(top to bottom) Salt Pro Minnow, Crystal Minnow and Megabait
I left the bait at home and went back to the spot with the baby white papios to test my lures again. Since the target fish were small and I’d be casting from the beach, the lures would have to be on the small side and shallow running. I tried a Diawa Salt Pro Minnow, Yozuri Crystal Minnow and a Megabait swimming plug (see photo).
The Salt Pro Minnow cast pretty well but dove a little too deep for the shallow water I was fishing. The Crystal Minnow tumbled in the wind and dove a little too deep also but had a good tight wobble. Both were too large for the target test fish. The Megabait had this spastic wobble that scared everything within 2 miles.
Waxwing and Kastmaster. Note the power handle on the Calcutta TE
Saving the best two for last I tried a 3/8 oz gold Kastmaster with a trailer. The small whites chased it into the murky shore break like they did the last time. I got a few bumps and hooked a couple and switched the Kastmaster out for the Waxwing. The Waxwing comes with a lot of hype and a $15 price tag for the smallest size (1/2 oz). Fishers claim they’ve caught sea birds on it, and supposedly everything with scales and fins chase it.
big hook for small white
I was using a 2.68 inch, 1/2 oz Waxwing Baby in the blue sardine pattern. Its wings did cause it to veer when I cast into a side wind but it still went further than other plugs its size. The zig zag swimming pattern followed by a more pronounced zag every so often brought the small whites in to investigate. They started bumping it and got hooked once in a while. The small schooling mullet played follow the leader with it, and a 7 inch white weke sniffed it with its whiskers as I left on the surface a few feet from me!
the hook missed the eye, fish was released healthy
I didn’t catch any birds on the Waxwing but did hook quite a bit more whites than I did on the Kastmaster. The double hook has been reviewed by others as suspect, and besides not hooking well, quite a few of the larger whites came off the hook when I was bringing them in.
With a better double hook or single siwash hook, the Waxwing will be an awesome plug to throw from my longboard. It swims a foot or two below the surface and really does have a swimming action that causes fish to take notice. The Salt Pro Minnow and Crystal Minnow are worth another try when I’m in deeper water. The Megabait will go back in storage.
gotta check out the waxwing
Hey, I was wondering how you rig your kastmasters. (do you use a leader or a swivel etc.) I bought the 3/8 oz blue and silver version without the trailer. And do you use the little split ring in the front where you usually tie your knots? Or do you remove that?
Hey Anthony,
I leave the split ring on the front on and tie directly to that. The Kastmaster doesn’t spin so much that you need a swivel, but some others use a swivel just to add more distance from the hook to the line, so line cutters like barracuda can’t cut you off. I run fluorocarbon as my top shot so I don’t need to add another piece of leader in front of the Kastmaster.
-scott
Cool thanks!