You should have imo the following types of lures, I am not a brand name guy but some lures have different features and actions that other lures do not replicate.
1-Popper, small, medium best for bass fishing, Sometimes you need that tiny small Popper, a Balsa wood popper like the Skitter pop is necessary imo because no other lure I have used sounds identical to a bluegill. It has a different shape than all the others, the Berkley Frenzy was good buy hard to find now. All Poppers are good, make sure one has a dressed treble hook, that matters some days.
2-Walking lures that are silent, One Knocker, standard rattling. Sound matters, then a Pencil Popper style walking lure like a Chug Bug, Gunfish, Chugn Spook, which then brings to the chugger series of lures with deeper cups. The Rebel Popper is so good because they make 4 sizes, Have all the colors you need, Pradco website offers all the G-Finish lures and I buy inexpensive and expensive lures based on color and if they can do something that is unique.
3- Buzzbaits style lures, Whopper Plopper, but to me, I would never fish topwater without a Torpedo, Bagley's Bang O lure Prop, Rapala X Rap Prop or Devils Horse, then you need a lure that can walk fast like the Rebel T-10 or Ima Skimmer.
4- Wake baits, and Floating Jerkbaits. If you don't have a Floating Rapala and a Jointed Rapala, that is malpractice, they are both balsa lures that are the #1 lure sold in the world for years for a reason. You will never regret that purchase and as a Minnow bait/Rip bait freak, I have yet to find a lure that can do what the Rapala Minnow does except maybe the Older Bang O lures, but size #11 is standard, Bomber Long A 14, 15, Rattling Floating Rogue for stained water, suspend dots help suspend, wake, make them more weedless.
5- Clear water, you need a small clear walking bait imo, clear Zara Spook in the small size. It helps to hit the store to see the sounds, you don't want all your walking lures to be one knockers or loud rattling.
Pick the brands you like since confidence matters, make sure you understand why a lure has light "Cheap looking" hooks on them. You can buy $20 Poppers that have hooks that will bend that are top qualiity, but many of the JDM lures are designed for Japanese lakes where fishing pressure is high, so they go light line, smaller lures alot of the time. People complain about Rebel Hooks which are cheap hooks depending on the model and year made, but if you are throwing a small Rapala or Rebel Popper on 30lb braid, you need to make sure you have your drag set properly. I am sure we have all made that mistake.
If you google, best topwater lures for Bass fishing, You will find articles on the categories and theories, at the end of the day you only need a few, but I would rather start my collection with a lure in all categories, sizes, than have duplicates of $15 lures if that makes sense. The Duo 64 Popper is fantastic, but some days when you here Bluegills popping, I can't think of a lure that I would pull out of my box other than a Skitter Pop, They make small ones and huge ones. Balsa rides high, over weeds, you can get a balsa lure over submerged weeds where most throw frogs.
My last lure.....Kind of my secret bait...The AC Shiner which is hand carved and you can get lucky and find them or $10 or less, New they can be really expensive but on light line, Hard to beat it now matter how you throw it.
Hope that helps. Keep in mind. Only a few OEM's or Factories make Hardbaits, so you start to see why all the lures on the market look similar however they have different colors, hooks, and internals. I used to love the Devil's horse until I switched to the X-Rap Prop which has a few tweaks the Bernie Shultz designed, and those Tweaks work, I have not used the DH in years except for the smaller version. Some days prop baits can outfish any other lure. Torpedo is great, just add split rings. I recently had a day where the Tiny Torpedo was all they would touch, I tried throwing the LC G Splash, An Imakatsu lure that ended up in my box, but the size of the tiny torpedo was the key, color didn't matter, but they would not hit anything longer or fatter. Does not always happen that way, but when it does, $5 small lures come in handy.
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