Boom Boom Shrimp

A Boom Boom Shrimp catches nice-sized redfish like this one as well as speckled trout.

Pierce hopes new lure makes as much noise as famous popping cork

An outdoorsman’s “tinkering” continues to have profoundly positive results, i.e. catching fish, in the world of saltwater fishing.

Aaron Pierce built one of the most popular popping corks in the region. He introduced the Four Horsemen Tackle Popping Cork in 2018. It’s been making more and more of a noise, quite a fish-attracting racket, in the market and on the water ever since.

Two years later, Pierce was back at the drawing board, so to speak, with an idea. He worked on his project during 2020-21, then his new Boom Boom Shrimp started appearing in stores and bait shops in Spring 2022.

More and more saltwater fishermen are getting their hands on them as 2,000 per day are made in Marrero, La., and they are making noise in the world of fishing, too.

“I think it’s doing pretty good,” Pierce said, adding there’s a lot more competition in the soft plastic market than in popping corks. And he’s hopeful it will become as popular as the Four Horsemen Tackle Popping Cork.

Unique design

Pierce, a 48-year-old charter boat captain who also owns Four Horsemen Guide Service LLC, has applied for a patent through a lawyer in New Orleans, La., on the integral design of the Boom Boom Shrimp. The triangle shape of the specially designed long screwlock holds the soft plastic in a way that half of it faces the eye of the hook and half faces the rear, locking it into the soft plastic after its poured.

The Boom Boom Shrimp is at its best, as this speckled trout found out, when worked 26 to 34 inches under a popping cork.

“It’s hard to come off,” Pierce said, proudly.

The soft plastic formed around the screwlock leadhead designed by Lane Zimmer at Froggiemoe Manufacturing LLC, he said. Zimmer, also a charter boat captain, makes the widely known Deathgrip Jigheads.

“We worked on that bait two years. We wanted that bait to fall correctly — not straight down — whenever you popped the cork. We tested it out for six months” with prototypes, he said, adding it works best set 26 to 34 inches under the popping cork. “When you pop it, the bait comes up and the way it’s designed, goes down at an angle like it’s swimming in the water.”

More new colors

When they first hit the market, Boom Boom Shrimp were available in four new colors. The color selection was expanded this past spring to eight colors. It can be fished alone like a swim bait, sans a popping cork, Pierce said, noting, “You have to work it real slow, let it sink about four, five seconds, then kind of pop it.”

Also, he said based on recent glowing reports from charter boat captains, “People are using it as a dropshot.”

The 1/8-ounce Boom Boom Shrimp, which is 3 ¼ inches long, is armed with a 2/0 Mustad Ultra Point Hook. With a popping cork added, it can be cast a long way.

Pierce, who works in coastal restoration in conjunction with Resource Environmental Solutions LLC, a nursery for coastal plants, has been a fishing guide working out of Leeville, La., since he opened Four Horsemen Guide Service in 1996.

The post “Boom Boom Shrimp” first appeared on LouisianaSportsman.com.