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Daiwa Salt Pro Minnow
Daiwa Corporation
11137 Warland Drive
Cypress, CA 90630
www.daiwa.com
(562) 375-6800
by Ron Powers
One of the things I enjoy most about writing my fishing report for the online On The Water Fishing Forecast is that occasionally I get a leg up on a hot new lure. Such was the case last summer when I talked to Martha from Surfland in Newburyport, Massachusetts. Having been on the receiving end of many of my “What are they hitting?” interrogations through the years, Martha got right to it. “Since I know you’re going to ask, I’ll get it over with. They’re doing real well on the Daiwa SP Minnow – it looks and swims just like a mackerel!”
A few days and many miles away, my transplanted North Shore crag-casting buddy Rick Holebrook, who is morphing into a Cape Cod Canal fisherman, got his clock cleaned thoroughly on the shore of the Canal by an angler who was throwing a plug that he did not possess. I feigned sympathy, but the reality was I was hoping that I had one stashed in one of my surf bags since I was intending to fish the Canal that weekend. When I asked Rick just what did the damage, he replied, “It was a Daiwa SP Minnow.” And to make matters even worse for my friend, there would be no immediate salvation because he would soon learn that Red Top Bait and Tackle, where he intended on getting his SP fix, would completely run out by the afternoon!
If plugs aren’t something that jumps out at you when you think of Daiwa, you’re not alone. Daiwa has been a premier player in rods and reels for decades, with such brand names as Sealine, Saltist and Saltiga earning icon status among the piscatorially impassioned. But you may have noticed that the company is not resting on its laurels. Regarding my earlier reference to the Cape Cod Canal, if you’ve spent anytime hobnobbing among the afflicted there, you may have observed an increasing number of converts to Daiwa’s incredibly thin braid – Samurai – which some believe is the best of the bunch. Of course it doesn’t do an angler a bit of good to be outfitted with cream-of-the-crop combos if they’re skimping on what they are presenting to the fish, so Daiwa decided to get into the lure business.
To get the direct line perspective, I went right to Daiwa’s Assistant Production Manager for terminal tackle, Bryan Yamane. “The Salt Pro Minnow was originally designed for the Japanese market to be a go-to lure for a number of species,” noted Bryan. One of the more sought after coastal gamefish in the Land of the Rising Sun is the suzuki, which shares similar traits with our much-cherished striper. The home version of the Salt Pro, or SP Minnow as it is commonly known among its fans, proved deadly on this Japanese bass and plans were soon hatched to test it out on its seven-striped relative in the United States. Daiwa is based in California, and being a life-long New Englander, I found it odd when Bryan referred to how well they did on “our fish,” the stripers in San Francisco! “Of course, East Coast anglers have also found that the SP Minnow is irresistible to striped bass,” cracked Bryan.
Owing to Daiwa’s intended mission on making the SP a versatile lure, their priority was to have it test out at the right size so it would work for a variety of gamesters in many different applications. At 6 inches and 1 1/9 ounces, this lure can be trolled at a crawl for nighttime stripers or burned at 6 knots for albacore or bonito, and it will not turn over. It can also be tossed into the wash with everything from finesse outfits to surf sticks. What makes this lure so surfcaster friendly – even for those wielding heavy rods – is that it features a weight-transfer system that consists of stainless steel balls encased in a cavity in the belly of the lure. When the lure is let loose on the cast, the balls stack toward the tail end of the plug, resulting in a lure capable of achieving distances out of proportion for its size. In concert with its thin-profile and aerodynamic shape, this lure really sails.
Surfcasters often show their love for mass-produced plugs by tinkering with them. From eel skin plugs to “reverse Atoms” to loaded Red Fins, anglers have been modifying surf lures since the dawn of the sport. As testimony to the acceptance of the Daiwa SP Minnow by the hardcore caster, how to “improve” its design has been the talk at sportsman’s clubs, tackle shops and throughout the blogosphere.
While certainly a lure of quality with high-end components, such unique environments as the Cape Cod Canal, where you may have to contend with 7 knots of raging water while tied to a 40-pound fish, tend to tax any tackle. And considering that one of the priorities was to keep the SP light and affordable (at 10 bucks a pop), even the VMC hooks that it comes equipped with can fail from the strain imparted by a big fish in heavy current. Some have found that swapping out split rings with heavier 4X versions and substituting the standard size 1 hooks with VMC 7X size 1/0 trebles in the belly as well as VMC 7X size 1 trebles in the tail does not diminish the action and helps the lure win the battle of attrition in extreme conditions.
But for most, the lure is fine right out of the box. Holding the lure in the palm of my hand for the very first time made me wonder just what was so special about the Salt Pro Minnow. While a sharp-looking lure, with a lustrous finish and a nice shape, it didn’t really pop-out compared to the army of hard-plastic, minnow-type lures that are already out there. That all changed once I saw it swim! It has a distinctively tight wobble – no tail-wagging stuff here, it tracks straight and true and is easy to finesse with rod movement. It works well on the surface with a twitch-and-settle motion, and with a quicker cadence, the same maneuvers will make it behave like a jerkbait a few feet below the surface.
One of the deadliest retrieves with the Daiwa SP Minnow is actually the easiest. I think of how Martha of Surfland first told me how closely it mimics a mackerel. And if there’s a more sought-after baitfish for a striper than a mackerel, I don’t know what it is. Picture how a mackerel moves; like other members of the tuna clan, the muscles in its flanks ripple from head to tail and this provides propulsion at the tail end. It moves subtly, yet powerfully, with little obvious tail-beats as it zips along. This is precisely the motion of the Daiwa SP Minnow on a straight retrieve. That tight wobble along with the similar profile and coloration – two of the colors are blue mackerel and green mackerel – is a dead ringer for a much cherished treat in the striper’s diet.
Bryan Yamane of Daiwa said it best but I think he has it backwards: “California anglers have discovered that the Salt Pro Minnow is deadly on our stripers, and I hear it’s pretty good on yours too!”