bunkerbstr

Wow! Excellent job! Thanks for taking the time with the post & pics. Kudos!

Picking just one is tough to do. I like the Red Eye Shad, Aruku, Xcalibur, 6th Sense, Bill Lewis and the old SK Diamond Shads have been working for me lately. There are a ton of them out there just pick up a few of each brand and run them to see which one(s) work best. As others have mentioned, note the hooks on each (some come with great hooks, some do not) and swap them out as needed.

Jackall Giron is pretty decent bait.

Have used it for couple years now. The full size version only (I think there are three sizes now?). Interesting bait. I have never added anything to the tail eyelet, but have hung a light weight off the chin. It definitely helped it sink faster but didn't do much with it that way so I use it the way it arrived (which is probably a mistake). I don't think this bait needs anymore drawing power than the swimming motion and appearance that it comes with -- Adding a blade is worth a try I guess, but honestly, don't think you really need to unless you're fishing dirty water in which case, maybe another bait is a better option? However, try everything that you can think of, it could be the ticket. No rules.. I use it on a swimbait rod rated 1-4 ounces, 300 Curado E and 20 pound fluorocarbon line. Long cast, slow retrieve with occasional twitches - play around with retrieves to see what works for you. The bait swims nicely, definitely draws attention and if you look at the bait from an engineering standpoint it's pretty impressive. The pectoral fins are the diving plane, it floats upright with just the back barely breaching the surface, rotating trebles, and as you mentioned - options with add-on components are a plus if you ask me. Quality rings and hooks too. Lots of follows and caught a few fish on the bait. It dives roughly 3 feet or so on a long cast (with no weight added). Cool bait overall and would recommend giving it some water time. Good luck

Lipless baits - Bill Lewis and/or SK Red Eye Shad. Swimbaits always get love - Keitech, Hudds, Osprey, Boom Booms, etc.

Silver Buddy all the way. Blade is thinner than anything else I've used, thus gives more vibe. You can replace the hooks on the 1/2 oz with #6 bronze (and #4 on the 3/4 oz) either by snipping the eyelet on the hook & bending slightly or add split rings (which I don't do). I've caught thousands of fish on them that way and maybe once or twice the hooks bent out and they were from giant Potomac catfish. You do have to use bronze hooks though (Gamakatsu round bends are perfect) as the nickel hooks will break if you try to open them up.

I like bone, flitter shad, black and bullfrog from Heddon.

Unfortunately you're out of luck here. The Xcalibur brand is no longer around - it was the old rotating trebles (Xcalibur) that came equipped on many of the now Pradco baits. The Pop-R, Spit'n Image, Poppin Image and the very popular (and hard to find) Xcalibur One Knocker lipless crankbait to name a few. Heddon was/is the company that made them. I don't own any of the new versions, though I do have a few of the 'Xcalibur versions' (equipped with those hooks which at the time were revolutionary). I believe I bought them in the early 90's - give or take. They're a cool bait, few different sizes back then, walk very well and get bit. Bill Dance had his name on the models I own. I still keep them in my box and use them occasionally. if you're looking to buy that specific version, ebay is the place to look. Pradco is the holding company for quite a few bait companies today. www.lurenet.com

TX rig them mostly. Weight depends on depth - usually 1/4 - 3/8. Swim slowly through grass. Works in clear or dirty water, just choose color accordingly: Clear - Watermelon, green pumpkin Dirty - Junebug, Red Shad

Tough call. Likely difficult to find them on ebay or something like that and with Gander going out of business it sounds like you're out of luck. Surely Zoom and/or SK would have something similar, especially Zoom, I don't think there is a color they don't make. Good luck though, I/we have all been there.

Strike King definitely has more options out there than GYCB which makes this a tough choice. However, there's been quite a few times that I've bought SK hard baits (crankbaits) in particular that were junk right out of the package. SK plastics are good though, no complaints. That said, I'd go with GYCB - made here and I don't recall any quality issues other than their plastics tear up faster than anything out there. BUT, they work, so who cares. GYCB gets my vote.

Lipless bait, square bill crankbait and as water cools a jerkbait.

I've used the 10" Hinge worm for several years. Definitely has it's place in the box and does work well when the fish want a bigger worm. I use/rig the Ribbon Hinge worm a couple of ways -- Standard TX rig, typically a 1/2 ounce bullet weight and a 5/0 EWG style hook. It also works very well on a c-rig, use the same 5/0 EWG hook and weight of your choice. For whatever reason the fish don't always want to eat a bigger worm though, so if you're not getting big in an area where you know there are fish, switch it up. Some guys live and die by using one bait, don't be that guy. Best test would be when you're on the fish, catching them good, toss out the 10" Hinge worm and get bit. Confidence goes up tremendously, Bigger worms are great and fun to use. I usually always have on the deck during summer. Good luck

Either tie on a new skirt using braid or rip off the stock rattle and replace with a skirt collar that has rattle holders build into it.

I have a few of the Falcon FTO 501 boxes. Plano now produces a similar box, I'm not sure of the model number though. Permanent dividers, latches on four sides and they're marked on the bottom for hook sizes if that matters. Great boxes, highly recommend.

I don't have that particular one, I do have the spinnerbait version though which is the same box in terms of size. The one I have has different dividers for spinnerbaits. Nice box, I've probably had it for 7 years give or take, no issues whatsoever. Solid latches, etc. Not sure how rare they are, though the Falcon boxes are good. I do have 4 or 5 of another style for terminal tackle and love them. Still keep them on the boat and have been using for many years. Stinks they're not around anymore, I think Plano bought them out and dropped most of the product line.

I would probably start in this order: 1. Jerkbaits 2. Shad Raps 3. Silver Buddy 4. Tubes and/or grubs

Yeah, just lather with Megastrike or Smelly Jelly.

A few weeks ago, I picked up a Biwaa Seven 5 along with some Soul Shads. Recent 3' of snow and ice on the lakes/river has kept me inside and not fishing. So having said that, I'll have to peruse TW's site this afternoon for revenge.

I'll try to keep it short. First, I've been fishing a long time, so, like many of you, I have hundreds of everything, so trying to keep the stuff semi-organized is all I can hope for. 1. I have a large 6' X 4' cabinet (I need another lol) in the fishing lab that holds about a dozen plastic shoe boxes and another dozen 25 gallon plastic bins. In those plastic bins, I keep the back up plastics. There is also a large peg board with a few dozen hooks that hold back-up hard baits, spoons and assorted other plastics. In each of the boxes I sort baits by type - craws, finesse worms, stick baits, terminal tackle, jigs, spinnerbaits and so on. This is the back up stuff. 2. I keep around 15 or so 3700 boxes on my boat along with a large catch-all box that lives under another hatch. The 3700's are filled with baits depending on time of year and where I'm fishing. I keep most of my plastics in 3700 boxes on the boat (worms, craws, creatures, etc) each separated by type. I also keep separate boxes for hard baits by type and/or diving depth -- shallow diving cranks, lipless, mid-depth, deep divers, topwaters, etc. 3. I cycle through the boxes each season (I fish all year), swapping boxes in and out depending on time of year. The other 40 or so 3600 & 3700 boxes are in the basement cabinet with the other stuff mentioned above. This system works for me and may not work for everyone. When I get low on an item I can go to the cabinet and refill the 3700 with the depleted bait(s). Each winter, I reorganize and sort items (takes a long time) and order what is out or running low. *I also keep about 4 or 5 spare empty 3700 boxes (fits in my tackle bag) in the fishing room for when I go on other's boats. I fish with friends and rather than bring an entire box of lipless baits, square bills, craws, or worms, I can consolidate 3 boxes into 1 box so I don't have to bring 10 boxes along. Having the back up empty boxes saves me a lot of time. I can pack for a trip in under an hour versus if I didn't have empty boxes sitting there. All you have to do is sort through and drop them in the empty box. Much easier. I tried to keep it short. Apologies for the novel.

I looked at those a few years back and thought the same thing. FFWD to present, I'm glad I bought them. As others mentioned, you can fish them countless ways, pick your style and fish will eat them regardless of how you rig them. To me, that's a good bait. No limits on how you rig and/or fish these baits. No doubt, scoop up a few packs of your favorite colors and have fun.

The only two I've tried are Z-man and Revenge. White, black/blue and bluegill colors.

Mostly fluoro, usually 12 pound Sunline or Trilene for 100+ size baits. On smaller baits, like the 78's, I use spinning with 10 pound PP and a fairly long 8-10 pound fluoro leader.

I have no clue. Safely say over 50 though. Stanley, Strike King, War Eagle, Booyah and some custom made.

Uncle Josh #11 Power Team Lures Craw D'oeuvre Paca chunk