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Joe Simons
Welcome to the Salt Strong podcast, disrupting fishing entertainment as you know it. Prepare to laugh, prepare to get to know fishing legends in a whole new and unfiltered way. And on occasion, you might even learn a thing or two about fishing. Here's your host, Joe Simons. Like diamonds,
Joe Ghost Simons
the strongest shrimp lure ever. Everybody, Joe Ghost Simons like diamonds.
Luke Simons
Hey, Luke Simons.
Joe Ghost Simons
Got the new prawn xt. I got, I just got four packs. Two of the big boys and two of the small ones just arrived in my mailbox yesterday. So if you're an insider just like Luke and I, we, we get 20 to 30 off everything as well. So I loaded up, got a new travel rod. We're heading off to Louisiana coming up soon. So we'll have some stories, I'm sure on one of the next couple of podcasts from that heading there with hollyw Wood. And we'll be trying out these new prawns, but there's been a lot of talk about it. We just launched the these prawn xts. Crazy strong. Luke, you've gone out. I know. Tony's got some footage now where, you know, 30, 40 fish on a single shrimp lure, including you just got back from dragging that sucker all over the bottom of the ocean floor. Pretty wild how strong and tough these new prawn XT lures are. So there's been some questions like, hey, is the other one going, meaning the original going away? Are we going to have this material on all the lures? So we just want to get on a podcast and address everything about this brand new XT material that we've been working on for a long time. So pumped. It's. It's finally out. So where do we begin, Luke?
Luke Simons
Yeah, I think, I think first we'll just the. The questions you asked. So the, the prawn xt, there's two sizes. They're the. The same sizes as the original prawns, like the prawn USAs. The prawn USAs are made from plastisol. They're much easier to rig. But these, these new ones, and we're still going to keep selling the, the prawn USAs, we'll keep making them for as long as members want them. These, though, they're the same size. They, they. They're still flexible. So it's not like, it's not like a rigid lure by any means, but it has the benefits. These are just superior, in my opinion. Just after using them. This exact one has caught over 40 fish, and most of which were snapper and grouper that are very good at ripping up soft plastics. And check that out. There's not, not even like a little tiny bit of the tail is compromised at all.
Joe Ghost Simons
I don't even see, like, where you rigged it. Like, I don't even see a hole for the hook. And you imagine how many times that hook was ripping through there.
Luke Simons
Yeah, it's incredible as I've. I've never, I've never had that. I've never had a lure come close to that, a soft plastic. And. And so far I've been testing these for quite some time. I haven't had a single one get torn from a fish. Yes, I can. If I like, if I grab real hard and actually like pull it really hard, I can, I can actually. I can finally get a piece. But. But the fish obviously can't do that. So I've yet to have one of these to get compromised, which is insane. So we're going to keep selling the old one for as long as members want them. My thought is once people actually use these, they'll probably not like to go back to the other ones. So because they're. They are a little bit tougher to rig. But as long as you use. You've like rigged all plastics before. It's. It's not hard and there's. It can be rigged. Just a cool thing about them is they can be rigged on. On weedless jig heads like this. This one caught. I was using this this morning. I caught some really nice flounder, plus some grouper and snapper and have had. I bet you I had like six lady fish on. And you can see right, Not a single. Not a single bit of the tail is compromised. The eyes are still on there. I. A lot of times pin fish will rip the eyes off of soft plastics. And then on the way back in, same lure, I stopped by a little trout spot. And this one probably caught maybe seven or eight trout, plus had lady fish on. And you can see it is not compromised off. So you can rig it on traditional jig heads with exposed hooks or my personal favorite is on the weedless. The weedless jigs bouncing this along reefs. This morning I was on the edge of the shipping channel in Tampa Bay, and this thing was awesome. It was bouncing through all that gnarly stuff. Didn't lose any to the bottom nor to fish messing with it. So I've been blown away. I knew it was good, like when I felt the material and. But just after using it, it's just like, it's just Becoming more and more impressed with the fact that I still have yet to have one get ripped by a fish.
Joe Ghost Simons
What are you doing? Super shallow. Normally, we talk a lot about the hoss helix. Is that the only downside is.
Luke Simons
Yeah, I actually. It's been so hot that a lot of fish push out in deeper water. So lately I really haven't been using this XT1 up in the shallows. It does rig on the helix hook. That's the toughest thing to rig it with. Where for those not familiar with the helix, like, I actually don't have. I don't have one here on me, but it's the one with, like, the corks. Corkscrew head where you have to, like, screw it in the material. This material is tough, so it is actually difficult to. To corkscrew it in. But if you. If you do a pilot hole down the middle where you can get the. The centering pin down and then just. Just use some force, it will. It will rig. But. Yeah, but lately I've just been bouncing. I've been slightly, you know, slightly deeper rod. Granted, with this one, I was catching those trout in like, two and a half to. To three feet of water, so I just didn't rig it. Weedless. Yeah.
Joe Ghost Simons
And the good news, once it's on, because I agree, I've been playing around with it, and it's tougher to rig. Also more forgiving. Like, meaning if you do screw it up, because I've even screwed up the plastisol ones.
Luke Simons
Right.
Joe Ghost Simons
If you're going quickly or doing it and bad lighting or whatever your excuse is, because I've got plenty of them. There's been times where I don't line it up perfectly, and I got to redo it and, oh, man, I already got a hole there. If you catch one fish and all of a sudden that fish really rips through, you know, with the hook pushes through to lip the. The fish, and all of a sudden you got this really big hole in your plastisol you'll have your jig head or your hoss helix will start slipping. It'll start moving. It'll start popping out. This one. Once it's on, that sucker's on like it. For the most part, it's not coming off.
Luke Simons
Yeah. Again, it really has been. It has been shocking how strong this thing is. And. And that's. I'll be. I'll be going. But I'll be going out Charlotte harbor this weekend, and I'm gonna put the test to see how many. How many fish Gonna catch with it and it'll be doing a lot of shallow water fishing. So a friend of mine is a son's turn 11 so we're gonna take him out and get him on some fish. We'll be drifting a lot of trial flats and the puffer fish is the one that, that might be able to take a bit out of it.
Joe Ghost Simons
Ask.
Narrator or Family Member
Yeah.
Joe Ghost Simons
Yep.
Luke Simons
I have been using it in shallows where there's, where there's puffers. I, I haven't visually seen one hit it yet. So I can't say for certain that it is puffer proof. But so far it has not been compromised. And again we'll be. I'll be spending a lot of time in puffer. Puffer zones this weekend. So that'll be interesting. But even if the puffer does get it, that's, that's a kind of expected. But if there is a soft plastic that is puffer proof, it would be this one. Because I've never, I've tried almost all TPE lures out there, at least all the popular ones and I've never have never once have I had one that lasted over 40 fish, most of which again were grouper and snapper that are extremely tough on. On saw plastics. I've never had one come out completely unscathed.
Joe Ghost Simons
It's amazing. If you don't mind, I would love to talk about lures. Also love to talk about the application on great and easy places to fish them. I know you were just out. Oh, I lost you there for a second. You were just out here, I think it was this morning. Right. And caught some flounder, some snapper. Can you maybe even pull that up and kind of show on smart fishing spots how you're using it for very near shore, meaning you know, you could kayak out there if you wanted to on a calm day, kind of show what your. Where you could use this and then what the rig was, et cetera, for these pron xds I think to be super helpful.
Luke Simons
Yeah. So while I'm pulling up my map, I'll show you. I'll show you actually part of my catch log. So yesterday I went out and I promised the wife some dinner and my, my fa. My most trusted way to go out and get my mangrove snapper was my target and, and one of my favorite way to catch mango snapper, my most trusted way is to just go, go find a bridge. So I went over to St. Pete and I was. They love this prong Junior this is a three and a half inch size one and I've always loved this lure for snapper. They're very rough on lures, as I mentioned before. So what I took the prawn xt, the, the junior size, put it on a half ounce jig head, rigged it weedless on this weedless football jig and I just basically drifted through the bridge. The current was pretty strong, so I was just drifting through and just bouncing bottom as I drift through. And I ended up, I ended up bringing home four. So I caught four keepers, which isn't a huge amount. But I didn't, I didn't have to bother with, I made and I was, I was back home. I was off the water by like 10 o'. Clock. So just a quick trip.
Joe Ghost Simons
What size jig head? Make sure you mention that.
Luke Simons
So I had the half ounce for. That was, that was because it was like 15 to 20ft, in some cases 30. And the current flow is pretty strong. If, if it's, if it's like not very. I basically want to get as light as I can while still getting it down to the bottom where I can actually feel it bouncing the bottom. And with a sensitive rod like the slot machine, which, which I use is as long as I can get it on the bottom, I'll be able to feel what's down there because obviously it's very beneficial to be able to feel where the rocks are and also where they, where they aren't. As mango, snapper and grouper, even flounder hold really tight to rocks. So if you're, if you're not near rocks, you probably aren't going to catch many fish. And so with this half ounce, since the curve was strong, I want the half ounce. If it was say 10ft of water and the current wasn't very strong, then I would go to, to a quarter ounce just because it'll still get down to the bottom. And it just, it just, it's just more natural. All right, not, not many shrimp have a big old head on the front, but better to be down there in their face and, and look a little bit off than to not be there at all. Because if you're not on the bottom, you're not going to catch nearly as many fish, especially during the summer months. So, so yeah, so I was bouncing bottom. So now I got this app up. So this morning I went over, Let me get. It's a secret spot, so I can't, can't divulge the spot. Let me put a sticky note over the coordinates. So this morning I went over to, to, to Tampa Bay that's hilarious. Shows the cordons right there. So what I did as I was experimenting, we have this high res layer and so this is on the, the channel of Tampa Bay, the Tampa shipping channel. And I was zooming in and I was seeing these rocks and so I marked them and so let me go ahead and fish these rocks. Check this out. So I took a buddy from church and we were trying to catch mango snapper. I did, did catch one, one keeper but the flounder bite was insane. So all three. So I'm trying to watch while I'm doing this custom. Really nice flounder out there. So all three of these are nice flounder. Even caught a fourth one. So. So further up the line. Yeah. So there's another, another catch right? There was a, this is a red grouper I believe. Yeah. So anyhow, so I basically found these rocks and this is in about 35ft of water. And so this time I had a three quarter ounce weight to get down to the bottom for the juniors. I distilled the, the half ounce. It got the job done. But yeah, check this out. Like more rocks. So I was basically just, just finding this deep structure. Summertime water gets hot the fish, a lot of the fish will naturally shift out to deeper water. And the craziest thing was actually like literally right in that spot where those, where those, those flounder were. I, I get a fish and I thought, I thought it was the biggest flounder in my life like because we were getting these flounder and turns out it was like a probably 25 inch fish and I thought it was a flounder like on its side like coming up and turns out it was a snook. There's a snook in 35 to 40ft of water on the edge of the shipping channel in, in July. So I, I was not expecting a snook out there. But yeah, cool trip and, and same thing. So use these lures. We we're bouncing around that you can see those rocks were pretty, pretty thick and didn't lose a single one because it's weedless. So didn't lose a single one to the rocks nor to the toothy critters down there that are, are pretty aggressive with soft plastics before with any other soft plastics I've done. I, I really like this type of fishing in the summer. So I've done it for many years and, and never once have I had a day where I've caught a bunch of fish like brought home a lot of dinner and didn't lose us. Didn't. Didn't burn through a single tail. It's like, oh, I go through packs.
Joe Ghost Simons
Remember the last time we did it, I literally went through packs. And, you know, in my. I had that extra pocket in my. In my fishing pants that I just put all the extra plastic, so it's not, you know, getting out in the environment and stuff. And I'll have a whole pocket full after the end of the day. So that's the. I guess let's just say the pros and cons. We talked about rigging, you know, it's also more expensive, you know, per lure, but they last. I don't know, maybe. Maybe to our own demise. It's saltron. We're not going to be able to sell as many because they don't last forever. They're. They're so good. And you can only get them@fish strong.com too. If you're listening, saying, where do I get these atfishstrong.com get them. Get them while we still got them in. They are selling incredibly fast. And. And Luke's right. Once you use them and once you just kind of get used to rigging a couple times, you're like, all right, this. This thing's the real deal.
Luke Simons
Yeah, they obviously, they cost more, so they are more expensive. So. So the. But the cost. I haven't done the exact math. I think it's like 7.99 for 5 versus. Versus maybe I think it's $9 something first for 4. So maybe let's say. Let's say it's. You can say we'll just go aggressive because I don't want to give bad math. We'll say. We'll say it's 45. More expensive. Seems bad up front, but it is like a hundred times stronger as far as longevity. So it's. That's why I think over time will. You know, I think most. Most members will gravitate to this new material.
Joe Ghost Simons
They are the three pack for the big ones and four for the small ones.
Luke Simons
Yeah. Yep.
Joe Ghost Simons
Just FYI's eyes. And then. Okay, so that's all@fisher.com members insider. Members save 20% or more. What about the app that was the shade relief in the 4K?
Luke Simons
Yeah. So that shade relief, that is reserved for. For members. And so, yeah, that's part of the Smart fishing app. Some members get this app complimentary. It's something that we built for inshore saltwater fishermen specifically. This isn't something that was designed. I know there's a really big app out there designed but the owners like live in Europe somewhere and it's more for bass fishing but this is specifically for saltwater fishing. It has even the. The catch log. So when I'm what all I do is I upload my pictures and it puts in the. Puts in the species, puts in the picture plus the tide chart and even pulls in the weather. So I can even go back to you know, if you join, if you're not a member yet and you join you can go back like five years or whatever to your phone, upload the pictures and you can have your catch log and you can filter it by tide cycle by month. And this is. Can be com compound I guess com compounded the right term so they can be combined so you can do by. By any, any specific month. Also include the tide cycle incoming, outgoing or slack. It can even do the tide height. If you, if you like me, you love shall water fishing you can say hey like what. Where did I catch my fish in the month of August on a negative tide.
Joe Ghost Simons
Right.
Luke Simons
So like tide level zero or less. And it'll literally show you just those pins from that exact situation. Pretty awesome. So you can have an amazing catch log and. And then of course we have the smart spots that literally shows the zones where fish are most likely going to be. That's all that stuff is reserved for members. We do have some cool maps like for non members. You actually can see some, some good satellite imagery. But this the more complex stuff and really the most helpful stuff is of course reserved for the paying customers. That's right. Well cool.
Joe Ghost Simons
I didn't have anything else. I really just wanted to do this podcast, a shorter one to talk about these shrimp just because or prawns. There's been a ton of questions about it, a ton of excitement and I just wanted to go here and kind of talk through all of it because there's been a bunch of stuff so and, and obviously share a tip on. On a great way to use them inshore.
Luke Simons
Yeah. So especially now find that deep structure, bounce these things along the bottom, rig them. Weedless is a big. It's a huge benefit to be weedless. And the foot that you can really rig these on on most jig heads. These, these ones from Haas. This is the Haas football jig. It has a couple advantages. Number one is these hooks are very strong. If you use a lot of. A lot of freshwater companies make hooks similar to this but the, the wire on the hooks are pretty thin. They're designed for bass fine for like normal size. Like you Know trout of course of any size and like slot size redfish. But if you hook into like a big cobia or snook or tarpon, those, those hooks can't handle it. These, these from Haas cans. I'll cut overslaught. Smoke reds, nice tarpon, nice cobia. And haven't I've yet to had one straightened out. So the football shape though is. It has an advantage because when it hits the bottom with the football shape it's less likely to start, start helicoptering or rolling over which is just not natural. So it'll hit bottom, it'll stay put. This material does float, so that is kind of cool. But I don't recommend sitting, sitting in one spot for a long time. So let it hit bottom, pick it up, do it again and, and as you're bouncing bottom feel for rocks when you feel the rocks throw back there because there's likely going to be some predator. So yeah, I just can't. I've just been completely. I already love the prawn lures and now that it has this strong material like this is now going to be on, on my rod like literally every trip, no matter what, at least one of my rods is going to have one of these. Like today I had all. I had four rods all of which had. Had these, these puppies on there. They do have a rattle cavity as well. So yesterday I was actually doing a test rattles versus no rattles. And so the rattle cavity right there and the on the back side there's the underbelly slot and you just shove the rattle up in there and it's, it'll stay and, and so far the rattle has a slight advantage, but it's it, it's. I still caught some nice fish without it. So not a, not essential for people
Joe Ghost Simons
that want to go recreate this. So you got the, the prawn XT and you have it rigged on this hoss weedless jig head, the football jig head. What pound. I assume you're using mono. What, what pound leader were you using?
Luke Simons
Yeah, so I was using today and yesterday actually I was using 30 pound monoliter for the, the leader line. And I would use knowing that some of these rocks are pretty, pretty tall, like three plus feet, some of them, some of the ledges. So I went with about a little bit longer leader than usual. It was probably about 4ft when I started and I had to retie a couple times because the line was getting chafed. But again, so now it's, now it's probably 3ft but yeah, I started about 4ft of 30 pound and then the braid was a 20 pound. 20 pound. That, that X braid was a J braid. 8 grand has been a really impressive braid so I've been sticking with that. And then yeah, just bounce bottom and as soon as you feel that thump, let them have it. It's fun and just cool thing about it is you just don't know what it's going to be. I think we caught, I think we caught like seven species today and we were off the water at 10 so it was like a lot of action from a variety of fish and and I'm already can taste the flounder that's going to be cooked up. I love some flounder.
Joe Ghost Simons
Cool. All right guys. Well you can get all of the tackle@fish strong.com. make sure Insider members you're logged in. You get your discounts automatically applied if you're not a member and you want access to smart fishing spots. The tackle discounts. We're doing a tackle tester right now. This, this month we're giving free tackle away. Free slam shah every month. A lot of really cool benefits. You can go to saltstrong.com and join there to take advantage of everything. Otherwise leave comments, questions, anything that you want to see in the future. Any other questions about the prawn or the app or any of that, leave it down in the comments especially if you're on our blog page or YouTube. We, we try to get to all of those and we appreciate you big time and we'll talk to you on the next episode.
Luke Simons
Peace. See ya.
Narrator or Family Member
Cause fishing it's in my soul it was passed down to me from the days ago Find us on the water if there was a way it's been said my papa he wrote the book on catching big reds and 20 pound sh I wish I knew all the things he knew today
Joe Ghost Simons
for he's the
Narrator or Family Member
reason why we are this way
Joe Simons
and
Narrator or Family Member
he put fish in our souls to stay.
Salt Strong Fishing Podcast | EP 692: The STRONGEST Shrimp Lure Yet???
August 11, 2026
Host: Joe Simonds (“Joe Ghost Simonds”)
Guest: Luke Simons
This episode dives deep into the debut of Salt Strong’s new Prawn XT – described as “the strongest shrimp lure ever.” Hosts Joe Ghost Simonds and Luke Simons review the development, toughness, rigging tips, on-water results, and value of this innovative new soft plastic lure. Listeners get candid, hands-on feedback from recent fishing trips, plus practical advice on targeting mangrove snapper, flounder, grouper, and more with this ultra-durable bait. The discussion also covers tackle setups and exclusive Salt Strong member tools, like the Smart Fishing Spots app.
“These new prawn XTs…crazy strong! Luke, you’ve got footage – 30, 40 fish on a single shrimp lure, including grouper and snapper.”
—Joe Ghost Simonds [00:34]
“I haven’t had a single one get torn from a fish. If I grab real hard and pull, I can get a piece—but the fish can’t do that. It’s insane.”
—Luke Simons [02:49]
Rigging:
Long-Term Value:
“It’s like a hundred times stronger as far as longevity—so I think most members will gravitate to this new material.”
—Luke Simons [14:10]
On the Water Reports:
Notably Not Puffer-Proof (Yet):
“Didn’t lose a single one to the rocks, nor to the toothy critters down there that are pretty aggressive…with other soft plastics, I’d go through packs.”
—Luke Simons [12:17]
On the lure’s durability:
“I’ve never had a lure come close to that, a soft plastic…this exact one has caught over 40 fish—snappers and groupers—and not even a bit of the tail compromised.”
—Luke Simons [02:42]
On value:
“To our own demise…they don’t last forever—they’re so good.”
—Joe Ghost Simonds [13:17]
On rigging forgiveness:
“Once it’s on, that sucker’s on…For the most part, it’s not coming off.”
—Joe Ghost Simonds [05:44]
On use in deep structure:
“Bounce these things along the bottom, rig them weedless is a huge benefit. Find that deep structure especially now!”
—Luke Simons [17:12]
On the surprise of the day:
“Turns out, it was a snook in 35 to 40 ft of water on the edge of the shipping channel…in July. Wasn’t expecting that!”
—Luke Simons [11:38]
Best Jig Heads: Hoss weedless football jigs ([17:12])
Weight:
Line:
Favorite Applications:
Rattles:
Weedless Advantage:
Summary:
The Prawn XT from Salt Strong is a ground-breaking shrimp lure for durability and versatility, surviving aggressive fish and tough conditions while staying fishable trip after trip. Though it costs more up front, the value and fishing effectiveness makes it a must-try for serious inshore anglers. Members benefit from discounts and digital tools to maximize every trip, and the Salt Strong team promises more on-the-water reports to come!