Whether you have been inshore fishing all your life or just this year, these are three lures redfish love and you want to consider adding to your arsenal.
Probably the all-time favorite of inshore anglers for catching redfish is the gold spoon. It's a classic, has been around for years and works wonders.
However, these three lures redfish love will perform in areas the gold spoon cannot and, above all, you will have a blast smashing redfish on them!
These spoons are a classic but had their time. Today I use different lures to demolish redfish.
Three Lures Redfish Love
V&M Wild Thang Craw
This is my go-to in all situations. The claws have a great action, the bait is durable and is capable of being skin-hooked.
A lot of companies say their baits are cooked with pork fat and embedded with salt, but not like these. They are literally tasty, like eating salted peanuts.
Try one. Seriously, put it in your mouth.
This Wild Thang Craw is tough, durable and can be skin-hooked in order to make it ultra-weedless. The color is Sapphire Junebug.
There are many different colors to be had but I have found that Sprayed Grass is my general purpose color.
I retrieve this lure like a spinnerbait, usually on a 1/8oz swim hook for shallow water with grass and a 1/4oz for deeper water. I like to use Owner hooks but also use Gamakatsu.
The best thing about a setup like this is that I can speed the retrieve up or slow it down, and even bounce the craw across the bottom. You just can't do this with gold spoons.
Rage Shad
This lure is great for fishing areas with heavy grass. You can let it sink and retrieve it through the water, but it does best going across the top of the water like a buzz bait.
This Rage Shad is rigged on an Owner hook. Notice how the tip of the hook is under the skin of the Rage Shad. This is called a "skin hook" and improves weedless ability.
Me and my tournament partner got the idea from a bass angler who fishes tournaments in Louisiana and abroad.
Terry Jones took 1st place in the Dockside Marine Tournament Trail last year and suggested we use the Rage Shad to fish thick grass that not only bass populate, but also tournament-winning redfish.
When grass is too thick to properly present lures, using a weedless topwater becomes an effective method to get them out. Be advised, this technique requires patience!
Josh Hall's HD Spinnerbait
Redfish are pound-for-pound the hardest fighting fish in the marsh.
Slot redfish can get pretty big, weighing from 8 to 10 pounds and it's not uncommon to land bull reds that are well over 40lbs.
Redfish of this class will wreak havoc on an ordinary spinnerbait and that is why I employ heavy duty spinnerbaits hand-crafted by redfish tournament angler, Josh Hall.
Josh Hall's HD Spinnerbaits are made of heavy duty materials (like 1.6mm thick gauge wire) that can stand up to the brutality of a redfish fight over and over again.
Take a closer look below and you will see why.
I prefer to use a black or purple soft plastic on my HD Spinnerbait. Pictured is a Vortex Shad in Purple Haze.
You can contact Josh to order your own HD Spinnerbaits at his Facebook page.
Conclusion
Add these three lures redfish love to your tacklebox and be ready to catch those pumpkins in ways you have never done before!
One more thing...
If you loved this knowledge, then you'll love what I have inside Sight Fishing Mastery School, my course dedicated to teach anglers how to sight fish redfish in Louisiana.
No sweat! Matrix Craws are basically swim baits, you may have heard them referred to as “swim craws”. They work great on an owner Flashy Swimmer.
As for colors…they’re just redfish, so I’d go with a bright color like Pearl White to stand out, mostly so you can see it when sight fishing for them.
After that, I’d go with a darker color like black/blue in the event the bright white is too much for them.
Tight lines!
Great information, thank you. I fish south Tx, so we do not throw craw baits much. Im going to La soon and wanted to get some baits that work well in the marsh. What are your go to colors in a craw or swim bait?
Hey Rob, that’s a good question. At the time this article was written I was throwing the 4″ version. Honestly, I throw the Matrix Craw as a swim craw more often: https://www.lafishblog.com/how-to-rig-an-owner-flashy-swimmer-and-matrix-craw/
Which size Wild Thang Craw do you like to throw? 4″ or 3.5″?
That’s awesome! Thanks for commenting.
I’m a gold spoon and heavy spinner bait man. Have used water melon red lizard with some success in heavy cover.