Catch More Trout and Redfish (By Buying Less Stuff)

You can be every bait in the store, and they all promise to catch you more fish, but how many do you have confidence in? Check out this video where I give my opinion on stocking artificials in your arsenal.

Below is a transcript of this video. Many of the words are incorrect, but will give you an idea of what to expect in the video.

Begin transcript:

What’s up, captain TJ here with the Georgia fishing company. And I’m about to go splash the boat in just a few minutes, but before I do that, I want to talk to you about fishing with artificial baits in coastal Georgia.

[inaudible]

I want to go over something that I do in my boat that catches me more Fitch and saves me time and money. Um, and what that is, is it’s easy to get distracted and caught up in all of the different options that you’ve got for artificial baits. Um, you can have every color of the shrimp in three different weights. You can have every color of this paddle tail. You can have every color of this jig head and in three or four different weights, you can have, uh, four or five different types of, uh, top water plugs in several different, uh, colors. You can have every Gulp bait known to man and every shape, size, color, and sin. But how often are you going to use them when it comes down to it, if somebody put a gun to your head and said, tie on the one bait that you have to fish with today and catch a fish or you lose your life, which bait is that?

And rather than be that specific, I’m going to say keep it to less than 10 and you’re going to one, you’re going to spend more time, uh, casting Bates that you know, catch fish that you have confidence in. And two, you’re going to save a bunch of money not having to spend it on all those different Bates and you’re going to save a ton of space in your boat and you’re going to worry a lot less. Uh, because I know every time you cast your cast and with confidence, so let’s get down to what my picks are. If somebody said, Hey man, you got to boil it down. This is all you can put in your boat. Uh, maybe pick five or six different rigs. This is what I’m doing. This is the distilled version of what I keep in my boat. So one is the H and H quarter rounds, three and a half inch TKO shrimp and clear red glitter.

That guy right there has a black hook, has a little black Wade in it, and it’s a clear with red glitter. And this thing is a trout murderer in the summer and spring warmer months. If there’s travel room, they’re eating this thing two ways, I fish it. One is tight line and you just kinda, uh, either slow retrieve it or crawl it or if you’re on the beach, cast it into the surf and do nothing. Let the waves pick it up and drop it, pick it up and drop. And the trout cannot stay in this thing or put it under a poppin cork. If you’re fishing around shells or if you want to suspend thing and just pop it and you’re going to get bikes. This thing fishes just as good as live bait in a lot of situations. Um, sometimes out fish is live bait.

If you fished with me, you’ve probably seen it. So there’s one bait with multiple uses to a paddle tail. Um, you don’t leave home without it. Uh, so this is a very versatile bait as well. You can rig it up on a jig hit, um, or a swim bait hook. And so this is a Slayer, uh, chicken off the chain color. And if you put this on a jig head, you know, is great for bouncing it around on the bottom. If you put it on the swim bait, it’s a great middle of the water column, a Bader upper water column bait. You can kind of, uh, just just retrieve it and let the paddle tail do the work. Uh, very versatile but takes up very little space. This is the color I like because it’s got a natural color body and the chartreuse tail. So clear water, dark water, it’s got something for either situation. I don’t have to think about it. I just tied on a casting.

Third is top water, low light situations, cloudy days, warm weather. This is the GoTo idea. So for trout Redfish coastal Georgia, I really liked the czar spook. It’s black back, gold sides, orange belly, and they’ll smash it. There’s really no reason for me to go and have a five of each of about 15 different top order Bates in my boat because this woman, I know if they are there, there’s a 99% chance they’ll eat this if they’re going to eat anything else. So why have all the other stuff in my boat when I can just put 10 of these in there and be done with it. And if I reach for a top water, is that mine? And last is the Gulf things. These are swimming mullet and I do use these but the reason I’ve got them here is because all of my Gulf shrimp are in my boat.

And uh, what I’ll do is I’ll get these gulps shrimp, usually a natural color, which is like a gray color with a white white belly. I’ll get these, I’ll cut the tail off, you can bite it off if you nasty. And then I’ll take this owner twist lock swim bait book and I’ll twist it into where the tail used to be and I’ll rig it weedless so the head will be pointed away from the rod. The reason is the head of that shrimp’s heavier than the rest of it. So when you cast it, you’re going to cast birder and then you’re just bounce that thing along the bottom. When you’ve got those weary red fish that are way off and you don’t want to get too close to him, this thing cast a mile and you can let it sit right there and if they sniff it, they’ll eat it.

So a, another, another good one. And I only have to have this same hook that I use for my, uh, for my paddle tail. Same, well, it goes to my belt Bates. So to review, gulp, Trenam, top water, plug of your choice paddle tail of your choice with a jig head or a swim bait hook and the TKO, um, three and a half to ensure it quarter rounds clear with red glitter. Those are my GoTo Bates. If I were you, I would take a look at everything that you put in your boat and say, rather than, uh, having one of everything. Let me have 10 of the things I’m confident in. It’s going to force me to burn my confidence. Bates, which is going to make me catch more fish. Keep your life simpler and keep your boat cleaner. Thanks.