The Most Necessary Lures

[Roskov]

Hey just wondering what lures you guys have that you feel are absolutely necessary for freshwater fishing (bass, crappie, bg, catfish, trout, etc.)? What has produced the best for you and what is your go to lure of choice? This is more then a survey, I would really like to know what you guys swear by, so maybe I can add it to my repertoire ;)

[Ifishtoolittle]

I'm not helping a noob like you! lol J/K. Well for bass personally I never leave the house without finesse lures and reaction lures. Finesse as in Roboworms, Crawdad softies, and swimbaits. Reaction baits as in wakebaits, deep diving cranks, and, my favorite, jerkbaits. Most of the time I will only throw reaction baits and swimmies, but I've had some success with worms and craws. Although I HATE using worms and craws fishing like that because it's just too slow and non-aggressive, not fun for me. For BGs I'm not gonna help you out on that lol. Fishing for those guys is just too easy. I'll let you figure out how to catch them because there are really only a few ways to do it.

[BassinChef]

Roboworms- curlytail(splitshot) and straight tail(drop shot)
Cranks- DD22`s ,rapala DT`s
Jerkbaits-Ima flits,LC`s
Senkos
Spinnerbaits

In that order for me , I really dont fish for the others that much n when I do its with my kids so Nightcrawlers is all i use.Hope this gets you going in the right direction as you are only scratching the surface with these techniques.

Good luck

[tacklejunkie]

Roboworms- curlytail(splitshot) and straight tail(drop shot)

but but but I lost a 9 on a curly tail drop shotted!

[vanillagurilla]

lol @ TJ, curl tail ds works great, you get alot of hits on the fall too! i always have a jerkbait (lucky craft pointer 90 ghost shad), spinnerbait ( white, shad, chartruse/white), lots of guys keep chatterbaits all the time, senkos, robos, yamamoto flapin hawgs, ikas, flukes and atleast 1 top water.

[Kelster]

The past three weeks fishing Lake Perris from a float tube has shown me to always a Super Duper with you and in the water when you are moving. I have caught BG, Crappie, LMB, and even a small cat fish on that little lure that everyone thinks of just a trout lure. I troll it behind me as I am changing location, or my shoulder is killing me, or I am basically scouting where the fish me be.
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h326/kelima559/SmallCatFish.jpg
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h326/kelima559/BlueGill070211.jpg

[That Dang Guy]

If i could only leave the house with one lure, it would be a finesse worm. But then again, i'd loophole it since there are so many different ways to rig a finesse worm. You can dropshot, splitshot, shakeyhead, texas rig, etc.

:Evil:

[tacklejunkie]

One lure?
hmm
Can't do it. I'd have to stay home. lol

If I had to leave with one lure I'd just bring a triple trout or bbz or if DVL, plunker.

[stressD]

have to agree with bassinchef, I've had the most luck with curly tail roboworm 4 1/2" and 5 1/2" split shot rigged with gamakatsu #4 ewg hooks. the lighter the split shot the better. the 4 1/2" seems to work better then the 5 1/2". The bite usually come on the fall. Drop shot does seem to work better with the 6" straight tail robos. they have a lot of action with the slightest twitch. you might not be familiar with this one but the Damiki Vault works pretty well, especially the 1.65" model. http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Damiki_Vault_/descpage-DVT.html

[CraigH]

When I was a kid someone gave me a surplus pilot's survival kit (might have been from WWII - I don't remember). The one lure they put in it was a red and white daredevil.

[El Weirdo]

This combination as caught me more fish. Than anything combined I have in my floating tackle warehouse.
have caught stripers to 4lbs..bass to 5lbs..untold numbers of bluegills ,crappie, and trout. and one 11lbs buffalo back in Oklahoma sorta a carp looking fish

31660
31661

my must have rig

[tacklejunkie]

When I was a kid someone gave me a surplus pilot's survival kit (might have been from WWII - I don't remember). The one lure they put in it was a red and white daredevil.
Ugh I would have died in the woods on that lure. lol
Spoons SUCK!

[HawgZWylde]

It's definitely seasonal, conditional, and territorial, so in no certain order;

4-7" straight tail robos for drop shot
9-12" curly, straight, and paddle tail worms, various soft plastic creature baits weightless, Carolina rigged, and or Texas rigged
Various cranks depending on depth, clarity, and application
various swimbaits- Big hammers, Ragos, ect.
jigs
Spinner baits
chatterbait or two
Various size and weight spoons- match the hatch. Lol, sorry TJ, I've been boil bustin these things for years with huge success on stripeys & LMB's...
Rapala jigging shad rap ice jig
Topwater-Zara spook

As far as colors and sizes, reaction or otherwise, depends on the patterns of that particular time period, i.e. season, weather, and time of day.

!Warning! Do not attempt to go buy all these at once, as it has been proven to cause significant others to inflict a permanent "flat top" hairstyle using a 14" iron skillet...

[shy_boxer]

Senkos
Ikas
Megabass vision 110 jerkbaits
OSP jerkbaits
KVD Shallow running cranks
Chatterbaits (zman)
Spinnerbaits (war eagle)
Sammy & Gunfish (LC)
Roboworms 4" - 7"
Flukes
Frogs
Swimbaits
Jigs
Buzzbaits
Lipless cranks (LC)
If I had to choose one bait then I wouldn't be a bass angler! There is too many choices!!

[Thisfool]

i would say the rappala CD's.

can troll or toss them for trout

the were designed and made to catch bass.

and ive caught all kinds of crappie on them

so you know its is a well rounded lure

[Bassnman Mike]

For me, if I had to narrow it down to a few my choices would be as follows, for Bass, a Jig and a Senko, for Crappie and Bluegill a Gitzit Hard Times Minnow, for Trout a Thomas Boyant and Panther Martin, you can also use the Gitzit for trout.

[tree]

For bass, anywhere, any time of the year, any lake at all. Give me a PURPLE WORM!

[City Dad]

I gotta agree with ElWeirdo and ThisFool.

Twister-tail grubs or count-down Rapalas will catch just about anything worth catching in freshwater and can be fished within a wide range of techniques.

The only improvement that might be made is by pairing the twister-tail with a road-runner-style jig head.

[Skyler]

Ugh I would have died in the woods on that lure. lol
Spoons SUCK!
Tell that to my Double Dancer, he he he...
http://img708.imageshack.us/img708/2402/img113zv.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/708/img113zv.jpg/)

Caught about 30 fish in the last week with this one spoon. You were there for half of em lol.

[tacklejunkie]

Still won't change my opinion on them!
Never liked fishing them and never did well with them.
Lol you saw it was WFO and nobody hit my spoons.
Not my little kastmaster with a tail or that thommy B.

They hit everything else I had.
I have zero confidence in those. Line twisters IMO.
I know they cast far but just haven't done well with them.

I would much rather chose a rapala for some reason. Just me, everyone is different.

[Skyler]

Still won't change my opinion on them!
Never liked fishing them and never did well with them.
Lol you saw it was WFO and nobody hit my spoons.

They hit everything else I had.
I have zero confidence in those.

The retrieve speed is crucial. Most people fish their spoons too fast. Keep your rod tip up and bring it in just fast enough to keep it wiggling. That will prevent the line twist. Once you get it mastered, you'll catch fish and you'll gain the advantage of covering more water, due to the awesome castability. Plus you can cover any depth using the rod angle, retrieve speed, and sink count. Pretty versatile imo. I'll make a believer out of you one of these days lol.

[tacklejunkie]

I tried about 15 Korcs in the surf, never caught a single thing on any of them.
I have read the technique several times from a few different people. Everyone says the retrieve speed is crucial.
Lost a trout once on a kastmaster at BBL dam after we saw those people hook the 9lber on the kastmaster.

Yet, still can't find room for them in my tacklebox, despite all the browns you hooked on one last weekend. Just not me. That is one type of lure I actually despise because it mocks me. lol

Jerks cover good water too cause they kinda go side to side in a wide pattern.
They just work for me. I have worked with many spoons but they aren't nearly as productive for me.
Again, it's just me, I've seen what people can do with them!

[Skyler]

I hear you on certain lures mocking you. Top waters do it to me without fail (with the exception of dry flies). As for the crocs on the surf, I've caught quite a few perch and short butts on em, but kastmasters seem to work better for me. I want to try one of these double dancers out there. They make em up to one ounce, he he he.

[tacklejunkie]

You needs you one of my RoboMice and a trip to Veil..
Or that one golf course.
Problem solved. hehe.
Get your giant strike king jig fishing out of the way at the same time.

I might be inclined to purchase a double dancer if I crossed one after what I saw it do the other day..
It'll still kick my @$$ tho. Spoons have a weird action I'm not so attracted to.
I always wanted to buy the lip ripper spoon cause it looks kinda cool but never did because I wasn't able to get them working well with other brands.

I have bought a lot of spoons but can't remember landing and photographing a fish on any one of them.
Don't know what it is.