The Loaded Cotton Cordell Red Fin
It’s a good idea to get loaded before surfcasting the boulder fields. No … not that kind of loaded! Doing that would qualify you for a top-10 position on the Darwin Awards website. I’m talking about taking an extremely effective striper lure and kicking it up a notch to increase its effectiveness and versatility— the loaded Cotton Cordell Red Fin.
Cotton Cordell invented the Red Fin for surface-feeding largemouth bass on huge new impoundments (dammed reservoirs, for us Yankees) the government was constructing throughout the South some 50 years ago. It incorporated a plastic lip as an integral part of the body so that it wouldn’t eventually loosen like the lips on the long-popular Rebels and Rapalas. This new plug worked very well on those overgrown sunfish, and like so many other lures—the Pikie, the Darter (first made by Creek Chub in the 1920s), and the much newer Musky Mania Doc—it eventually crossed over to saltwater striper fishing. Today, Red Fins are still a permanent fixture in the plug bags of many successful surfcasters.
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My own introduction to the Red Fin happened one night when I took two of my high-school students fishing to teach them how to catch stripers. After getting a few on my usual Gibbs Danny and darter, I borrowed a blurple (black/purple) Red Fin from Pat Vogt and gave it a good workout on numerous bass up to the low 40-inch range. After I returned the lure, with much of the color stripped off, Pat said he’d never lend me a lure again, though he did very well himself, as I recall. Those fish weren’t the only thing hooked that night, as the Red Fin quickly became a permanent resident in my plug bag. I soon learned to “load” it—that is, add weight to the hollow-body chamber—using water, mineral oil, and eventually BBs.
BBs became my preferred method for several reasons. Many people use liquids like water or mineral oil (some actually used mercury in the past, but I like to stay away from potent neurotoxins) because they say the noise created by the BBs scares the fish, but I find that impossible to believe. The rattling noise definitely attracts attention, which often equates to a very busy night unhooking, reviving, and releasing bass.
Out of the package (with the hooks and split rings swapped out for saltwater-grade tackle), Red Fins catch very well in calm waters on windless nights when fished slow enough to keep them on the surface, where they produce a wide and lazy wake. That said, even a moderate breeze makes casting an unloaded Red Fin feel like you are playing frisbee with a potato chip in a nor’easter gale. When casting them loaded, the force of the cast moves the BBs or liquid to the rear of the lure (which is actually facing forward at that time) and allows it to cast much further in a stable flight path.
Adding BBs also acts as ballast and keeps a Red Fin stable in water much choppier than an unloaded lure can handle. While the unloaded Red Fin makes a nice, seductive V-wake on the surface, adding weight causes it to swim just a bit under the surface when cranked, which often is a strike trigger for stripers. I fire off a cast out to a current seam or to the outer edge of a boulder field and give a quick pop to the lure to let the rattle call attention to it. I fish it very slowly, with a twitch every 3 to 7 cranks.
Outsourcing Red Fin Modifications
Shown here is a selection of plastics modified by New Jersey angler Ron Redington. His business, called Redingfin, specializes in modifying classic striper lures like Bombers, Rebels, and his favorite, the Cotton Cordell Red Fin.
He not only adds a bullet-proof customized finish, he also through-wires the plugs, loads them with BBs, adds swivels above the hooks, upgrades all of the hardware, and fully seals them.
» Follow Redingfin on Instagram to see more
Fan-casting, like aiming toward the numbers on a clock to cover all the reachable water in front of you, will help you remember which casting angle produced fish. However, that productive angle may change as the current speed and tide change. If you don’t catch after several slow retrieves, or if previously fast action slows, try different speeds, more or fewer twitches, and different angles (or even a different color) before changing locations. When you stop getting hits, it doesn’t necessarily mean the fish left; sometimes, you’ve already hooked all the fish that were susceptible to the presentation, though are others still there that might prefer a slightly different approach.
There is one other benefit of using BBs that you can’t get from loading with liquids. My favorite places to fish are boulder fields at night, where there are often rocks protruding from the surface or just underneath, with a good sweep of current going through them, though it can be hard to tell where the lure is and the path it is taking back to my rock. I don’t want to get my plug hung up in bubble weed or the rocks themselves, so I just raise my rod tip and give it a good twitch. I can hear it rattle, know where the plug is and how to safely weave it around the rocks. I also give it one more twitch and let it sit a second just before I pick up to cast again. More than a few times, a fish grabs the lure right there at the edge of my rock.
Make sure to change out the hooks before you swim these lures. The split rings and hooks (like those on many factory-produced lures) are weak and will bend out on big fish. Use 4X-strong treble hooks in size 2/0 so the lure rides higher. A Red Fin rigged with 3/0 hooks will swim a bit lower, which is better for rougher water. Rigging with a 3/0 hook in front and a 2/0 in back will cause it to dig deeper. I often put a Siwash on the tail end instead of a treble hook, and I always pinch down the barbs on my hooks. That makes it easier to release fish … and easier to release me, should I end up on the wrong end of a hook. Some people dress the Siwash with bucktail or hackle feathers or use a “flag” (a dressed hookless shank), but I leave mine bare and it works just fine.
How to Load a Red Fin with BBs
What You Will Need:
STEP 1: Using the soldering iron with a tip that’s pointed like a nail, melt a hole through the lure’s wall at the top midline of its head. A drill bit the diameter of (or barely larger than) a BB also works. If the soldering iron causes a ridge of plastic to form around the circumference of the hole, leave it for now. You’ll use it later to help seal the hole.
STEP 2: Using split-ring pliers, remove all split rings (including the one at the lure’s nose, where you tie the line to it) and hooks.
STEP 3: Count 31 BBs and put them in a shallow bowl so they don’t roll away. Push each BB through the hole into the lure.
STEP 4: Carefully add a squirt of 3-in-1 oil to the hole, but try not to get oil any on the lure’s surface because epoxy or UV resin won’t stick to it. The oil helps prevent the BBs from corroding and clumping together. Thoroughly clean off any oil you do get on the outside of the lure.
STEP 5: If using a soldering iron, smooth the ridge of plastic surrounding the hole back over it as much as you can. Let it cool about 30 seconds, then heat the guide glue and spread it over the hole. Get it close to the diameter of the hole, which you’ll be covering in the next step.
STEP 6: Cover the guide glue with a layer of epoxy or UV resin to add durability to the patch. (The UV resin hardens in seconds using a UV flashlight but make sure to use UV protective glasses.) Apply it so it covers beyond the guide glue and securely bonds the patch to the lure.
STEP 7: Use toothpicks to apply UV resin or epoxy around the wire hook hangers and line tie anywhere they go through the plastic. This will prevent saltwater intrusion, which will corrode the BBs. Be careful that the hardened epoxy doesn’t restrict movement of the split rings you’ll be adding. If using UV resin, cure it with the light for about 10 seconds.
STEP 8: Replace the split rings and hooks. Use 4x strong hooks, keeping in mind that 2/0 allows the lure to ride higher, 3/0 a bit lower and better for rougher water, and 3/0 in front and 2/0 in back will cause it to dig deeper. I’ve been using a 4/0 Siwash hook at the tail end.
STEP 9: When loaded properly, your lure should sit in a bucket of water head-up at an angle, with the lip right on the surface and parallel with it.
STEP 10: Take it out and fish. You’ll soon become proficient, and the loaded Cotton Cordell Red Fin will likely become a favorite of yours.
Red Fins are produced in many color schemes, but I’m confident having something light and dark in my bag. I usually use Blurple for fishing after dark because it’s a confidence color scheme for me, and confidence is doubtlessly a crucial factor. I go with either Smoky Joe (black over light) or Bone (off-white) for light colors. I don’t religiously follow the “light color for bright nights and dark color for overcast or new moon nights” rationale. I try both until I start hooking up. If you want a light color but can’t find bone or Smoky Joe, you can buy some chrome Red Fins and sand them down. The paint is thin and scrapes off easily, leaving a bone color below.
The 5-inch Red Fin is another killer. In addition to being very popular with stripers eating smaller bait, it can be deadly on largemouth. A jointed 5-inch cranked nice and slow on the flats bordering a steep drop-off after dark will keep large green bass very busy. These plugs have replaced jointed Jitterbugs for me on lakes where landlocked alewives are on the menu. Again, change out the hardware to avoid some heartbreaks.
Another Red Fin modification is to bend the lip to a greater angle, pointing further downward. This keeps the lure higher on the surface and leaves a wide, seductive V-wake.
With the right conditions, I’d put these $6.99 lures up against any $60 plug. Load up on some and try them. If you don’t like them, just send them to me and I’ll gladly help you dispose of them properly.
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Source: https://onthewater.com/modifying-the-cotton-cordell-red-fin
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