Most Interesting Or Most Expensive Bait You Have Found?

[everythingthatswims]

   Seeing the thread about losing lures made me wonder how often someone recovers a lure that has been lost by another angler...Here in VA the most exciting things I have found were a DD22 in the winter when duck hunting (the hooks were rusted off but we replaced them and have landed nice stripers on it!), and a live target frog after a flood washed it up on the bank. I have found a few miscellaneous cranks, topwaters, etc. too.

   So what is the most interesting/expensive bait you have found? I bet the guys out on the west coast have some interesting stories, I can imagine feeling a stick or something get hung on your bait and then reeling in a snagged Roman Made, Deps, 3:16, etc.!

[Mike L]

Not lucky enough to find anything of substance.

Did find a small bag of plastics one time at a ramp tho.

Mike

[paangler13]

Found a spro deep diver this year. looked brand new, bill wasn't even marked up!

 

I also hooked a ultra light ugly stick dragging a jig a few years back. Hooked it right in the handle! Where I hooked it is the only mark on it! The reel on it was junk, but the rod cleaned up like brand new!

 

Jim

[BasshunterJGH]

Strike king 10xd chart perch, upgraded owner hooks. Nothing too special.

[Munkin]

Jointed believer musky lure that I thought was a kids toy.

 

Allen

[fishballer06]

Mostly just line with a hook or a simple jig, and a few spinners. I have snagged a couple rods somehow over the years. 

[Choporoz]

lost and found.....Saturday I hooked a large cat on a DT6 (second one in two weeks) - he broke off at the boat.  Some time later, I found the DT6 floating well down the bank I was working - I'm just glad he was going my way....or maybe not - that DT6 hasn't gotten one bass bite yet.

[wisconsin heat]

I found a storm magwart a few weeks ago, various cranks. 

Probably the most expensive was a Rapala Clackin Minnow, retails for about 11 bucks I think. It wasnt in great shape so I left it for someone else to find. 

Last year I was fishing from shore from a spot for a good 15 minutes and when I turned around, I noticed a 5' berkley cherrywood spinning rod with an old shimano reel, probably my best find. It makes a good panfish rod when I take kids out.

[primetime]

Whenever I bank fish a pond that has a fountain with a rope attached, I always check the rope and depending what is stuck on it, i will get in the water and walk out to the lure or lures to get them.....

 

We all know that casting to a fountain is a can't miss area for several Bass, and when done, I Iift the rope. Last week I pulled a Chug Bug that was old, but I sanded it down and put new trebles on it, and it also had a few square bills, the best being a Spro Little John, and a new clear Torpedo which I needed. I tied on the Torpedo and put that one in a tree about 10 minutes later, so at least it was free.

[Felix77]

Lures I find I can also find at WalMart. Never anything more expensive than a Rapala.

[bmlum415]

I've found a few lucky crafts in the striper lakes and some old hudds. Heard of guys out here finding things like triple trouts, deps and hinkles.

[EvanT123]

If someone finds my gunfish; 20 feet up in a tree. please pm me lol.

[Master Bait'r]

Every time I throw a jig I pray not that I land a 10lber but that I snag a roman made and get 'er to the boat haha

[Bankbeater]

I have come across some Lucky Craft baits in the water, but I tend to find more baits up in the trees.

[einscodek]

A yozuri jerkbait which I quickly cleaned off and a few casts later.. Her jerk.. Fish on.. Nice jerkbait

[Master Bait'r]

I have come across some Lucky Craft baits in the water, but I tend to find more baits up in the trees.

If I carried a telescoping pruner saw/loppers around most lakes I go to, I could seriously open my own tackle store in a year or two.

[Bluebasser86]

I find dozens of baits every year, mostly in the trees or floating against the bank. A telescoping lure retriever has recovered countless lures others have left hanging in trees. Most expensive one I got was a Megabass Vision 110 Magnum that was in a tree at Table Rock. Found a 100 Pointer and 100DD Pointer that same day. I caught a bunch of fish on the Megabass that day and the next until the bill mysteriously fell off mid retrieve. 

[warpath58]

Here are a few outings that come to mind, once at Lakeview in MS we were trolling down the cypress trees catching a few fish and I looked ahead of the boat and saw something floating in the water and it was a nice old creek chub wiggle fish, 10' ahead of that another creek chub wiggle fish 10' ahead of that another old bait they just kept coming, I think we ended up finding 10-12 baits floating along so we get back to the boat dock and there is a guy and young boy loading their boat and DAD is livid his tackle box is almost empty. His son had been entertaining himself with Dads floating little boats, so we walked over with a hand full of baits and asked if he was missing something. Needless to say he was a very happy man when he got his baits back.  

 

Another time we were fishing a small pond in west TN I think it was called Grishams lake, the water level was low and I saw a stump with something on it, so after further inspection I found 3 original hand carved Big O's I guess they thought it was a fish and kept trying to catch it. I still have those somewhere.   

[martintheduck]

Buddy found a Kistler Helium (?) setup a few years ago with a Curado. It was all up in the tree near the bank and the tip was broken. Either someone got it snagged off the deck while fishing or got really ticked. Sent it back to Kistler and they charged a few bucks to fix it.

[Jtrout]

Buzz baits crank baits jigs brand new spoons in the package and two rods washed up from a storm a pop r with one hook rusted off couple pairs of needle nose pliers knives

[J Francho]

Some old school Fat Raps were about the nicest things I found.  I did find my own Sammy stuck in some reeds, going back to a shore spot with my kayak.

[Ratherbfishing]

Don't know if it's the most expensive bait or the most "exotic" but within a couple of weeks of each other, I found two zara spooks-one floating in a neighborhood retention pond and the other had washed down the spillway and was sitting on dry land just 'downstream" from where I'd found the first.  I suspect the same fisherman lost both and I also suspect he/she can't tie knots very well. I'm pretty well set for spooks for awhile.

[Dwight Hottle]

Rapala F13 floater attached to a rod & line counter reel some one lost in lake erie. Looked mostly new.

[bradc36]

Funny story, I actually pulled one of my grandfather's old crappie lures out of a tackle box he left me and went pond fishing behind my house with it (fairly large for pond standards), and it got bit off by a pike back in march. I went out on the pond for the 4th of July with a buddy to have a few beers and fish, and I caught that crappie lure ON the spinnerbait I was throwing through the split ring of one of the crappie lures' trebles! Could not believe what kind of luck I had to have even got the SB hook through that split ring, but needless to say I was thrilled. That lure will never go back out on the water.

[FishTank]

The most expensive lure I have found was a Megabass Cyclone.