Eye 2/0 jighead
Medium-Heavy Power Setup
- Rod: Slot Machine Rod – Medium Heavy
- Reel: Daiwa Ballistic 3000
- Mainline: J-Braid 8 Grand – 20 lb
- Leader: 30 lb mono
- Lure 1: Skinny Lipper XL – Mullet HD
- Lure 2: Prawn USA (OG rigged on 1/4 Football jighead 4/0
Key Takeaways
- Always put the core focus on picking spots based on the conditions (factoring in both tides and weather)
- When it’s hot, put an extra emphasis on zones that have good water movement
- Make sure to put a focus on matching your lure size and type to the size of the bait that’s present for each spot
- If you’re in a lively spot and aren’t getting strikes, try a lure that has a different size and/or depth coverage
Feedback
We always enjoy hearing from you, so please do not hesitate to use the Comments section below if you have any questions or suggestions for improving these types of videos.
Tight Lines!
Related categories:
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 ever 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).
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).
Luke,
Wake mullet lure
You lost this lure which means you cut line and left lure in fish for release? Does fish survive?
It is extremely rare when lures (especially plugs with single inline hooks) get hooked in the fish’s gut. This was an unfortunate incidence when it not only happened, but it happened on a redfish that was too big to keep. So the only options were to try to cut the lure out of its gut by cutting up the fish which would have surely killed it, or cut the line to give the fish a shot at surviving knowing that the hooks will be rusting with the constant exposure to salt water.
Luke thanks for sharing when and why you chose/switched lures. Very helpful to this newbie trying to figure out the saltwater game.
Our pleasure Tom! Thanks for making time to post the nice comment.
Great video and discussion by all! I always love it when we can all learn from each other. Luke I really liked when you chose to “straight line” retrieval vs the other two in the boat. Sometimes having others trying different things with the lures will allow all to learn quickly what the fish of size really want.
Thanks for making time to post the nice comment Scott.
Great video and I enjoyed watching your retreaves learned a little.
Thanks for the great info
Thanks for making time to post the nice comment Johnathan!
Thank you Luke, great video and information. Always so helpful in spending the time helping us all in the process to get better. With thanks!
Thanks for making time to post the nice comment David!
Got it. Want an 87” slam, fish with the only fisherman in the Florida Sports Hall of Fame, Leiza. How many inches was the snook?
That snook fought for a long time, so we wanted to keep it out of the water as little as possible so didn’t bother measuring it… the collective estimate from all 3 of us was that it was a 40 incher.
Another great video. I am in the process of setting up to use the different lures and go out and get slams and bringing dinner home! Thanks and Tight Lines!!! 🎣🎣🎣
Thanks for making time to post the nice comment Harvey!
What were the measurements? Guess 38 snook. 32 red 20 trout?
The only fish we measured was the biggest red, and it was 30 inches. The snook we estimated to be 40, and the biggest trout was pushing 20.
Niiiiice! I was close
Great video and I especially liked the lure s and when they worked and when they didn’t.. I have found even up here in the Jacksonville area that the prawn and the prawn with the chartreuse tails are going to work best and we are about to enter in my opinion the best fishing months of the year…. Plenty of trout are always there and I’ve yet to see a season when they aren’t …. !! Tight lines to everyone and once again Great video Luke, indeed thanks …. As every now and then we do fish Cedar Key but haven’t for a couple of years … Makes me want to go back now ……. !!
Thanks for making time to post the nice comment Thomas! I’m glad to see that you enjoy fishing in Cedar Key too… sure has an impressive fishery!
Do you think the wake mullet will eventually come out of the redfish’s mouth?
Yes, but that was a worse case situation so I’m not sure if that red made it or not before the hooks rusted out. That was the first time it has ever happened with me once I switched all of my plugs to single inline hooks. But given how deep it was, the fish would have surely died had we tried to do surgery on it to retrieve the plug. And it was too big to keep, so we had no other choice but to cut it and give the fish a shot.
I don’t like to waste a magnificent fish
I’ll take a gut hooked fish home every time . I feel like there’s a chance of that lure ending up somewhere worse like in a porpoise etc. I release way more fish than I keep . In the end we all have to make a decision based on conscious . Looks like a great day!
We’ve been having lots of those lately!
I do the same thing. In this case, that red was over the 27 inch max slot so it would not have been legal to keep it.