The dudiest dud lures

[Podric]

The old saying lures were meant to lure people to buy them.  Mostly true.  I haven't had great success with Live Target stuff but I am sure many have.

 

I swear I catch 90% of my fish with about 10 lures.  When I am not using one of those 10 I am not catching.

 

Live target makes my list.

 

Edited September 19, 2022 by Podric

[BillM]

Interesting.  Early season Lake O fishing, Live Targets are always the first to get clipped into the planner boards.  

[Podric]

36 minutes ago, BillM said:

Interesting.  Early season Lake O fishing, Live Targets are always the first to get clipped into the planner boards.  

Totally unfair and wrong of me to label a whole line.  I have a coupe of perch that did ok.  

A cluster ball thing with little fish in it didnt do anything and a bait ball thing blah.  Another piece of rubber sunfish not so good.

So no live target hate but they cant all be winners...ot maybe they are and i didnt implement them right.

[BillM]

Not at all man, I've got lures that people love that I hate lol!   That's really the only time a Live Target gets clipped on, rarely during the rest of the year   

Muskie guys love bucktails, I loath them.   It's the absolutely last bait I'll ever put on.  

[LostAnotherOne]

I always keep an eye out for them at the tackle swaps.  My avatar was caught on a 6” deep diving perch one.  

[misfish]

I am a fly,bug, grub guy.

 

[OhioFisherman]

Too many variables, what might be hot one day might be useless the next? Some days 1 bite may have been your hot lure?

[CrowMan]

10 lures...eh ? Not me, I'm a certified tackle junkie. I have at least 2 dozen Plano 3700 boxes filled to the brim, 4 shoe-box sized containers packed with bags of soft plastics, and a Lakewood Musky Box for all the over-sized stuff that won't fit anywhere else. On top that, a couple of roll-up pouches of Salmon spoons, and another box of flashers and dodgers. Plus the boxes with terminal tackle...hooks, swivels, leaders, weights. Oh...then there's a vest and a Fishpond satchel packed with Steelhead stuff.

Even though not all of this has caught fish...I have used 100% of it. Anything I don't like, I give away.

Yeah, I'm probably addicted...but there are worse things to get hooked on...excuse the pun. And my wife certainly prefers this addiction to others.

If 10 lures is all you need, then in my opinion you're either:

A. only fishing for one or two species (Crappies and Muskies are generally not caught on the same baits)

B. only fishing limited or a certain type of water and conditions  (lakes, ponds, the Great Lakes, rivers, creeks, deep, shallow, clear, stained, etc...all require different presentations to be successful)

C. you are missing out on a lot of fish you could  potentially be catching 

 

[Rizzo]

2 hours ago, BillM said:

Not at all man, I've got lures that people love that I hate lol!   That's really the only time a Live Target gets clipped on, rarely during the rest of the year   

Muskie guys love bucktails, I loath them.   It's the absolutely last bait I'll ever put on.  

Interesting. I wouldn't say I "loath" bucktails...my first 2 muskies ever caught were on bucktails, but I also don't use them too much these days. Having said that, tomorrow is musky outing number 2,a bucktail may just get wet if I am in the mood

[BillM]

15 hours ago, Rizzo said:

Interesting. I wouldn't say I "loath" bucktails...my first 2 muskies ever caught were on bucktails, but I also don't use them too much these days. Having said that, tomorrow is musky outing number 2,a bucktail may just get wet if I am in the mood

There are times where it's absolutely stupid not to put one on (High winds over shallow cover, choppy water, incoming front)   But I've done much better this fall on glides and similar.   I rolled probably the biggest fish I've ever seen on a Suick up at Nip.   I love/hate those baits as well, the rise is way too fast she came out of a boulder field in probably 7ft of water, rolled and completely missed it, I tried to figure 8 her at the boat but I was using a 7'6 jerkbait rod and just couldn't do my turns wide enough.   She was so big she was having problems turning on the lure, so she just gave up lol.   That Suick now has a 1/4oz bell sinker attached to the middle split, makes the rise much slower.   Got a nice on in Severn the other night casting the same lure.   

Fished the Kawarthas last week, not a single fish/follow on a bucktail/spinnerbait.  All glides, dive/rise etc.   The pause gets them everytime. 

Edited September 20, 2022 by BillM

[lew]

1 hour ago, BillM said:

  That Suick now has a 1/4oz bell sinker attached to the middle split, makes the rise much slower. 

I used Suicks a lot in the past Bill and always found they worked best...for me anyways...when they were neutral buoyant and just sat still between twitches. I liked to cut out a section of the belly and add stick on wheel weights then fill it in with epoxy. Different size baits would get different amounts of weights.

[BillM]

That's great info Lew!   I definitely prefer suspended vs rising, although it does depend on the structure I'm fishing.   I'll give that trick of yours a shot and see how it goes.

[lew]

Give it a try for sure Bill and hopefully it works for you too.

Edited September 20, 2022 by lew

[Podric]

Yep only 10 lures or so.  Sometimes slightly different sizes or a variation.  Maybe i am not patient enough.

What can i say?  I have a decent amount of lures and i do work them but things get slow and i go back to old faithfuls and start catching.  I bet there are those that fish far fewer lures.  I even do that when fishing with a friend, we change it up to learn, a fish gets caught and and they say "what did you catch it on?" And it is usually a favorite.

 

I dont watch a lot of fishing tv but when i do...Dave Mercer.  I dont see him needing a lot of tools.  Some lures are good for multiple species so why restrict myself unless it is for the fun of targeting something.

Edited September 20, 2022 by Podric

[Podric]

Maybe i need to go to a fishing lure and hockey card trade show.

[CrowMan]

Another mod I like for Suicks is adding a small spinner blade. Just drill a small hole in the metal tail...put on a split ring, a swivel, then a small Colorado blade. I like orange for stained water, silver or brass in clear.

[BillM]

I've done the blade thing as well, I've got a nice light willow on one right now actually, lol. 

[gordy28]

One lure I used to loath was a hot n tot

It seemed like every Ontario outfitter listed it as a must have for walleye but I never seemed to have any luck with them despite trying 

Fast forward to a trip w my FIL and he absolutely slayed fish on the tot all week.  Fished w him for a day and got the hang of it (as short a line as possible to get it slamming the bottom) and it became a staple for me.  Probably my number 1 trolling lure on fly ins 

Not a lure per se but I have had very little luck “frogging” for bass.   Any fish I have caught have been pike lol.  Not saying it’s not effective just hasn’t panned out for me to date 

Andrew 

[Chuck Enwinde]

For me it's the Vibrato.  When they say lures are made to catch fishermen, they must've been talking about this lure.  It will catch your float suit, pant leg, even the inside of your rod case. 

[tomfor]

Flatfish. Any Size any color.   Have been using them since 1971 and have only caught ONE fish (pike circa 1974).  Thousands of bass, perch, trout, walleye, salmon on everything else but damn the flatfish!

[AKRISONER]

On 9/20/2022 at 11:54 PM, Chuck Enwinde said:

For me it's the Vibrato.  When they say lures are made to catch fishermen, they must've been talking about this lure.  It will catch your float suit, pant leg, even the inside of your rod case. 

Would I blow your mind if I told you that during open water season, literally the only lure I use to catch lake trout is a vibrato. I’ve switched it up and nothing catches them as consistently as one. I’ve dialed in a little presentation with them in conjunction with panoptix that I absolutely smash laketrout on them in the spring and it works every day until they finally move out to the deeper parts of the lake in their later spring/summer pattern. 
 

and once again when they start staging up in September they eat them just like they did in the spring.

Edited September 29, 2022 by AKRISONER

[BillM]

Definitely time and place with the Vibrato.   Not the first lure I take out when vertical jigging lake trout (Or anything else for that matter)

[AKRISONER]

On 9/29/2022 at 12:59 PM, BillM said:

Definitely time and place with the Vibrato.   Not the first lure I take out when vertical jigging lake trout (Or anything else for that matter)

That’s what’s neat about fishing. Being in a bass club this year you see guys throwing the exact same lures as you but in so many different ways. 
 

For example, if I’m vertical like I’m ice fishing then I don’t want to use the vibrato at all, I’d much rather throw a lipless crank or even a paddle tail.

[craigdritchie]

On 9/29/2022 at 8:34 AM, tomfor said:

Flatfish. Any Size any color.   Have been using them since 1971 and have only caught ONE fish (pike circa 1974).  Thousands of bass, perch, trout, walleye, salmon on everything else but damn the flatfish!

One man's junk is another man's gold, I guess, since an F7 black Flatfish is by far the most effective steelhead bait I've ever used in over 40 years of chasing them. They're also great for salmon, lakers, browns, pike and smallmouth. If I was ever stuck someplace with only 3 lures, a Flatfish would definitely be one of them (along with a no. 2 silver Mepps Aglia, and a 1/4 ounce black twister tail jig).

 

[steellee]

On 10/1/2022 at 12:53 PM, craigdritchie said:

One man's junk is another man's gold, I guess, since an F7 black Flatfish is by far the most effective steelhead bait I've ever used in over 40 years of chasing them. They're also great for salmon, lakers, browns, pike and smallmouth. If I was ever stuck someplace with only 3 lures, a Flatfish would definitely be one of them (along with a no. 2 silver Mepps Aglia, and a 1/4 ounce black twister tail jig).

 

Got to agree, I run them in rivers and creeks for trout all the time but its crazy how many alternative species you get. Bass, pike, perch,etc, etc, even the aggressive carp and cats hit them like trains... you can learn alot about a creek by putting down the float rod and wobbling plugs from time to time! Biggest trick for me is work them SLOW and hang on tight.. For me flatfish have the better action and way better color selection from f3-f6. K7-K9 kwikfish in the bigger rivers seem a slight bit better for me than the larger flatfish. But if I can only pick one it might be a hotshot. They seem to be every bit as productive except you can work them in faster drifts without them kicking out. RiverRockers, Tadpollies, and the various others have accounted for very few fish personally although I probably havent gave them a fair shot comparatively... I have amassed a huge collection of plugs and am always on lookout for more and most days its all I have with me for creek fishing.

Edited October 3, 2022 by steellee