Slug-Go Tips
...with Black Bean Sauce
We've
all heard of steak tips and spare rib tips with black bean sauce.
How about some Slug-Go tips now?
Background. Lunker City
manufactures 18 models of soft plastic baits in numerous size,
length and color combinations. They also market their own brand
of hooks, weights and jig heads. The company's original product,
the Slug-Go, is its flagship offering. The 5 3/4" Fin-S-Fish
is also well-known in saltwater coastal fishing circles. Lunker
City's soft plastic formulation and production quality as high
within the soft plastics industry. In other words, they make good
quality lures.
What's hot. I regularly use and
therefore recommend three items for surf fishing from among
Lunker City's various offerings. Two of the recommended items are
the 6" and 9" Slug-Go. The third item is the 5
3/4" Fin-S-Fish, which has become a favorite and may perhaps
be more widely used than any other brand/model of soft plastic
along the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts by surf fishermen. Also, some
guys report good success with the 10" Fin-S-Fish, but I do
not use or catch on this bait frequently enough to personally
recommend it.
What's not. I do not recommend the
4.5" Slug-Go as it has never achieved an outstanding
reputation as a fish-catcher in my experience. I do not recommend
the 3" Slug-Go for surf fishing because of its diminutive
size. However, the 3" size does produce well when rigged a
variety of ways in freshwater.
I do not recommend Lunker City's offset hooks or their jigs,
as the hooks are not strong enough to hold large saltwater
gamefish that anglers can reasonably expect to encounter when
using these lures. You decide.
Jigging. A 6" or 9"
Slug-go or 5 3/4" Fin-S-Fish can be rigged on a plain
leadhead with a large, strong hook in it. Make sure the hook is
forged. If the jig has a lead collar, you may want to use
visegrip pliers to flatten, crush and twist off the lead collar.
Then use super glue to secure the soft plastics behind the
leadheads. For the 9" Slug-go, Stamina Quality Components
is a mail order catalog company that offers a 3/4 ounce ball head
jig (no lead collar) with a monster 8/0 Mustad Seaguard forged
hook. Problem is, the heads of these soft plastics are very thin,
and a lead collar tears them easily. Fish also tear these
thin-bodied soft plastics very easily - but still very productive
to use nevertheless. Good thing they come in 20 packs! The weight
of the leadhead depends on the fishing conditions (wind, tide,
smooth or snaggy bottom, etc.) and depth at the particular
"spot".
Deadsticking. A jigging motion is
effective. So is deadsticking it without any rod motion. To
deadstick, just cast uptide, let it hit bottom, and take in a
turn or two so it sweeps downtide barely above bottom. Expect to
get hit as it passes 12 o'clock - the lure will do an about face
in the current. If you know what you are feeling for, you will
feel a tick in the line as the lure does a 180 and starts to stem
against the tide. It begins to rise off bottom and sway in tide
swirls - it acts kind of like a cranky kite that doesn't really
want to get airborne, but does a lot of side-to-side shearing and
waffling before it gets up there. Just hold it there for a while
motionless in the current. At times, you will be surprised how
long you can just wait for a bite. After that, if you can keep it
down near the bottom, then retrieve it against the tide all the
way back in. If it's too difficult to keep it near bottom, just
reel in, make another cast, and let it swing down, turn and rise
up again.
Swimming.. Sometimes it's hard to
find a better lure than a 6" or 9" Slug-Go glued on
behind a tin swimming plate. This style plate looks like the
standard style of tin squid head to which you attach rigged eels.
Often, the hook is molded in, and the squids body is S-shaped on
a horizontal plane, meaning that the squid is bent twice - the
front third of the squid is often horizontal, then the middle
third of the squid angles down and back. Finally, the last third
of the squid is horizontal again, but on a lower plane than the
front third of the squid. The preceding describes just one basic
style of swimming plate. There are other styles, and some are
even lead or stainless, not tin. When matched to the proper swim
plate, a 6" or 9" Slug-go will swim along in an S
motion. Sometimes it's a perfect slow S motion like an eel, and
sometimes it's more like the vibrating, tail-lashing motion of a
fast-swimming sand eel. Depends on the swim plate you use. Works
well in the shallow surf, calmer flats waters and on shallow
sweeping bars where the traditional leadhead jig would get hung
up or plow the bottom - the swim plate keeps the bait sweeping up
off bottom at the correct retrieve speed that matches the current
sweep or the wave surges.
On a sweeping surf, flats or bar,
fish the swimming plate Slug-go a lot like the deadstick method
described above, with emphasis on getting hit as the Slug-go does
the about face at 12 o'clock down to about 10 o'clock (sweeping
left) or 2 o'clock (sweeping right).
When swimming it in waves, let it
get sucked up into the "tube" of an incoming wave. The
correct weight lure will ride up from the base of the wave to the
top of the curl, wiggling frantically. Then just pump it forward
with the rod tip as it reaches the crest of the wave, and let it
ride the forward motion of the wave coming at you like a little
wiggling surfboard! Let it tumble around on a semi-tight line in
the white water when the wave breaks. It's a great thing to watch
this lure get sucked up the face of the tube and to see a bass
materialize and body surf in the tube a foot or two to the lure's
side, then veer over and slash at it sideways in the curl.
Pinch it off. A 6" Slug-Go
has two natural "slices" molded into it, and you can
pinch short the 6" Slug-Go at either of these pre-sliced
spots (or pinch it anywhere else on the bait), thereby making a
shorter Slug-Go tip that exactly imitates the length of small
bait that has become so prevalent in recent years. Of course, the
tail tip represents a thinner-bodied bait of any length as short
as you require, and the head tip represents a small wider-bodied
bait like tiny herring or bunker fry. Just use an appropriate jig
head and jig hook size to match the size of your Slug-Go tip.
Crush the lead collar, and glue the tip on behind the head. Fish
it in any fashion you would otherwise fish a jig. It's a super
lure for casting to fish you sight first. These wispy tips have
outproduced many fuller-bodied baits in both bays and surf.
Color Selections. Lunker City's
color patterns are excellent, with good color quality control
during production. They capture the appearance of various
baitfish species better than many other manufacturers. There are
over 50 colors offered, and I have caught fish on most of them.
However, the following list of about fifteen colors effectively
handles many coastal fishing situations: 01 Alewife; 05 Smoke
Pepper Shad; 06 Arkansas Shiner; 28 Anchovy; 32 Gold Pepper
Shiner; 33 Silver Pepper Shiner; 35 Black; 36 Albino Shad; 38
Rainbow Trout; 101 Salt & Pepper Blue Phantom; 113 Black Red
Flash; 116 Smelt; 119 Mackerel; 120 Lime Shad.
Short List. Even though each of
the above colors is "special" at times, there's still
lots of overlap in the above list, so here's a short list of my
personal favorites:
- Black with Red Flash: Just gets red hot
crazy sometimes!
- Golden Shiner: This ultra-realistic baitfish
patterns often beat all others
- Gold Pepper Shiner and Silver Pepper Shiner:
These two literally sparkle at times, day or night
- Lime Shad: Is this the best Fin-S color
ever? Some think so, myself included
Hope you enjoy your Slug-go tips. Bon Appetit! |
