Cgolf

Most of what I carry in my river kit. I have a 6'6" ugly stick with a Daiwa regal that I got on clearance for 25 bucks. For lures a box of a few tubes and grubs in watermelon red and maybe green pumpkin. For the grubs some Chartreuse sparkle if you'd dealing with some dingy water or fishing for smallies. Personally I use slider jigs, but plain jig heads would work too. I do use fireline on all my spinning reels, but do lay down mono on the spool first and only spool up as much fireline as I can cast out plus some for all the retying I will have to do This would be a bare bones kit, but one that should get you on fish right away and pretty cheaply to boot. Then you can branch out from there and end up with way too much gear like the rest of us.

That and a steel leader if you got toothy critters swimming in your waters. Pike love inline spinners.

I too use the Plano 4700 guide series double decker boxes and have found that I can get 3 of them in a Plano 3700 bag that I have a couple of. I set the boxes flat in the bag to help keep the baits straight. I agree with some other posts that leaving baits in the original bags do cause some to be tweaked and need the boiling water treatment. I do sometimes used the original bag for some, especially the newer plastics I have bought, I am running out of room to store more boxes lol. The biggest thing for me with the boxes I can pack a wide variety of colors, styled, and sizes in one box, not a large number of each, but the variety is nice. Attached an image of my grub and tube box I never leave home without.

I never did well with the Agila bait, but when I was younger the thunder bug was my go to inline. Tried the blue fox vibrax series and blanked on those too. Not sure if they still make the bug, it had an odd shaped blade.

While I mostly agree that it really is tough to choose one because I use many different brands, here are my 2 favorites and why. Z man - just started using them last year, but am really stocking up on them this year. The fish really bite the Zinkerz fished ned rig style and with the built in buoyancy of the plastic they snag up less when fishing shallow rocky river streches, which I do over a hundred days a year. So for this type of fishing if I can catch fish and lose less baits, it is a win for my pocketbook and the river system. Netbait - Love the paca craws, finesse worms and slim shakes. These are cheap, great colors, and they catch fish.

The following videos may be of interest to you Unfortunately my budget did not allow me to test more than I did, but some more common minus the Keitech are in there.

I did a tub test a while back and was stunned how much action that the swim senko has. I had always thought of that thing as a finesse bait, but man that thing has some violent action. Almost had forgotten about that one, but will be a must try in dirty water to call in the fish or clear water when they want a bait that pushes a lot of water.

So far the only one I have had success with is a Northland mimic minnow. But like others a grub is my go to, Kalins is my brand. I did pick up some smash tech baits smash tail paddle tail baits that I am excited to give a toss this year, but May is a long way away

The Bass Pro Shops tender tubes are exactly that, very thin and pliable, also don't last long because of it. They do catch fish though and I carry some in my box. I personally like rigging them on a slider spider head.

What is flipping;) The lakes I fish with flippable cover are too clear. I really wouldn't want to get in that close with the boat. A good roll cast works most the time. The lake I hit the most has many flats and little to no flippable cover even though the water is nice and stained. It is probably something I should learn, but sadly probably never will have a chance to use it.

This year I really got into the swim jig thing. Took me a bit to learn the teqhniques, but towards the end of the year when the 3-6 ft range was too weed choked for cranks they were all I threw. I am partial to Santone jigs, the swim jig has a flat bottom allowing it to stand up. I fished them as a swim jig presentation and a more standard bottom hopping retrieve too. For me I just picked up colors that mimicked bluegills and carp and that served me well this year.

I was late to the party on this one too, but only have really fished it a lot by casting and retrieving it in shallow reeds. It does excell there keeping the bait off the bottom out of the gunk. Other then that in deeper water, cranks are just more efficient and I have zeroed on DS, maybe I should try it some more next year on some deeper structure and build some confidence in it by not getting zeroed lol. Stick with them, they are great baits, have caught many bass on a 5" kalins and some other brands too. They have accounted for fish of all sizes, not just dinks. Great swim jig trailers too. I always carry a Plano guide series 3700 sized double decker box filled with just grubs and tubes wherever I go, the old baits still rule.

I have gone the Netbait route for many baits, good action, colors, and very cheap:) Saying that the rage menace is on my next TW list, looks like a great bait to rig sideways for a baitfish profile and was highly recommended to me on here. Will see if I expand out from there with the rage line.

Quickswirl makes an awesome snap, kind of a snap, the lure spirals on it. The attached picture shows the snap I used for a week pulling off of snags on reeds. Instead of bending straight and losing the bait, it deformed to a more closed state ensuring I didn't lose the bait. Only problem is they run about a buck a piece.

Bass jigs, won some on Twitter and once I started using them I really liked them and of course now have a box full. There are a lot of things out there I won't be getting to anytime soon. Tried wacky rig once, and have never gone back to it. To be honest I really think that not having every technique in the boat with me really helps out my fishing, I know the stuff I have well and don't end up tying on something new every 5 minutes hoping it will work Next year my new I am late to the party baits will be chatter baits and Senkos and Senko like baits.

Here is the tube I had rigged up. The hook is in it the normal way, so that the tube falls butt first instead of head first. If I remember hookup percentage was pretty good too.

I actually used it around reed beds where there really weren't any other weeds to hang up on. I may have to break it out again and give it a shot. If I find it I will post a picture of the tube rig I had. I agree the retrieval felt strange, almost like that flying lure thing that went backwards.

I used a rig from uncle josh a while back, I think it was the Okeechobee rig, same thing, and did ok with it. I also rigged up a tube with a bell sinker as the weight and that worked too. I have to say though that since it didn't seem to work that much better than anything else, I haven't gone back to it. I think I still have that tube in one of my prerigged bait boxes at home. If you want to try it out, suggest trying it with a bell sinker first, the weights aren't cheap. I happened to look them up today after seeing a post on twitter fly by.

My go to soft plastics last year were Kalins 5" grub Rons Craw in clear and dingy water Tubes, Swing oil my favorite right now Rainbow of colors ZinkerZ Ned rig style NetBait Paca Craws Yum Crawbugs Have others I like and will work with more and may break out some older baits next year, so this list will likely be different with the exception of the grub and tube, those old reliables still get me lots of fish.

I will have to go check them out. Don't think I will beat the deals I got last year when they had Berk plastics and Sebile cranks 2 for 5$ with a 5$ rebate on the purchase of 2 Sebile or Berk baits. Only paid for the tax on those. It is weird though how they seem to add and remove the extra off at random, it's not like they even take the clearance stock down to zip. I don't complain and stock up on what I can. The score card coupons can be winners too with these deals.

I personally also use a snap for my soft plastic fishing, on a slider head, and Crankbait fishing. To me retying to change lures is a waste of time. I have only had one or two snap failures in 10 years of fishing. I also have found that a leader hasn't been necessary, I generally just use fireline or braid with the snap. The only thing I don't use a snap for is skirted bass jigs.

Didn't they start out as a pouring house for others and then start selling their own line too? I have a couple of their baits, but have really taken a liking to YUMs new price point.

That would really suck if they were gone, I only have 5 of them and they are awesome when the fish are chasing. If this is true I may want to try and find some more.

Having only really getting into Bass fishing in the last ten years, the Norman Deep Little N has always been in my box and is probably the first one I toss still today. I can't say though that I know how long it has been around.

Finally got a 20" Smallie on the river on a coppertruese Zinkerz Ned rig style.