From 2017 to 2019 I was fishing shallow water with friends and was looking for lures that floated, dove a few feet at most, and casted well with a 7.5ft bait casting rod. I bought a bunch online from Japan, was given a few, and eventually settled on 3 confidence lures not shown here. The Waxwing was one of the 3; the other two were so deadly I blurred their appearance in blog photos!

When I looked for my old lures, I found a box full of lures that didn’t make the First Team. A couple of these were fished and caught fish, while the others stayed in that box because they were too much like other lures I was fishing, or were experimental lures given to me that I never fished. Here’s a breakdown of what they are.

The Lucky Craft Sammy (top left) is one of the easiest walk-the-dog lures but this one is made out of wood and the original owner preferred the hard plastic Sammys. I’ve never fished it. The Tackle House M Quiet (upper right) is a top water lure meant to fish calm, quiet water and I did catch a kaku on it but it was light for me to cast with a bait caster.

The IMA Popkey (2nd from top, on left) with its slanted face can be walked, waked or splashed but I never got around to fishing it because the fish I was targeting in very shallow water liked very slim lures.

The Tiemco Red Pepper (left side, 2nd down) is an original wooden bodied lures, and the Tiemco Red Pepper (right side, 3rd down) is plastic bodied and customized with reflective material by the original owner. I hadn’t fished either but have fished plastic bodied Red Peppers and have gotten the most violent strikes on them if I let them bob up and down and sit in the water.

The Daiwa TD Salt Pencil F (lower right) is the reknown Daiwa Salt Pencil in a very small, light size, so it really was hard to cast far but was very deadly when pulled so the water gurgled through the cut out gills, then paused.

The Duo Tide Minnow Slim, and Maria Chase SW in the bottom right aren’t back weighted so I assumed I’d have a hard time casting such light lures with a bait caster, thus I didn’t bother to put hooks on them but I had purchased them used from eBay Japan because they were the OGs of JDM lipped lures. They are fished by straight retrieving them and pausing. Their tight wobble and small size is what gets them bit.

These are 5 inch or bigger floating lures, geared to attract larger fish so I ended up not fishing them from shore. The Daiwa SP Minnow (top) has ball bearings that roll back on the cast, so it casts well. The well known Yozuri SP Minnow (2nd from top) is a lousy caster but has a very aggressive swimming action. It’s probably better used as a trolling lure for papio. Both the Jackall Bowstick and River2Sea WideGlide have wide walk-the-dog actions and big fish potential.

Have you guys fished any of these, and how were they? Any comments on their potential? Since I still have the First Team lures somewhere, I wonder if I’ll ever fish these?