Flounder Fanatic Bucktail
Building on the success of their Flounder Fanatic Bottom Hook and Jig, uniquely offset hooks that are designed for flounders’ unique mouths, Betts Tackle has introduced a product for anglers who like to do their flatfishing at oceanic bottom structure—the Flounder Fanatic Bucktail.
Bouncing heavier bucktails around wrecks, ledges, and live bottoms for flounder has grown hugely in popularity over the past decade, largely because it’s effective and greatly reduces the number of undersized flounder that anglers hook. Like the other offerings in the series, the Flounder Fanatic Bucktail features a hook point offset 90 degrees from the eye. The unusual setup has proven quite effective and popular for a simple reason—flounder are offset 90 degrees from virtually all other fishes and the setup greatly improves hookup rates with flatfish over traditional jigs and hooks.
Weighing 2 oz. (easily the most popular size for nearshore flounder pounders) the Flounder Fanatic Bucktails promise to improve ocean anglers’ hookup rates just as the smaller Flounder Fanatics have done for the inshore crowd. Additionally, the lures prove more snag resistant than traditional bucktails as the relationship between line tie and hook result in the lure resting on the bottom with the hook up as opposed to laying sideways on the seafloor.
The bucktails can be paired with a live or strip bait with success, but the pairing of a bucktail with a scented soft bait like Gulp has proven perhaps an even deadlier combination. The Flounder Fanatic has been designed with that combination in mind, featuring an excellent soft bait ‘keeper’ consisting of a series of cones molded onto the hook. Unlike wire keepers, the cones won’t tear anglers’ soft baits, leading to a firmer grip on the bait and less-frequent replacement of the often pricy trailers.
Flounder Fanatic Bucktails are offered with white tails and either glow or white heads. Anglers can check them out and purchase them at local Betts Tackle retailers.
