Posted By: My Coast Outdoors
Kayaking Canal Lights - 08/21/17 12:38 AM
Kayaking the canal lights was the right choice for our Saturday night activities. The three of us all threw Controlled Descent Jerk Shad in Pearl, Black/Blue Glitter, & Blackgold/Lime with Pearl appearing to have a slight edge over the other two.
While the color didn’t have much of a correlation to our hook up ratio, one rigging method did. We all started fishing the Jerk Shad using a different weight of weedless hook from 1/8 oz, 1/16 oz, to even lighter than that, and no weight at all. One stood out as the best choice by far over the others, the weightless hook with the floatation insert installed.
Once we determined what the trout wanted, if was fish after fish keeping our limit of 30 and releasing more than we wanted to count. We tuned each lure to have a super slow fall, much slower than any standard plastic with a weightless hook. We adjusted the amount of floatation depending on the size and brand of hook we were using.
The rod action was very subtle, just a steady rise of the rod tip then back down reeling up just a little of the slack making sure not to move the lure forward. Anything more aggressive only resulted in a few strikes.
The flat slow fall in the clear water was what they were looking for. You could count 5 to almost 10 seconds at times before the lure would sink out of sight. That is how slow the fall was, and that is what triggered the strikes.
The second half of the short video clip gives you a visual of what worked. We had them sinking a little slower than the video shows. If you have never tried these lures, you owe it to yourself to give them a shot. If you fish the lights at night and can’t get those underwater green light trout to eat, here is a method to get them. If you are a winter big trout hunter, watch the video. It doesn’t need words.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UeIY9J4F8vg
While the color didn’t have much of a correlation to our hook up ratio, one rigging method did. We all started fishing the Jerk Shad using a different weight of weedless hook from 1/8 oz, 1/16 oz, to even lighter than that, and no weight at all. One stood out as the best choice by far over the others, the weightless hook with the floatation insert installed.
Once we determined what the trout wanted, if was fish after fish keeping our limit of 30 and releasing more than we wanted to count. We tuned each lure to have a super slow fall, much slower than any standard plastic with a weightless hook. We adjusted the amount of floatation depending on the size and brand of hook we were using.
The rod action was very subtle, just a steady rise of the rod tip then back down reeling up just a little of the slack making sure not to move the lure forward. Anything more aggressive only resulted in a few strikes.
The flat slow fall in the clear water was what they were looking for. You could count 5 to almost 10 seconds at times before the lure would sink out of sight. That is how slow the fall was, and that is what triggered the strikes.
The second half of the short video clip gives you a visual of what worked. We had them sinking a little slower than the video shows. If you have never tried these lures, you owe it to yourself to give them a shot. If you fish the lights at night and can’t get those underwater green light trout to eat, here is a method to get them. If you are a winter big trout hunter, watch the video. It doesn’t need words.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UeIY9J4F8vg
