ARTIFICIAL BAITS
Well-prepared wading anglers step into the water with a variety of artificial baits. Each has his favorites that are fished with considerable confidence. But of course you never know for sure what conditions you may encounter, so it’s always best to have some backup gear along for those instances.

There are four basic categories of artificial baits that wade-fishermen usually have at hand: jigs with soft-plastic trailers, spoons, slow-sink twitch baits, and topwater plugs.

You’d be hard pressed to find a wading angler in this region without a good selection of softies in his arsenal of baits. Soft plastics are relatively cheap, and come in most colors and shapes imaginable. The favorites for specks imitate either shrimp, bull minnows, menhaden or mullet. It’s hard to go wrong with a collection of proven baits such as: Cocahoes; Salt Water Assassins; Deadly Dudleys; Mr. Twister Finshads or Sassy Shads; Norton Shad or Bull Minnows; D.O.A. Shrimp; split-tail Sparkle Beetles; or the 100 percent biodegradable Berkley Gulp soft baits.

Ever-popular colors are white, chartreuse, avocado, pearl, black, and purple. Of course baits with a combinations of colors -- like white or chartreuse with a red tail, and purple or pearl with a red or chartreuse tail -- are excellent contrasting hues. Especially in clear water, more-translucent shades of smoke, light green, avocado, and chartreuse prove deadly when various colors of glitter are imbedded.

White, an all-purpose color for specks, works exceptionally well in turbid, dingy water. When the sun’s high in the sky, a softie in a chartreuse color is a good choice, too.

Especially when the water’s dirty, a small piece of fresh dead shrimp threaded on the jig hook can lead to more strikes by adding the extra effectiveness of scent. Perhaps try the Gulp baits in such dingy conditions, because they too put out a lot of scent too. As they slowly break down in the water, a fish-attracting scent trail is created.

Keep an assortment of 1/8- to 1/2-ounce jigs ready for use with the trailers. Use the lighter heads in shallow water; fish the heavier ones in deeper areas, or where there are stronger currents. Unpainted jigheads work quite well, but colored heads of white, black, purple body or red can be used to contrast with the color of the plastics.

Soft plastics can be fished either singly or in tandem. Personally, I like to start out fishing two different colors at the same time. When fished on 25-pound-test Seaguar fluorocarbon leader material with one jig dangling 6 inches or so below the top bait, you can test more water using varied colored baits. Once the fish express a preference for a certain hue, switch both baits to that color.

Before we move on from soft plastics, let’s not forget their effectiveness when fished under a clacking or popping cork. Two of the more effective corks on the market are the Paradise Popper X-Treme and the Cajun Thunder. These floats generate sounds similar to a fleeing shrimp or another fish striking on the surface. Either such commotion effectively draws nearby specks to your bait.

To rig, tie a 2- to 3-foot length of leader material under the cork, and then tie on the jig. With the added weight of the cork you are able to make long casts, and cover a lot of water. Slowly work float back to your position by whipping your rod tip quickly up. This causes the cork to jump forward creating a pop or clack. Next, make three cranks on the reel’s handle and repeat the process. Periodically also stop the bait and let it sit motionless for a few seconds.

Specks love spoons too, and this type of hardware in a silver or gold finish can be deadly, especially in the clear water surrounding the Mississippi barrier islands. In fact, these lures do well along any of the Magnolia State’s beaches. Side-Winder, Mr. Champ and Johnson Sprite spoons are all highly successful models for specks.

As for slow-sink twitch baits, any of the series of 52M models from MirrOlure are especially effective for targeting larger trout that prowl the gullies, flats, points, and grass beds around the barrier islands. The Yo-Zuri Crystal Vibe in a clown finish of red head and silver body is another prime example of a slow-sinking speck bait. All these mentioned resemble a mullet or bull minnow, favorite meals in a big specks diet. For best results fish the baits slow with a couple of intermittent jerks and pauses.

Finally, a couple of topwater plugs should be tossed in the selection of baits you carry for speck fishing. Extremely effective on larger trout, some anglers opt to toss topwater plugs for the sheer excitement of seeing a big speck exploded through the surface to take the bait. Such anglers know they may not get as many strikes, but the ones they do provoke usually result in much larger fish.

Examples of speck-attracting top-water baits include: Heddon Tiny Torpedoes; Zara Spooks or Pups; MirrOlure He Dogs, She Dogs, Top Dogs, Top Dog Jrs. or Top Pups; Yo-Zuri Banana Boats, 3D Poppers, or Hydro Pencils; and Bomber Pop’n Shrimp.

To cover the spectrum, it’s wise to have baits in the 3- up to 5-inch lengths. Trout sometimes just knock the bigger baits into the air. At those times you need to try a smaller version.