garagedoorman39 Loc: Tampa Florida

Good evening to all. I have a simple question in which I hope someone has an answer. I live in Fl and have lived here all my life. Fishing saltwater is my passion. I have always used live as well as dead bait. I recently purchased some swimmer baits, jigs, etc, figured I would finally give artificial a try. My problem is is that I have no knowledge as to the skill of retrieving these baits to mimic live bait. I'm pretty sure it depends on which type of artificial you are using, but any insight would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
Tony

plumbob Loc: New Windsor Maryland

Tony I can imagine you will be swamped with replies. Many of good folks on here and we all have our go to baits. Depends on the area of course, for me it is the Z Man paddle tail, scented curly tails, split tails, and of course Gulp if you don't mind loosing a tail most of the time. All mentioned just cast and retrieve at a speed they are hitting.

garagedoorman39 Loc: Tampa Florida

Thank you plum Bob. I live and fish in the Tampa, Apollo Bch and Ruskin areas.

Dennisjj Loc: Kinston N.C.

Go to you tube watch some videos that should give you some ideas of how to fish them.

Fishandrods Loc: Alpine Ca foothills of San Diego

Hi garagedoorman I was in the garage door business 45 years sold my business and retired 8 years ago. Love to fish on San Diego bay for everything that swims there. My best soft plastics here are Kalins lunker grubs color Rons craw 3" and 5" also blue pearl salt and pepper. I also use Uni Butter fish attractant to help mask human scent. I don't know what fish you have there but we catch spotted bay bass and halibut, croaker, Shortfin corvina, bonefish, sand bass, mackerel, bonito. Also with a drop shot rig Gulps new penny jerkshad,caught some big Halibut on it, some over 30"s. Good luck and tight lines Larry.

garagedoorman39 Loc: Tampa Florida

Hey Larry, I can relate to your time in the trade. My father was in the trade for 45 years and retired early at 62, which was 10 years ago. I started in the trade at 6 years old bbn pulling track and extension cords off of my dads truck. I'm currently 52 and still in the trade. I will have 56 years in when I retire at 62, lol. I also owned my own door company and sold 3 years ago and went to work for the company that bought me. As far as fishing in Fl, we have both salt and fresh water. As far as salt water goes we fish for Snook, Cobia, Red Fish, Trout, Grouper, Mackeral, Mangro Snapper, Red Snapper, Triple tail, Flounder, Barricuda, Kinfish, Tuna, etc etc. And our fresh water of course is Bass, Bluegill, Catfish, etc

Fishandrods Loc: Alpine Ca foothills of San Diego

I was 67 when I quit the business and and feeling the pains of my chosen trade. My best fishing partner for 4 years moved to Navarre FL 1 year ago. We fished every Wednesday as to pretty much have the whole bay to ourselves. The best day on the bay for 2 of us was 176 fish all released. I don't want to eat anything out of this polluted water, in my opinion. Had a skeeter bass boat for and fished the lakes for Florida strain bass but it got so crowded I sold that boat and bought a Smokercraft 15' deep V to fish the bay only, free to fish and no launch fee and never even get close to being skunked. A bad day is 30 fish in 4 hrs of fishing. Even if I was skunked a few hrs on the water is way better than working. My drive to the ramp from my house in the foothills of San Diego is less than 1 HR. I was born and raised in SD and it has gotten way too crowded here. Besides fishing I love to work on my streetrods and go to carshows, thus the handle Fishandrods.