Announcing Texas Customs Jay Watkins Series Soft Plastics

Texas Customs has introduced a new line of soft plastics – The Jay Watkins Series of Texas Customs Soft Plastic Lures is finally here. Lowell Odom, owner of Texas Customs, began working on these products a few years ago. It takes many hours of communication with developers just to get the first samples in hand. Field testing cannot start until molds have been made and some test baits are shot. From there, changes are made and designs are tweaked. Now, before I go any further, I want you to understand that I do not want to be a lure designer, nor do I want to own a lure company. I want to be a fishing guide and continue helping anglers become better anglers.

Fishing has never gotten old for me, but all that goes with guiding can at times become quite a chore. Maintaining all the vital equipment is key to success. This includes not only essentials like the boat, motor, trailer, batteries, trolling motor, tackle, and tow vehicle, but also physical and mental preparation. At 68 years of age, the latter gets equal attention.

I have never been a social person when it comes to my fishing clientele. In 48 years, only on a handful of occasions have clients joined me for lunch or dinner after a charter. I have things in my routine that do not allow for social stuff. While this does tend to create a bit of a boring lifestyle, I believe it has been one of the keys to my longevity in the business. All this said, guiding is what I do and what I want to do. I believe the only value I have for my clients and any company that might be interested in me helping them with product development is the simple fact that I am on the water at least 200 days per year and continuously searching for better methods of catching fish. Fishing without catching them has never been very attractive to me. Maybe someday I will be able to look at it differently. Product development is an expected part of the industry, and it's encouraging to see companies genuinely committed to creating quality products.

Someone asked me not too many years ago what I looked for in a soft plastic lure. My answer: I want a lure that casts well, is hard enough to last for multiple fish, soft enough to have erratic action, and has some type of natural action when I’m not imparting anything special during the retrieve. I hope that makes sense.

I had this conversation with one of my groups last week on a day when we had zero wind or tidal movement. The barometer was sky high with a light west wind – a pattern that definitely lends itself to tough fishing. A common winter pattern following dry cold fronts. As a guide, you’d better learn to adapt to this pattern and catch fish anyway. Over many years, I’ve had areas that I trust to get bites on tough days. Even today, I continue searching out these small, out-of-the-way areas that, for some reason, produce during the toughest of conditions. I believe this is an accurate statement: in ALL the bay systems I fish, I have discovered areas that seem to produce continually under patterns like the one described here. My “all systems” includes water from San Antonio Bay all the way to the Arroyo Colorado below Port Mansfield. Big area, huh? Remember this: “Trout water is trout water, no matter where you find it.”

Let me dive into one of the most overlooked aspects of soft plastic design – the ability of the lure to do something when I am doing nothing. In other words, creating movement on its own. I typically move the rod tip and break up my presentation cadence to add extra action to the lure. I also want my soft plastic to quiver slightly as it glides during the dead-stick portions of the retrieve. That’s the “doing something on its own when I am doing nothing,” if you get my drift. You want the pause to be brief and the quiver to be slight. “Less is more,” as the saying goes.

Being able to observe fish react to different lure actions in shallow, clear water has provided me with a great mental catalog of what they prefer in nearly every weather pattern. This education is something only acquired through many years on the water – not something that can simply be read, repeated, and mastered. I’m thankful my health has allowed such a long career, providing the time needed to truly learn.

I want to make long casts to pieces of structure far enough away that the noise I’m making beneath the water isn’t affecting them. For the record, talking obviously doesn’t bother them much since I never shut up. If it did, I guess I’d have chosen a different profession, right?

It is possible to have a soft plastic heavy enough to cast efficiently yet soft enough to appear lifelike in the water. I have been fortunate to use some of the best soft plastics of my career. Understand that not all of them had great action in the early days. The Mister Twister Sassy Shad was one of the first soft plastics I used with a truly good swimming action. Blue and Pearl were my go-to colors over the shell reefs in St. Charles Bay back then.

My very first soft plastic was the old Boone Tout Tail. Zero action if I remember correctly, except for the pop-and-hop we put on them, but we caught fish. Kelly Wiggler came next, then Hogie. H&H Cocahoe Minnows followed, and after that came Bass Assassin. I caught a tremendous number of fish on the 5” Shad Bass Assassin, and I still use certain colors to this day.

MirrOlure’s 5” Provoker came along shortly after, then the Lil John and Lil John XL. Speaking of the Lil John – these baits cast extremely well and hold up as well or better than any soft plastic I’ve used. This lure has earned a permanent spot in my wading box.

Now I have the new Texas Customs Jay Watkins Series soft plastics, and I truly think we’ve created a lure that casts extremely well, holds up well, yet remains soft enough to get that little “something” when we are doing nothing. I have been testing this lure for more than two seasons.

Getting down to the meat of the matter – does it really matter if the lure has a hook slot? Of course it does, or it wouldn’t be there!

For those rigging with traditional jigheads, a small slot allows the angler to align the lure correctly on the hook. If the slot is the right depth and length, it fits various hook sizes and lets the hook sit deeper, ensuring straight rigging. Straight rigging prevents excess line twist during both the cast and retrieve.

What about line twist? The unavoidable truth is that there will always be some line twist. The key is managing it. Cancel it periodically by dropping 50–75 yards of bare line overboard and letting it trail behind the boat on the way back to the dock. No, I do not use a small barrel swivel – that’s jewelry I don’t want above the lure. Maybe with spinning gear, but not with a baitcaster.

To this day I remain frustrated with anglers who don’t take time to properly rig their lures. For God’s sake, do it right and give yourself every advantage possible to tilt the catching scale in your favor.

Even after all these years I am still a basic-color guy. I don’t like dipped tails on my soft plastics. If I want chartreuse or white on a bait, I want it on the jighead, not the tail. The only time I use dipped tails is when I like a body color but the lure isn’t available without the dip.

I use clear soft plastics on bright days with clear water, and darker baits for cloudy days or dark water. There are a few dark colors that work in all conditions for me: Watermelon-Red Glitter, Plum-Blue Glitter, June Bug-Blue Glitter, and Morning Glory-Red Glitter. Honestly, I had gotten away from June Bug and Morning Glory until the testing of the new Watkins Series baits – Lowell gave me only those colors, so I had no choice.

I am firmly of the opinion that many of the very best anglers on the Gulf Coast are exceptional soft-plastic fishermen. Continuously improving your soft-plastic game will make you a better angler overall.

May Your Fishing Always Be Catching!
 – Guide, Jay Watkins