The Ghost Minnow we used to catch trout on this trip was the same one Capt. James Wilson used to put together 30 straight limits of speckled trout.
And, although it might be a little hard to believe, he hardly ever had to change baits during that streak.
“It’s nothing really fancy,” Zimmer told me. “It’s just a straight-tail bait, but it’s really, really tough.”
Case in point: Zimmer told me during early November after his 9 a.m. limit day that neither he nor his clients had to change a bait all day long.
“The same bait we started with was the same bait we had on when we finished,” he said. “They get just a little bit beat up, but they last a long, long time on your hook.”
Zimmer said his Ghost Minnow looks a little bit like a glass minnow and a little bit like a shrimp. Whatever it looks like to us doesn’t really matter, though, because trout obviously think it looks like something good to eat.
His favorite way to fish the soft plastic of his own creation is under a popping cork with glass beads to give it that little bit extra weight to cast into the wind.
“Also, I use a really light jighead,” Zimmer said. “A lot of people use ¼-ounce, but I use 1/16-ounce. The reason I do that is you’re never going to see a shrimp rocket to the bottom. A shrimp will jump up and just kind of glide down, so the lighter jighead gives a little bit more-natural look to the Ghost Minnow.”
The Ghost Minnow comes in a few different colors, but Zimmer said Ghost chartreuse and limetreuse are two of the most-popular colors.
As of right now, you can only find these Ghost Minnows at Barataria Bait and Tackle in Marrero and Z’s Tackle in Lutcher.
