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No environment on Earth is quite as complex as the sea. The world's oceans are home to a daunting number of fish species, each one carving its own unique niche in the food chain. That specialization among predators requires saltwater anglers to understand their target species on a deep level. What does it prefer to eat? How does it catch them? What conditions make its prey easier to hunt? Does it hunt primarily by sight and key in on color, or does it rely on scent and a general shape profile?
Now multiply that times anywhere from 5 – 25 target species in a given area, and this wide range of variables can make dialing in a saltwater fishery extremely challenging.
Luckily, there are a handful of techniques and lure types that are about as universal as they come.
As Team Captain for the U.S. Saltwater Kayak Fishing Team and a full-time traveling angler for over a decade, I've caught fish from frigid Alaska to Southern Baja, from the remote southern coast of Panama to the Fjords of glacial Chile, from the Mediterranean to New Zealand and quite a few places in between.
And I've found success on at least a few of these go-to rigs in every one of them:
Diving Hard Baits
"There's always a bigger fish." Fish eat fish the world over. And while there are many types of lures that imitate fish, there's one fish imitation to rule them all: diving hard baits.
They cast well, they come in a wide variety of colors and patterns, they hold up well to toothy predators and that wobble is flat-out irresistible. Their diving depth can range from a foot below the surface to 30 feet or deeper. This lets you tap into the zone your target prefers, whether you're trolling for tuna up top or digging down to entice snapper hugging the reef.
The X-Rap family from Rapala is my top choice in this arena. They check all the boxes above, and there's a version for whatever you need to prioritize in the current situation. Need distance to hit the white wash on a rocky coastline? Grab the X-Rap® Long Cast. Need to troll 15 knots to elicit a wahoo strike? The Magnum Xtreme can handle it.
If you just want to catch fish, you can never go wrong with the 3 1/8" and 4" original X-Rap®. These can catch just about anything: from redfish and speckled trout to bluefin trevally and Spanish mackerel. It can be cast up onto shore and retrieved or slow trolled behind a boat or kayak. You really can't fish it wrong. If it's in the water, it can get bit.
The X-Rap® Magnum® series is great for near-shore and offshore applications when targeting fish like striper, king mackerel, yellowtail, roosterfish or salmon. As a general rule, I find that the bigger the hard bait, the faster you need to move it to maintain a realistic presentation.
This is one of my go-to search baits when figuring out a new fishery. You can cover a lot of water with it, and it's just a good way to get bites and see what's hunting in the area.
Topwater Popper or Walk-the-Dog Baits
Now we're going for style points. While topwater yields fewer bites in general, one explosion on the popper is worth 100 catches on just about anything else in my book. And that isn't a hard rule: some days, the fish are just begging to put on a show. I've had days where I couldn't buy a bite on anything but topwater. And when you're forced to fish around heavy structure, it can be the most efficient way to present something to your target without getting snagged.
When selecting a popper, I look for a big mouth-to-body ratio, meaning it has a deep cup where the line ties, even in the smaller sizes. That ensures the bait is going to push lots of water without skipping out and tangling on itself constantly, especially when there's some chop.
The X-Rap® Magnum Xplode never leaves my popping rod when fishing near-shore fisheries in Panama or Mexico or Australia. This bait will help you bypass the bycatch and go straight for the biggest, baddest predators in the area. The 5 ¼" size is hard to beat for most situations.
For a more subtle presentation to yield a higher quantity of bites, the Skitter Pop® is easier on the shoulders and can get bit by just about anything that feeds on baitfish.
For certain fisheries, a more specific and subtle type of action can be more effective. A walk-the-dog type bait like the Skitter Walk definitely takes more finesse and technique, but mastering it can yield insane results, particularly in calmer waters like the flats and marshes of the Gulf and Atlantic coastlines of the U.S. This is one of my go-to baits for redfish, speckled trout and striped bass -- partly because it's effective, and partly because nothing wakes me up in the morning quite like a redfish exploding on my topwater in two feet of water. Better than coffee.
Vertical Jigging
Invented in Japan, vertical jigging is a newer technique in the grand scheme of the sport. But it has taken the fishing world by storm, and for good reason: it works.
The technique takes some practice, but it can be absolutely deadly in waters deeper than 50 feet. Vertical jigs range from 10 grams all the way up to half a pound or more, so you can match your jig size to your target species and let her rip. A 30-40 gram vertical jig never leaves my lighter setup where I guide in Panama. Its role is to catch our live bait (2-4 pound tunas), but 30+ pound fish hit it with regularity.
The Kensaki Jig or Slide Dancer from Williamson are both very effective all-around jigs that can catch just about any aggressive saltwater species: from bottom fish like snapper and grouper to more pelagic species like yellowtail, roosterfish or tuna. For bottom fish, I incorporate 2-second pauses in between quick bursts, and I almost always get hit on the pause. For fish hunting the mid water column, keep it moving and jig it all the way back to the boat. They routinely follow it and strike right below the surface when they think they've got it pinned.
You'll want to pick up a dedicated jigging rod designed for this type of fishing. A rod with a very slow action (flexible top half) but strong backbone is ideal. The "whip in the tip" gives the jig more of a snapping action, but you'll need some beef in the bottom half when you inevitably hook a giant.
As the name implies, the key with vertical jigging is to work the bait vertically. Once you master the cadence and the geometry of playing the current and your drift, there are few techniques that put good fish in the boat as consistently as a jig.
"Old Faithful" – The Bucktail Jig
If I found myself stranded on a deserted island with only one lure to feed myself, the Bucktail Jig would be my choice. Where vertical jigs and walk-the-dog baits require good form, you cannot fish a bucktail wrong. You can cast it, troll it, bounce it off the bottom or speed retrieve it straight up like a vertical jig. I've even dropped it down to a reef, made a few cranks of the reel, stuck the rod in my rod holder and got bit while I was eating lunch. The magic is in the hair; if it's in the water, it looks alive, even when it's barely moving.
It can imitate both baitfish or crustaceans, and I've caught way too many species on this lure to list here. It really does catch everything (and it works great in freshwater, too).
I look for the highest weight-to-size ratio I can find, meaning a heavy jighead but a relatively small profile. The higher sink rate lets me cast it farther, fish it deeper and keep it down around structure. The other critical aspect is the quality of the hook, because huge fish routinely eat small bucktails. They say "big baits, big fish," but I counter with "elephants eat peanuts."
The MTJ Moontail Jig from VMC Hooks is my favorite bucktail. It checks all the boxes above, and I've trusted VMC® hooks for a decade.
Bait, Dead or Alive
Match the hatch? Why not just drop the hatch? This one is pretty obvious, but you can never go wrong fishing live or dead bait when it's available. The key is catching or sourcing bait that actually swims in the waters you're fishing.
To maximize hookups, you need to be intentional about the type of hook you run your bait on.
For smaller bait, a good all-around J-hook for running just about anything is the 7265 O'Shaughnessy Live Bait hook from VMC. No frills, no fluff, just a sharp, strong hook that's going to maximize your chances of getting dinner over the rails.
The 5789 Tournament Circle hook from VMC is my go-to for live baiting when targeting bigger game fish that I plan to release. A circle hook minimizes the chances of "gut-hooking" your catch. The key here is to break that habit of setting the hook. Just reel into the fish with solid drag and let the hook do its job (which is finding the corner of the fish's mouth). To give your live bait more freedom of movement, try the 8382R Ringed Nemesis Circle Hook.
If catch-and-release isn't on the agenda, the unique bend of the 7115 Techset Live Bait hook does a great job of keeping that keeper snapper on the line while it beelines for the wreck.
For big game fishing offshore, hooks don't get sharper than VMC's 8705 Dynacut hook, and it's able to hold up against giant fish. Your arms will give out before this hook does. Ask me how I know...
At the end of the day, there are dozens of techniques and thousands of lures that could be the most effective on any given coastline or bay or marsh system depending on the conditions, time of year, tide, current, migration pattern, etc. But whether you're exploring a new fishery or just struggling to get bit in a familiar one, keeping these five presentations in your tackle box will ensure you always have something effective to throw.
All of these can and do catch fish anywhere, any time.
Watch me catch fish on all of these presentations on my YouTube channel, Field Trips with Robert Field(www.youtube.com/yakfishfield)