1 bucket should be plenty for 2 people on a good day, or get 2 buckets; 1 New Penny, 1 Pearl White and your still only out $40. They stay on the hook fine w/ mult. hook-ups. Under a cork rig on a size app. Kahle hook, 1/8 0r 1/16 jig, or use a piece to tip gold spoon. All methods should produce fish given conditions.

Info i needed to know before Friday...
Love this site..

Where you gonna be Fri.?

Lake calcashieu/Big lake

3" seems like it catches more to me. I liked the natural color the best.

At Calcashieu just throw tails. Either glow green tail, rootbeer yellow tail or morning glory.

Easiest place in the world to trout fish. Usaully some good birds picking over there.

I'm headed to the coast, but won't be in that part of the country.

Used Gulp exclusively this trip instead of live shrimp. 4inch natural shrimp 3 inch natural shrimp, 3 inch new penny, and 3 inch grey and white minnow. Caught fish on all of them. Redfish, Trout, Croaker, and flounder.

I did Not catch as many hardheads as normal OR ladyfish.. Dont know if it was the bait or just the trip.

If I gave a nod to one particular best, Id go with natural shrimp 3 inch. Hauled in speck after speck on them.

Instead of the routine of one hit, stillness, check ur bait, i could miss a hit, wait a few seconds and the second hit would follow as i knew the bait was still secured. I believe that because of this we landed many more fish than normal because the bait was just flat in the strike zone more.

i have to give this stuff a thumbs up, and i also noticed they make freshwater catfish bait which I will definitely try the next time Im staying home at the lake here.

Heading to calcashieu again next weekend,and intend to stick with the Gulp as long as Im getting these results.

spent a week vacation there and had a ball. caught fish in the lake and the weirs. where are you putting in adn what area of th lake are you fishing? if i were as close as you i owuld fish there more.

Good to hear Cat. Sounds like a good trip.

Since you are fishing Calcasieu next week, if you want some extra speck action, try the area around the Cameron Jetty Pier right at 10:30 PM.. We were there a few weeks ago and the gal that operates the park and her husband fished with us until about 11 PM ( after closing time). About 10:15 or so, the specks had chased some baitfish up to the lights and we watched 100's of them all around the pier...especially on the inside...near the rocks. We tried everything and they only hit 2 baits for us.

1. Black and silver Top Dog. ( very slow bite)
2. 3 inch Gulp ( natural) tipped with a tiny piece of fresh bait shrimp under a popping cork with about a 3 foot drop to the #5 circle hook.

Fishing from the pier, lots of us had caught bull reds all day in the afternoon using fresh cut or live mullet. But later that night....those lights did their thing and millions of baitfish appeared....and then came the specks.

If you havent fished Calcasieu much, let me know, and I'll tell you where we usually catch fish down there. I go down several times a year and will probably buy a little place down there in the future.

Braidman: been mostly fishin the washout early morning for specks puttin in at Dugas, then move on to either the jettys for specks and reds, or the rigs forspecks and macks, or if thee tide is running out hard i hit the weirs, and or the edges of the ship channel both for reds.

Oldfrog: I wondered about that pier at night because it is lit up bright at night. Im usualy back at the hotel by then since we wake up at 5am Im with you, Id love to get some property down there myself.

There's a ramp right next to that new pier at the jetty. It would be worth a 1 minute boat ride and 30 min of fishing around 10 PM.

I wish they'd fix the dock at the ferry ramp on the west side. I usually launched there, before Rita. It's a shorter run to oyster bayou, west cove, the washout, etc. than from the jetty ramp on the east side.

My girlfriends father uses the cut bait strips almost exclusively, he doesn't fish the bay very often but uses them in the surf and has caught small red, trout, and whiting. I bet tipping a spoon would work really well.

Wanted to chime in to help you guys out..for years and years I used baits in freshwater never saltwater, that was until a friend introduced me to GUlp shrimps. man o man for the last 3 months I've been killing em, just killing em on this lure. Here is the color and size...new penny 3 inch. Bass Pro shops has a great offer right now. For the 5.99 bag you get 30% more shrimps so you get 9...just bought 5 bags so I got about 45 shrimps.
The jighead I use is a 1/8 ounce jighead with a twistlock on it, just twist that shrimp like 3 times and it ain't coming off.

Here are some tips for keeping your shrimp and not losing it. Hey if you're getting little nibbles stop fishing there, probably full of little predators. with this lure you'll know when you hit the honey hole so move on. Everytime I hit a school of trout or reds, it's just non stop action for an hour or so. The most trout I've caught on one shrimp was like 10!! so yah money worth for sure. I've gotten so good at fishing this fine lure, it's like a science.....good luck guys...3 inch new penny and I've caught big reds and specks on a 3 inch so yah it works like a charm...good luck.

Has anyone used gulp crab or shad? Any luck with that those baits?