Fool's Bait

So I used the Hawg Seekers Smokin' Shad and Lil Mack and they were kiling the Sand Dabs on the recent 1/2 day trip on the Southern Cal. I Drop Shotted these lil guys with a strip of squid and it worked. I was hoping the Rock Fish found it enticing but nada. My mission for that day was playing deck hand to my wife and family and if time allowed me to fish, i'll try random artificials. At first I thought maybe the strip of squid enticed the bite and not necessisarilty the plastic but I have some doubt in that because it seemed to get bit more than just the hook with a strip of squid alone. Needed more time to be more certain. Either way, it's a report and that was my intention going out using this bait.

Yellowrock wrote:So I used the Hawg Seekers Smokin' Shad and Lil Mack and they were kiling the Sand Dabs on the recent 1/2 day trip on the Southern Cal. I Drop Shotted these lil guys with a strip of squid and it worked. I was hoping the Rock Fish found it enticing but nada. My mission for that day was playing deck hand to my wife and family and if time allowed me to fish, i'll try random artificials. At first I thought maybe the strip of squid enticed the bite and not necessisarilty the plastic but I have some doubt in that because it seemed to get bit more than just the hook with a strip of squid alone. Needed more time to be more certain. Either way, it's a report and that was my intention going out using this bait.

The squid strip is not necessary. I have always had success fishing a T & C lure in road kill color, which is a dark green/brown/red bait. I prefer the plastics without bait as it is much more exciting to catch. Either way, thanks for the report.

I spoke with Travis/Fools bait and he was using the smokin shad and killing the reds with them. He said that they were working the same as the live bait.

Keep at it with the Hawg seekers for the rock fish. I was on a 3/4 a couple of weeks ago, and in all honesty i started the day with live bait just to make sure i get a few fish in the bag. After the first two spots which were awesome spots i decided to try the Smokin shad Hawg seeker on the next spot. The size was almost a perfect match to the live bait we had so i had high hopes and they paid off the Hawg Seeker were getting bite just as well as the live bait only problem was the size of fish dropped from 10-14 inch reds to 6-8 inch reds and current picked up so we kept slipping off the rocks and like you said the sand dabs had no beef with eating them