Entry 223-3

Sleeper Lures for Redfish with Ray Van Horn

Part 3: Drop Shotting for Redfish – Power Finesse Fishing

Quesion: So, Ray, how did you catch the redfish when they were so finicky they wouldn’t bite the Redfish Magic, the Pure Poison or the Glass Minnow?

Van Horn: We spotted about one-dozen redfish milling around in shallow water in one little depression. They’d come up and boil on the Redfish Magic or the Pure Poison, but when we’d cast back to them with the Glass Minnow, they wouldn’t take it. So, we started fishing with a drop-shot rig with a watermelon-red Strike King Zero. We cut about 1 inch off the Zero and then threaded it on the circle hook.

Quesion: What made you think to use the Zero, which is a bass-fishing lure, on redfish?

Van Horn: I’m an old bass fisherman. Redfishing is nothing more than bass fishing in saltwater, so I took what I learned from bass fishing and applied it to tournament redfishing. Also, I used the Strike King tube on a drop-shot rig. I really prefer the tube bait to the Zero for redfish. However, the tube bait has one drawback – if you’re fishing in an area with a lot of pinfish, they’ll eat the tentacles off your tubes. That was a serious problem for us in this tournament. If there’s enough redfish around to eat the tube before the pinfish reach it, I prefer to fish the Strike King tube. But in this tournament, there were so many pinfish in the shallow water that they were tearing up our tubes before we could get them in front of the redfish. That’s the reason I started fishing the Zero. When you’ve got heavy pinfish action, the Zero is a much-better lure to fish on a drop-shot rigged for redfish. After I cut about 1-inch off the Zero, I put the point of my hook in the bait about where the egg sack would be positioned.

Quesion: What color Zero have you found to be the best for redfish, and what color tube do you prefer?

Van Horn: Watermelon-red is my favorite Zero color to fish. When I’m fishing the tube baits, I like green-pumpkin. You’ll be hard pressed to beat that green-pumpkin color.

Quesion: Drop-shotting is a finesse tactic used for bass fishing. Tell me how you’re rigging these baits to drop shot for redfish.

Van Horn: I call this power-finesse fishing. There are two times we use this drop-shot tactic for catching redfish – when we have heavily-pressured fish, and when we’re fishing under adverse conditions. To catch these types of fish, you have to keep your boat away from the fish and make unbelievably long casts. We’ll use as much as a 3/4-ounce lead, which means we have enough weight that we can just about throw all the line off our spinning rods. We use a 20-pound leader on a 30-pound-test braided line 8- to 10-inches above the weight. Then we tie a circle hook to the leader and attach either a Glass Minnow or a Strike King Zero to it. We’ll be fishing this rig in only 1 to 2 feet of water.

We’re trying to out-punt our coverage. We don’t want the redfish to even know that we’re anywhere near them. We’ll cast a long distance past the fish we see, and then we’ll drag the weight and the bait back toward the fish without spooking them. This way, we’ve got our baits in the water long before the fish have a chance to see the splashes of the weights and the baits. Then we can drag the weights on the bottom until we get the lures close enough for the fish to see them, and they take the lures. Many times we’ll cast well ahead of the school of redfish once we know the direction it’s traveling. So, the bait will be in the water before the fish arrive at that spot. Once the fish get close, we’ll move the bait only slightly. Then they’ll see it and attack. We’ll often use tubes, Zeros, Z Toos, Zulus or whatever we need to duplicate the forage they’re eating. For instance, if they’re feeding on shrimps or crabs, we’ll probably use a tube bait. There are numbers of marine worms on which the redfish feed, and the Zero looks like these worms. So, by using this power-finesse fishing tactic, we can choose the appropriate bait, get it in the water and have it waiting, and the redfish will come to it. This way, we don’t spook the fish before they have a chance to see the baits.

For more information about catching redfish with Strike King lures, check your local TV stations to watch “Flats Class,” TV show, or visit the Flats Class website.

Next: The Pitch Bait

Contents:

• Part 1: The Redfish Magic and the Pure Poison
• Part 2: Fishing the Glass Minnow
• Part 3: Drop Shotting for Redfish – Power Finesse Fishing
• Part 4: The Pitch Bait
• Part 5: Opposites Attract