SALTWATER
Hard baits, jigs, spoons, soft plastics and offshore trolling lures for Caribbean salt water.
Poppers, walkers, minnows, jerkbaits, darters and crankbaits.
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A floating plug with a cupped face that spits water and pops on every rod twitch, calling fish up from below like baitfish under attack.
Best for: Crevalle jack, Common snook, Horse-eye jack
A long, top-heavy floating plug you swish across the surface; it splashes and skitters like fleeing bait and pulls big jacks and barracuda from far away.
Best for: Crevalle jack, Horse-eye jack, Great barracuda
A cigar-shaped floating plug that zigzags side to side on the surface with rhythmic rod twitches, imitating a wounded mullet or shad.
Best for: Common snook, Crevalle jack, Atlantic tarpon
A slim, lipped plug that floats at rest and swims just under the surface with a tight wobble, a simple and deadly imitation of sardines and small mullet.
Best for: Common snook, Atlantic tarpon, Ladyfish
A weighted minnow plug that dives a few feet and then hangs motionless on the pause, which triggers fish that follow but will not commit.
Best for: Common snook, Atlantic tarpon, Grey snapper
A big-lipped minnow plug that dives 10-30 ft when trolled or cranked, putting a strong wobble right over reef and ledges where kings and barracuda feed.
Best for: King mackerel, Great barracuda, Cero
A lipless, slow-sinking minnow that glides and flashes side to side when twitched, then flutters on the fall; a classic inshore plug in the MirrOlure style.
Best for: Common snook, Atlantic tarpon, Ladyfish
A big jointed swimbait that swings in wide, lazy S-curves on a slow retrieve, looking like an easy meal to the largest predators around.
Best for: Common snook, Atlantic tarpon, Great barracuda
A Northeast US surf plug with a notched face that darts side to side in current on a slow retrieve; adapted here for inlets and rocky points.
Best for: Common snook, Crevalle jack, Horse-eye jack
A long, pencil-thin surf plug that casts far and swims with a subtle wiggle, matching the needlefish (agujĂłn) that barracuda and jacks eat all over PR.
Best for: Great barracuda, Common snook, Crevalle jack
A chunky, lipped plug that dives to a set depth and wobbles hard on a simple cast-and-reel; easy to use and great for covering water.
Best for: Largemouth bass, Butterfly peacock bass, Jaguar guapote
A flat-sided, sinking plug with rattles that buzzes and vibrates on a steady retrieve, calling fish from a distance in stained water or wind.
Best for: Crevalle jack, Common snook, Great barracuda
A chunky, wooden, bottle-shaped surf plug from the US Northeast that swims slowly with a heavy roll; a niche night lure for big fish on Caribbean rocks.
Best for: Crevalle jack, Horse-eye jack, Common snook
Bucktails, speed and slow-pitch jigs, irons and skirted bottom jigs.
A lead head dressed with deer hair that breathes and pulses in the water; one of the most versatile lures for almost anything that swims near shore.
Best for: Common snook, Crevalle jack, Bar jack
A long, slim metal jig dropped vertically and ripped back up fast; it imitates fleeing baitfish and triggers reaction strikes from fast predators.
Best for: Greater amberjack, Almaco jack, Blackfin tuna
A short, wide metal jig that flutters and glides on a slow, rhythmic lift; deadly for bottom fish and jacks that ignore fast lures.
Best for: Red hind, Black grouper, Mutton snapper
A long, light casting jig from the California tuna fleet, wound back just under the surface where its wobble looks like a fleeing sardine or flying fish.
Best for: Blackfin tuna, Mahi-mahi, Little tunny
A heavy, compact metal jig dropped to the bottom and cranked back up as fast as possible; it gets down fast and draws reaction strikes from jacks and tunas.
Best for: Greater amberjack, Almaco jack, Blackfin tuna
A round lead jig with a strong hook made for tautog in the US Northeast; tipped with crab, it can be adapted here for triggerfish and other crab eaters.
Best for: Queen triggerfish, Hogfish, Red hind
A round sliding head with a rubber skirt and wavy tails, Japanese tai-rubber or kabura style; reeled slowly off the bottom, it fools snapper and grouper.
Best for: Mutton snapper, Lane snapper, Red hind
Casting, weedless, flutter and trolling spoons, spinnerbaits and bladed jigs.
A solid metal spoon that casts a mile and flashes like a fleeing baitfish; simple, cheap and great for jacks, barracuda and mackerel.
Best for: Crevalle jack, Great barracuda, Blue runner
A wobbling spoon with a wire weed guard over the hook, Johnson Silver Minnow style; it slides through grass and mangrove roots where other lures hang up.
Best for: Common snook, Grey snapper, Atlantic tarpon
A thin, wide metal spoon dropped vertically that flutters and flashes on the fall like a dying baitfish; strong for deep jacks, snapper and kingfish.
Best for: Almaco jack, Greater amberjack, King mackerel
A huge, wide trolling spoon made to look like a menhaden for Northeast striped bass; rarely needed in Puerto Rico, though big trolling spoons do take kingfish and wahoo.
Best for: King mackerel, Wahoo, Cero
A thin, light spoon trolled behind a planer or trolling sinker; its fast wobble and flash are a proven pick for kingfish, cero, sierra and wahoo.
Best for: King mackerel, Cero, Serra Spanish mackerel
A safety-pin wire lure with spinning blades and a skirted jig; the flash and thump call in bass and peacock bass, and snook in brackish water.
Best for: Largemouth bass, Butterfly peacock bass, Jaguar guapote
A jig with a metal blade on the nose and a soft trailer; it shakes hard and sends out vibration that draws bass, peacock bass and snook.
Best for: Largemouth bass, Butterfly peacock bass, Common snook
Paddletails, flukes, shrimp, crabs, eels and grubs.
A soft baitfish with a kicking paddle tail that swims on a plain steady retrieve, making it one of the easiest and most reliable lures for snook, jacks and bass.
Best for: Common snook, Atlantic tarpon, Crevalle jack
A slender soft plastic with no built-in action that darts side to side when twitched, looking like a hurt baitfish to snook, tarpon, jacks and bass.
Best for: Common snook, Atlantic tarpon, Ladyfish
A soft shrimp imitation, usually pre-weighted, that sinks and hops like a fleeing shrimp; almost every inshore fish in the Caribbean eats shrimp.
Best for: Common snook, Atlantic tarpon, Grey snapper
A soft plastic crab that sinks flat and sits on the bottom like a real crab, made for picky flats fish like permit and bonefish and for bottom-feeding snapper.
Best for: Permit, Bonefish, Mutton snapper
A long, wiggling soft-plastic eel; famous for striped bass up north, but here it works best at night for snook, tarpon and barracuda.
Best for: Common snook, Atlantic tarpon, Great barracuda
A small soft body with a curly tail that flutters at any speed; cheap, simple and catches almost everything from snapper and ladyfish to bass and guapote.
Best for: Largemouth bass, Butterfly peacock bass, Ladyfish
Skirted lures, jet heads, cedar plugs, deep divers, spreader bars and daisy chains.
A hard head with long vinyl skirts that pushes bubbles and smoke as it's trolled, the standard offshore lure for marlin, mahi, wahoo and tuna.
Best for: Blue marlin, Mahi-mahi, Wahoo
A heavy chrome bullet head with holes that shoot bubbles, plus a skirt; it runs straight and stays in the water at fast speeds for wahoo and tuna.
Best for: Wahoo, Yellowfin tuna, Blackfin tuna
A simple wooden plug with a lead nose that wobbles just under the surface; an old, cheap, and very effective tuna lure, especially for blackfin.
Best for: Blackfin tuna, Yellowfin tuna, Little tunny
A big hard plug with a large lip that dives roughly 20-40+ ft when trolled, putting a wobbling baitfish down where wahoo, kingfish and tuna feed.
Best for: Wahoo, King mackerel, Yellowfin tuna
A bar or umbrella frame carrying many squids that looks like a small school of bait at the surface, pulling tuna and marlin up to your spread.
Best for: Yellowfin tuna, Blackfin tuna, Blue marlin
A single line of squids or small lures spaced a foot or two apart, trolled like a little string of baitfish to raise billfish and mahi.
Best for: Blue marlin, Mahi-mahi, Longbill spearfish
The legendary lures every tackle box should know.
A long, slim floating minnow that has caught snook, jacks and tarpon for decades; simple, tough, cheap enough to fish hard, and it just swims right.
Best for: Common snook, Atlantic tarpon, Crevalle jack
A surf-casting favorite: a floating minnow built to cast far into the wind with strong hooks and a lively swim, so it reaches fish others cannot.
Best for: Common snook, Crevalle jack, Atlantic tarpon
A compact, heavy chrome spoon that casts like a bullet and flashes like a fleeing baitfish; one of the simplest, most reliable lures you can own.
Best for: Crevalle jack, Blue runner, Little tunny
Old-school sinking twitchbaits from Florida that generations of inshore anglers trust; twitched and paused, they dart and hang like a dying baitfish.
Best for: Common snook, Atlantic tarpon, Ladyfish
The soft shrimp that taught a generation to fish artificials: pre-weighted and pre-rigged, it sinks slowly with a natural tail-down glide that snook and tarpon trust.
Best for: Common snook, Atlantic tarpon, Grey snapper
A scented paddletail that swims on the slowest retrieve and smells like food, so fish hold on longer; on a jighead it catches almost everything inshore.
Best for: Common snook, Grey snapper, Mutton snapper
A chain or bar of green squid that looks like a small school of bait; a long-time tuna classic that pulls fish up into the spread.
Best for: Blackfin tuna, Yellowfin tuna, Little tunny
Big-lipped diving plugs that have boated wahoo, kingfish and tuna worldwide; easy to troll, swim true at speed, and need no rigging out of the box.
Best for: Wahoo, King mackerel, Cero
The plug that made "walk the dog" famous; its zig-zag surface dance has drawn explosive strikes from bass, snook and jacks for generations.
Best for: Common snook, Crevalle jack, Atlantic tarpon
A big, long walk-the-dog plug with a wide, loud glide; known among serious topwater anglers for pulling up the biggest fish in the area.
Best for: Crevalle jack, Common snook, Atlantic tarpon
A skirted head rigged over a ballyhoo, combining real bait with color and a smoke trail; a classic for sailfish, marlin, mahi and wahoo.
Best for: Mahi-mahi, Blue marlin, Wahoo
