Beginner Set Of Lures

[Mike Nenon]

Hello all,

  Today I went down to the local dicks to get some of my first lures.  I took a keen interest in fishing last summer, when I found a small lake about 15 minutes away from my house.  It is well stocked with fish (especially largemouth bass!), and I managed to last the summer with cheapo worm, tube, and creature lures.  Now that summer has rolled around I decided to head to dicks and get myself some good quality lures that will be very versatile.  I stuck with name brands (rapala, rebel, strike king, berkley, etc), but I want to hear some feedback and I have some questions for you guys to answer!  Here is the list of the lures I got.

Strike king chartreuse/white spinnerbait (d38cw-3)

Strike king series 3 chartreuse sexy shad crankbait

Rebel foxy mama POP-R

Rapala rippin rap loud rattling chartreuse shad (rpr-5)

Berkley power bait grn pumpkin 5" power shaky worm

Berkley power bait plum 7" power worm (ribbon tail worm)

Zoom super salt plus finesse watermelon red magic (doesn't say length but relative to the 5" I would say it is also right near 5")

All paired with 8 lb clear suffix elite monofilament

And for the worms I got owner offset worm wide gap 2/0 (I realized after purchase that I should have bought a 3/0 and 4/0 and not just 2/0. Oh well I can stop by for a quick hook purchase.)

What are some good colors for a pretty clear lake?  Does the scent on the berkley power bait ACTUALLY work?  And I was curious about a finesse worm so I bought it.  What exactly is it?  I just wanted a very attention attracting worm (basically its tail shakes a lot when Texas and wacky rigged), but I didn't exactly know what the finesse worm was, and dicks had it in a good color so I snagged it so can you fill me in?

Finally how do you think I did on the purchasings?  Anything I should substitute for a different product next time?  Anything "essential" I should add?

Thanks,

       Mike

[logan9209]

Berkley Powerbait Power Worms are good worms to use. My only complaint about them is that all of their Powerbait and Gulp products smell the same and the smell will attract catfish. I caught a 5lb cat on their Gulp Alive Earthworms. Kinda ticked me off because I don't care for catching catfish. Also, from my experience, you really should have gotten a 3/0 or 4/0 for most if not all of the worms. 2/0 will work with the 5" worms but you may have a lower hook set ratio compared to a 3/0.

Since I am still having problems with hardbaits, I will leave you with one more tip from my experience. Get a pack of Gary Yamamoto Senkos or, if your on a budget, NetBait Salt Lick. I use black with blue flakes and red bug (dark red with blue flakes), however, black or any natural color works good. You can t-rig them or wacky rig. Bass love them and it's not uncommon to have them grab the worm almost as soon as it hits the water. Good luck and tight lines.

[Bair]

I would have gotten a Rapala X-Rap over the Strike-King crankbait but other than that it looks good

[200racing]

i like to fish the finnesse worms weightless. working in a twitch-pause action. those 2/0 will be great for that.

[BrianSnat]

Good start. Some things I might add.

Jitterbug

Original floating Rapala in 4-3/8" and/or 3 1/2"

Some football head jigs 3/8 to 1/2 oz

Senkos or Yumdingers

A few Mepps spinners and maybe some Dardelve spoons.

[Jake P]

I agree with everyones response. I would say you did pretty well though. Everything you purchased deffiniteley has a place in most bass anglers tackle box. I would recommend getting some senkos or yum dingers. Senkos are the original version stickbait and the yum dingers are a "knock off" i guess you could say. They both work IMO. The Yum dingers are a bit more affordable. Either one you get will catch fish, and plenty of them. "senkos" in general are fish catching machines.

I would get a couple bags and some 3/0 offset ewg hooks. Texas rig them weightless. Fish can not resist them. They basically fish themselves. Cast it out, let it sink to the bottom and let it sit. Raise your rod tip up about 8 inches and then let it sink back down and pause for about 10 seconds. Very easy and very effective.

Good luck!

[BassinMD]

Everyone nailed it senkos are one of te the top producing lures in any water and yamamotos are very expensive but imho they work the best. And i wouldn't mess too much with crankbaits unless you have some sort of cover to work them in or you have a hard bottom for deep divers to grind. Open water cranking will not attract many strikes. With the shaky worms working them on a shakey head jig will get you bit in pretty much any water as well, tight lines man

[Mike Nenon]

I completely agree with everyone about the senkos and hooks. The problem was when I asked the person in the fishing section about where I could get senko worms he gave me this blank stare. I repeated senko worms, and he says he doesn't know what they are. So I figured I would just come back and order some high quality senkos off the Internet. Before this I asked him about hooks that would match with a 5"-7" worm and immediately he said a 2/0 hook. Now I didn't know too much about hooks and their sizes, so I trusted him. When I returned to my house I immediately hopped on the forum to solve all my "questions" I had. Sure enough Ip,y gut feelings were correct. Oh well. The one good thing the dicks employee did well was picking the owner type of hook. This forum regards them very highly on their hook sets, and performance. Now I just need larger of the hooks I got!

Any regards on the roboworms? Dicks had a couple of packs that released salt, so when the fish nibble they like the taste and engulf the whole worm. Thoughts?

Regards,

Mike

[roadwarrior]

Topwater:

Zara Spook, LC Sammy, Jitterbug, Megabass Pop Max, Rage Tail Shad and MegaStrike Cavitron

Shallow:

LC Pointer, Norman Fat Boy, Bandit 100, 200 & 300, LC RC 1.5

Medium:

LC RC 2.5 & 3.5, Red Eyed Shad, MegaStrike StrikeBack Spinnerbait

Deep hard bait:

DD22

Soft plastics:

Rage Tail everything! Also, GYCB Senko and Kut Tail (MegaStrike Shak-e2)

Jigs:

GMAN (Seibert Outdoors) and NorthStar

[Mike Nenon]

Topwater:

Zara Spook, LC Sammy, Jitterbug, Megabass Pop Max, Rage Tail Shad and MegaStrike Cavitron

Shallow:

LC Pointer, Norman Fat Boy, Bandit 100, 200 & 300, LC RC 1.5

Medium:

JC RC 2.5 & 3.5, Red Eyed Shad, MegaStrike StrikeBack Spinnerbait

Deep hard bait:

DD22

Soft plastics:

Rage Tail everything! Also, GYCB Senko and Kut Tail (MegaStrike Shak-e2)

Jigs:

GMAN (Seibert Outdoors) and NorthStar

Well alrighty then! Thank you roadwarrior for the VERY in depth response! One more question....Do you guys use scent on your worms? I have tried MegaStrike and yum crawfish flavor scents. What are your thoughts?

[roadwarrior]

I like MegaStrike, it's very effective and user friendly.

I use JJ's Magic on my jig trailers, but I usually do the entire bag at home

rather than transporting the Magic!

[NCbassmaster4Life]

I normally use the scents that are already on most lures.

[Tim Cianciola]

id say you did well. I would also get a rage tail craw,or baby craw. plus they come with salt and coffee scent. Or anything rage tail for that matter.

[Mike Nenon]

Alright well I headed back to dicks and added a ganakatsu extra wide gap (ewg) 3/0 hook, and an owner ewg 4/0 hook just to test them both out and see which I like better. I also got 10 1/8 oz worm weights (bullet weights is what I think their called, but they situate just above the worm when you slip it on the fishing line) and also 10 1/16 oz worm weights. The 1/8 oz sinks a worm pretty darn fast right? That's why I got the 1/16 also. I will be ordering some Gary yamamoto senkos, and rage tail anacondas sometime. Maybe add a few other rage tail, since they're so highly regarded!

Thanks you guys for all the help!

Sincerely,

Mike

[hooks4bass]

All these guys have made admirable mentions, I am surprised though that no one has mentioned what I think is the most versatile bait on the water, the Spinner bait... You can buy all that the stores and pros have to offer, and there are still hundreds.. if not thousands of variations that you can make to make the next bait equally as novel as the one before. This bait, is limited only by your imagination and drive to explore.

[logan9209]

Yeah, I left off spinner baits because I'm still learning those. Although I did get side tracked on using the Rage Tails. As far as scents go, the only ones I've tried are Yum F2 Shad and Baitmate's Shad. Not really seen that much difference or increase. However, most of my soft plastics I'm using lately come with salt and anise or salt and coffee. I personally think that the coffee scent is really there to wake the fisherman up. Java anyone? Just kidding. Gamakatsu, Mustad, Owner, and Lazer Trokar hooks are some of the best hooks imho. Having used all but the Owner, I find the biggest problems with hook ratio's is me. Either I get excited and set the hook too soon or I just plain forget to set the hook. But, I don't lose to many either way.

IMO, the key to buying lures is not to get dead set on name brands just for the sake of the name brand. I love most of Zooms products but only because I've caught my fair share on them. I am recently getting into Strike King's Rage Tails (the real test comes tomorrow morning) and I love NetBait's Salt Lick (senko knock off). Oh, the Yum Red Shad 10" ribbon tail works wonders too. The point is I get them because I've found them to work. Companies don't start off being name brand. They get that way because their stuff works and word got around. In other words, something off-brand today may very well be name brand a few years from now. Don't be afraid to test products that not many people have heard of.