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Here Are Some Favorites For The Lure Hall Of Fame

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The MirrOlure MirrOdine - the best sardine imitation ever.

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By FRANK SARGEANT | The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 18, 2008

For many years, I carried an inshore tacklebox that weighed about as much as a couple of bowling balls. I wanted to be ready for whatever a day on the water might throw at me - and I usually was.

But these days, my tacklebox is frequently a paper bag or even a shirt pocket. I know there are a half-dozen lures that will cover just about everything I'm likely to run into in a day, and all the rest is just excess weight.

Every experienced angler has a similar list of favorites, and some might be very different from mine. But here are my current go-to baits in saltwater:

1. The 4-inch Tsunami swim bait. This is a molded jig that looks like a cross between a minnow and an eel, and has amazing darting action. You simply let it hit bottom, snap it up a foot or two, and let it hit bottom again. Snook, trout, reds, pompano and everything else inshore will eat it. The 6-inch version is great for tarpon and bigger snook.

2. The DOA Shrimp, 3- or 4-inch size. This is fished like a live shrimp. Cast it upcurrent of likely spots, let it drift down through them, then crank in and repeat. It's a wonderful snook lure, and a killer for trout and other species.

3. The MirrOlure MirrOdine - the best sardine imitation ever. Absolutely irresistible to trout when they're in 2 to 4 feet of water. It carries a couple of treble hooks; flatten the barbs so you can release undersized fish without harm. Short, sharp twitches make it flash. Fish it fast and you can use it in as little as a foot of water.

4. The soft plastic jerk bait, 4 to 6 inches long rigged on a single hook. These darting lures are nearly weedless and are great when snook and reds are in shallow grass. Fish them with sharp twitches that make the lure dart sideways. It takes a hard hook set to barb the fish on these lures, but they work in cover where nothing else gets through.

5. The Spit-N-Image topwater plug. It's great for big reds and snook around oysters and mangroves. Walk the dog with it and hang on.

6. Anything made of Berkley Gulp! It's arguable that this is actually fishing with cut bait, rather than artificials. But whatever, fish find jigs, crabs and eels made of this stuff irresistible. It's particularly good for reds in very clear water, when they won't take anything else. Just cast it out and let it sit until a fish eats it.

When it comes to freshwater fishing, I've similarly simplified. For bass, I like the following:

1. The plastic worm, of course - the all-time best bass catcher. Six to eight inches long in black or dark purple are hard to beat, Texas-rigged and with a quarter-ounce or less slip-sinker. Works great on the beds, in the weeds and offshore on drop-offs. It's the most versatile of bass lures.

2. The Rapala topwater twitch bait. A twitch, wait a few seconds, and reel in the fish.

3. Crank baits such as the Rat-L-Trap. Let it sink near bottom, then crank it fast; it draws tremendous hits (also good in saltwater for big Spanish mackerel, by the way).

4. Safety-pin spinnerbaits. There are hundreds of models, but all come through weeds clean. They're particularly good in spring just after the spawn, when bass are still in the weeds.

5. The Hopkins 1-ounce Shorty spoon, jigged vertically. This is a midsummer, midwinter lure. You find the fish deep on your depthfinder, then jig the lure straight up and down among them. Heavy catches of oversized fish are likely with this rarely used tactic.

6. The Johnson Silver Minnow, half-ounce size. This is a great big-bass lure in the grass. You'll throw it a lot of times before you get bit, but when the strike comes it's likely to be a trophy. Add a 4-inch pork strip for more action (the same rig works great for redfish in saltwater).

There are thousands of other possibilities, of course, but with these basics you can go fishing just about anywhere in Florida on any given day and expect to have a pretty good chance of catching fish.

SPECIAL APPEARANCE: I'll be the guest host on captain Bill Miller's popular "Hooked on Fishing" show on Bright House Channel 47 on Tuesday at 7 p.m. Captain Mel Berman of WFLA, 970 AM, will join me to take questions on saltwater fishing throughout Florida's west coast. The one-hour show repeats Thursday at 7 p.m. and Sunday at 1 p.m.

ETC.: Vance Tice presents a free seminar on grouper trolling in Tampa Bay on Thursday at 7 p.m. at Tightlines Tackle, 6924 N. Armenia Ave. in Tampa. Call (813) 932-4721.

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