After Katrina and Rita, experts predicted several lean duck years, but the habitat has rebounded remarkably well, and this season may be one for the ages.
Give one of Louisiana’s veteran saltwater fishing guides a popping cork and a Shrimp Cocktail made by Bass Assassin, and chances are good he’ll limit out while fishing around Lafitte, Lake Salvador, Bay Round, Barataria Bay and Little Lake. Theophile Bourgeois of Barataria has fed Shrimp Cocktails to speckled trout and redfish ever since Robin Shiver, Bass Assassin president, sent him some of the first ones off the production line in mid-summer.
Bourgeois, a field tester for the artificial-lure manufacturer, has been hooked ever since, and so have the fish that bite the soft plastic shrimp imitation that hit the market in June.
There are many reasons the Shrimp Cocktail triggers so many strikes from fish, Bourgeois said recently after a bountiful fishing trip to one of his early October hotspots. The way it acts under a popping cork is one of the big reasons, he confided.
“That’s the most productive way right now,” said Bourgeois. “It looks like a little shrimp. It’s definitely got the body shape.
“It’s got good body action. The little split in the body helps it be real flexible, lifelike.”
That was the idea behind making the Shrimp Cocktail, said Shiver, who started the Bass Assassin company 19 years ago in Mayo, Fla. The company developed its reputation in the freshwater fishing market, specifically targeting bass, but began making saltwater soft plastics in the mid-1990s.
Shiver designed the Shrimp Cocktail and added scent to it before making it available to saltwater fishermen in June in Louisiana, Florida, Texas, Alabama, and Mississippi, as well as along the East Coast.
“The main thing is we built a good-looking bait that looks a lot like a shrimp. The scent definitely helps them catch fish,” Shiver said. “One thing that made it take off is the scent. That’s part of the key right there.”
Speckled trout, redfish, flounder — “they’ve all been biting it,” he said.
So the Shrimp Cocktail has joined Bass Assassin saltwater fishing products like the pioneering Sea Shad, the 4-inch Split Tail and the 5-inch Eel.
Bourgeois, 42, said he was glad to get his hands on a soft plastic like the Shrimp Cocktail. It triggers speckled trout bites in crystal clear water, clear water and dingy water, he said, because of the way it suspends under the popping cork once the popping motion stops.
And when the popping cork does pop, with a flick of the angler’s wrist, the Shrimp Cocktail rises from the depths naturally, like a real crustacean jumps from the bottom, Bourgeois said.
“Honestly, it’s a real productive bait. It gives you condidence that may be lacking in dingy water,” the 14-year veteran fishing guide said.
A specially designed leadhead helps the action of the soft plastic, Shiver said.
“Yeah, we fixed it up. Nobody really fixed one where it looks like it’s moving through the water,” he said.
Bourgeois said another quality of the Shrimp Cocktail is its durability.
“It holds up. To a lot of people, the key thing is how many fish can they catch on it,” he said.
He isn’t saying an angler will catch 100 speckled trout on a single Shrimp Cocktail. Small speckled trout can be devastating to any soft plastic the way they shake coming in, he said.
But it holds up well, Shiver agreed.
“It’s just like our other plastics,” he said. “Most of our stuff is fairly durable. But you don’t want it too hard. You’ve got to keep it to a point where the action’s in the bait, too. Lots of times, the action in the bait’s what makes the fish strike the lure, anyhow.”
Shrimp Cocktails are available in 13 colors, he said. One of the biggest hits on the market is the color Drunk Monkey.
“It’s a heckuva name for a color,” he said, “but it’s what everybody remembers, just like electric chicken.”
Bourgeois, however, has his own top three colors and sticks to them. They are electric chicken, which works well in murky water, clear and Chandeleur Island.
For more information on the Shrimp Cocktail or other Bass Assassin products, call (386) 294-1049, or write to 232 SE Industrial Park Circle, Suite A, Mayo, Fla. 32066.
