It's all about the stiks...

[Will]

I recently purchased a couple of 2-piece aluminum stik molds (4" and 5"). I made a few samples to try this weekend. Now, I should say, that I have never done fresh-water fishing, my only experience with fishing has been here in SoCA (San Diego Bay), so I am used to using plastics with a lot of tail action like the swimbaits, grubs with curly tail, etc, but never just plain worms like the stiks. Well, having invested some money in these molds, I just had to try them in salt-water and also figure out how to rig them and what kind of retrieve to use since tail action was non-existent.

I got to the beach parking lot under the Coronado island bridge about 7:30AM and while my girlfriend and I rigged the kayak together and hit the water, it was about 8:15AM. We paddled for about 1/4-mile and decided to stop to try our luck. I was amazed to see that my girlfriend had caught two spotted bay bass in less than 10 minutes upon arriving to the desired spot with a sample sent by Bob (4" creature mold), and that I supposedly have more experience than her, did not have any luck with the grub I was using (clear with red glitter).

The bite died down a bit and we decided to move to another spot. Now it was time to face my fears and see if the money invested in these molds were going to pay off since these plastics are mostly used in fresh water, so I got first a 4"- root beer (red & gold glitter) stik out and rigged it Texas style with a 1/4 ounce bullet sinker and a 4/0-worm hook. My retrieve was slow just trying to bounce the worm off the bottom (about 7'- 9' deep). Upon my first cast I was ON, and performed CPR on it (Catch, Photograph, and Release).

http://tinypic.com/3saog

I kept casting the same worm and I hooked something very strong that ended up breaking me off (8 lbs test line) and swimming away with my setup and never got to see what it was. Now it was time to try a different color of the 4? stik, and decided to go with one that I have not come up with a name for the color but maybe you can (see link below).

http://tinypic.com/3sakg

I kept using this worm/color. The fish count for the day was 6 spotted bay bass and several bites I missed on setting the hook on time.

http://tinypic.com/3sapg

What can I say, I am very amazed what these worms can do for salt-water fishing even on a slow day. Now I have begun a collection of the different sizes of stik molds that are being offered by the online stores. These molds are awesome!

Until next time...

[Senkosam]

Will, thanks for the pics and sharing the experience. I think most of us fish mostly freshwater and forget that saltwater is a whole different ball game. Who would have known that sticks are as effective on ocean species as on lakes and rivers?

Sam

[siebler_custom_baits]

Arnt spotties fun? for the guys that dont know about them they are the smallmouth bass of the bass in our bays meaning they are really grumpy and fight very hard.

Will i had taylor pour me some swimbaits in rootbeer/ orange tail and they slotterred the spotties in MB the other day. Got the color idea from the last PLaticnavy MBF where i was thrown a grub that ed whited uses and it was destroyed 1st cast by a spottie.

[BigZ]

It's refreshing to see something different on the board. I used to love fishing down in SD. I forget what the name of the place we fished was, we'd rent a boat and go catch big rays and scrappy sharks, it was right by the Navy base. I remember that it was right off of Rosecranz and we'd go to the strip bars after we were done fishing. LoL. That was about 6 years ago. I used to fish up by Ponto in the surf too. You guys are lucky that you such great waters, ours are cold, deep and shark ridden.