IcatchDinks

First lure I've ever made. Just need to clear coat it. No idea if it will work, but I'm very proud of how it looks. First time ever trying to carve something. Only my second time trying to paint something like this.

I took several of the lures to the pond and tested how they fish. Those pencil plugs swam just like a pencil: absolutely useless. I think I'll use them as decorations or something.

I'm gonna try some of these out, and then probably sort them and keep them safe somewhere to avoid losing them. I'm getting into bait making. I'm thinking about making replicas of my favorites if they work well.

Welcome!

Ha! I caught a snapper on the whopper-plopper last summer. He did NOT like it when I tried to remove the hooks. He was so unfriendly I chose not to name him. He was angry, I was angry. It was not a fun time. Now I'm ashamed to post my dinks. Those are some NICE fish, my guy!

I hit the jackpot today! I was visiting my parents this evening, and my dad mentioned that I can have all the tackleboxes his dad had given him when my grandpa got too old to fish. We went rummaging through the garage and I came away with three tackleboxes: One that belonged to me when I was a kid (the maroon Flambeau box), one that belonged to my dad when he was a kid/young man (The orange OldPal), and one that belonged to my Great Grandpa that my Grandpa repurposed, keeping some of his dad's lures and some of his own. The box my grandpa made up for me when I was just a kid: My Dad's old tacklebox: And my Grandpa's tacklebox: Does anyone know what those long baits are? or how to fish them? They have a scooped front, that looks like a kind of lip to make them crank? I've never seen a bait like this, and they are unmarked so I don't know how to look them up. Also, I found these really cool old wooden lures once I looked in that middle tray: Any of you guys know what any of these lures are called/how to fish them? I'd love to catch some fish on my grandfather and great grandfather's fishing stuff. My dad also says he's got one more box that was full of my great-grandpa's gear, but we couldn't locate it tonight.

I always throw topwater first because logically, I think something floating on top of the water would be a lot less disturbing to the fish than something swimming through the water right at them. But honestly I don't think either really bothers them. I have seen fish swim away when I throw a popper or plopper right on top of them, but then I've also seen fish eat the bait before it lands, so I never worry too much about scaring the fish. They're predators. And bigger meaner things than my baits go through and above the water all the time.

It was slow at the ponds today. But I managed to get a ~14/15 incher on the top water: Then I got another little dink, also on the topwater: And, then after an hour of fruitless casting, and several bait swaps later, I caught my first fish ever on a wacky-rig: The funniest thing about the little guy was he tried to take it three times, but couldn't get it in his mouth, the worm was too big for him. Finally hooked him on the fourth attempt. He wanted that worm.

oops. I missed that. lol

You forgot the Great Lakes.

Thanks everyone for the recommendations. A-Jay, I'll have to sit down and peruse your symposium on hooks. Looks like a lot of great info/ideas in there.

Price was the primary reason I picked out the Ozarks Trail one. Cheapest I could find. If you can find one for a similar price, I definitely recommend finding a higher quality backpack. Mine has served me pretty well so far, but Ozark Trail is a cheap as you can get.

I owned that bag for about a year until the side pocket linings tore out. I switched to this Ozark Trails backpack: https://www.walmart.com/ip/Ozark-Trail-Elite-Fishing-Tackle-Backpack-with-Bait-Cooler-Black/486216949 This thing has worked great for me so far. And a backpack is way easier to carry than a shoulder bag.

I had a devastating day yesterday. Wrote about it in a sperate post in Fishing Reports. Had a better day today. Started out with top-water. Only fish I caught on that was a very aggressive bluegill/pumpkinseed hybrid. I mean, look at the size of that lure. What was this guy thinking? Then I caught a dink largie. After about an hour of casting, I couldn't get anymore strikes on the top-water. So I switched to my trusty Rebel Wee-Craw crankbait. (I love those things. The weecraw has saved me from many a skunk. I keep three of them in my tacklebox at all times, and two of their deeper diving older brother.) And that did the trick. The last fish I hauled in for the day was a new PB for me: 2.1 lbs, 16 inches. And unlike yesterday, this hog didn't get away. All in all, I'd say it was a pretty good day.

I, too, was confused when I saw this fish on the list. ?? Peacock bass, snook, tarpon... No idea. I live in Michigan. And it is hands down the smallie around here. I understand the bluegill argument, but I've caught big bluegill and tiny smallies. Tiny small mouth beats a big bluegill in my opinion.

Welcome from Michigan! These forums are a wealth of knowledge and fun! (not from me. I'm just here to learn. )

I could not catch a break today. I went to the local pond this evening, and got tons of strikes, but couldn't bring anything to the shore. I started out with the whopper-plopper. Got a bunch of blowups, but most of them were swipes, not even taking the lure. I hooked three decent fish, but they all managed to throw the hooks on a jump. I was using the size 60 lure, and the hooks on there are kinda small, but still. Every. Single. Fish. All of them got away. One of them hammered the bait so hard from below, the thing popped a couple feet up into the air. I switched to a large popper with better hooks. Same story. Lots of blowups, horrible hookup ratio, and the two I did hookup on managed to shake it after a couple jumps. I cannot, for the life of me, figure out what I was doing wrong. I've never had this problem with these baits before. I was so frustrated I switched to a little spoon, just to try something new. And I caught a seven inch bass. Finally, back to the popper. Big blowup. He took it down with him, I waited a bit, and pulled back. I had him. He was big. Really big. I fought him to the shore. No jumps. I got him up on the bank. He was the biggest bass I have ever seen in person. I didn't know they got that big in this pond. I stoop down to retrieve him, and he flops. The hooks fall out. He's too close to the water. I make a frantic dive at the big fella, but he makes another flop, and makes it to the water. I don't care at this point: I need that fish. I plunged in after him, felt my fingers closing on his tail. But he was in his element and with one more flick of his fins, he was gone. I sat on my knees in a foot of scum, water, and mud and screamed. I didn't know a fish could gut-wrench me like that. So, I came home to my wife, drenched from the waist down, covered in pond scum, absolutely defeated. It's been four hours and I still can't believe it. All in all I think I had 15-16 strikes today, and only brought in 1 tiny baby bass. I'm absolutely flummoxed. Now that my tragic tale is over, what do you all recommend for aftermarket treble hooks? I don't ever wanna run into this problem again. And while I know most of the problem is most likely my own inadequacies as an angler, on the Whopper-Plopper at least, I know I need better hooks. Preferably something I can pick up at Dick's Sporting Goods or Wal-Mart?

I love my wife. She's the best person in the world imo. And I get really excited when, on the rare occasion, she asks to come fishing with me. But she always does one thing everytime we go fishing that irks me to no end: she always outfishes me. We went out the other day, she caught four, I lost one, and a lure to boot. In all actuality though, I get super excited when other people I take fishing have more success. It's almost more fun than catching myself. Watching her get excited everytime she got a bite makes my day. Then a couple days later I went out on my own and caught a couple to make me feel good about myself.

Might have found the answer...

I live in Mount Pleasant, MI. I fish primarily the Chippewa river. I've never seen anything like this before, and now I've seen three in the space of two days? What are these things? Anybody know? Sorry for the poor quality image. It was the best I could manage as it was swimming away.

I've been a big fan of several lure makers on YouTube for a while, but never tried my hand at it. Still haven't actual made a lure. But I found an old beatup crankbait while fishing the other day, and decided to repaint it. A large strip of whatever sort of coating the manufacturer had used to color the bait had been torn off, so I decided to add my own coloring. repainted the red swatch and added some green stripes. Then I coated it with superglue to waterproof it. I'm no true artist, and the paintjob was pretty slapdash without much planning. But it catches fish! Caught 3 and a half smallies on it today. (1/2 because one got away as I was trying to pull him out of the water.) Of course, I've seen fish bite chunks of wood with hooks in them, so, It probably wasn't my paint that did it. The experience kinda inspired me to maybe try my hand at making my own lures. Maybe. I've already got too many hobbies.

Congrats on the new PB!

Fun day wading the river today. Lost a couple crankbaits on snags, but I had a blast, regardless.

Those are absolutely beautiful fish. Those last two pics are pretty enough to hang on the wall. We've had a lot of cold rainy days here in central Michigan. Spring has had a slow start. Been out several times in the last couple months and couldn't get even a nibble. Went to my favorite smallie hole today and got a feisty little 13incher on my second cast. Fished for three more hours, changing baits and waters and didn't catch anything the rest of the day. But it feels really good to have beaten the 2023 skunk.

Finally caught some fish the other day. First fish of the day was a river smallie on the Rebel Wee Craw crank bait. Not big, but smallies of any size are always fun. First cast, first bite, and didn't catch anything after that for the next 20 or so minutes. So I switched to my go to bass pond. Hung out for almost an hour with a great blue heron. He caught lots of little fish. I caught nothing. Finally caught a decent largemouth bass. The second I hooked him that big heron came flapping over to investigate. He was side hopping all over, eyeing me up, flapping his wings, strutting closer- way too close for comfort. By the time I got the bass unhooked, the bird had given up and flapped away. My bass looked kinda bloated. I was worried about him. Especially after he swam off sluggishly once I released him. Not a bad day, all in all.