Old baits from the 80s and 90s

[Munkin]

The Sluggo was the lure back in the early 90's! It counted for at least 60% of my bass. Actually the biggest SM I can remember catching was on a 4.5" sluggo.

RC 1 and 3 man I bought so many after Clunn won the classic using them. Never really caught much and I kept breaking the bills by slapping the baits to get grass off.

The soft plastic I would love to get some more of is the kangaroo grub. It had a thin tail and a stubby end but really worked for me. The french fry I still use regularly, in fact my partner was using one when we won an open tournament in June.

Allen

[Glenn]

Other baits? Hmm...I have topwaters named "Woodchopper", "Nippee D", and "Devil's Horse". They are prop baits and work great! I don't know if they're still made anymore. I just remember getting them in the early '90s.

quote]

Smithwick (lurenet.com) still produces the Devil's Horse. I think it went out of production for a few years, but I guess it's still around.

Luhr-Jensen is still producing the Woodchopper. They also have a prop bait called the Nip-I-Diddee. I'm not sure if that's the one you're referring to.

Yep, that's the one I was thinking about.  I also have a couple of Dalton Specials.

Regarding the Slug-Go, I'd purposefully T-Rig it weightless so that it has a "nose up" attitude. This makes the thing jump and dart erratically.  Just a very light twitch of the rod, long pause, and another subtle jerk, long pau WHAM!!! 

[MNGeorge]

Another one time favorite was the Bass Magnet...don't remember who made it. It was a crawfish body crankbait with a fairly long diving lip and it suspended when the retrieve was paused.

[Nick]

I remember that Billy Westmoreland advertised, and of course, used that bass magnet on his show. I think Norman lures got involved with it. Could be wrong though.

Yes, Luhr Jensen began to buy out some other small companies like Ozark Mouintain and South Bend who made both the Bass Oreno and the Nippididee.

My first Bass Boat was a tin one with stick steering too.

Back in the 80'ss and 90's nearly every worm had a curl tail on it.  We thought a straight tailed worm was worthless.  We sorta changed our minds, eh?

I've still got some bags of worms from the 70's and the plastic is so tough one could shoe a horse with them.

Little Georges, anyone?

[wishin4fishin]

There are so many of these baits that I've just never even heard of. I'm gonna make a list and try to run a Google image search. This has been a good post and very interesting.

Thx all

[Hot Rod]

A hand-dug earth worm! ;D

Seems like bass fishin' was simpler then for some reason :

[detroit1]

I still use baits from the 80's & 90's, so they CAN"T be old. I also still throw my old Cotton Cordell Spots (knocker style). I wish i would have bought more of Lazy Ike and Crankbait Corporation's foam cranks. (hard foam, not the Burke "flex-plugs"), although i wish i had a few more of those also. Big o's still get wet, and i miss my 3 Norman Little Scoopers.....

[Bass Dude]

I still have quite a few Rebel Redneck soft plastic baits from the late 80's. It was a lizard body with a spiked red collar meant to be fished through spawning beds.

I have those lizards too, haven't used them in a while.  I may just pull those out this spring!!

I used the old Gator tail worms until I ran out of them.  Don't know if they still make them, but that worm was a killer.

[Jigfishn10]

Rebel Black Star.

Color C Lector bait colors.

Sugar Shad- I forget who made it.

Bagley lures. Remember the Smoo and the Fat Cat.

Wow, I forgot about the Sugar Shad. That was a good bait.

To answer your question, I believe that was produced by Luhr-Jensen.

[river-rat]

Allen Lures Gator Tail worm.

Zoom makes the G-Tail which is basically a copy of the 7 1/2 " Gator Tail. I have actually caaught more fish on the Baby Gator Tail worm which is 5 3/4".

Larry Nixon won the 1983 Bassmaster Classic on the Ohio River using the Baby Gator Tail worm.

[WidowMaker]

The Bill Norman Snatrix was probably one of the best plastic worms I ever threw and it was the first plastic jig trailer I ever used. I would throw a 1/4 oz. arkie with a solid black living rubber skirt and a 5 in. Snatrix for a trailer. I remember one day it was sleeting and I caught three five to six pound strip pit bass in a row on that bait. Ill never forget that day or those three fish. It was a good bait and there is one made now but it has a dead tail action compared to the originals. I once heard someone say the original Snatrix had a bad tendency to twist line but i fished hundreds of them without experiencing any kind of line twist.

Mister Twister made a soft plastic Hawg Frog in the early eighties and it was a good bait. It was made of a different type of plastic than the ones made more recently. The older Hawg Frogs were made of a softer more sponge-like plastic than the newer ones and had a better floating action.

[piscicidal]

The Bill Norman Snatrix was probably one of the best plastic worms I ever threw and it was the first plastic jig trailer I ever used. I would throw a 1/4 oz. arkie with a solid black living rubber skirt and a 5 in. Snatrix for a trailer. I remember one day it was sleeting and I caught three five to six pound strip pit bass in a row on that bait. Ill never forget that day or those three fish. It was a good bait and there is one made now but it has a dead tail action compared to the originals. I once heard someone say the original Snatrix had a bad tendency to twist line but i fished hundreds of them without experiencing any kind of line twist.

Mister Twister made a soft plastic Hawg Frog in the early eighties and it was a good bait. It was made of a different type of plastic than the ones made more recently. The older Hawg Frogs were made of a softer more sponge-like plastic than the newer ones and had a better floating action.

My very first experience with the bait monkey...still in high school, I ordered an Ambassadeur 5000 series BC and a jumbo pack of hawg frogs from the BPS catalog.  I still have the Ambassadeur and I still have a couple of those ol Hawg Frogs.

[cowboy61981]

When I was a kid in the early 90's my dad took me to a home and garden/outdoors show at my local fairgrounds. We came upon a vendor selling very unique fishing lures. I still have one of the rigs we bought, pictured below (unfortunately I lost the cooler of the 2 I got to keep). I don't know the manufacturer or even what it's called. But the idea behind it, you clip your line to the top hole and a hook with bait to the bottom hole. When you pull back on the line it "dives" backwards under water. When you release the line it'll shoot farther out. 

The other lure I had, if I remember correctly, it was colored blue, and was made of the same plastic. When you worked the rod you could make it "swim" around under docks or logs. I ,unfortunately, don't remember what exactly it looked like. 

 

Has anyone ever seen anything like these? 

Thanks!

[Bankbeater]

I still fish with a Cordell Big-o and 1/4 spot.  The lures are still in production but the colors I fish with are not. 

[detroit1]

Hey cowboy...that's a "travel - bob", he had a booth at our local boat / fishing show way back when. I never owned one.

But a cool idea for the shore-bound angler.

[steve carpenter]

Rebel Wee R in chartreuse.

[Tackleholic]

Ringworms, still have some.

[king fisher]

     I have more crankbaits than any sane person would ever need, but I am sure I could catch just as many fish if all I had were an original Bomber, Bomber 7A, Rebel Deep We R, Cordell Big O and a Rattle Trap.  If I were forced to use only Mann's Jelly worms, for soft plastics I am sure I would catch as many bass I do now with an endless variety of soft plastics.  As far as topwater goes, nothing is more fun to fish than a Jitterbug, and I fish a Pop R almost every time I am on the water.  My old Fleck Weed Wader spinnerbait is as good as any modern design.  The Bait Monkey and I have been close friends for many years, but as far as catching fish goes, I would be as well off if I only fished the lures I owned in the early 80's.  The one thing I don't miss is the hooks tangling on the Rebel Deep Wee R.

[Pat Brown]

I still have my original Storm Magnum Wiggle Wart in the rainbow color and my original Hot N Tot in a spring craw pattern.  Had some Rapala jointed minnows from that era also for years but they're gone.  My fondest memory is the grape fire tail manns jelly worm that is no longer available.  You can buy almost them, but not exactly the grape with the firetail that my dad loved so much.  I can smell the packaging in my memory.

[Tackleholic]

Ringworms, still have some.

Banjo Minnow, remember them?  Still have those too.

[Capt Steve]

This doesn’t fall into the 80s/90s era but Dalton Special. Bang O Lure. I remember when the first “crank bait “ came on the scene in Florida. Big O and Big Bs. Berkeley was new and I think they had Flip tail worms. 
The biggest change I remember is when Mister Twister came out with ribbon tail type worms. At least that’s the first ones. I recall seeing.  

In the late 60s we fished a wacky rig, but didn’t know that’s what it was. That’s the only way we knew how to fish a plastic worm. They were fairly new and only few people used them. We used a Bagley hardhead worm or a Creme worm. We put a plain hook right through the middle of it and reel it in real slow to catch bass. We knew nothing about Texas rigs.  The big debate back, then was how long to let a fish run with the worm before setting the hook.
Dang I’m getting old. 

[Tackleholic]

1 hour ago, Capt Steve said:

This doesn’t fall into the 80s/90s era but Dalton Special. Bang O Lure. I remember when the first “crank bait “ came on the scene in Florida. Big O and Big Bs. Berkeley was new and I think they had Flip tail worms. 
The biggest change I remember is when Mister Twister came out with ribbon tail type worms. At least that’s the first ones. I recall seeing.  

In the late 60s we fished a wacky rig, but didn’t know that’s what it was. That’s the only way we knew how to fish a plastic worm. They were fairly new and only few people used them. We used a Bagley hardhead worm or a Creme worm. We put a plain hook right through the middle of it and reel it in real slow to catch bass. We knew nothing about Texas rigs.  The big debate back, then was how long to let a fish run with the worm before setting the hook.
Dang I’m getting old. 

Back then I used Uncle Josh black porkrind eels, same technique.

In the 1950's one of my favorites was the Tin Liz;  at times I wish they were still in production.

[galyonj]

15 hours ago, Bankbeater said:

The lures are still in production but the colors I fish with are not. 

 

Losing production of a favorite color crankbait sucks.

 

I still mourn the loss of one specific colorway on the academy house brand lipless. Still haven't found anything that'll replicate the confidence I had with it. 

[jbrew73]

Indiana Killer

Does anyone remember these?

[cowboy61981]

On 8/11/2023 at 6:22 PM, detroit1 said:

Hey cowboy...that's a "travel - bob", he had a booth at our local boat / fishing show way back when. I never owned one.

But a cool idea for the shore-bound angler.

Awesome! Thanks! Ya, I've never seen another like it. I'll have to check out a boating/outdoor expo, maybe I can find someone who's started making them again! Wish I could remember what the other ones looked like. 

4 minutes ago, cowboy61981 said:

Awesome! Thanks! Ya, I've never seen another like it. I'll have to check out a boating/outdoor expo, maybe I can find someone who's started making them again! Wish I could remember what the other ones looked like. 

Hey, now that I knew what they were called I was able to actually find a picture of a whole set of them!!!