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When speckled trout are biting, really in a feeding frenzy, they will bite on anything.
Any saltwater fisherman along the Louisiana worth his salt knows that and has experienced those phenomenal periods when, really, you can’t do anything wrong. It’s what you do when they aren’t tearing up everything that makes the difference.
Bryce Michel knows what to do, nine times out of 10, when the fish turn up their noses at his offerings. He ties on a fairly new product by Jenny’s Jigs, the Shiney-Hiney Shrimp, also known as the Louisiana Gulf Shrimp, with the last word emblazoned in orange on the folded white card above the popping cork combination and the soft plastics created by Bobby Woodson of Sunset.
“The Shiney-Hiney that Bobby makes — that’s a great go-to bait. It’s got orange eyes on it, and it sinks slow,” said Michel, a veteran saltwater guide who has owned Topwater Charters since 2000.
The Shiney-Hiney works from Southeast Louisiana to Southwest Louisiana, Woodson said. Just ask the Stansels at Hackberry Rod & Gun Club and Erik Rue at Calcasieu Charter Service.
“That bait’s been used from Grand Isle to Cocodrie to Big Lake. It’s durable. It falls like a shrimp,” Woodson said. “It’s a no-brainer. I’ve caught fish on that when they don’t bite anything else.”
If that sounds like something you’d like to have in your tackle box, you aren’t alone. Particularly if you’re going out October through December.
How much does Michel believe in the Shiney-Hiney Shrimp? Michel has about 1,000 in stock at his camp along the coast below Houma. The bulging orange eyes make the difference, he said. The pair of beads sticking out from the 1/8-ounce leadhead get the attention of speckled trout, plain and simple, he said.
Woodson, 60, agreed with Michel about the lure of the orange eyes. He said one time he was fishing, he saw live shrimp being chased that had orangish eyes that glowed, perhaps from fear.
That’s why he put them on the soft-plastic Shiney-Hiney Shrimp he attaches to a 2/0 Mustad Lazer hook tied to a 25-pound-test, 24-inch-long leader. They are part of a professional look that includes fine jig wrapping hand-tied around the head of the leadhead and hook.
The soft-plastic shrimp tail was designed with the help of Greg Garst with Garst Lure Design at Toledo Bend. Woodson said Garst put the finishing designs on the Shiney-Hiney Shrimp.
“Give him the idea, and he’ll put it on a computer and draw it up. He’ll make it fall like it’s supposed to. The key to the bait is the way it falls. It falls like a shrimp,” Woodson said.
Admittedly, the Shiney-Hiney Shrimp isn’t made to fish deep water, he said. Over reefs and in duck ponds, however, it can’t be beat, however, he added.
The biggest redfish to fall for it was a 42-pounder at the Chandeleur Islands, he said. Woodson said he caught a 6.27-pound speckled trout on one of his Shiney-Hiney Shrimps in mid-summer at Calcasieu Lake. His buddy Jody Crouch catches on it consistently at Diamond Reef and Tee Butte in the Marsh Island area, he said.
It has even caught bonefish in the Bahamas, he said. Most of its fans are along the coast of the Sportsman’s Paradise, though.
“Bryce uses that bait quite a bit. He said, ‘Man, that orange eye is the key,’” Woodson said. “The bait really gets good when the north wind blows and the shrimp start moving from the marshes into the bays, into Lake Decade, Sister Lake and Lake Mechant.”
“It sinks slow,” Michel said. “It’s more of a reaction-type bait. When they’re not eating anything else, when you’ve got to work for them, that’s when they pay off.”
Typically, he said, the speckled trout hit the soft plastic on the fall.
More often than not, they’ll be hitting a chartreuse model, he said. He also likes to take it to his region’s duck ponds, adjust the leader to 6 inches and bust the redfish, which treat it like dead shrimp, he said.
Woodson said the Shiney-Hiney Shrimp is sold in six stores around South Louisiana. There are eight “tails” in a bag and, he estimated, an angler can catch up to 60 speckled trout on the durable soft plastics.
The bright-chartreuse popping cork has rattles and glass beads made by Don Olivier of Lafayette with Olivier’s Custom Rods and Tackle.
“Don does a really good job. You ought to see the operation he has,” Woodson said. “What I like to do is design baits.”
He designed the Shiney-Hiney Shrimp about four years ago, he said.
Jenny’s Jigs was started by his wife about eight years ago. Her sac-a-lait hair jigs are widely known with more than 100 color combinations. There are 10 color combinations for the Shiney-Hiney Shrimp.
They also make spinnerbaits for redfish and other artifical lures for bass.
For more information, call (337) 654-0928.
