coming to an end?? no sir, it's just starting!!! we're averaging 20 fish to the boat a day!!! September is going to be fire!!!

 

I never really fished the OG superbaits. Mostly spinners, spinfish, and brad's.

This year started with a skinny mini or 2...and kept adding rods/colors as they produced well! I think the smaller profile matched what we were seeing from a bait size.(I thought most bait we saw in the ocean/river were smaller than normal and that skinny profile seemed to "match the hatch" better. IMO)

 

I fished old school skinnies, and they rocked. I have so many of them (plus twice as many original cut plugs, plus some minis and Kokanee cut plugs), I haven’t been able to justify jumping on the skinny-mini bandwagon. This is the same reason I haven’t tried the new spin-n-fish, e-plugs, etc. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. We ended up ditching the spinners and the anchovies and running old school super bait skinnies on all three rods Saturday afternoon, and we outfished everyone around us. All of the colors we tried worked (rotten banana, mango habenero, long shafter, ladybug, etc.). I’m sure there will be fisheries where the smaller profile will shine (ie. the toilet bowl in May), but the Buoy 10 fish don’t seem shy this year.

 

Bump….any more input? I’m new to running stuffer baits so I’m wondering which to try first? OG superbaits vs skinny minis. Anyone been running both and found one to out produce the other? Thanks

 

At B10 and in the ocean, I was running Skinny’s and found no reason to try any OG’s.

They would have to be quite a lot more productive to justify messing with the rubber band.

 

1- Lures mostly catch fisherman.

2- Originals stupor baits work well.

3- My last 2 skateboard fish came on an Army Truck hootchie and a 2" Mister Twister grub. Other rods in the boat had spinners or original stuffer. Yet the cheap rubber presentations got the bites.

Fish are dumb.

The main reason tackle makers reinvent the wheel is, anglers are stocked up on what they need in a year or two of starting a technique. The market goes flat after that. So tackle makers either reinvent the wheel, or go bankrupt. Hence Originals to cut plugs to mini cut plugs to skinnies.

 

I appreciate the fact that the market isn’t stagnant. Original Super Baits worked well, at times. But I do think their presentation was overly large for quite a few fisheries. Thumper spinners still work, but 3.5s, without a doubt, work better. I think the same correlation has been true so far with the minis. Not to mention the rubber bands suck, so the fact that the innovated and eliminated them is great.

Between hot colors and lost tackle, I’m sure Brads wouldn’t be hurting for sales on the originals. But continuing to improve is a good thing.

Fish might be dumb but new techniques and lures have vastly improved catching. Just ask the Kokanee guys in Merwin still using gang trolls and wedding rings to catch two fish for their boat in a whole day of effort, meanwhile, the boats with dodgers and hoochies are getting limits by late morning. I feel like if you asked the gang troll crew, they would share your attitude on new lures just catching fishermen. lol.

 

Anyone else want to chime in?

 

So far this year OG skinnies have outfished skinny minis in my boat. Honestly the minis haven’t been getting as much swim time because the originals are getting bit while the skinnies haven’t, but bites have been pretty sporadic all around so I haven’t given up on the minis yet.

 

Had a guest fish a Habanero Skinny mini at Buoy 10 and get bit, but not like our PC Anchovies did. Now in the river, I really have come to like the mini. And that Habanero color is killer. Now to shorten up some leaders and see if the Coho like them too. Time to purge a bunch of old stuffers this winter though. It's getting much harder digging through the hundreds trying to find the two or three that always see the water. Time to sandwich bag up most of the rest and see what the market will bear. jc

 

I ran them both , both got fish but Og skinnies out fished them by so much, by 3rd day the skinny minnies never saw the water again. And as I went upriver again the og out fished the minnies again in my boat.

 

Interesting. Was that for coho too? Or just kings preferring the OGs?

 

OG Skinnies in my boat in my boat, haven’t used the minis when we get plenty of bites on the old ones. Spinfish on the other hand get to swim when the fish turn their nose up on the Brads. We’ve been swapping out ends to create colors chinook and coho will chase.

 

Skinny minis are what I call a small presentation. It's important to "Match the hatch" and if I recall correctly, the late coho liked 3.5 spinners/smaller presentations last year. So... since spinners worked last year the Skinny mini should this year. I plan on trying them on late coho this month. A lot depends on what they want to bite/attack. Size, color and presentation do matter! Our last outing was all about tuna stuffed cut plugs. I don't have small (kokanee size) cut plugs so that's a consideration.
I've run the skinny mini a few times this year and found that there's a learning curve/technique to running them. I do like the size and switch out top/bottoms aspect to make colors "fit" conditions but I'm still having issues with keeping them buttoned up after strikes. (I don't think I'm over stuffing them but they did come apart). They did get bit but the OG super baits worked really well for us earlier in the year as did spinfish. It's all about presentation, and plastics are vastly different than bait in most cases. Interchanging parts on the spinfish has been my go to choice when bait (anchovies) isn't what they want. It's all about an aggression vs food bite. If I was tempted to buy anything new, it'd be kokanee size cut plugs but I would shy away from buying more skinny minis at this point because they haven't worked for us YET...

 

With my group of buddies, we've had great luck with both OG's and skinny minis. I use lighter hooks with skinnies (double 3/0). I've been keeping with same 28-32" leader lengths for both.
My brother has had just as much success with spin fish as the Brad's.

 

Full size Brads Superbait Cutplugs have produced the best for me (again). I caught one chinook on a Skinny Minny.

 

Fish of the season came on a mini, but I'm not convinced they fished any better than OG skinnies on my boat.

I have seen enough of the mini's break in the same pre-placed crumple zone that I'm NOT personally making the BIG investment. Besides I fish enough guys that like to tinker with their gear all day that there will always be at least one in the spread.

Me, I'm sort of just a committed kind of guy. I tie something on my rod and just keep dancing with the lady I brought to the party... days... weeks... sometimes months on end. If I didn't think it would catch a fish, why in the hay would I have tied it on in the first place?

 

Hell of a fish! I wasn't going to bring up the skinny mini weak point but since you did..... Anyone else noticing this? I personally never had an issue with the rubber band...

 

That's one heck of a fish, Doc! Similar to you, I am an 80/20 or 90/10 kinda guy: I believe that 10-20 of the gear I own will catch 80-90 of the fish. I am not a one-trick pony kinda guy, but pretty darn close to it. I usually have a set program and it's very difficult for me to deviate from that program. Call me boring, but I am out there to catch fish, not watch others fight their fish, sightsee, or enjoy morning coffee with boat neighbors . And I never leave fish to chase fish.

Regarding Original Super Baits vs Skinny Mini's, I find that the Original Super Baits still catch more fish than the Skinnies on my boat. Not sure why but I thought that the Skinnies would outfish the Originals, but that’s not the case so far. Glad I haven't heavily invested in stocking up on the Skinnies.

 

Just thinking outside the box….is it possible to apply a rubber band on the skinnies similar to the originals to prevent the skinnies from opening and breaking during violent head shakes?

 

They don’t break due to fish. They break when you flex them to open them or close them. They require a gentle touch.

 

OG for the win!

 

Small sample size, but the OG skinny superbaits just f-in worked in my boat. Minny's got some swim time, but no fish and Originals got hammered each trip.

 

I'll add to that small sample size as that is what I am seeing in my boat as well. I have tried giving the skinny mini's a fair shake too, but seem to revert back to the OG's.

 

Guess I won't be selling my few Mini collection to Wicked Stix or Devonian
Jury is still out on my (3) E-plugs. Headed to the Coast on Sunday for 4 days in the Tidewater Estuary, We'll see what gets their attention.

 

A buddy of mine (who's a big OG Superbait guy) fished those quite a bit this fall, chrome and RB. He did switch back and forth but got a lot of fish on the E Plugs. The days we fished together I think Superbaits caught the first fish or more fish, just a little better in general. Could have just been my rod

 

My reply would be word for word with Wicked Stix

 

I guess my boat doesn't know how to fish. We didn't have a single mini break. Only killed over 100 fish this year.(I get it, we are still trying to catch up to all of the pros) Probably 80%+ came on minis.

Guess if we soaked all the other options, we would do better.🤷

 

Super interested to hear details since I’ve legit tried to fish them and I bought a bunch of them. What bumper and leader lengths and trolling speeds worked best for you?
FWIW none of my breaks were on fish. They were all caused by opening/closing the bait.

 

Correct. I tried to mention that we run the same set-up in the river. It is all tide water(Astoria) though. Had a few great days above the bridge(chinook and coho) and in front of Baker Bay.(mostly chinook in mid August). Guess with all of the posts saying that mini’s break and don’t really work for others, I wanted to say that they do work for some. Location/time of tide in the river(tidewater) is pretty darn important too.

I will say that we try to always start with 1 spinner. It seems like there is a day or 2 every year that the spinner out fishes everything. I just can’t ever figure out which day or 2 that is ahead of time.

Kid came home from school in early June and killed 4 springers in 5 days at the mouth of the Willamette. Same program. That’s fresh water. Other than that, I can go back to being labeled a rookie.

I thought these questions were more about tide water.