What Were Your Top 3 Baits for 2010?

[Goose52]

With the bait monkey running rampant at this time of year, I thought it would be interesting to find out how little we actually need to catch fish. I sorted my 2010 "catch log" and found that only 3 types of baits accounted for a whopping 90.6% of all the fish I caught this year (1050 fish out of 1158 caught).

My top 3 baits were:

Lipless cranks (mostly SK RES)

5" Single tail grubs (Zoom, Gander Mountain)

Plastic worms (mostly 7.5" and 10" - several brands)

The other 9.4% were caught on crankbaits, spinnerbaits, buzzbaits, jerkbaits, topwater, etc. BUT, I could have caught over 1000 fish with only 3 baits in my pocket... ;D  Take that, bait monkey!

So, what were your most successful baits?

[OHIO]

Black Booyah buzzbait

Kalin's Chartreuse grub

Berkley 4" Power Worm in pumpkinseed

[farmpond1]

1) Creatures baits were probably number 1 and especially Berkley Power Hawgs.

2) I caught a lot of fish on various types of stick baits too.

3) I actually caught a bunch of bass on a Heddon baby torpedo.

[Siebert Outdoors]

1  jig

2  tube

3 jerkbait

[jdw174]

Bomber Square A

5" Yum Dinger (Watermelon Red Flake)

5" Hags Tornado (California Red)

[J Francho]

1.  A drop shot plastic which will remain anonymous.

5-12 Lake Erie Smallmouth

2.  Ragetail Craw, T-rig 3/8 oz. tungsten

4-9 Largemouth from Champlain, Day 1 lunker, held by my partner Brutus

3.  Spro Aruku Shad

4-3 Largemouth from Lake Ontario

Honorable Mentions:

Senko

Jig

[KYntucky Warmouth]

1 jig

2 tube

3 jerkbait

x2

I could use crankbait and jerkbait interchangeably

Jig

tube

jerkbait/crankbait

[Lucky Craft Man]

1. Jerkbait (various brands)

2. Drop Shot (Will not name specific bait, but I bet it is that same as what J Francho uses. The guys I fish with affetionatly call it "rubber gold" or "soft gold," because of how well it works.)

3. Senko type bait (again, various brands)

[RandySBreth]

#1: A custom compact spinnerbait.

#2: Medium diving crankbaits, mostly DT4, DT6, Bomber 4A, and the Rapala XRap Shad.

#3:Suspending Jerkbaits.

I mostly fished smaller lakes and Smallmouth rivers as I was working two jobs until just recently, so if I was fishing Table Rock like I normally would there would maybe be a Shaky Head or jig in there.

[SPEEDBEAD.]

1. Jig

2. Swimbait

3. Split shot rig

Edit: Actual swimbaits, not paddletails.

[BASSclary]

1. Jig

2. 7" ribbontails

3. 3" Shadalicious soft swimbait in Sexy Shad

[deaknh03]

lipless crank, especially the cotton cordell cheapie

sebile splasher, huge hookups with that thing

yamamoto swimmin senko, tried them for the 1st time late this year and love em

[Randall]

This past year I decided to use two baits that suit the way I like to fish and my strengths and have fewer lures rods etc in the boat. I don't even know what the third bait would be because two lures caught 90% of my fish. Those two were a swimbait and a straight tail worm. I filled in with other lures when need came to fish other lures but still cut the number of those other lures  that I would carry. Most of the time I had everything I needed in one large clear flat tackle box. I spent much more time using my electronics looking for fish that would bite the way I wanted to fish and quit fishing for those that didn't.

End result was more big fish caught including a huge fish right at 16lbs. More three pound plus fish and an average fish that was probably running around four pounds per fish. Funny thing was I did this fishing about 1/4 of the number of days I usually fish with just two baits. I think I learned something to apply to 2011.

[SPEEDBEAD.]

^ He's the reason I started throwing a split shot rig too.

[bassin is addicting]

spinnerbait. in bluegill

plastic worms. 7" powerbait. camo

buzzbait. cavitron. white

[J Francho]

I shared what I was willing to share, and that's A LOT.  99% of the time, the actual bait doesn't matter.  In my case, many locals know I post here, and do fish against me.  You want a good drop shot bait?  Anything on a drop shot rig will work very well in right circumstances.  Try a kut tail worm or a Robo worm.

[ChiCityBasser]

1. Strike King 1xs (Various colors)

2. Swim Jig   (Various Companies)

3. Spinnerbait (Various Companies)

Majority of my fish this year were on the Strike King Shallow diver crank

[RoLo]

> Deps 6" Deathadder Grub (scuppernong)

> Spro Aruku Shad 75 (chrome blue)

> Gambler 7" Big Stick (green pumpkin)

> Berkley 5" Split-Belly Swimbait (tennessee shad) tied for 3rd place

Roger

[River Rat316]

1 Spinnerbait

2 Jig (Swim, flipping, or hair)

3 Soft Plastic stick Bait

The variations of jigs I fish with probably account for about 60-70% of my fish, but I can break them down into 3 different baits.

I could also throw in as a honorable mention soft plastic swimbaits, t-rigged anything but especially 7" curl tail worms, and a shakey head with a 4" worm

[Goose52]

WOW - this is taking off. One thing for sure, there's no single top three - there must be LOTS of baits that can catch fish, eh ...

Now, I wonder if this thread will prove how few different baits you need to catch fish, or will everyone be looking at the other folks top 3 and thinking...I should try that next year...and then bam - bait monkey time!

[SoFlaBassAddict]

No particular order.  I can't say just three though.

Drop Shot (Roboworm 6" straight tail or small Lake Fork Magic Shad)

Small Texas Rigged creature baits

Swimbaits

Flipping Plastics

Frogs

Definitely had better size with the frogs and flipping baits

[Alpster]

1. 7 1/2" Culprit ribbon tail worm.

2. Jig & trailer (trailers vary to conditions)

3. drop shot with zoom finesse or 4" senko.

Ronnie

[baluga]

1. Sebile Magic Swimmer 110

2. Zara Spook Jr 

3. LuckyCraft Lipless Slim Pointer 110.

[bowfish12]

1 jig

2 tube

3 jerkbait

I thought all you threw was a jig? ;D

1. Spinnerbait

2. 10"+ worm

3. Redeye Shad/Jig (tie)

[Lucky Craft Man]

what is up with you guys not sharing what you used on the drop shot??? i thought this site was to share info? it's not like you are fishing against any of us.... is it? didn't your mom tell you it isn't nice to not share? gotta admit those are some nice fish.

my top 3.

spinnerbait. in bluegill

plastic worms. 7" powerbait. camo

buzzbait. cavitron. white

Well, I'm sure if you lived in the Erie area, you would know what drop shot bait we are referring to.  As mentioned before, there are a lot of baits that will work on drop shot rigs and I wouldn't say this one bait is that much better than others on most days.  Though, there are those days where for some reason, this bait really works magic.