2012's top producers?

[Bassboss]

Well, now that the year is winding down, I figured it would be appropriate to start a thread like is one.

What were your top producing lures of 2012? For me it had to have been a texas rigged, 7" ZOOM magII worm. Closely fallowed by a senko.

The season was a little disappointing for me though, I was so bussy this summer with work and sports I couldn't ever find to make it out on the water. And fall is never a good time for me, but I hope to change that next season though!

[bassinbob]

It has to be the Strike King red eye shad in sexy shad color. I could almost always count on that lure catching a couple every time out even if they were only dinks.

I agree on the season being a little off with a lot of lakes being lower this year. Seems also like other than the lure mentioned above that it was hard catching them on anything else for me. I even had a hard time with the horny toad. As a matter of fact plastics stunk for me this season.

[silvermesa]

This was my first year of bass fishing. I can't believe I did not learn how to do this great sport years ago!! Great fun!!!

I started out this past Spring on a private 4 acre lake that has out of balance fish ratios with lot's of small 8-12" bass. A roadrunner in chartreuse with yellow or black/blue 2" curly tail grub worked great! In addition a chartreuse and white spinner bait worked quite good as well.

As the season progressed, I kept going back to the tackle store and purchased Booyah buzz baits in black and white and could not believe the thrill of catching these aggressive bass on top water!

Then I read about froggin on this web site and purchased several frogs. One that worked really well is one of the least expensive at Bass Pro called Scum Frog Popper in green or white. I was shocked when I cast it out on top of a moss covered pond and within a minute I had bass skyrocketing up thru the thick moss to inhale this frog!!

This Fall I find I'm back in the tackle shop wanting to try shallow water crank baits and left with four. The one that worked the best for me was a sqare bill bandit. I caught seven bass in about 40 minutes the first day I tried it.

It has been a fun year and I'm so glad I found bass fishing. Thank goodness for an activity that can be enjoyed by many for a modest cos!

[Tavery5]

For some reason this year was a little tougher for me than usual. I went back to some baits that have never failed to produce at least a modest amount of fish. I did well in the spring with the Luck Craft Pointer and to some degree the Gunfish. Caught several fish on a Cavitron buzzbait and a new favorite the Jackal Iobee frog. Plastics, I used a Zoom O'l Monster 10.5 worm in watermelon magic, and the Brushhog in the same color. The RI Kinky beaver was another good producer on the back of a jig or jika rig.

[keithdog]

It's interresting to observe each year how things change regarding the presentations that bass cue in on. This year was no different. I was expecting a great year this year. However, it was short of expectations. But not bad by any means. The local authorities doing a serious weed kill early on in all our area lakes didn't help.
Early on, the jig and craw combo worked very well as did hard bodied jerkbaits. T rigged Yum Craw Papis worked very well throughout the spring. Spinnerbaits as always ranked high throughout the year starting in late spring. The ones I make myself seemed to work better than commercial except for a Pepper Custom spinnerbait I recieved from another member. That 1/2 oz. double willow spinnerbait kicked a**! The Rattlin Spook produced very well again this year from late spring through early fall. I wouldn't be on the water without it. Square bill crankbaits were a solid performer this year. The Lucky Crafts and the Strike Kings were tops in the crankbaits used.
Oddly, I had great luck the previous two season with buzzbaits, but only caught on bass using them this year. I blame that however on lack of shallow weedbeds due to the weed kill program this year. Frogs again were a bust for the most part. Only caught a few on those.
Thats pretty much it for 2012.

[flfireman]

Rough year for me. Never had a good spinnerbait bite, RatlTraps were so-so. My biggest producer was a Bitters skinny dipper.

[F16 1UB]

X Calibur 1 Knocker. Number$ lure for me.

[66KingFisher]

All the usual stuff caught fish this year, but Rat-l-trap style baits did seem to shine as being the biggest producer of fish for me.

[lilmule]

Senko-greenpumpkin and double barrel bass buster in that order.

[Captmikestarrett]

My killer was Wacko worms in Potomac Blue.. used 200 this summer and another 150 in red shad. Second was Horney toads... used 16 bags with 5 in each bag.

Capt Mike

[Jrob78]

My top producer this year was probably sq bill crankbaits. The main reason for that is I really made a conscience effort to fish them more and get more comfortable throwing them into cover. I always had one tied on and I fished them whenever I could.

[Bassboss]

Interesting stuff guys!

[Rebbasser]

Silvermesa, welcome to the forum and you are headed for trouble in the form of the bait monkey. If you haven't met it yet, you will. It sits on your shoulder and whispers how you need this bait and that rod and that reel over there. And buying gear is almost as much fun as using it.

You have joined the best bunch of tackle junkies and bass chasers you can find on the web. Jump right in and make yourself at home!

As to the original question I would hav to say a T-rigged Zoom shakey tail worm in watermelon candy or a Flick Shake in watermelon or green pumpkin.

[Dave63]

Early it was SK spinnerbaits chartreuse and white or sexy shad. 5 and 6XD crankbaits took a lot of fish this year yellow with a black back, blueback herring and green gizzard shad doing most of the damage. Also took a lot of fish on C rigs this year. Green pumpkin baby brush hogs with black flakes. If you can find them, gold flake works great as well. Those were my best ones!

[Thingfish]

My top producer by far was the Yamamoto Kut-tail worm, 6.5" in green pumpkin (dozens of 3 to 5 pound fish). In April and May it was the Ima Japan Skimmer in Golden Shiner pattern for the topwater bite.

[merc1997]

table rock this year had a jig bite going all year up to now. right now spoons are the best bait to be throwing.

bo

[DrG]

My two favourite lures are the Megabass Vision 110 and Lucky Craft Pointer 100. But this year the Vision 110 really outdid itself. I not only caught bass but during the summer, fishing it deep with snap weights I pulled in some nice 6 pound Lakers and 5 pound Walleye. (In the summer I do most of my fishing in Northwestern Ontario where there are no bass.)

[Bubba_Bruiser]

I would have to say my best producer this year was the Yamamato Senko and a Zoom / Bass Assassin Fluke in the watermelon and green pumpkin color schemes. As far as cranks, I knocked some more paint on the Yo-Zuri shallow and medium crank baits.

And welcome to the forum to some of the newer posters.

[WallStreetAmigo]

My story is saddest of all.........I don't think I fished even once. At least there is not even one time this entire calender year that I can remember.

[billproxs]

shaky heads by z man,blade baits by steel shade,umbrella rigs made by me.

[woody]

Yellow magic topwater plug(thanks Bubba!), Xcalibur Zell Pop


-Mark

[IowaBasser]

Spring: Plastics (senkos and flukes)
Summer: Swim-Jig
Fall: Frogs (Yum Money Frog and Zoom Horny Toads)