A breakdown of loading techniques for the classic Cotton Cordell Red Fin.
Some years back, I got a call from Peter O’Neil. Peter has the biggest collection of plugs you will find anywhere, and when it comes to classic plugs you’d be hard-pressed to name one he doesn’t own. He called to tell me that he had the last of Steve Campo’s surfcasting gear and was going to be selling it for him. I had heard about the toxic Red Fins he was famous for and I knew I wanted some!
Once I had them, I became obsessed with Red Fins and cross-referencing the loads. Up to that point, I was a devout believer in water loads. I had also tried bird shot and mineral oil. And now I had a heavy and a medium loaded Campo. Here’s what I learned.
Baseline: The unloaded Red Fin has a place in the surfcaster’s bag, it’s just not something most of us will use on a regular basis. I’d wager that casting an unloaded ‘Fin is how the term ‘casts like a potato chip’ was born. But an unloaded Red Fin swims right on top, leaving a wake, take the rear hook off and the action becomes greatly exaggerated. Both versions work well around herring runs and during blitzes on small bait.
Water Load: I can’t say who pioneered the water-loaded Red Fin, but I credit Tim Coleman with bringing it to the masses. He taught us that 10 cc of water created the right balance for casting and action. This amount of water takes up a lot of the space inside the plug, spreading the load along the entire belly. This really slows the action down, which can be a good thing. They have worked for me in nearly every surfcasting situation, but spring in the back rivers has to be my favorite. Downsides are they can seem a bit sluggish and that the water – somehow – evaporates over time.
Bird Shot: My longtime friend DJ Muller was the first person I saw loading Red Fins with bird shot and he and I had several spirited arguments about whether shot or water was better. I remember one night fishing one of my spots with him, we crushed fish for hours I was using water and he was using shot. Unbeknownst to me he was keeping score and was delighted to inform me that he’d caught more fish than I had. I smiled and reminded him that I had caught the biggest fish. The shot load is more active than the water load, I’d describe the action more deliberate, but still noticeably minimized. What I didn’t like about them is how loud they are, you can hear them coming 25 feet off the rod tip!
Mineral Oil: The oil load was first relayed to me by former editor Toby Lapinski. He liked the oil because it didn’t evaporate, but added that if you have leaker, the oil makes a mess. I was skeptical of the oil because I knew it floated on water, being lighter in weight, the accepted fix was to use 11cc of oil. Mineral oil is light and flows freely, like water. My observation showed that it swims slightly shallower than a water load, but features a fishier wobble than water or shot. If you seal the hook hangers with Super Glue before you load the plug, you’re far less likely to see leaks. The downside is that if you get oil on the hole when you’re loading, you’ll have a heck of time sealing it with any kind of adhesive.
Toxicity: The use of mercury brings with it some very unique qualities. First, it sticks to itself and nothing else, so the mercury tends to stay in a tight blob that moves quickly inside the plug. It’s also 13.5 times heavier than water. Meaning you only need a tiny bead of it to equal the weight of 10cc of water. This means that the added weight concentrates in one place. On the cast it all collects in the tail, powering a longer toss. On the retrieve, it sloshes forward and gathers right behind the forward hook hanger, which is right where you want it for optimal action. The final result is more buoyant because there is more open space left inside the plug, resulting in a livelier swim. Some downsides are that mercury is expensive, toxic and can literally make you go insane, additionally, some may consider the swimming action to be excessively “rolly” but I’ve caught a lot of fish the ones I have.
In my updated opinion, all of these loads have their merits, but if I had to select that one threads the needle between all of the positives and crosses off the most negatives, it would be the mineral oil. The action is good, the load doesn’t evaporate and it also isn’t poisonous. Let me be clear, mercury is not to be messed with and if you were thinking of trying it out…look up the long list of dangers and proceed at your own peril, the juice, as they say, isn’t worth the squeeze.
