Different Lures And Techniques

EDITOR'S NOTE: Anthony Randazzo works as a guide for Paradise Plus Guide Service. For more information on fishing the Mississippi Delta, write to 201 Bergeron Drive, Belle Chasse, LA 70037, or call Anthony Randazzo at (504) 656-9940.

QUESTION: Can you name your five favorite lures for specks and reds and tell us how you fish them?

ANSWER: My favorite across the board has to be a topwater plug. The biggest plug you can throw will catch the biggest fish. PRADCO makes the Excalibur Super Spook, Jr., a great big plug with three sets of razor-sharp trebles that comes in super fish-catching colors. It provides excitement second to none.

QUESTION: How do you fish that Super Spook?

ANSWER: We fish it from a real slow to fast walk-the-dog retrieve, just depending on what the fish like. Occasionally we'll fish a stop-and-go retrieve, but not very often.

QUESTION: What's your number-two plug?

ANSWER: My number-two plug consists of a Bomber Long A from PRADCO fished on the surface with a jerk-and-twitch retrieve. I jerk it down a couple of feet and let it float back to the top. You get a lot of strikes on that lure that you couldn't get on a top-water lure just because the fish won't quite come up on top and strike it.

QUESTION: What color do you prefer?

ANSWER: It's hard to say. I like anything chartreuse. I especially like the chartreuse red head and the white with the red head. I don't want to fish one color everyday because they're all unbelievably successful.

QUESTION: Which lure comes in third?

ANSWER: The PRADCO Excalibur Swim'N Image comes in third because of its diversity. You can catch redfish and speckled trout with no fishing skills whatsoever. You can catch fish by just throwing it out and reeling it in to the boat. This lure has some new colors. I like the solid white with a chartreuse head, the speckled trout color and the sardine color that resembles a goldfish. All of those have had outstanding results.

QUESTION: What's your fourth favorite lure?

ANSWER: A 3-inch Riverside Beavertail, a small, natural-appearing bait, ranks fourth. It has good tail action coming through the water, with a side-to-side action. If you rig the tail straight up and down, it really puts off a good bit of vibration that entices a lot of trout to eat. We catch a lot of fish just casting it out, retrieving it straight back to the boat and letting the lure do all the work.

QUESTION: Which lure comes in fifth?

ANSWER: A 4-inch and a 5-inch Riverside Croaker Tail fished on a 1/4-ounce jig head takes the fifth spot on my list. I'll let it bounce slowly on the bottom or fish it up off the bottom in an erratic fashion. You also can complement it with a jig-spinner to give additional flash and vibration, which always attracts redfish. It works better than average to catch trout, but you can catch more redfish with this lure.

QUESTION: How do you know when to fish what?

ANSWER: You rely a lot on experience and your assessment of the given water conditions when you pull up to a spot. You fish different techniques in shallow water vs. deep water, clean water vs. dirty water and fast current vs. slow current.

QUESTION: Given one lure, which one would you take?

ANSWER: Anglers have a hard time beating soft plastics for fishing most anywhere. You can fish soft plastics in a variety of situations, and the fish seem a little more apt to strike them. So, I'd have to say either the Riverside Croaker Tail or the Riverside Beavertail would be the one lure I'd pick.