Threw 4 Domestic lures and 4 JDMs in the water to see how they swam, and 4 got chased! Check out the videos.

August 15, 2023 By Scott Leave a Comment

To wrap up the testing of the old whipping lures I had from 2019, I stood on the side of a harbor, mid-day, to video how they cast and swim. The wind at my back was blowing hard at times, so casting them out with my small bait caster wasn’t an issue. This was only the second time casting lures since 2019 so I was a little clumsy; on the kayak I have just been bottom fishing or live baiting. There were sardines on the side of the harbor where I was standing, and small aha (needlefish) were patroling outside of that school.

It was interesting to me that the aha ignored most of the lures but chased certain ones, and 2 white papios (juvenile GT) chased 1 particular lure that has worked well in the bay off the kayak.

Please let me know if you find these types of tackle tests helpful.

JDM Lures with video timestamps

IMA Popkey 0:00 Slant faced top water lure that walked and rolled fairly convincingly. 120mm and cylindrical, so a slightly larger bait fish profile. Got intercepted.

Maria Chase SW 1:04 Floating shallow diver with realistic tight rolling action. Casts well and got chased.

Palms GIG 100s 2:07 Only 100mm (4 inches) yet 30g (1 oz) so it’s a small, narrow, heavy stickbait. Didn’t get bit but will be deadly for bigger papio and small pelagics in deeper water.

Zetz F-Lead 90 3:02 Only 90mm (3.5 inches) yet 26g (almost 1 oz) so it matches the size of the small bait and sinks down quickly to their depth. This was the only lure to get chased by white papio (juvenile GT), and was chased twice! It’s killer in the bay for suspending papio off the kayak.

Domestic Lures with video timestamps

Shimano Waxwing Boy 0:00 Zig zag swimming action that may look too bold to mimic a bait fish. Slowing down the retrieve slows down the zig zag to a less aggressive pace. Casts well.

Vudu Mullet 3.5 inch 0:43 Very lifelike swimming action. An aha thought it was a dying bait when I just dropped it in the water, and would have inhaled it had I not lifted the lure out of the water reflexively. So the aha continued its path and attacked the sardines! The light weight and flexing body makes the 3.5″ lure difficult to cast, at least with my bait caster. A long spinning rod would have an easier time. There is a 4.5 inch Vudu Mullet that is heavy enough to cast well.

Rapala XRap Sub Walk 1:50 Has been hard to cast into the wind on previous outings. Rolls and wanders just under the surface.

Rapala XRap Twitching Minnow 2:40 Has been hard to cast into the wind on previous outings. Erratically rolls and flops on the retrieve.

We tested those old Japanese Domestic Model (JDM) lures and caught a stud of a fish!

July 31, 2023 By Scott 5 Comments

I recruited Holoholo writer Matthew Ikeda, who has been red hot catching oio (bonefish) on the flats with a jighead and grub, to help test the old, used JDM lures I had banished to Second String status. Those lures were described in this post.

Matt suggested we fish at a not-so-secret urban canal in Honolulu in case landmarks were exposed. He was using spinning gear (8″3″ Major Craft rod, Shimano Twin Power 3000 reel) designed to cast 1/2 ounce lures and I dusted off my 7’3″ 13 Fishing travel rod and 13 Fishing Concept Z bait casting reel. I hadn’t whipped since 2019 so I needed a few practice casts to get going.

The wooden Lucky Craft Sammy and wooden Tiemco Red Pepper were duds. They just didn’t float as crisply as their plastic versions we’ve fished before. They’re X’d out in the photo above. The plastic Tiemco Red Pepper and Daiwa TD Salt Pencil seemed to bob up and down ok but the fish weren’t interested in top water lures so we’ll have to try them again later. They are marked with a “?”.

Matt was able to walk-the-dog with the Tackle House M Quiet in a wide, sweeping way, but the fish didn’t want that presentation either. The Maria Chase SW (Salt Water) wobbled erratically and looked good with my steady retrieve and I missed a couple short kaku bites I think. You can see the action of those two lures in the video below.

The lure presentation that stood out was the Duo Tide Minnow Slim SSR (Super Shallow Runner) under Matt’s control. That lure, circa 2015, has a fixed center weight unlike it’s rolling weight successor but still casted well and swam with a really tight roll.

This wasn’t photoshopped at all, it really is levitating. Zoom in – no cut and paste seams!

Sure enough it got slammed by a white papio (juvenile GT) you would think was too big to be in the canal. Maybe what they say about those fish being mutants is true – this fish seemed to float in the air when Matt lowered it to be unhooked.

Matt will be writing up his perspective of the day and that guest post will include the capture and release video. Stay tuned for that, and another round of whipping lure testing in easily accessible spots.

Dug up some of the shallow running lures acquired back when whipping was on fire

July 2, 2023 By Scott 6 Comments

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?