Lure treatments that work

Speckled trout take a variety of lures and baits during the year, and often, live baits may not be available, leaving artificials as the only alternative. Artificial options will often fool just as many trout as live bait under the right circumstances, and luires can be “dressed” to improve action and the odds of catching a fish.

Speckled trout are reaction feeders; they will eat something based on a quick response from their senses, whether through sound, sight or vibration. But if a lure doesn’t look or smell right, they may pass on that food choice and move along to other possibilities.

Anglers can hedge their bets with soft baits such as artificial shrimp and shad-bodied grubs. For starters, Gulp! shrimp and Jerk shad are impregnated with scent. D.O.A. shrimp also have scent incorporated into their soft- plastic material, and they are also equipped with a small cavity behind the weight for placement of small glass rattles. As simple as it sounds, the auditory click the glass rattles emit will help trigger a strike when trout become finicky.

Capt. Stu Caulder of Gold Leader Guide Service always shoves a glass rattle in his D.O.A. shrimp, and he covers all of his soft baits and sometimes his hard baits with Pro-Cure scents (www.pro-cure.com). He feels the added scent will convince fish to strike when they are finicky and selective.

D.O.A. shrimp are popular trout lures, but, heavy use and repetitive strikes will take away from their action and fishability. The soft shrimp body will slide down the, presenting fish with an unnatural-looking plastic contraption. Luckily, there are at least two solutions for this problem besides tying on a new lure.

Capt. Jot Owens cuts a small piece of hard leader wire and presses it through the shrimp body and through the eye of the hook to keep the lure from sliding. Caulder takes a slightly different approach; he pulls down the shrimp to expose the hook eye, places a coating of super glue on the hook shaft, and then returns the shrimp back into natural position. In less than one minute, the shrimp body will be firmly-adhered to the hook.