Testimonials

Books and Magazine Articles

“Jigheads with rattles such as the Rockport Rattler™ have also been proven to be effective …”

Jay Watkins – GCC Texas Saltwater Fishing Magazine, December 2006 issue, “Let’s make some Noise”

“There is a local entrepreneur and fisherman in Rockport who makes a very unique jig head called the Rockport Rattler which I have found to be very productive.”

Ray Crawford – page 117, Wade and Kayak Fishing on the Coastal Bend of Texas. http://www.texascoastalfishingbooks.com

---

David Sikes, Outdoor Writer, Corpus Christi Caller Times

Shake, Rattle & Roll
Rockport Rattler™ jighead hauls in fish during outing
August 17, 2003

Ships logs penned by Spanish explorers of the New World refer to the use of crude fishing lures made from abalone and oyster shell by the people who were there first.

Decades passed before recreational angling became popular enough for manufactured lures, which came to prominence in the 19th Century. Sound was incorporated into freshwater lures probably around the mid-20th Century.

And in South Texas the rattling float and popping cork has been used to attract fish since the 1960s.

Along the way, various methods to create noise were tested and perfected inland and along the coast between Texas and Florida into the plugs we take for granted today.

The Texas tout, however, has remained mostly quiet, except for a few obscure short-lived rattling jigheads and those rattling devices inserted into soft plastics. But the silence has been broken.

Rex Hoyt, a Rockport guide, wanted to give his kids an angling edge while night fishing off a lighted pier. Live shrimp worked well enough, but the hassle of bait eventually wore thin.

Soft plastics alone didn't seem to provide the level of action required to hold the kids' interest. So he began experimenting with tiny glass capsules with metal beads inside, similar to the kind bass anglers use. By inserting the tiny rattles into the soft body of Saltwater Assassins, Hoyt discovered that trout seemed to prefer the noisier lure to an unaltered tout.

But at 40 cents each, he could not afford to lose the number of rattles that schoolie trout freed when they shredded his impregnated soft plastics. In Hoyt's mind, the obvious direction was to somehow attach the rattle to the jighead, thus eliminating the disposable nature of this notion.

This is not a new idea. But Hoyt thought he could do it better.

Early trials included using Power Pro braided line to lash the glass rattles to the hook shank of an altered jighead. That didn't work so well, but Hoyt was encouraged by the response of fish. Various types of glues also sent Hoyt back to the drawing board.

Then a breakthrough came from a Florida connection. Through Internet research, Hoyt met a veteran lure maker who helped him work out the bugs on his funny-looking jighead and encouraged him to keep trying. The elderly man even offered Hoyt a source for waterproof glue, along with a recipe for altering the glue so it would better fit Hoyt's needs.

Trial, error and countless conversations eventually led to success and the creation of a durable Rockport Rattler™. Testing different colors and even a lead-free version continue on charter trips and by the Hoyt family research and development department.

As word got out locally about the lure's effectiveness, Hoyt began making a few extras for friends and clients. This evolved into selling them on the Internet ( www.rockportrattler.com ) and then through independent tackle shops from Galveston to Rockport. Today, Hoyt said he sells about 1,000 jigheads a month in a variety of colors, hook sizes and weights, with gold, red and movable eyes.

Locally, the folks at Tackle Town in Rockport believe sales of the Rockport Rattler™ could be even better if word of mouth were not Hoyt's sole source of advertising. That could change soon.

Meanwhile, I wanted to give the Rockport Rattler™ a try. It's not so much that I distrust testimonials furnished by lure manufactures. The Banjo Minnow hype comes to mind. But testing them myself provides a legitimate excuse to go fishing.

So I arranged a trip with Hoyt and one of the guides who uses his lures regularly, Jesse Arsola of Bay City. Please note that this was not a side-by-side comparison of jigheads with and without rattles.

But it was a valid test of the lure's effectiveness during a time when lure fishing is iffy at best, the heat of summer, when bays are abundant with baitfishes and other natural offerings for game fish.

We got a late start from the boat ramp at Bird Island Basin, mainly because an unsuspecting boater fell prey to the peril that low tide brings there. More on this situation in another column. After helping lift a grateful angler's trailer over the submerged edge of the ramp, we motored southward.

Our first stop was the Badlands, that rocky gateway to Baffin Bay's north shore. Low tide and floating grass are not welcomed sights for lure chunckers. But almost immediately, Arsola and I snagged a couple of trout

The Rockport Rattler™ came through for us. Before we left the Badlands, we caught trout, redfish, a black drum and even a sizable croaker on a combination of jig head colors and different touts we tried.

Perhaps the most innovative product Hoyt makes is a lead-free rattler for fishing shallow seagrass beds. The XMAX allows for virtually a weightless presentation. Used with an appropriate tout, the glass tube adds enough buoyancy to the lure to keep it above seagrass and provides enough weight for easy casting and a slow retrieve, perfect for a big flounder this day.

Count 'em. That makes five species.

Outdoors writer David Sikes' column appears Thursdays and Sundays. Contact him at 886-3616 or sikesd@caller.com

Photos with story courtesy David Sikes, August 2003.

---

Pro Guides and Tourney Anglers

“I’ve been fishing the same areas for the past 25 years; only now are we catching the 30” plus trout and winning boats in tournaments since using your Rockport Rattler jigs”

Sonny Trujillo, Corpus Christi, Texas

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

---

Fishing Reports and posts from I-Net