Fishing School
Lures
Huge congrats for making it to the Advanced Lures level!!!
As you surely have found by now, the best fishermen typically use just a select few lures and they catch more fish than most other fishermen because they keep their focus on finding the best spots to fish since they aren’t wasting time second guessing their lure choices.
The key to getting to this level of trust in lures is to make sure that you know which scenarios each type of lure excels… and that’s what this lesson is all about.
The lures featured below represent the best of the best we’ve tested so far for catching redfish, seatrout, snook, flounder, and a variety of other species throughout all seasons.
Most importantly, pay special attention to the order of this list because it’s based on the importance level of becoming an expert with each lure.
Scroll down below to see the listing of lures as well as the ideal times to use them.
First is a video that explains a summary of each lure. And below that is a list of the lures along when when they are at their best.
Note: Please be sure to go through the Mini-Courses for each lure so you can become an expert in generating strikes with them even if the fish aren’t actively feeding.
1. Small Paddletail: The 2.0
This is the best all-purpose paddletail on the market. It’s 3.5 inch streamlined profile enables it to work great when rigged on a jig head for deep water as well as on a weighted hook for effectively covering the shallows. Also, this lure’s body style even allows it to look great even without it’s tail so you can pull the tail off if the baitfish are very small and or if you need to decrease the amount of vibration the lure is putting off.
Given how well this lure works along with how versatile it is, it’s a must-have lure for inshore fishermen.
Seasons: works great across all seasons
Mini-Course2. Small Shrimp Profile: Prawn USA Junior
These shrimp are my #1 choice of all for fishing tight to structure like docks, rocks, bridges, reefs, etc. because it can be rigged weedless for the full depth spectrum (12 inches down to 60+ ft). It’ll catch a wide variety of fish (big and small) with very little effort… just a basic bouncing motion along the bottom will catch a ton of fish.
This Junior edition of the Prawn USA lures can easily be rigged on weedless hooks and jigheads which makes them arguably the most versatile shrimp lure on the market.
Seasons: works great across all seasons
3. Medium Paddletail: The Mulligan
When fishing in areas with medium sized baitfish (4 to 5 inches), it’s smart to have a mid-sized paddletail like The Mulligan because they cast much farther than the others due to their design (dimpled skin and bulky body). Also, these paddletails allow for much better skipping and they give off more vibration in the water enabling you to get it in front of more fish which all but guarantees you’ll increase your catch rate.
These Mulligan lures were designed to be rigged on the weighted hooks and jig heads shown below to cover all depth ranges.
Seasons: Best in Spring, Summer, and Fall
4. Big Shrimp Profile: Prawn USA Original (OG)
There are some situations when shrimp are running and the inshore fish get totally fixated on them, so it’s important to have some ready for action. The Prawn USA lure has risen to the top of the list for a big shrimp lure because it is super easy to rig and use while having an awesome strike-generating glide in the water.
This lure is 4.3 inches long, and it casts farther and skips better than any other shrimp lure I have tested while having great strike-generating action in the water. Best of all, it works great in all depth ranges since it’s super easy to rig on a wide variety of weighted hooks and jig heads.
All you’ll need are some packs of these shrimp lures along with whichever sized jig heads or weedless hook rigs based on the depth zones that you’ll be fishing and you’ll be catching a ton of quality fish when shrimp are the target prey.
Seasons: Best in Winter, Spring, & Summer
5. Darting Lure: The Polk County Tweaker
When the fish aren’t feeding well on paddletails nor shrimp profiles, that’s when it’s time to pull out a darting lure to trigger reaction strikes from fish that simply can’t help but to go after a prey that looks injured/scared.
These PC Tweaker lures do a great job at resembling both a scared shrimp as well as an injured baitfish from the quick darting motion that goes in all directions.
And since these lures were designed to cast extremely far and skip very well, they are excellent at catching lots of fish on the days when everyone else is coming home with excuses about the fish having lock jaw.
Seasons: Best in Winter, Spring, & Summer
6. Big Paddletail: The Bomber
When fishing in areas with larger baitfish 5+ inches, it’s smart to have a larger paddletail ready for action. Also, these larger paddletails can be extremely effective when fishing at night and/or in windy conditions because they cast farther and give off more vibration in the water enabling you to cover more water more easily while enabling the fish to more easily find your lure.
When fishing these conditions, the Slam Shady Bomber will typically outperform the smaller 2.0 and Mulligan profiles. Just like the others, they can be rigged on the weighted hooks and jig heads shown below to cover all depth ranges.
Seasons: Best in the Fall
7. Jerk Shad: Alabama Leprechaun
When fishing in calm, clear, and shallow water, the best lure is often going to be a soft plastic jerk shad rigged on a weighted hook because it has great action in the water and very little vibration to make sure that it won’t spook off finicky fish.
These lures mimic both scared shrimp as well as small baitfish that live on the bottom, so the darker green color with some gold flash seems to be the color that works most often.
Seasons: Best in Winter, Spring, & Summer
8. Weedless Spoon: Johnson Silver Minnow
Although soft plastic lures are amazingly good at catching redfish, snook, seatrout, & flounder, there are some situations where they simply can’t be used so it’s important to be ready for making a change when needed. A weedless spoon is typically the best choice if you’re fishing in shallow areas with structure and you can’t fish a soft plastic due to pufferfish biting off the tails. Also, these lures are great when fishing on windy days because they slice through the wind.
The best value weedless spoon we’ve found so far is the Johnson Silver Minnow.
Seasons: Best in Winter, Spring, & Summer
9. Topwater Plug: Moonwalker
When fishing at night and during the twilight hours (as the sun is rising or setting) during the Spring, Summer, and Fall seasons, the topwater bite can be extremely good… plus it’s arguably the most fun lure of all to use because you see and hear the fish’s powerful strikes at the surface.
The Moonwalker has been the best overall performing topwater plug that I’ve use so far… we tested a bunch of topwater plugs, and pulled in the pros from the best performers and put them into this one lure.
Seasons: Best in the Summer & Fall
10. Diving Plug: Skinny Lipper
The diving plug is my most recent addition to the “must-have” list of lures because it is great at covering lots of water with minimal effort without risk of junk fish messing up soft plastics.
This particular lure is my favorite of all because it stays within 2 ft of the surface making it great for power fishing in shallow structure zones with it can also become a great finesse lure if given a slow injured fish retrieve.
‘If you’re an advanced angler who fishes the shallows for redfish, seatrout, and/or snook, you’re going to love using this lure.
Seasons: Best in the Summer & Fall
WEIGHTED HOOKS & JIGHEADS
Below is a listing of the top rigging options for the soft plastic lures that are shown in the Top 10 lures for advanced anglers.
It’s crucial to get the rigging right when using soft plastics, so make sure to use the Rigging Guide to make sure that you’re optimizing your results.
Weighted Hooks (for soft plastics)
The use of weighted hooks for fishing the shallows will skyrocket results compared to using traditional worm hooks because they help make sure that the lure won’t helicopter in the water and the added weight will increase casting distance.
The hooks we have liked best for many years are the TwistLock hooks made by Owner because they are their patented TwistLock keeper while having a variety of hook and weight sizes.
We created Hoss Helix hooks more recently in order to better fit our Power Prawn USA lures… these Hoss helix hooks use the same keeper as the TwistLocks, but the Hoss hooks have a wider gap and a thinner shank diameter to allow for better hooksets with the Power Prawn USA lures.
Note: These are generally best for covering depth zones down to 2.5 ft relative to jig heads.
Jig Heads (Weedless): Hoss Weedless Footballs
When fishing in more than a couple feet of water, it’s crucial to be able to get your lure down to the strike zone. So having jig heads of various weights is a must for inshore fishermen.
And since redfish, seatrout, snook, flounder, and so many other species are ambush predators that hold near structure to feed, it’s extremely helpful to be able to use weedless lures to minimize time and money wasted by getting snagged on the bottom.
The best overall jig heads that we’ve found so far for rigging a wide assortment of lures (all listed above) weedless from depths ranging from 3 ft down to 100+ ft are the Hoss Weedless Football jigheads.
Jig Heads (Traditional): Hoss Round Eye
When fishing in more than a couple feet of water, it’s crucial to be able to get your lure down to the strike zone. So having jig heads of various weights is a must for inshore fishermen.
The weedless jig heads listed above have an advantage when fishing tight to structure due having a low chance of getting snagged, but the traditional style jigheads have an advantage for open water and/or structure-free bottoms since they allow for a better hookup ratio.
The best overall jig heads that we’ve found so far for rigging a wide assortment of lures (all listed above) from the main depth ranges are the Hoss Round Eye jigheads.
If you have any questions, please use the Comments feature below to ask them and we’ll be quick to respond.
Ultimate Lure Bundle (save an extra 10%)
We have a bundle that has the these lures in the most popular color patterns along with the recommended rigging options at an unbeatable price… you’ll save an extra 10% across the board.
Note: The only lure not included in the bundle is the weedless spoon.
Great article, thanks! As a seasoned angler, using each of those lures, the lesson is a great reminder of when and when not to use a particular lure based on the seasons. Here in northwest Florida we’ve been getting cold fronts that keep dropping the water temperature. Slow and finese seems to be the best option till the water warms up. I’ve found the prawn junior to be a pretty good lure right now.
Thanks for making time to post the nice comment Robert!
FYI, the video is linked to game plan for the week, not lure selection. That said, great condensed information.
Thanks for letting me know about the link issue… it’s fixed now.
Thanks for the great lesson. This is very useful information I can use and I will be implementing this thru out the year and let you know what my results are
I look forward to hearing about your results!
You didn’t talk about lure color. The spotted trout love the Fred and Flamingo colors. I have been using these over most of the winter. Last week I started with the slam shady and had limited success. I changed over to the Flamingo and started catching fish immediately.
maybe the reds and snook like the slam shady better.
From what I’ve seen so far in color tests, it is very rare when 1 color outperforms another, so my conclusion has been that humans care more about the colors than the fish. We’ll continue testing to see if there’s a trend in any particular colors outshining the others in particular conditions. So far, I seem to catch more fish when I stick with slam shady for mimicking baitfish and natural shrimp when using shrimp lures.
But my recommendation is to go with whatever you have the most confidence in because that’ll free your mind to focus on the more important factors like spot selection, lure retrieve, depth coverage, and lure size.
Thank you for going through the process. Reinforces good fishing approach and when to move to the next lure. Great video!!!
So glad to see that you enjoyed this lesson! Thanks for making time to post the nice comment.
That’s a really good video, Luke. I appreciate your focus on essentials, from gear choices, locating fish, etc., which cuts down on the frustration factor and increases productivity and enjoyment.
Thanks for making time to post the nice comment Keith!
Really good summary, Luke. Thank you. Wader Dave came to St Pete chapter meeting and suggested a copper-colored spoon would be his favorite as well as a watermelon-colored soft bait. Must be something about the pink color?
I have conducted about a dozen color experiments so far, and it seems like color is not nearly as important as I originally thought. It has been very rare when the results aren’t very close… and so far none of them have involved 1 color not catching any target fish while the other does. So I now recommend to simply go with whichever one you have the most confidence in… for me, it’s slam shady when using baitfish imitation lures and natural prawn when using shrimp lures.
Thank You Luke for the great information.
Our pleasure! Glad to see that you enjoyed this lesson.
A suspending twitchbait like the 17MR Mirrodine would definitely make my Top 10. My crew’s confidence baits are a SS 2.0 and a Mirrodine.
Those suspending lures can be great too. I just don’t use them much because I spend a lot of time in shallow grassy zones so anything that’t not weedless will most often get worse results due to the amount of casts that get wasted due to snagging grass/weeds.
Great info and the mini courses allow one to choose to review regarding their favorite set up.
Thanks so much for making time to post the nice comment!