Collection: Cedar Plugs

Cedar plugs for the offshore trolling spread.

The cedar plug is close to the simplest lure in saltwater — a shaped block of cedar with a hook — and it has been catching tuna longer than almost anything else in the box. Commercial boats still troll them because they work when expensive skirted lures do not.

The reason is the wood. Cedar has a density and a surface that make the plug swim with a slightly erratic, unpredictable roll rather than tracking perfectly straight, and it holds a wet trail in a way plastic does not. Tuna commit to it.

Traditionally run naked and close to the transom, right in the prop wash where the whitewater hides the leader. Deadly on blackfin, skipjack, bonito and school-size yellowfin along the Gulf edge and the Atlantic stream.