Shrimp Lures VS. Live Pinfish: Shocking Results!
- By: Luke Simonds
- on
Shrimp lures VS. Live Pinfish – who wins???
We definitely weren’t expecting this.
Check out the full trip report below!!
Shrimp Lures VS. Live Pinfish [VIDEO]
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Gear Used:
- Rod: Slot Machine Custom Rod
- Reel: Daiwa BG MQ 2500
- Mainline: 10lb Daiwa J-Braid x8 Grand
- Leader: 20lb Ande Monofilament Leader
- Lure: Prawn USA Junior
- Hook: Hoss Weedless Football Jigheads
- Chum: Baitmasters Magic Fish’N Dry Chum
- Cast Net: Ahi 600 Series Monofilament Cast Net
The goal of this trip was to use some bait chum to cast net live pinfish to target snapper.
We picked out a few spots with rocks and corals in about 20 feet of water.
After a few throws of the net, we had plenty of pinfish in the live well.
But, I wanted to start by bouncing the Prawn Junior artificial shrimp lure over the rocks to see if anything would bite.
I also do this to get a feel for the structure in front of me and know where the big rocks are.
I was thrilled to hook into a solid mangrove snapper on my second cast.
Dinner was already in the boat before we tossed out live bait!
So to begin the trip, Joe and I both thought pinfish would be the ticket.
But because I reeled that snapper in, I decided to stick with artificial shrimp lures.
Joe went ahead with live pinfish.
All in all, the Prawn dominated live pinfish and got way more strikes and hooked into more fish.
For many years, I thought live bait was essential for snapper and grouper fishing.
But as you can see, jigging artificial shrimp lures up and down is the way to go.
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I agree with Mr. Free, I also do not use live bait for the same reasons.It would have been even more interesting if you and Joe had tried the same experiment 1 to 3 days later to see if the fish were still preferring the Prawn Junior artificial shrimp. Thanks for the video.
All I know is fish are fish I find it surprising that you and your brother both still thought that both grouper and snapper could only be caught with livebait especially considering how many different species of fish that can be caught on both shrimp lures and paddletails you guys teach is this in saltstrong and both preach how lures are the way to go for any fish I’m not even from or fish your area around Tampa Bay and I have know for a few years now and read about it that grouper around alot of the bridges in the Tampa area are caught shallow water trolling with deep diving crankbaits and they have been doing that for years even snook are caught on some of the residential canals with trolled deep diving lipped plugs and if grouper and snook can be caught regularly on lures snapper can be to maybe not as big a lure as a grouper but snapper even though I dont fish for them know they are extremely aggressive fish and if it can fit in there mouth they will eat it anyways just saying personally I will never use live ot dead bait again never really had the confidence in it and it’s to much of a hassel to keep alive expensive if you buy it (because if I did use it I would buy it on the acct I really suck with a cast net) and very messy as well as it stinks you boat or yak up as well that the only friends you would probably have after you came home from fishing would be all the nieborhood cats that live by you so no thanks I’ll stick with what works and Is less a pain to deal with enough said🤔
Sorry if I gave the wrong impression… we knew that grouper and snapper could be caught with lures, we just had more confidence that the bigger smarter ones would be more likely to hit live bait because we don’t target those species very often. Turns out that assumption was not correct.
I primarily use slow-pitch jigs for snapper and grouper. I find many fishermen haven’t become proficient at catching fish deeper than 20 feet, like snapper and grouper, because they don’t keep the bait in the strike zone.
Thanks for the video
Glad to see that you enjoyed this video!
Love these videos. Looks like a cool trip. One of these days, I’m going to target the mangrove snapper around our east coast bridges in Titusville. Happy Thanksgiving!
Thanks for making time to post the nice comment!