If You Could Clone A Bait

[Blues19]

We all have an individual bait that seems to just work better than the rest. Two baits could look identica, however, one just seems to work better than any of the others. For me its an Albino Spro Frog.  That frog just caught and caught fish. Ended up losing a leg.  I got another frog and it worked, but didnt seem to get as many bites.  I put a silicone leg on the old frog and Boom. Worked like a charm and caught a bunch of fish again.  It seems to outperform every other frog. Do you have a lure you would like to clone cause it just works better than the rest, or is it all in my head?

[buzzed bait]

not that i would clone a particular lure, but there is a particular lure that i keep a few back ups.  Panther martin spinner gold blade, black w/ yellow spots 1/8oz or 1/4oz.

not a primary bass lure, but that is my all time fish catching machine that i could not do without.

[FloridaFishinFool]

The old triple tail Mann's Mannipulator rubber worm. Discontinued over a decade ago. I called them up and asked them why it was discontinued and if they would ever consider putting them out again, and I was told they did not sell well and not enough interest to revive them. Oh well! It was a great rubber worm.

 

Half of it was all triple action tail. Caught lots of bass on them. So over the past couple of years or so I have been watching ebay and buying them up when I can find them. I now have over a dozen unopened bags of them to last me a while longer.

 

The Mannipulator lives!

 

One of the reasons I liked this particular worm so much was because I fished them a lot without any weights. I used a #4 hook and rigged it Texas style and swam that worm around heavy vegetation and cover and that triple tail action made it come alive.

 

I think if there was ever a rubber worm hall of fame the Mann's Mannipulator deserves an induction into the RWHOF!

 

Clones welcome!

 

 

[A-Jay]

It's all in your Head ~ But it's in mine as well . . . . .

 

I want me some Berkley Powerbait Beasts !

 

A-Jay

 

 

[gulfcaptain]

Wouldn't mind a few packs of those Mannipulator  worms myself.  May have to search for them.  But they did catch fish quite well.  

[a1712]

Wouldn't mind a few packs of those Mannipulator  worms myself.  May have to search for them.  But they did catch fish quite well.  

The best replacement, to me, is the 8" Grande Bass Megatail Rattlesnake. That worm flat out catch's fish, Bass just don't want to let it go after picking it up.  Brian.

[scaleface]

Shallow diving rogers Big Jims. I bought a couple three years ago at an antique store and they have been  almost magical.I wont bore you with the all the stories but I once quit using it  because the bass were hitting it to good and  swallowing it , getting hooked in the throat and gills. I was spending more time removing the lure than fishing .I replaced it with a Rick Clunn crankbait because the fish  were not taking it as deeply .

 

I once had a Bomber long A minnow that was not balanced correctly. Everytime I twitched it it would come to a rest pointing at a 90 degree angle away from me not pointing at me..It was like walking the dog halfway.My biggest stringer ever was caught twitching this bait. 24 keepers and the six biggest would have weighed 35 to 40 lbs. 

[Blues19]

Shallow diving rogers Big Jims. I bought a couple three years ago at an antique store and they have been  almost magical.I wont bore you with the all the stories but I once quit using it  because the bass were hitting it to good and  swallowing it , getting hooked in the throat and gills. I was spending more time removing the lure than fishing .I replaced it with a Rick Clunn crankbait because the fish  were not taking it as deeply .

 

I once had a Bomber long A minnow that was not balanced correctly. Everytime I twitched it it would come to a rest pointing at a 90 degree angle away from me not pointing at me..It was like walking the dog halfway.My biggest stringer ever was caught twitching this bait. 24 keepers and the six biggest would have weighed 35 to 40 lbs. 

That is awesome!!!!

[FishTank]

The original Flappin Hog.  I have tried the new version and it has been just OK.  It's been so long though, I could not tell you the difference between the two.

[primetime]

I have 2 lures that catch fish better than any other's in class and I don't know why. Both have absolutely zero paint left on them with the exception of some orange I put under the chin of the lures.

 

-one is a Bomber long 15a Floater that I have for roughly 15 years and it used to catch striped bass of the beach better than any other plug including bombers. At that time it was the bengal tiger color. Now, it is my best Minnow bait and I am afraid to change out hooks so I am always sharpening and take hooks off old vintage bomber's to make sure it does not change anything. For some reason, it seems to be off balance just a bit, and it rises with a shaking action almost as if force was pushing it down but it rises differently for sure. I have shown friends and they see nothing different except they believe that the lure lacking paint is giving it some action that is better, so we have sanded down many Bomber Long A's, but I believe it is because it was an older version, so I buy all stock of Bomber Long A's made in the USA when I see them, I must have 100+ and I would not trade them for any other lure.

 

-The other is a an old Bagley's Bang O lure which has the prop on the back, and it runs off to the side on a steady retrieve, but when you twitch it she turns on the side and tracks consistent, just not normal. I added silver and chartruese streaks to the side since I like to rip it 3 feet and pause, and they hit it when I am moving it every time, yet they hit all the other's most times while it is either resting or just starting or stopping. 

 

I actually do not care if my worm is bent, has dings in it, and I will try a swimbait when it is missing it's tail, it never hurts to take a cast with any bait and see what happens. I use the larger 4.8" Kalin's sizmic shad and BPS speed shad (Keitech Copies) without tails and they are now some of my best flukes and drop shot baits, Especially the kalins since fish love to short strike them and pull the tails off, the bait is gigantic for 4.8".

[whitwolf]

If I could clone "one" bait It would be a Zoom 4" dead ringer in Pumpkin Green. They no longer make that color. It simply caught fish.

 

For nostalgia's sake; I wish Bill Normans Snatrix plastic worm was still in production. It was the first plastic worm I caught a bass with, fond memories to be sure. Black Grape would be my color of choice. 

[Dwight Hottle]

Any hard bait that I own that hunts.

[papajoe222]

I have a Spook that lost the majority of its foil finish the first season I used it. By the end of the second season, it was all gone, but for five seasons it was my 'go to' when I needed to fill out a limit. I ended up loosing it to the trees when my line broke on the cast. I spent over an hour trying to retrieve it. I even went back with my telescopic tree trimmer, but it was GONE! I have two other baits with the exact same finish that I bought at the same time.......not the same.

[aavery2]

I want all of the original wiggle warts that Beaver Lake, AR has taken from me back.

[scaleface]

I 

 

-one is a Bomber long 15a Floater 

 I have a few old long A minnows still but you have 100. Im glad to see another Long A user .  We had a similar experience with the balance a little off .

[RoLo]

I've never kept it a secret that my wife normally out-fishes me.

If I had to choose her single-most lethal lure, I'd go with the Deps 7" Deathadder Grub

They're now 'discontinued' but we still have 20 to 30 lbs of them                  

 

 

 

                                             Deps 7" Deathadder Grub

 

Roger

[QUAKEnSHAKE]

Kinami Palm Tree Watermelon Chartreuse

 

[HoosierHawgs]

Rat-L-Trap in a 'Sparkle Perch' color or something like that.... I lost my last one early this summer. They no longer make them. I think when I first bought them, I bought them on clearance at Wally World and must've stocked up on 20+... I now have zero... And they discontinued the color. d**n you profit margins..

[Lund Explorer]

For My Fishing - The original Berkley Power Craw

 

For My Wallet - The original "pre-Rapala" Wiggle Warts!

[smbrule!]

I cloned this lure from a Reactions Innovation Double Wide Beaver and a Culprit 9" Fat Max.  Weighs in at 0.73 oz.  

 

 

[primetime]

 I have a few old long A minnows still but you have 100. Im glad to see another Long A user .  We had a similar experience with the balance a little off .

I am not sure if it is the older versions or not, but sanding off the paint seems to give them a different action, and they used to make a color that was chartruese with green, and a bit of yellow under the chin. When you sand it down, the sides look like they have that 3d flash the newer lures have, and I love to modify lures & have found adding a bit of red to the sides gives it a glow that seems to work well especially in lakes where people throw alot of minnow baits which down here is most of them. When it comes to buying tackle, Florida and Orlando area is a really good place to be with all the flea markets and liquidators, and all the competition so you can find Long A's on clearance for a few bucks and even a new Pro Long A with gammy trebles, Timmy Horton colors, and 15a suspenders are often $3.99. Pound for pound, that is a tough price to beat for a proven lure, and one that comes with a tear dropped pull point and is 95% reliable to suspend perfectly right out of the box, and the new colors are as good as any. I own almost every brand of lures because I am a lure addict, like to collect stuff I guess, but I seem to do as well with the bombers as I do with any other minnow bait regardless of price.

I always push in the barbs, 3 trebles is a great feature for hookups, but not good when a big fish inhales them, it also helps keep them from gathering weeds when fishing over or through weeds, a good snap of the rod and barbless trebles can shake most weeds.