Metal, from Tins to Jigs to Casting Spoons- Everything You Need to Know

[CaryGreene]

Based on a few requests I'm starting this thread so we can journey together and share our insight on all things Metal. When added to Bucktails, Plugs and Lures, Metal can be an essential part of your surf casting and boat fishing game. This is an awesome category and a very under-utilized category of surf lures. Most local shops are out of stock on much of this stuff, especially in season, so unfortunately it's largely an order it on line type of item. As a huge retailer, I have observed Metal go out the door literally in wheel barrels. I have also seen shop lifters clipped 20 per. day for stealing metal, so if even a shoplifter knows metal works, it may be time to get with the program fellas!

 

Let's share our insights and experience with this cool cult like Surf Lure. I would encourage stories, experiences, photos, and the general expansion of the starting point I am giving you. I'm quite certain I will learn a thing or two from this post, as I do with all posts. Together we will dedicate an all things Metal thread that will hopefully grow in time. 

 

So let's get started. First, why use metal? Well, there are more reasons than I can list. Metal comes in various forms and Metal Lures are made of various substances and given various finishes, from dull to polished to hammered to painted to holographic, Metal is a SERIOUS Saltwater stand by. Yet many of us don't carry Metal. It certainly can and will add a little weight to your plug bag. But it will also more than pay for this by adding a little weight to that Boga Grip you keep wearing!

 

I'm going to copy and paste my starting point which was made in a recent thread as a starting point here, only as promised I will have some photos for you cats to browse as well. Don't take my ranking too seriously, I just whapped them down in the order I like them. Depending on your situation and your confidence level, you may certainly beg to differ with me. 

 

Metal is a superior WIND IN YOUR FACE type solution. It is also super for reaching long distances. It is deadly in a blitz. Metal lures can be heavy and you need to fish deep or move them fast sometimes. Other Metal lures can flutter and drop slow or wobble nicely at a steady pace as they are made from Hammered Tin, not cast, heavier metals. Metal can dredge the bottom 120 feet down for boat guys or provide a surface solution for all of us. Metal is lethal in a Blitz and is equally adept as a searching pattern for when you want to cover a huge area of water from a single position. 

 

Metal sometimes doesn't look like much. But remember, once it's moving it becomes a panicking baitfish very quickly. Metal reflects light and can slash all over the place. Metal can hang in the froth and just flutter away. Cruising Predators will ambush Metal. I know guys on Montauk who ONLY fish Metal and or Bucktails. So if you want to be hard core, if you want to have some fun - because throwing Metal is a serious blast - if you want to have some answers when other Surf Lures just aren't cutting it, then this season would be a great time to get in the Metal Game. 

 

There are a lot of choices for different types of fishing. Let's put our focus on ALL applications in this thread. I am going to keep to a Surf Casting perspective but understand I do fish from a boat a lot as well. Keeping Metal simple is a good place to start. As you read down through my ranked list, think of the type of situations that you encounter a lot and which Metals might be best suited for you. Also, maybe you use metal differently than I describe. Please add to the list below and share your feedback ok fellas.

 

Top Metal Lures, Loosly Ranked

 

1. Point Jude Lures - I had originally ranked Point Jude Lures individually but they have numerous Metal Lures and are in good supply usually. For this reason, they get the nod over the competition. They also work terrific which goes without saying. the craftsmanship on the Point Jude lures is also nothing short of superb. I have never had one fail for any reason. I actually prefer Charlie Graves Tins, but they are harder to get and often not available. Point Jude features many options and most of what you want can be found without needing to go elsewhere. When you want to reach into the cookie jar and just go fishing, starting with Point Jude is an Awesome place to begin. I have a few favorites in the Point Jude lineup. Some of the Point Jude Lures come in Silver or Gold. They also have some other cool stuff for Night Guys

 

• A. Point Jude Nautilus. THE wind if your face skip it or slash it on the surface, casts a mile. 2oz. & 3 oz. Get some confidence with    this lure. Fish it when fish are far out and up top. This is a heavy ICBM 2oz. or 3oz. reach out and tough a blitz even in the wind lure. It features a full keel, and it skips on top like no other bait I've seen. 
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• B. Point Jude Sea Scallop. THE flutter it along bait. I sometimes ditch the Siawash Tail & Hook that comes with it and install something smaller like an Akai Bait hook. I mean, side to side beneath the surface, nice and seductive. VERY overlooked by many. Neat tin. Probably the second best seller in the Point Jude lineup & most die hards will happily show you one from their belt.
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• C. Point Jude Sand Eel. Great for when Sand Eels are present. Beyond Great. Groovy. 
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• D. Point Jude Butterfish. Day Saver from the boat. If you're out in the race a lot, grab a few of these pronto! I like to remove the tail on this for small Butterfish.
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• E. Point Jude Bunker. Nice little Peanut Imitation, may need to remove the Saiwash hook and fish it with just an Akai
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• F. Point Jude Striper Knight - a Black version of the killer Po-Jee, including a cool feather tail.
• G. Point Jude Po-Jee. If you want an all purpose Sand Eel/Silver Sides type metal for working open, Sandy Beaches or for hucking off the boat, look no further. Comes with a kicker tail or a saiwash style, or with just a trebble for you toothless, snarly types. The Po-Jee is the single, most popular Point Jude lure. 
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2. Charlie Graves Custom Tins. A company similar to Point Jude, Charlie Graves Tins are really geared 100% for us plug collecting down and dirty beach rats. Charlie Graves covers everything Point Jude offers and they also take things to even more hard core levels with many options that you can spend a fishing career getting to know. I love Charlie Graves Tins. They would be in my first couple sentences if I were to talk about essential surf fishing lures. Unfortunately, they are perpetually out of stock and hard to get. So, like with custom lures of all sorts, it is a crap shoot. The more popular a small company gets, the harder it is to keep up with demand. Let's look at just a couple. These tins are worth searching and waiting for. Side by side with a Point Jude, the Charlie Graves Lures don't sink as fast, they swim better than any other metal lure we will talk about or see. Period. The list below is only a short list. If you really want to be awarded a metal skull & cross bones pin for your baseball hat, you will need to dig much further here. I can't reveal anything else, I'm already a tell all who could be shot or dragged from a jet ski by beach pirates. 

• A. The Sand Flea. Terrific little in the surf spoon. Anything and everything will hit this little silver morsel. 
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• B. The Peanut Bunker. Very effective fluttering tin. 
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• C. The Butterfish. A nice, super light alternative to the competition. When Butterfish get blown onto the coast line, watch out. This tin will solve unsolvable, finicky fish situations like no other. Out in the race, up against the rocks, this is equally lethal. Just fling it at Little Gull Island and hang onto your rod. 
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• Mullet. Comes in super handy when the right shape and size is needed for the dreaded but appreciated Mullet blitzes of the Jersey Shore. 100% lethal fluttering tin. 
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• Herring. Herring have silver bellies. When you get the smaller Atlantic Herring blitzes along the coast, you have to first reach the fish, then have the right shape to imitate the smaller Herring that get pushed up into the top of the water column by the aggressive Blues. Let this spoon flutter on down to the bottom with a 20 or 30 count and you will also be lipping a few Stripers to add to the Blues you snookered.
• Sand Eel/Silver Sides Another excellent Tin that just catches fish all day freeking long. LOVE IT! (hahaha) You will absolutely need a spoon with this silhouette for both Sand Eels and Silversides as they are omni-present baits that Bass are on all season long, like CRACK! Jack!
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3. Shimano Colt Sniper. Absolutely deadly when Silversides are around. Available in many sizes (sold by gram weight not ounces, so you have to translate it to know which weight you want. Can be used from shore. Fluttters as it drops, wich is VERY unusual for a heavy metal lure, this occurs because of the beveled edges. The Holographic finish is pretty chip resistant and ultra life like. The East Coast has realized this is a killer lure so good luck getting them as they will be out of stock forever. The Colt Sniper can swim. WHAAAAAT?  Decent color assortment with Ahi Brown, Green Back and Pearl of course being fabulous choices and the 42g. and 60g. being good starting points. Crushes fish by boat or from shore. This is a cool, modern piece of metal that brings a real, baitfish imitation angle to the surf community. Catches anything that swims & is on the prowl and allows you to cast far AND drill Bass. I didn't want to like this lure. I wish it wasn't so baller. But it is. Dammit! Try them this season. It's like opening Pandora's Box. WHAM!

 

4. Point Wilson Darts. Killer choices for everything from Rain Bait to Atlantic Herring to Mackerel. I like the "Anchovy" Dart, it is a style, has a little longer body profile than their "Herring" darts. These are similar to the Colt Sniper in function, awesome from the boat. The light reflecting paint jobs are SERIOUS DUDE. Can also be used from shore. Sold in 1oz. right on up to very heavy 6oz. and even heavier options available. These baits are HUGE on the West Coast and all the way up into Canada. The East Coast wouldn't know a Point Wilson if it bit them in the A$$! If you ran around in a boat all season you could just fish with these and be perfectly good, wouldn't need a single other lure. I have crushed fish with them for years. One time in the Cape Cod Canal people were swearing at me. Until I shared my Macks of course, in exchange for beers. the bottom picture is secret weapon #1 for Albies. BAM

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5. Sweedish Pimple. Comes in very large sizes & is deadly in saltwater with Pearl being a killer color. Very overlooked bait. Casts a mile and man does it catch Stripers. You have to order these on line, nobody seems to know they exist. Get 2oz. and 3oz. and huck these whenever you want to. They are sub surface slow and seductive, they are up top. WAY versatile. Deadly. Add a tail on stubby hook. Only issue, fitting a large split ring in either hole. VERY hard to freeking do. I will post a few of the monster pimples, the kind of which Stridex Pads turn and run from, shortly...in the meantime, here is a cheesy little ice fishing pimple. Puh-lease!

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6. Diamond Jig with Orange Tube Tail. Great from a boat, comes in serious heavy sizes and will crush fish even in current. Many Captains say this is the #1 lure there is. Only ranked low because it's not typically a great reel it in lure, used more for jigging. Stripers eat this thing all day long. You could fish your entire life from a boat and use only these. They kill it. 

 

7. Shimano Wax Wing. Odd? Yes. Stupid? Yes. Idiotic? Yes. Expensive? Check. An excellent bait when you have some water depth and the fish are in the middle to upper part of the water column. Reel it in and it just goes side to side on it's own. If you get onto some fish, the wax wing will kill fish. Should probably be ranked higher. 

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8. Crippled Herring. Time tested fall classic. Very Heavy. Casts terrific and has great action. Doesn't look like much. Looks can be deceiving. This little F&C4#% really swims kid!

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  ^...failed to get the picture of the Hopkins Shorty up. See below for blackdogfish's correction. 

   

  10. Deadly Dick. Unbeatable slashing action (best in class), really THE Metal Lure for fall blitzes. You have to smoke this bait and keep it up and slashing. Best selling metal lure in New England. Maybe should have ranked this one higher. Restricted to surface only. TERRIFIC and slams fish during blitzes. I had to explain what this lure was to Cabela's brass. They don't have them in Nebraska. After they sold 10 thousand in a week they begrudgingly added it to the assortment. Just so you know, that is really not that good. Think of how many universal type lures, like for example of Blue Gill Jig, they sell in a week. 100 thousand? Dicks carries them, they must be good because their Fishing Departments are pretty dialed in. 

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  11. Kast Master. Best Casting Metal out there dollars to doughnuts. REALLY heavy though. You have to burn it to keep it up on top. WILL BE in stock at your nearest gas station in New England. In fact, I may have seen these at Dunkin Doughnuts the other day. Not sure. Could have been ranked number one and if this was a magazine article, I would have probably put it there.

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  12. WHAAAAT??? Yes. Little Cleo Spoon. Nobody uses these in Salwater in their right mind right? Wrong. Try the Alewife when Peanuts are around & send me Turtles (the chocolates) or Scotch as a nice, classy thank you. Cleo's actually flutter better than most all tins and spoons. So years ago I said, WHY NOT? Then I went on a season long mission to catch a nice Striper with one. The mission ended during the first week of the season. I took a 32lb. Striper (granted, not huge) on a Chartrause Cleo. It was then that my love affair began. Since you can't marry the girl on the back, you have to settle for fishing with her. 

   

  ...Cod Jig called a Vikey Jig has been removed from my list. Looks like we could use a few more options like Krocodile Spoons or the Hex Heads. I will leave those to you guys because I don't use either. If anybody likes them, please put up some pictures & let us know what is good about them. 

  

Edited March 31, 2016 by CaryGreene

[CaryGreene]

Here is a picture of a large Swedish pimple we have a 2-ouncer and a 3-ouncer pictured here. I am 65 and I can catch/palm a basketball if you just throw it to me look how big that 3 ounce pimple is. When I said it would make a Stridex anti-pimple medicated pad turn and run at the mere sight of it I was not joking.

Edited March 31, 2016 by CaryGreene

[blackdogfish]

The last pics on your first post  look like Hopkins hammered spoons.  Don't recall the name Vicky, but the Hopkins No=Eql and the Shorty are classics.

NO=EQL

 

Shorty

[CaryGreene]

Thanks blackdogfish, I made an edit to the post. Hard to get a lot of pics up in this format, it's slow going. 

[beached again]

Very interesting post. By far the longest post I have ever read on this site, and it was worth it. 99 % of the surf fishing I do is with tins. My favorites are Charlie Graves and crippled herrings. Also used to use Charlie Pasquale Tins but lost them all and they are hard to find. I fish an inlet with a strong current, usually cast up and let the tide take it giving it a little twitch once in a while. As it is sinking the stripers will hit it. Blackdog is correct. I never leave home without a hopkins.

[Rookee]

Great post! Thank you.

I myself am a tinman, don't get me wrong I use all other types of lures, but tins are almost always the first lure I take out of my bag. You can bet that as I'm walking from my car towards the water, there's a tin attached to my leader.

Edited March 31, 2016 by Rookee

[angryseahorse]

Awesome post, great read. Thank you for sharing.

[BrianBM]

A fair bit of work went into that first post. Thank you, Cary.

 

IMHO the leading mistake made by most casters is that they fish tins entirely too quickly. Even with bluefish, a tin should be fished slowly enough to flutter. It's NOT the same as using a diamond jig on a partyboat. If in doubt, stop and let it flutter on a slack or semi-slack line. If the bottom permits, hit the bottom often, exactly as you would with a bucktail.

 

Tins made of tin can be fished slowly, over snaggy bottom, but they're hard to find. Stores near me generally have Graves tins and Hopkins jigs (this is on Long Island) but Pasquale are hit and miss, and Pt. Jude are not that widely carried. A tin tin got me this past season's best surf bluefish, about 18 lbs., in shallow water (and in bad weather conditions: bright, clear, near-midday sun and a high pressure area. Go figure.)

[CaryGreene]

Very interesting post. By far the longest post I have ever read on this site, and it was worth it. 99 % of the surf fishing I do is with tins. My favorites are Charlie Graves and crippled herrings. Also used to use Charlie Pasquale Tins but lost them all and they are hard to find. I fish an inlet with a strong current, usually cast up and let the tide take it giving it a little twitch once in a while. As it is sinking the stripers will hit it. Blackdog is correct. I never leave home without a hopkins.

Thank you beached again! Tins are serious business for sure. I never saw the Charlie Pasquale tins before, would be interesting to see. Fishing on the drop with metal! Not a lot of people realize this is effective. Thank you for the advice for us. Where do you do your fishing?

 

Did a little quick check on the Pasquale tins, they were made in Brooklyn, NY by his Diamond Feather Lure Company. They similar to some of the tins made by Charlie Graves. It was neat to look at them on line. They were big on Block Island, probably used on Montauk a lot too from all the info I'm seeing. Very cool. 

Edited March 31, 2016 by CaryGreene

[CaryGreene]

Great post! Thank you.

I myself am a tinman, don't get me wrong I use all other types of lures, but tins are almost always the first lure I take out of my bag. You can bet that as I'm walking from my car towards the water, there's a tin attached to my leader.

Thank you Rookee, sounds like you are serious about Tins also. Where do you do your fishing?

[CaryGreene]

Awesome post, great read. Thank you for sharing.

Thanks Angry Sea Horse, 

 

The guys in this community will take this to levels I can only dream of and so what comes around will go around! Glad you enjoyed the read & stay tuned. The best is yet to come. Once we start hearing some narratives, it will get interesting. 

[Rookee]

Thank you Rookee, sounds like you are serious about Tins also. Where do you do your fishing?

I fish the south shore of long island mostly beaches, once in a while a jetty but prefer the open beach.

[CaryGreene]

A fair bit of work went into that first post. Thank you, Cary.

 

IMHO the leading mistake made by most casters is that they fish tins entirely too quickly. Even with bluefish, a tin should be fished slowly enough to flutter. It's NOT the same as using a diamond jig on a partyboat. If in doubt, stop and let it flutter on a slack or semi-slack line. If the bottom permits, hit the bottom often, exactly as you would with a bucktail.

 

Tins made of tin can be fished slowly, over snaggy bottom, but they're hard to find. Stores near me generally have Graves tins and Hopkins jigs (this is on Long Island) but Pasquale are hit and miss, and Pt. Jude are not that widely carried. A tin tin got me this past season's best surf bluefish, about 18 lbs., in shallow water (and in bad weather conditions: bright, clear, near-midday sun and a high pressure area. Go figure.)

Thanks BrianBM, 

 

Voice Texting helps lessen the work but man does it create freeking typos! Great point about how tins flutter. When you watch a pod of bait go by, the naturals also flutter. Could it be that's a good way to imitate them?? Haha. You seem to have pointed out a very valuable tip for us. One that we would be smart to take note of. I'm not surprised that you got a nice Blue on the tin, even in clear water. Tins move and if it's the right shape and size, predators just follow their instincts. Where do you fish on Long Island? Great place to be. I have a lot of awesome friends out there, many, many very good fishermen and nice people too. 

[MitchellNJ]

Krock is still a great metal

[CaryGreene]

Krock is still a great metal

Hi Mitchell,

 

They are nice and light, I remember selling tons of them at Cabela's. A lot of guys like them. They have some nice colors to them too, very prismatic.