Pacemaker Fishing Forum

By Gene Kira

In 1988, Neil Kelly and I published the first edition of our how-to Baja California, Mexico, fishing guidebook, The Baja Catch, which was firmly based on the technique of inshore trolling with Jointed Rebel lures.

Here's what we said about these fabulous lures in 1988: "By far, the most productive lure we have ever discovered for reef fishing and near-shore fishing is the four-and-a-half-inch, Rebel Jointed Fastrac...If we could only have one lure to use in Baja, it would be a four-and-a-half-inch Jointed Rebel..."

The third edition of The Baja Catch is still in print today, and as anyone who's ever read it and fished in Baja can tell you, those Rebels are still working.

After catching-and-releasing thousands of fish of almost 100 species on Baja's Pacific and Sea of Cortez coasts, Neil and I settled on the 4.5-inch Jointed Rebel Fastrac as our favorite inshore trolling lure, the one that was rarely beaten, and the one that produced miracles for us on those tough days when it seemed like there were no fish in the sea.

There is something truly special about this size lure. The Jointed Rebels have overall lengths, including their bills and rear hooks, of about 6.25 inches for the Jointed Fastrac version, 5.50 inches for the Jointed Surface version, and 8.00 inches for the 5.5-inch Jointed Spoonbill or Deep Diver version.

This size lure, whether it be a plug, spoon, feather, or jig, imitates the silhouette of a "sardina," or flatiron herring in Mexican fishing waters, or any number of forage bait fish species, including halfbeaks ("ballyhoo" to East Coast anglers), small caballitos and mackerel, big anchovies, true sardines, and in Baja, small forage fish such as pilotfish and chihuil (Pacific jack mackerel).

In fact, way back in the 1950s and 1960s, this size preference was researched by none other than Ray Cannon, the first Baja Editor of Western Outdoor News. In those days, the use of live bait was almost unknown in Baja, and Cannon was looking for a way to boost fishing during the hottest weeks of the summer when surface action in the lower Sea of Cortez sometimes slows down.

Working closely with the sportfishing captains of East Cape's Rancho Buena Vista, and others, Cannon's pioneering work resulted in the development of Baja's first live bait receivers and also the knowledge that if you have a choice, six inches is the ideal live bait length for most game fish species.

Everything from three-inch bass to giant billfish will hit a six-inch bait, and a huge preponderance of medium-sized predators, such as schooling tuna, dorado, roosterfish, barracuda, cabrillas or basses, pargos or snappers, and many, many more, strongly prefer it.

The Jointed Rebels, of course, are not the only six-inch lures around. In fact, for obvious, Darwinian marketing reasons, this size range of lures is the most common on the market, and on a day-to-day basis accounts for the great majority of fish caught. Particularly famous and effective examples of lures in this family include the ubiquitous Rapala CD-9-14s, the deadly Salas 6XJr., the universal "tuna feather," the smaller Luhr Jensen Stingers, and many brand name variations.

So, why do we recommend the Jointed Rebels? The plain, simple, dumb fact of the matter is that while making more than 300 expeditionary fishing trips to all parts of Baja, we caught the most fish with it. If you look at Neil Kelly's fishing record, as printed in The Baja Catch, you can be sure that over 90% of the 27,294 fish listed there were caught with Jointed Rebel lures.

Day after day, in all kinds of inshore fishing conditions, the Jointed Rebel will give you the maximum action possible on just about every kind of surface and medium depth fish available. Sure, sometimes fishing is just plain slow, and yes, we've actually been skunked a few times, but if there are fish to be caught, you can be very, very confident that the Rebel will catch them.

Jointed Rebels (Surface, Fastrac, and Spoonbill or Deep Diver) have a very tight action that sends strong pressure waves through the water, and their three shiny treble hooks (admittedly a pain in the tackle box) act as tiny flashers and sonar beacons as they weave through the water and tap gently against the sides of the lure.

You will find that a nice, shiny new Rebel works best. Also, you will find that the front and back hooks on a Jointed Rebel are not really there for catching fish, but merely to attract fish. Almost everything hits the middle hook. (Exceptions: triggerfish like to hit the back hook, and barracuda hit from the front.)


JOINTED REBEL LIMITATIONS: Although a wide variety of game fish species of all sizes will hit and hook themselves on a Jointed Rebel lure, landing fish over about 40 pounds requires much skill and luck. In The Baja Catch, Neil Kelly's catch record lists 48 species caught with Rebels (see Neil's species list). In addition to these species, I've caught about 50 others, including several billfish, but really, the Jointed Rebel was designed as a freshwater bass lure, and if a marlin or sailfish clamps down on it, it is usually destroyed after a jump or two. Some people (including us, of course), have tried to remedy this problem by installing heavier hooks, but in my experience that ruins the action and limits the number of hits. Also, tying the lure with anything more than about 30-pound test fishing line severely dampens the enticing, delicate action of the Jointed Rebel. So, we've found
that it is best to just enjoy the fast welterweight, sometimes nonstop fishing action, keep plenty of replacement hooks in the tackle box, and live with the fact that really, really big fish will probably kick your butt. In actual practice during inshore fishing, with average skill and luck, you will be able to handle over 95 percent of everything that hits.

THE TRUTH ABOUT LURE COLORS: During the early 1990s, the Rebel factory went crazy and produced Jointed Rebels in a huge assortment of wild colors. Assuming they knew what they were doing, I ordered every single color in all three models, Fastrac, Surface, and Spoonbill or Deep Diver, including a whole bunch of fluorescent stripes, spots, and solid colors. When the huge box arrived, I sorted through it and started a methodical testing program, comparing each color against our old standbys. You can guess the punch line to this story. After several years of testing those lures, it became painfully clear that the new colors were basically worthless for fishing in Mexico's inshore waters. The original Rebel lure colors were by far the best: blue-silver, black-silver, black-gold, and more recently, orange-gold. This seems logical. The fish don't change. Why should lure colors? Sure enough, within a few years, every one of those wild colors went out of production. The only other Jointed Rebel color that was a sure winner was green, but sadly, that went out of production too. Go figure.

COLOR VS. SUPER LURES: Another interesting fact is that color doesn't seem to matter at all when you find a "super lure" among your Jointed Rebels. What's a "super lure"? Well, if you do a lot of fishing, you will find that one lure in about 50 will catch fish much better than it's brothers, even though they may all look identical to the human eye. As you fish and fish with this "super lure," the paint will gradually be chipped off. I have had several of these "super lures" worn down to the bare white plastic, with not a dot of color left on them, and they still caught fish just as they did fresh out of the box. Nevertheless, color is usually very important, and when I fish with Rebels, I switch between the basic colors to find the one that's working best that day.

LEADERS AND LINE: Supposedly, the lighter the line you use, the more strikes you will get, right? In practice, we found that using line up to about 25 pound test with Jointed Rebels worked just fine. More than that causes problems with lure action and will cost you hits. However, I am 100% convinced that the problem with heavy line is not line visiblity. This is because Neil Kelly, who absolutely hated to waste time tying on new lures, always fished with an ugly, six-inch black plastic coated wire leader with a big, ugly snap at the lure end. This way, Neil could snap on new lures in seconds. In an effort to beat Neil's incredible fish counts, I usually tied on direct, and sometimes I would go down as low as 6-pound line to beat Neil's 25-pound. In all the years we fished together I NEVER ONCE beat Neil. So much for line visibility.

WHY THE FASTRAC?: In The Baja Catch, Neil Kelly and I make a big deal out of the Jointed Factrac model of Rebels because on any given day, until proven otherwise, you will catch more fish with it than any other lure we've ever seen or heard about. This is because the Fastrac is designed to be trolled at a good clip through the water, up to about five knots depending on conditions, about six feet below the surface, without popping out of the water. The Fastrac does not draw more hits than the other models. The benefit is that on any given fishing day, you cover more water with it, and therefore you catch the most fish. However, there are times when you want to use the Surface Jointed Rebel or the Spoonbill or Deep Diver model.


THE SURFACE JOINTED REBEL "SECRET":

Anyone who has read The Baja Catch knows that Neil and I specifically recommend the Jointed Fastrac as the best overall lure for Baja. What we don't explain in the book is that the original Jointed Rebel was not the Fastrac, but the old Jointed Surface Minnow model. This old lure has a smaller diving lip (see photos above), and it is actually a slightly more effective lure than the Fastrac under many fishing conditions because it swims closer to the surface, is seen against the sky better, and creates a subtle surface wake that predators are looking for. When you're trolling slow and quietly, such as in kayak fishing, when you are casting in tight quarters, and when you are fishing over shallow rocks or grass, you will do better with the Surface Rebel, because it only goes a couple of feet below the surface. However, it cannot be trolled anywhere near as fast as the Fastrac model.

WHEN TO USE THE SPOONBILL or DEEP DIVER:

The 5.5-inch Rebel Spoonbill or "Deep Diver" lure swims about twice as deep as a Fastrac, but it must be trolled much slower because of its very large diving lip and the resistance of so much line cutting through the water. The Spoonbill is at a big disadvantage when fishing over shallow rocks or weeds, or when you must cover a lot of water because the fish are scattered. However, there are specific times when the Spoonbill is essential.

1. Because it weighs about 50% more than the Fastrac, it casts better.

2. It will pull up fish that the Fastrac misses, when they are feeding deep, or around kelp beds, against cliffs, digging around under offshore "kelp paddies," or between big submerged boulders.

3. In the Magdalena Bay mangrove channels, it will reach down into the deep cuts next to the mangrove roots where the larger fish are hiding.

4. It is a slightly larger and stronger lure, not quite as versatile, but effective at those times when fish prefer a larger bait, and it has slightly stronger hooks.

RELATED ARTICLES:

There may be better lures out there, but I've never seen one that can reliably beat the Rebels for general inshore fishing in all types of conditions in Baja California. Here, reprinted from The Baja Catch is the story of how Neil Kelly discovered the effectiveness of these lures: "How Neil Kelly Discovered Fishing With Jointed Rebel Lures."

And here, reprinted from The Baja Catch is our original explanation of the advantages of trolling with small lures, and particularly the Jointed Rebels in shallow saltwater: "Rebel Lures for Shallow Saltwater."

And to be fair to the alternatives, here's what The Baja Catch says about those times when surface fishing is slow, or trolling with surface lures is slow, and you should try switching to alternative methods and lures:

"Alternatives to Fishing With Jointed Rebels--Rubber, Spoons & Iron."

And finally, here's a complete explanation from The Baja Catch about the extact methods that we use when fishing in Baja California with Jointed Rebels: Expert Techniques for Shallow Water.