Lures

[G-Man]

Now that I have my new bass boat (on order) ...In the waiting 8-10 weeks I plan to start improving my collection of lures.

What is everyone's favorite lures to catch Bass??
Any help you can offer to me would be appreciated.

Lets talk Spinner Baits??
Good?? Bad?? Over fished???
What brand is favored and used the most??

I DO have a god collection of Rapala Crank Baits - shallow, medium diving and deep but not much in the SB area.

Any other lures you think might catch the big one??

[carolina-rig-01]

Spinnerbaits are a great bait that can be fished in an endless number of ways. My favorite brand for just chunking and winding is War Eagle. I use 1/2oz the most because I like being able to make a long cast and I can still control how deep it runs by tweaking the arm of the bait and adjusting the retrieve. One of my favorite ways to fish a spinnerbait is to flip and pitch it into shallow cover or laydowns, the same type of places most guys will pitch a jig or similiar bait. For this presentation I prefer Stan Sloan Zorro spinnerbaits. They are hard to find (I found a place to get them and got a good stockpile of them now lol) but the head design comes through brush and laydowns a lot better than any other spinnerbait I have ever used. Last winter I custom made some spinnerbaits that are designed for slow rolling which is another great spinnerbait technique, especially in cooler water. These spinnerbaits were 1/2oz and 3/4oz and had big single willow leaf blades (sizes 6 and 7). I caught a ton of fish on them in late winter and early spring, which reminds me I need to make a few more. You can get a lot more complicated if you choose to get into what blade colors and when to use them. To keep it simple I would suggest silver or nickle blades in clear water and or sunny conditions and gold or copper blades in muddy water and or cloudy conditions. There are several blade styles too, willow leaf, Colorado, and Indiana are the most common and they all have their own characteristics that give them advantages over the other styles in given situations. I would recommend using the search bar and reading through some of the threads where we have discussed spinnerbaits in the past because there is a lot of good information waiting for you to read.

It's hard to help someone build up their tackle box with baits because there are so many choices out there. But I will say that soft plastics, jigs, spinnerbaits, and topwater baits are all good places to start on top of crankbaits which you said you already have covered.

[bamabassman]

ok, spinnerbaits you say. well in my homest opion the brand doesn't matter, as long as you are happy with them, that is what matters. now COLOR is a different story. i would tell you to make sure you get WHITE,black, and som in between. there are so MANY colors to choose from. pick a few that oyu like and start slinging,lol. also you will see that there are different weights and blades on spinnerbaits. you will need a few of each weight, and blade variations. again, pick a few and go from there. som others will give oyu details on what weight does better than i can.

my all time favorite "bait" is the 6 inch ZOOM lizzard, texas rigged. colors? punkinseed with a chartruse tail, punkinseed, watermellon and eatermelon seed, and junebug.

as for cranks......there is another one that oyu will have ot just learn by trial and error. i love the bandit 100-300 series. can't go wrong with a bandit. colors depends on where you will be fishing. again, there are so many to choose from. but rootbeer is a great all around color.

lipless cranks.........bill lewis rattle traps are a go-to bait for me. chrome with a blue back. chrome with a black back. also the same but with a orange belly. think sunfish on that.

worms.........any thing that ZOOM makes is a good choice i htink. black, motoroil,blue, watermellon and variations. i love the 8-10 inch ones.


you are going to get a LOT of responses on this. best advise i can give you is to KISS YOUR WALLET GOODBYE my friend, hahaha. you will spend all your money on baits. and it will NEVER end. hahaha. that is oyur bait monkey making you do it. you'll be in wally world or bps or cabalas and a bait will catch oyur eye, monkey will beat oyu over the head till you have at least 5 of them in your hands. WELCOME TO OUR WORLD PAL. just go with the flow and you'll do fine.


oh yeah, if oyu want JIGS. check out THUNDERSTRUCK JIGS AND CABIN FEVER JIGS. good folks there that make them. trust me, i know em. lol.

[Tavery5]

If you want to read a good review of some of the upper end spinner baits, this is a very good read. http://www.tackletour.com/review2010...shootout1.html

I used to fish spinner baits probably over half of the time, I have changed the way I fish some due to the pressure that is on the lake I fish most.

Here is a link to a guy who makes some great looking spinner baits, I cannot say first hand how well they fish, but I know allot of people who swear by them.

http://bassassaultlures.com/baitshop/index.php?cPath=55

If you like spinner baits, you might want to look into swim jigs, they are fished in similar circumstances, are a little more subtle in approach, and can work well on highly pressured fish, or in areas where the water is very clear and the fish are finicky.

[G-Man]

Thanks for the quick replies. All are good!!
I did print the review from Tackle tour

[Ebbetsguy]

#1 for me is a Jig with some kind of plastic, fished in rock piles and creek channels, current favorite combo is a 1/4 ounce BPS football jig with a 4.24 Beaver Craw from Barlow's

Then a C-rigged tube

Arkie and Football type jigs, also around rock piles

Alluring trick sticks or BPS sticko's ; wacky or t rigged

Black Jitterbugs; top waters

Scum Frogs

Manns Jelly worms

Rattle Free, Balsa Cranks

Cranks with crawfish patterns, with subtle rattles

[keithdog]

I've been a spinnerbait junkie for as long as I can remember. My first safety pin style spinnerbait was made by a company called Fleck. Some of the old timers here will remember them. Anyways, I make my own from time to time, but as far as store bought models, I've pretty much settled on the Strike King KVD spinnerbaits with the magic tails. I love how they work, and they really have caught me a lot of bass including an 8 pounder last year. My favorite is white with gold blades closely followed by bluegill with gold blades. I prefer blades with real gold or silver plating. I'll either be casting a willow/colorado blades configuration or a double colorado. If I want to get deeper, I'll go with willow only. The 3/8oz size is my favorite all around followed by the 1/2oz size. In shallow water, I'll drop to the 1/4oz size at times when the bite is tough. That works 90% of the time. As far as gold or silver blades, I just mix and match untill the fish tell me what they want that day. I've done well with both gold and silver regardless of weather conditions.

[Brwnbass]

Im a terminator titainium man,myself. Because you cant tear them up, you dont need to adjust the arm after every fish you catch. They are a bit higher than most, but last as long as you can use them. As a side note, you can find them on sale for half price at Dicks & Gander Mtn from time to time.

[jdw174]

While I like SB's with tandem willow leaf blades, one of my favorites is the Mann's Hank Parker baits with twin Indiana Blades. Caught a lot of fish on those.

[walkeraviator]

I have had no luck with spinner baits here lately, mainly because of overuse by other fisherman. But i keep the spinner bait system super simple. I fish lakes that are all stained, visibility never gets better than say 3ft. I simply use white or chartreuse with a colorado/willow combo. If it gets clear i abandon the spinner all together (gonna try swim jigs this year), and if it gets muddy, i go to a chatter bait in black/blue.

I see you have a good selection of rapala... thats a good start. Shad Raps are a staple in my tackle box. Also like Bandit 100, strike king series 3,5,6, fat free shads, switch back shads, striek king baby king shad, zara spook, heddon torpedo, rebel pop-r, red eye shad, white and charteues buzz baits with and without clackers.

The key is to narrow down color selection and action. Know what you want before you go to the store or tacklewarehouse or you will buy more than you need. I know for me I need natural shad colors, some sexy shad colors, and solors heavy on chartreuse. In the spring i know i need red colored cranks. So when i go to Bass Pro i dont buy every color in the book and in every size, because i dont need anything rainbow trout colored, or 7" long...

Your best bet is to find a local who knows the water you fish to help fill the boat with gear.

[WatterBoy]

Originally Posted by G-Man

. . .
What is everyone's favorite lures to catch Bass??
Any help you can offer to me would be appreciated.

. . .

My favorite lures for...

Topwater (in the slop or lily pads) = Frog (Spro Poppin' Frogs are my favorite)

Topwater (in open water) = REBEL POP-R

Anything else = Wacky-rigged senko (either 5" or 7", I use the Yamasenko by Gary Yamamoto) or something on a dropshot rig

Two years ago I would have had spinnerbaits, crankbaits and buzzbaits on the list instead, but I've had way more success on the lake I fish with the lures listed above. I hadn't thrown a senko until 2008 or anything on a dropshot until 2009 and now I use them almost exclusively. Of course that means there could be something even better (like jigs) out there that I'm missing because I haven't really tried it yet.

.