After the early morning topwater action dies out, it’s pretty much a sure bet Capt. Tommy Pellegrin will turn to live shrimp.
And, because he’s often fishing around rocks and tangles of trash, sliding corks are his No. 1 weapon.
The reason is simple: They’re just easier to cast than standard titanium-wire corks.
“I fish a lot of junk piles,” Pellegrin explained. “All this structure out here is oil-field junk. So you can’t fish on the bottom.
“You can’t throw a 7-foot-deep bait effectively with a (static) cork. With a slip cork, you just set the stopper at 7 feet, and you’ve only got to throw your leader length. So now you can cast, and you’re fishing right over the bottom.”
He pre-rigs leaders and corks in small plastic bags so he can quickly replace any lost rigs, and he uses monofilament as stoppers.
“All you have to do is tie a uni-knot with a piece of mono around the main line, and then you have the perfect stopper,” Pellegrin said. “You can just slide the stopper up and down the line to adjust the depth.
“And that uni knot will go through the eyes of your rod, so you can cast without any problems.”