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Good afternoon fellow paddlefishermen! In an effort to conserve $$ on live bait and to increase my fishing abilities, I'd like to start using more artificials. Some good ones I've heard about are the Zara Spook and the Exude soft plastic baits. I have also used a ton of DOAs with absolutely no luck.

Any advice on presentation of artificials so that my arm doesn't feel like Jello at the end of a day fishing (actually catching some fish would be great too)?

Thanks everyone! As always, any advice is much appreciated!

To avoid jello arms either work out alot or buy expensive light state of the art rods and reels. I dont do either and found that using baitcasting gear worked for me. Most people wouldnt recommend that but i find palming a reel easier and its much easier working a reel above the rod and out of the way of my belly while seated in the yak.

Unless you're meat hunting then forget the bait. My grandson can catch most anything I can with a live shrimp, fiddler, etc. In my opinion, you'll be much more rewarded by "fooling" the fish with artis.

I was all into my top water poppers this year but in the last month+ I have found a Spook Jr. really an interesting lure. Nice part is you can work it really slow when your arms need a break.

You said that you have had no luck with DOA. I am a very happy DOA fisherman. My favorite combo is a DOA shad tail on an 1/8 or 1/4 oz. I just throw it out and reel it back at a speed that keeps it off the bottom. I don't do any working or jerking it. With this method I make lots of casts, but I cover lots of groung. Favorite shad tail color is Arkanas Glow. Rod #2 has a spook jr. in bone coloe. This is a great topwater lure. My third rod usually has a spoon on it or a or a Mirrodine. If you can't get the job done with these things you aren't fishing where the fish are.

Now that is a great sales pitch!

No offense to you Sir but if you can't catch fish with DOA's then there is something wrong. I used to use nothing but live bait until I got turned on to artificial by a Co Worker. ( Thanks Dave) It's a learning curve when you start out. Find some baits you can just crank like paddle tails or lipped crank baits work with those in a pool to see how they move then progress into more as you catch on. I didn't catch a damn thing at first and use to think "This Sucks". But started to figure it out and wouldn't go any other way now. I'd like to think I'm doing my part in Wildlife Conservation. You feel more accomplished when you hook a fish on artificial because you tricked it into thinking it was something real and tasty.

Damn those are some hogs Tide!

Keep at it, if you are not catching change your presentation.

For top-water its mostly confidence & personal choice, but hard to beat a Zara Spook Jr or a Chug-bug, I'll toss these all day. However there a lot of others that also catch many fish. For spook colors start with Bone, White w/ Red head, for chug-bun there is only 1 color to use chrome/blue.

For sub-surface the Mirro-Dine is hard to beat in natural fish colors, Green or blue. Another choice for deeper presentation is a slashing bait like Rapala X-rap or Mirro-Catch 2000.

Soft plastics there are to many choices and again is personal choice and confidence, but DOA's are as good as they come. Rather than suggest do some searches here, there are stick baits, fluke baits, flapping tail baits..

MPO is for my type kayak fishing, shallow flats in SE Florida huntink Snook/Tarpon/Bonefish/Permit I carry two rods, I will almost always have a 4000 series reel/rod with Zara Spook connected with 20# braid coupled to 15 or 25# Fluro, and a 3000 series reel/rod with DOA shrimp spooled with 15# braid coupled to 15# fluro both connected directly to the bait with loop knot.
If fishing deeper or muddy waters I'll change out the Shrimp with a fluke like bait.

If I was starting someone on lures who didn't have much experience or luck with them I would start with top water. You can see the lure and the strike. Nothing like a blow up on a lure to get someone hooked. Second, since you see both the lure and strike you can quickly learn what works. Sub-surface always leaves me wondering if I am working a lure correctly for that time and place and tide. If you can't see the misses sometimes you get a false sense of not knowing what you are doing or using the lure incorrectly when in fact you are doing it correctly but you have had several missed you didn't see. I am partial to top water myself because I just love the blow ups.

No bait allowed.

So all you guys that use the DOAs and swear by them (the DOA shrimp is what I'm using), how do you present the lure? I've put them under a Cajun Thunder and free-lined them before, all to no avail. What colors do you use?

If you are using a DOA shrimp, you're probably moving it too fast. Try some shad tails and the Riptide 4" mullet. Put them on a jig head or a weedless hook. They are cast and reel which can't get much easier. Reel them just fast enough so they just skim the tips of the grass.

1/2 ounce or less gold spoon is another easy to use, cast and reel lure that catches fish. Again, just fast enough to keep from snagging.

However, the first and most important ingredient in all this is fishing where there are fish.

bjbg8r wrote:So all you guys that use the DOAs and swear by them (the DOA shrimp is what I'm using), how do you present the lure? I've put them under a Cajun Thunder and free-lined them before, all to no avail. What colors do you use?

Let me see if I understand you clearly here, you are putting a DOA shrimp under a Cajun Thunder and just letting it sit there? If so, there's your problem. Thats a popping cork, Pop it.

Pop it, let it sit for a few moments, pop it again. Repeat until you get a strike or until you've popped it back to the kayak. That popping sound simulates feeding fish, so the others will come check out the noise it creates, where they will notice the shirmp quickly jump towards the surface and slowly fall back. The strike usual happens as the shrimp falls.

No no no. Sorry, could've been a bit more descriptive. I know how to use the Cajun Thunder and use it appropriately, but no bites. Maybe I need to try an extra dose of patience (my kids keep my reserve especially low). Also, with artificials, does anyone have a preference between a baitcaster or spinning reel? I noticed a few guys mentioning that they liked baitcasters...any thoughts?

Thanks for all of the tips everyone! I'm looking forward to heading out with the artificials and tearing it up!