The Man With Two Rods

SURF FISHING FOR THE ELUSIVE

He’s known from Seminole Point to Bathtub Reef simply as “the guy with two rods,” so dubbed for the spare rig he routinely totes in a make-shift waist harness along the beach.  His real name is O. J. “Bud” Pettingill and over the past 25 years, he’s caught and released more North Palm Beach County snook on artificial lures than anyone.

With snook season in full swing, I caught-up with Pettingill recently in the surf along Jupiter Island, and sought his opinion on the most productive artificial snook lures for visitors and locals alike:

#5: Johnny Rattler by Luhr-Jensen – Over the years, I’ve caught more snook and jumped more tarpon on the silver/black (0940) and silver/blue (0949) “Mr. Johnny” than any single lure.  As all topwater enthusiasts know, these baits are effective only in extremely low light.  A snook’s eyes are acutely sensitive to sunlight.  Once the sun is high in the sky, a snook rarely will cast his gaze toward the surface again until dusk.  Still, for pre-dawn, overcast, and late evening topwater action, nothing I’ve found can match the action and excitement of Luhr-Jensen’s magic Johnny Rattler.

#4: Yozuri’s Crystal Minnow Floating 5 ¼” Twitch Bait – Since its introduction, the Crystal Minnow has become a classic bait for surf snooking in SoFla.  Here’s a little tip to make this and similar twitch baits by Rapala, XCalibur, and others more effective, and save a bunch of money over a long snooking career: sand down the lip! A belt sander works best, but even a common file will do.  Simply reduce the size of the lip by about a third, maintaining the shape and angle as you go.  This modified lip produces a dive of about 4”- 6” on a jerk, and holds the bait at 10”– 12” below the surface on a fast retrieve, keeping it from snagging on the rocks.  At 7-10 bucks a crack, what snook angler hasn’t experienced that bit of morning misery?

#3: MirrOdines by MirrOlure – Nothing I’ve used mimics a “greenie” more realistically than this new line of MirrOlures.  The bait features a luminescent inset, fish calling rattles, and natural 3-D eyes to enhance its realism.  Best of all, the MirrOdine is designed to suspend in 12” – 14” of water, making it the practically perfect artificial for hovering just above the myriad rock formations that line our beaches from Stuart to Juno where snook love to hide and ambush passing prey.  My personal favorite is the Silver Luminescence XL-27, but all will call and catch snook, even at high sun.

#2: Strike King’s new Redfish Magic Glass Minnow – Developed exclusively for Strike King by Cpts. Ray Van Horn and C.A. Richardson of Flats Class TV, this soft plastic bait originally was designed to mimic the forage of trout and redfish in the Louisiana Delta.  In fact, it is the closest bait ever made, and the first soft plastic I’ve seen, that perfectly mimics the shoals of glass minnows on which snook gorge in July and August prior to the mullet run. The new composite material is vastly more durable than the average soft plastic bait, and is nicely priced at $3.79 for a 5-pack at Bass Pro Shops.  Fished best Texas rigged with a lead head (1/16^th to ¼ oz depending on wind and waves) in the following colors: blue glimmer (27), glo chartreuse (70), and pearl (84).

#1: The trusty Spoon – From old stand-by classics like the Johnson Sprite and Krocodile spoons to the latest line of “wobblers” by companies like Badger Tackle, the spoon has long been the go-to bait of choice for seasoned snook anglers.  A neat trick is to swap-out the treble hook for a #3 or #4 Nautilus circle hook in blood red by Gamakatsu.  The circle hook allows anglers to bounce the spoon off the rocks with little or no fear of getting snagged.  The only 30+ lb. snook I personally have witnessed hauled from the beach both were caught by the same guy -– the legendary Ken Stone – both at Blowing Rocks Preserve, both on gold Johnson spoons, a year apart in the late 90s.

And, finally, with these and all artificials I strongly recommend one of the new 15 lb. test braids like Power Pro for maximum casting, and 20 lb. fluorocarbon leader like YoZuri’s Invisible Pink affixed by an Albright knot.