Top 3 Lures To Outsmart Pufferfish (And When To Use Them)
- By: Tony Acevedo
- on
Sick of reeling in half of a soft plastic lure?
Pufferfish have teeth like razor blades and no matter what type of plastic material your lure is made out of, the pufferfish can slash right through it.
In this video, you’ll see several lure options to withstand pufferfish and when to use them.
Check it out below!
Best Lures To Outsmart Pufferfish [VIDEO]
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Here are some of my favorite pufferfish-proof lures:
Know Your Options
If you find yourself surrounded by a lure graveyard, it’s probably a good sign that you need to change things up!
Your options are:
- Move to another spot.
- Change your lure.
Chances are that if you’re consistently pulling in a destroyed soft plastic lure, your best bet is going to be to move spots.
But if you have some lure alternatives, you (and your lures) may be able to withstand the pufferfish.
My Go-To Lure Alternatives
Don’t let pufferfish ruin your day.
Find a lure alternative!
The key is choosing one that can imitate the soft plastic presentation that was working before.
If you were catching fish on a slow steady retrieve, switch up to a gold spoon.
Let’s say a slower presentation was working — choose a twitch bait because you can twitch it a couple of times and it will stay suspended in the strike zone.
Both lures can be presented similarly to a paddletail.
For a more universal lure that can be successful with either a fast or slow retrieve and bounced along the bottom, try a bucktail jig.
You can use this if you were imitating a jerk shad or artificial shrimp presentation.
Here are some great options to keep your fishing trip going:
Conclusion
Some days it may be impossible to get away from pufferfish, but don’t keep throwing out your soft plastic lures just to have them destroyed!
Change up your lures to one of the ones below to quit losing the battle to pufferfish, save money, and catch fish:
Have more questions about what lure to use to combat pufferfish?
Let me know down in the comments.
And if you know someone who needs a lure intervention, please TAG or SHARE this with them!
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Instead of worrying about the puffers tearing up your lures, why not turn the tables and start tearing up those puffers instead? Assuming they are Northern Puffers and NOT smooth! They are absolutely delicious, and easy to clean. I literally threw hundreds of Northern Puffers back over the years, because all the old timers told me they were poisonous. Now I know better, and none make it back to the Atlantic.
If it is a jerkbait kind of day, and they are tearing up your gulps, I have found the Rapala Ripstop is a great hard bodied replacement, especially in shallower water.
Great alternative as well! I have also noticed that puffer fish will usually follow the lure all the way up to the boat, so you can tell if it is pufferfish or pinfish doing the damage. Pinfish will usually stop nibbling before the lure gets closer to you. Puffers will tear lures up much more than pinfish so if I figure out it’s only pinfish I may just switch to a tougher soft plastic. I haven’t had pinfish tear up Zman or stronger plastics. Usually just the standard plastics or ones that have thin tails.
Such amazing insight….switch to a hard bodied lure! Wow, who would have thunk it?
More so switching to a hard bodied lure that imitates a similar action and profile of the soft plastic you were using.
Thanks for the tips on Puffer fish tearing up soft plastics. The lures that you recommended to use instead of the soft plastics were used extensively before
we had soft plastics. I am “old school” buck tail jig user from the 70’s and can catch Redfish, Specs, & Flounder consistently.
My pleasure David!
Try Otter Tail Bait Strips on the bucktails. I’ve noticed many of those old baits like Uncle Josh disappeared as soft plastic lure became more popular.
Great video Tony. Another good option would be to cast out another line with small hooks and Fishbites and catch them. They are truly the “chicken of the sea” and extremely easy to “skin”. Lots of videos on youtube to show you how.
Thanks Steve! I have seen people cook them like drum sticks and peeling the skin off. Ive never tried it personally. Ugly fish just don’t seem to look appetizing to me haha.
Hope you’ve changed your mind in a year. You are truly missing out on one of the best tasting (and easiest to cook and clean) fish inshore. Feel free to send them ALL up my way.
I tried the spro buck tail jig. The puffer fish bit the hair right of on the first cast. Buck tail jigs have been one of my favorite lures since I was a kid.
David oakes
Yep they can still bite the hairs off, but sometimes a faster retrieve will keep them from getting to it (only if the faster retrieve is working for other fish)
Another thing to do if you’re losing soft plastic baits to pufferfish is move to another location.
Yep! Thats stated near the end of the video.
Perfect timing for this Tony. My wife caught 5 pufferfish Friday and we lost many soft plastics to them too. I will keep this video in mind next time we encounter a similar scenario.
Thank you for the great feedback Bill!
I’m sure everyone has either seen the movie or read the 1974 book, Jaws. What most don’t know or choose to ignore due to the obvious terror, is that the story, Jaws, was based on news reports in the 60s by inshore saltwater fishermen in west central Florida. The reports tell of fish that blew up like balloons and most thought they looked silly. Well, that is, until swimmers started going missing…it could only be the PUFFERS!!!
Hahah
Oh the torture, them poor paddle tails. Lol Great video Tony that sounds like a great idea. The puffers might chip a tooth on them hard plastics.
Haha thanks Cody! I’m sure they would leave a pretty good mark on them!