Difference Between A $5 Lure And A $12 Lure?

[maleko]

Really , does it make a difference ?

Yes they may look a bit more pretty but, do you think the fish can tell?

Are they like screw this guy he looks like 5 bucks

Then like whoa. Now that's a fine lookin 12 dollar Rapala.

Serious though, is there. Difference ?.

[Kevin22]

The difference is $7. 

 

Some days the fish want a specific action and/or color, it might be the $12 lure or it might be a $0.98 cent walmart lure. 

[Bladesmith,]

Generally speaking the more expensive lures will have better  hardware (hooks, swivels, etc), a little better paint job, and be a little better designed. However, a hungry bass usually isn't that discriminating. I catch just as many bass on my $1.00 Wal-Mart spinner baits as I do the more expensive ones.

[bigbill]

Over the past few years I did add the more expensive lures to my tackle box like the high roller lures just to

try a few out. They did catch fish. I did notice the movement and balance was spot on.

They seem to run perfect. But so does my $1 producers lure too.

 

I mainly look for a difference in color and size when I try a different lure. I try to keep it cheap too incase I lose it someday.

[Tuckahoe Joe]

The difference is $7. 

 

Some days the fish want a specific action and/or color, it might be the $12 lure or it might be a $0.98 cent walmart lure. 

Beat me to it.

 

 

Generally speaking the more expensive lures will have better  hardware (hooks, swivels, etc), a little better paint job, and be a little better designed. However, a hungry bass usually isn't that discriminating. I catch just as many bass on my $1.00 Wal-Mart spinner baits as I do the more expensive ones.

X's 2 .  I fish a lot of SK spinnerbaits but the $1 WalMart ones produce just as well for me.

[pbizzle]

Beat me to it.

 

 

X's 2 .  I fish a lot of SK spinnerbaits but the $1 WalMart ones produce just as well for me.

This, and the $3 sportsmans warehouse spinnerbaits are made by Strike King.

[Bluebasser86]

Beat me to it.

 

 

X's 2 .  I fish a lot of SK spinnerbaits but the $1 WalMart ones produce just as well for me.

I have had almost zero success with SK spinnerbaits, not sure why. If fish are aggressive it really doesn't matter. Try to take a Wally World spinnerbait to Table Rock and fish against someone chucking a War Eagle, let me know how that goes 

 

It's all in the details, a lot of them you may not even be able to see. They'll have better quality components, better paint, better hooks, move differently, a lot of higher end cranks will have tungsten BB's instead of steel to give them a little different sound. Are they always better? No. Sometimes they'll outfish the cheaper baits really badly though. Just another tool and it's up to you to figure out which one you need to get the job done that day 

[jtharris3]

$12 lures? I was just looking at TW's crank bait selection and I'm seeing $20+ baits! I'm sorry I can't see spending $20+ on any bait. I don't care who endorses it or designs it!

[Bluebasser86]

$12 lures? I was just looking at TW's crank bait selection and I'm seeing $20+ baits! I'm sorry I can't see spending $20+ on any bait. I don't care who endorses it or designs it!

Better not get into swimbaits then   I just got a steal on a Mattlures Hard Bass for $30! 

[jtharris3]

Better not get into swimbaits then   I just got a steal on a Mattlures Hard Bass for $30! 

 

Yeah, I've checked them out too. Guess I won't be fishing those.

[MDBowHunter]

I was in the same boat as far as never spending a lot on a lure, until I picked up a handfull of Jackall Girons from a member here because they were a steal compared to the $22 a piece that they cost at the retailer. I went out last weekend and the fish flat out tore them up, when we couldn't buy a bite before I tied one on. I will also admit that I've never seen a more life like lure ever, this thing was truly amazing, and now they have me looking at more expensive lures. Plus as fishermen we dont think twice about going out on the water with $200 worth of cheap baits and and doing ok, when we could be out there with $200 worth of expensive lures tearing them up. I'm not saying that expensive is always better, but I now see where the expensive baits look and perform way better then the cheapos in a lot of cases.

[flyfisher]

What everyone else said i will agree with but it does depend on your fishing lakes too.  I also find the more expensive baits seem to last longer and have more durabilty.

 

One of my examples is the SK Square bills.  It seems like the finish doesn't last that long but they still catch fish as opposed to the rapala square bills where the finish is much more durable in my experience.  THe price difference isn't much and i know people always complain about rapalas breaking but i have yet to break one and i fish them pretty regularly.

[Raul]

Usually more expensive baits have better hardaware and the action between "equal" baits is more consistent, that doesn´t mean that they will always catch fish, nor that means tha less expensive baits won´t, most of my cranks are Rapala, most of my crankbait fish have been caught with them, however I´ve caught tons of fish with less expensive baits. The problem with many less expensive baits has to do more with than hardware than with the action, Rat-L-Traps are very inexpensive however the hooks suck, yeah shure, you may catch a bunch of fish with the factory hooks until they become dull or rust ( quite fast ) and then you start loosing fish, so then you have to change the hooks; good hooks cost money, so you end up adding 2-3 dollars in hooks to a 4-6 dollar bait, then your 4-6 dollars bait is no longer a 4-6 dollars bait, now its´s a 6-9 dollars bait, well, you could have started about there in the first place.

[ClackerBuzz]

i haven't met a lure's paint job yet that can withstand 8 hr of bouncing off rocks.

i know a guy who fishes Luck Craft pointers.  he touches the chipped paint with care like a fresh wound after each fish. funny part it the paint chipped from the bass's teeth.

high end lure run truer and suspend better so i think its most important for jerkbaits.  and doesn't matter when it comes to jigs, spinners, chatters, lipless, cranks.  most times a bass will hit any brand/color lure or even style if ur in the right location and deflect off the right cover

[pbizzle]

I'm surprised that no one's mentioned bandit crankbaits. For 3-5 bucks a piece they're great. I suck at crankbaits but I've caught more on bandits than strike kings. I know it's not a confidence thing, since I don't have confidence in any of them.

[deep]

Interesting excerpt from an article on crankbaits (message me for link to the original article; it's good).

 

**

David Fritts’, Mr. Crankbait, contends, that not all crankbaits are made alike. That only special baits, generally 5 or 10 out of 100, possess such characteristics. He jokingly says that they were made at 11:30 on Wednesday morning, when the workers were performing at their highest levels. Well, he was right. Mr. Fritts’ also contends, that when he finds one of these baits, he puts it in a special place, and of his special baits, he claims he would not take $1000 for any one of them. I have to agree with him on this assertion. I have 34 baits that I consider special. These are the baits I use when I need to catch fish. A short observation is in order. In September 2002, a friend asked me to help him pattern some fish for an upcoming big money tournament. He said we would be fishing mostly crankbaits. From the back of his boat, my big 5 fish weighed 15-9, while his big 5 fish weighed in around 2.5 lbs. All small dinks, that were under the size limit for Texas. THAT is what I consider a special crankbait. Now, back to David Fritts theory, lets do the testing now.

 

Pool testing at one facility revealed, that out of 100 identical crankbaits (not the same color, but the same body style and type) only 7 were considered to have the unique actions that catch more fish, according to the test anglers. These lures dove quicker, stayed down longer, went a little deeper, ran straighter, and/or came up on a steeper angle when nearing the point of retrieve.

 

Twenty-two additional test baits were considered almost perfect, but needed some additional testing/modifying to get them to that special level. Many lures never reached the desired level of performance, and unfortunately, these are often part of the lures sold in stores. Even after extensive tuning, some of the 22 baits never made it into the SPECIAL category, but they still exceeded the other 71 baits in performance on the water.

 

The on water application of these 100 baits was quite startling. The original 7 special baits, out caught the next 22, at about a 5 to 1 ratio. The 22 baits that were close, out caught the remaining 71, by about a 3 to 1 ratio. Was this due to applications? Or was it true that these special 7 had some unseen attributes? Or were we fishing them differently, with more confidence? Perhaps, but the final numbers made believers of the 2 of us. These tests were run in the spring, summer and early fall of 1999. We always had one of the 7 tied on, and then went through the other 22, then the 71. So, it couldn’t be done in a shorter time period with 2 people fishing both at the same time. Did the differences in season effect our results? Well, remember, we always had one tied on, and we fished one of these 7 against all the other baits, rotating about every 30 minutes on the other baits, and about every hour on the 7. Another startling observation, was that the big 7, didn’t catch near as many short or under fish. Most of them were keepers, not so the other 93. We never kept weight numbers, but did measure each fish. We made at least 500 casts with each bait.

 

So, did we fish the 7 that much more than the others? Yes we did, but we were keeping track of casts and fish caught within certain time periods.. The 7 still won, hands down. We then tried to identify what made them special (an exercise in futility). We even X-rayed the 29 baits, dry rattled them for distinctive sounds, examined with a magnifying glass. We never found anything that we could identify that made them special, except the qualities mentioned above.

**

 

More expensive baits are generally more consistent. If I lose a Lucky Craft crankbait that I caught a bunch of fish on, I know I can buy another of the same model and go back to catching fish. If it's a Strike King (just an example, sorry SK fans); maybe, maybe not.