Entry 145-1

Shaw Grigsby on Fishing Saltwater with Strike King

Grigsby’s Double Zulu Rig for Saltwater and Freshwater Fishing

Shaw GrigsbyEditor’s Note: Shaw Grigsby of Gainesville, Florida, is one of Strike King’s most-visible pros with his TV show, his participation in Bassmasters tournaments and the promotions he does at boat shows, fishing events and anywhere sportsmen gather. Grigsby has taken Strike King Products into saltwater as well as freshwater, and this week, Grigsby will tell you some of the ways that Strike King lures have helped him to catch fish in both brackish water and saltwater. With Strike King in your tackle box, anywhere there’s water, you can go fishing and catch fish.

Grigsby: I think the most-important thing I’ve learned about Strike King products in salt water is because of the action that’s built into each of the lures I use in salt water, I get more strikes than I do with other baits. I think that Strike King’s new 3X products have far-superior action to any other plastic bait I’ve used for fishing in salt water. Because of the flexibility of 3X lures, these soft baits will solicit more strikes more often than any other lures with which I’ve fished. I also believe that the 3X lures, because of their soft, gummy feel, cause saltwater fish to hold onto the baits longer than they do with other plastic lures. Then you’ll get a better hook set and catch more fish.

I’ve found that my catch ratio goes up dramatically when I start fishing Strike King’s 3X baits. In other words, I catch more of the fish that attack my lures than I catch when I use conventional plastic lures. The 3X lures actually increase the amount of time I have to keep lures in front of fish. Because these lures are so durable and don’t get torn-up and torn-off the hook, like other soft-plastic lures, I don’t have to spend nearly as much time re-rigging and putting new plastic baits on my hook as I once have with the conventional ones. Since I’m not having to spend time re-baiting, I have more time to keep lures in the water in front of fish, which also relates to more strikes and more fish being caught. I’ve even caught schooling Spanish mackerel with their razor-sharp teeth on these 3X lures and have taken several mackerel on one lure without having to re-bait. Normally, those Spanish mackerel will cut up and destroy soft-plastic lures the instant they hit them. But, they don’t destroy the 3X lures.

Strike King LuresI’ve fished the Glass Minnow, the Zulu and the Redfish Magic and have had tremendous success every time I’ve gone to salt water. A classic example is when I went to Rhode Island a couple of weeks ago to film a TV show for next year’s airing. I was fishing a Strike King Zulu for saltwater stripers. The Strike King salt-water lures are primarily designed for inshore and near-shore saltwater fish, like speckled trout, redfish, flounder, snook and tarpon. These lures aren’t big enough for blue marlin, tuna and other offshore gamefish. The baits that were being used in Rhode Island for stripers were 10-inch swim baits – really-big lures. But, I decided to fish the Zulu. Although I was catching stripers, I wasn’t taking the very-big ones that the other anglers using the bigger baits were catching.

So, I started playing with my Zulus and wondering if I couldn’t hook two together, and then I‘d have a bigger bait. I learned I could rig a Zulu like I usually would Texas style. I’d get the head of the Zulu started on the hook and bring the hook out the bottom of the bait just as I would if I were going to Texas rig it. But, then instead of putting the hook back into the body of the Zulu, I’d hook a second Zulu on the point of the hook just as I did the first Zulu. Then I’d put the point of the hook back in the first Zulu to rig it Texas style. So what I had was two Zulus - one swimming on top of the other on the same hook, which increased the overall length of the bait. It made the bait wider, and you would get an unbelievable action out of these two baits swimming together. When I finally figured out this rig, I started catching bigger stripers and lots of them.

Shaw GrigsbyI’ve learned from catching stripers on this double-Zulu rig in saltwater that I can rig two Zulus together on a bigger hook and fish this double-Zulu rig in freshwater for bigger bass that weigh 7-10 pounds. I immediately could tell the difference in the size of stripers I was catching when I went to this double Zulu rig. I promise you I’ll be using this double-Zulu rig in freshwater to fish for bigger bass, especially when I’m fishing southern lakes where I know the possibilities of catching a 7-10-pound bass exists.




 

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