New Secret Baits to Catch Monster Snapper

EDITOR'S NOTE: This week, we'll discuss how you can use wimpy tackle to take more snapper. Small, light-line tackle can and will produce more and bigger snapper than heavier tackle will. Let's look at what Pure Fishing learned in the summer of 2000 while fishing off Alabama's Gulf Coast with John Prochnow, new-products manager for Pure Fishing, on Captain George Pfeiffer's charter boat, the C.A.T., based in Orange Beach, Alabama.

John Prochnow has worked on secret tactics to improve the performance of Berkley's Inshore Power Tubes for many years.

"The Power Tubes are impregnated with an active ingredient that triggers strikes from bottom feeders like snapper, grouper, scamp, triggerfish and amberjack," Prochnow explained. "The Power Grubs look like small squid, which are the natural food of almost all bottom feeders. One of the big advantages to the Power Grubs is not only are they impregnated with an active saltwater-fish attractant, but they also are tough and stay on the hooks much longer than either live or dead bait traditionally used to catch bottom feeders."

Pfeiffer has used highly-effective Power Tubes in the past but had quit using them because of the expense involved.

"Power Tubes are too expensive," Pfeiffer told us. "I can't keep them on the boat."

However, Power Tubes actually cost less than both live and artificial bait. Here's what Pfeiffer said. "I know the Berkley Inshore Power Tubes catch more fish faster, and that's the problem. If I put out a bag of Berkley's Inshore Power Tubes, and my anglers start fishing with them, they catch more fish quickly. To make sure they don't run out of these new baits, they'll start putting them in their pockets and hiding them in their luggage. I'll lose four times as many Power Tubes than what's required to catch the fish. Quite simply, the baits are so effective that my fishermen steal them from me and then they gripe because they don't have any with which to fish. So I encourage my fishermen to buy the baits before we get on the boat and keep their own supply."

To make the baits even more effective, Prochnow started loading up the insides of the hollow tubes with Berkley's Sparkles Nibbles and Berkley's Sparkles Nuggets. These little pellets, packed full of sparkle and glitter, left a trail behind them as the tubes fell to the bottom, much like an injured baitfish. When a bottom feeder attacked one of the tubes with the glitter in it, a cloud of glitter exploded as though a baitfish just had had its scales knocked off. This splash of flash seemed to trigger more strikes from bigger fish.

For more information locating Berkley's products, including the Inshore Power Tubes, Sparkles Nibbles and Sparkles Nuggets, call (800) BERKLEY, or check out their website at www.berkley-fishing.com.

For more information on fishing Alabama's Gulf Coast with Captain George Pfeiffer, call (888) 558-3889. Or, call the Alabama Gulf Coast Convention and Visitors Bureau to learn more about attractions, hotels, accommodations and restaurants in the Orange Beach area at (800) 745-SAND.

Tomorrow: How To Hypercharge Tube Baits