Every fisherman, whether he or she prefers salt or fresh water, owns a lure that is their “go to” lure. When that lure fails them, their confidence usually bottoms out and everything else in the tackle box is relegated to little more than a piece of plastic.

Having guided for nearly a half century, I have techniques that I feel that way about, but no single lure. I am convinced that if you hope to catch your favorite species consistently on artificial lures, it is unwise to bank on a single technique, lure or color to get it done!

Jim Robert Hughes does not, however, buy into that line of thinking. My phone lit up last Thursday night and Jim was on the talking end. “I need a favor,” he pleaded, “and the sooner you can help me the better. Do you have any plum colored tails that you no longer use?

It took about fifteen minutes of digging through boxes to come up with a five gallon bucket of plastics in that color that I no longer use. Most were worms, lizards and craw worms, but Jim could have cared less. “We’ll talk money or a trade when you get here!”

The garage door was open when I arrived and he ran to my truck to examine the desired cache of tails. He immediately grabbed two handfuls and disappeared in his garage. Before I could even relocate the Lake Charles native, I recognized the pungent smell of melted plastic.

It was even worse than I remembered due to the fact that many of them were scented making the fumes even more disgusting. Lying on a sheet of plywood atop two saw horses were at least a dozen plaster molds. Every one of them contained eight identical cavities in the shape of the once

popular centipede or French fry.

The four inch tail is extremely easy to duplicate in a homemade plaster mold as it has ridges on the back and sides, but is flat on one side. By the time he turned the burner off under his pot of remaining molten plastic, he had two hundred Centipedes soaking in a bucket of scented oil.

“I can pour at least five times that many with what is left,” he beamed. “Do you want some of them to take home?”I accepted a zip lock bag full just in case. If I run out I know where to get more.

“It has rained at least a little 25 of the last 32 days I have fished and I have limited every single day,” stated Hughes. “I have fished the marshes and bayous around Orange as well as most of our old haunts south of Lake Charles. Every single fish ate one of these plum centipedes.”

I have yet to give them a try around here due to some unneeded obligations and the iffy weather, but I feel certain they will work as promised.Hughes said that he rigs them one of two ways.

In the deeper canals he rigs them on a one-eighth ounce jig head with the point of the hook buried in the plastic. The rest of the time he is Wacky worming with only a 3/0 hook.

“In the Orange area I also catch a lot of small redfish,” he added, “but around here goggle-eye are the bonus fish and they are the only fish I eat anyway.”

“You want to go with me this afternoon,” he asked as I backed out of his driveway. “The only thing I do besides mow once a week is go fishing and it looks like it’s going to rain any minute!”

Don’t forget about the upcoming Orange CCA Chapter Banquet set for Thursday Aug. 12th at the Orange County Convention and Expo Center located on Hwy. 1442 just south of I-10. The annual event will kick off around 6:00 p.m. A great meal, auction and catching up on time missed due to the pandemic makes for a very enjoyable evening. Your ticket includes your CCA membership!

Twenty-two boats fished last Tuesday’s Shootout and the highlight of the day was David Burman and Myron Waldrop’s 6.04-pound big bass. The duo also captured first place money with a 9.89-pound stringer. Kyle Ridgeway and Taylor Hogan cashed the second place check with a 6.87-pound bag.Cullen Simon took first place in the Kid’s division with a 1.31-pound fish.