Bargain Baits...

[sal669]

Speaking of BARGAINS...

Bargain doesn't mean "cheap" !!!!!!!!

I don't buy stuff because it's cheap. I buy stuff if it's a bargain !!!!

For example:

-I bught 2 medium/ moderate IM6 grafit trigger rods (made on pfluger blanks, quality cork handles, fuji guides) for light and medium duty cranckbaiting. The original price was $49.99. Was discontinued and there was a "sale" on top of that so it cost me $14+tax each.

-Yo-zuri cranckbaits, minowbaits,poppers,walk-the-dog stile for $3.99 each(about $7 originally)

-Daiwa Capricorn spinning reels at about $70 each(different sizes)

-Daiwa TD-S baitcasters for $65-80

.......................................................................

Cabelas has The TDZs for $199. It's a bargain, but I'm not willing to spend that kind of money for a reel, when my TD-Ss work just fine

I dont buy apiece of cr@p just because " it's cheap".

DON'T SPEND ON BAD PRODUCT ONLY BECAUSE "IT'S CHEAP". LOOK FOR BARGAINS !!!

What would you buy: a 3 year old Dodge Neon for$5,000 or a 3 year old Lexus for $10,000?

The Dodge is cheaper, but the Lexus is the bargain

Just my $0.02

[wickyman]

Wait...  I haven't had any issues with the renegade jigs...  I have had them for quite a while, and none of them have rusted?!  Maybe it's just me, and my care to close my box when I fish...  Even the ones I have used are still like new...  I basically use the bloodline renegade jigs, but not a one has rusted...  I have zerust boxes by flambeau, and the supposedly let off a gas when you close the lid, that seals out the moisture...  I don't know if I believe that, but not one rusty hook!

Not jigs, jig HEADS.  I'm not talking about a jig with a skirt and weed guard.  I'm talking about just the lead head and hook like you'd rig a grub or something on.  

That's what I mean...  I got like 6 different jig heads at wal-mart, all of which were renegade...  I have the ones with the bloodline red hooks, and I got the original hooks...  They all seem really sharp, and were really a good price...  I use them mainly for crappie, and smaller fish, but I have my Luck-E-Strike jigs in 1/4 oz for the larger fish...  They happen to have Gamakatsu hooks, and were roughly the same price, for better quality hooks...  I agree that the quality of the renegade jigs could be better, but they aren't bad for what they are intended for...  If you set the hook properly, you shouldn't have to worry about which jigs you use...    Set it hard, and reel it in!    JMHO, and this is the end of my $.02.  

[Hookemdown.]

Speaking of BARGAINS...

Bargain doesn't mean "cheap" !!!!!!!!

I don't buy stuff because it's cheap. I buy stuff if it's a bargain !!!!

For example:

-I bught 2 medium/ moderate IM6 grafit trigger rods (made on pfluger blanks, quality cork handles, fuji guides) for light and medium duty cranckbaiting. The original price was $49.99. Was discontinued and there was a "sale" on top of that so it cost me $14+tax each.

-Yo-zuri cranckbaits, minowbaits,poppers,walk-the-dog stile for $3.99 each(about $7 originally)

-Daiwa Capricorn spinning reels at about $70 each(different sizes)

-Daiwa TD-S baitcasters for $65-80

.......................................................................

Cabelas has The TDZs for $199. It's a bargain, but I'm not willing to spend that kind of money for a reel, when my TD-Ss work just fine

I dont buy apiece of cr@p just because " it's cheap".

DON'T SPEND ON BAD PRODUCT ONLY BECAUSE "IT'S CHEAP". LOOK FOR BARGAINS !!!

What would you buy: a 3 year old Dodge Neon for$5,000 or a 3 year old Lexus for $10,000?

The Dodge is cheaper, but the Lexus is the bargain

Just my $0.02

Exactly

[Bud]

        Yea 150 less to spend at the track                                      

To each his own.

[wickyman]

I don't care what other people are gonna say, I think my little Abu Garcia 6500 is good enough.  Only 75 out the door at wal-mart...  It looks great, and no backlash!  I opted for the special edition orange!    I don't fish tournaments, so what's the point of having a 200+ dollar reel?!

[Guest the_muddy_man]

Hey Wicky you worked for the money, you bought it it really Aint nobody's business but your own Enjoy the reel  8-)

[gopherbass]

If you want to get some nice stuff, look no further than accrual accounting. Tweak the definition of an asset to, "Probable future recreational benefits owned by yourself as a result of past transactions." Now, the $200 reel you just bought is a capital asset with a useful life of 7 years and a salvage value of $25. Depreciate the reel over its useful life and your costs related to reel are only $25 per year. Your wives will never know what hit them.

[wickyman]

Hey Wicky you worked for the money, you bought it it really Aint nobody's business but your own Enjoy the reel  8-)

Yeah, no kidding, huh?  I love this reel, I just can't wait to see it in action!    Weekend after this...    Got a trout derby this weekend...  WOOT!

[MyKeyBe]

As far as jigs go...there is no substitute for quality. FLW and Renegade jigs just don't cut it for me...at all. My list of good jigs include Booyah, Strike King, and Mann's.

There is a big difference between being/buying cheap and being/buying thrifty.

FLW jigs are made by Mann's. Mann's makes all of the FLW stuff I have seen.

Are the jigs really that bad? I just bought a bunch for 50 cents. They seem like real nice jigs for the money. I don't really know as I have not used them yet.

Since I bought my green Curado BU-200 last year for $60.00 it must be junk?

Fenwick Venture for $20.00? Must be cheap garbage.

Kinami Flashes for a buck? Worst lures ever!

I have quite a few Riverside lures. 99 cents for some Yum! rejects? I'll buy the good ones all day long. Craw Papi's, Dinger's, Vibra King tubes, and Buzz Frogs 5 for a dollar? Grubs 10 for a dollar? Yep, I'm all over them.

There can be and is a huge difference between being cheap and being a bargain hunter.

[Stringjam]

One of the best "bargains" available is making your own stuff.  

I pour my own jigs in an Eakins-style mold, and make my own spinnerbaits and buzzbaits (sometimes poured, sometimes with pre-made frames).  My father fishes blade baits a lot and saves a TON pouring his own Silver Buddy's (I would guess he goes through at least 100 a year).      

I prefer the lures I make to anything I've bought yet, and at a fraction of the cost.  There is a lot you can improve or experiment with (wire diameters, hooks, frame designs, components...etc...)  

If you have a local tackle store that caters to the tournament crowd, they'll have all the stuff and advice you need.

 

[bassman1282]

Well, I have a slightly different suggestion to save a lot of money. I have a lot of tackle, not nearly as much as some, but much more than others. I'm NOT getting rid of it, but if I had it all to do over, I might own less than half. Most of my tackle has either never been used or fished just a time or two. For example, over the past two years I think I have fished six different jerkbaits. I'm not sure exactly when I'm going to fish the other forty-two. Maybe I'll find the right water to fish one of those other colors I "needed" when I bought them.

I think you would be miles ahead if you bought three or four high quality lures (over time) within a given class rather than a dozen cheap baits all at once. With a little effort and a good lure retriever, most lures (hard baits) last indefinitely.

And one other suggestion:

Keep a list of lures HIGHLY recommended by people you trust. Add those baits to your tackle collection over time and when on sale. Don't buy stuff just 'cause it looks cool. Jumping on lures in the bargin bin isn't a good deal unless the bait is actually effective.

THis is the best post of the whole thread. It is not very hard to see that most of you guys are not "hardcore" bass anglers...meaning you dont fish a lot of tournaments and/or spend a large part of your time on the water. Thats fine. But I would agree with this post that you should not just buy stuff because it is cheap and it LOOKS ALMOST as good as everything else. Guess what...it isnt. And someday if you get more serious about your fishing you will realize this and be dissapointed at how much you spent on crap you will never use. The guys you watch on TV dont use the very best stuff because they get most of it for free, because you can bet they dont get a lot of it for free. They use the best because it is the best....period.

[liquidsoap]

Well, I have a slightly different suggestion to save a lot of money. I have a lot of tackle, not nearly as much as some, but much more than others. I'm NOT getting rid of it, but if I had it all to do over, I might own less than half. Most of my tackle has either never been used or fished just a time or two. For example, over the past two years I think I have fished six different jerkbaits. I'm not sure exactly when I'm going to fish the other forty-two. Maybe I'll find the right water to fish one of those other colors I "needed" when I bought them.

I think you would be miles ahead if you bought three or four high quality lures (over time) within a given class rather than a dozen cheap baits all at once. With a little effort and a good lure retriever, most lures (hard baits) last indefinitely.

And one other suggestion:

Keep a list of lures HIGHLY recommended by people you trust. Add those baits to your tackle collection over time and when on sale. Don't buy stuff just 'cause it looks cool. Jumping on lures in the bargin bin isn't a good deal unless the bait is actually effective.  

Excellent post!

I practice what RR preeches!

[Baconstrip]

If I could take it all back, I probably would own my wastepack tacklebox and the 2 small trays that came with it.  Inside, I would have probably around 40 booyah bed bug jigs ($2.29 each) and matching paca chunk trailers, and THAT IS IT.  Everything else to date has been a total waste of money to me.  Yes, I catch fish on spinners, yes I catch fish on cranks and worms, but I catch bigger ones on jigs, and for the life of me, I cannot remember the last time I was skunked on one of those jigs.

As far as rod and reels, the best I can afford and have never regetted any of them.

And for cranks, I get more luck with excaliber or storm hardbaits than I do with LC.  I am too afraid to toss a $15 dollar crank into stumps or downed trees, whereas I have no problem risking a $2 dollar lure.

[wickyman]

Inferiority is only half of it, when it comes to buying good lures.  Yes I have some cheap lures, and yes, they catch fish very well.  But if you are willing to spend 5 times the money, on something that you can tweak to meet really close, to the same standards, wouldn't you?  I have a couple cheap, really cheap, lures that I have tweaked.  Some just with hooks, and landed fish, or some that I had to slightly bend the eyelets to make it swim better.  Sometimes both.  Still, I find that they work as well as my rapala, and LC baits...  I can't see spending money, that someone told me to spend on a lure, and not catch any fish...  It's all in the beholder's eye!

Driving by anglers that fish near the shore, I stopped and asked what they were using.  You know what they said?  "Some cheap little lure I bought last night at Wal-mart."  They showed me what they had, and it was nothing more than a renegade rattle...  I asked how many, and what size fish they caught, and both of them said that they had a couple decent lunkers, in the 8lb range.  One of the guys pulled out a monster 10.5lb bass out of their tank!  My jaw dropped!  Seriously, it's not the price of the lure that catches the fish, it's how well you know how to make it move in the water!

[Red]

i guess if i was in a tournament and big money was on the line or somethin..i can maybe see spending the extra money for that...but for me, i just want to fish!!  i have a very small amount of tackle...like 6 cranks...2 spinnerbaits...and a handful of different plastics and the terminal tackle to rig them..thats it....if i can be on the water and cast my stuff, i am happy

Cliff

[bassman1282]

first off, i want to take issue with the fact that a triton will outperform a bass tracker, but this may be because i think tritons are the biggest pieces of s#$t on the water.  ;D Anyway, im not saying that you gotta go lucky craft for all your hardbaits and stuff like that. But how much sense does it make to buy a crappy renegade hardbait that 1), you have to spend forever tuning, 2) you have to change the hooks on and, 3) doesnt look nearly as good and still will probably not run right anyway, when you can spend 5-6 for a rapala or another brand that at least tests and tunes and puts good hooks on a bait. It doesnt make any sense to do that.

[wickyman]

That is a very valid point tex!  Glad someone finally said that!    It seems that companies are taking advantage of us, so that they can produce colors, that are looked into by their R&D...  What the hell?!  Why do we spend the extra money for something, that we can get, and paint ourselves, and spend a fraction of that cost?!  It's so pointless to me.  I can see a bass boat being different, as some are inferior to others, but in tackle, it makes no sense...  We are just paying for colors...  If you know someone whom can airbrush from pictures, have them paint your cheaper rapala lure...  It's the same thing!  

[Stringjam]

Lucky Craft makes crankbaits...and so does Bomber, Bagley, Mann's, and Bandit.  The only real difference that I can see between the LC baits and others is the paint job.  All have rattles, all have VERY SIMILIAR actions in their models, and all make a great variety of fish catching baits.  Where is the -REAL- difference at, other than the eye candy?  They come tuned out of the box and come with really sharp hooks....so does Rapala.  

None of those companies make a Pointer....    Seriously, though....I live in a place where suspending jerkbaits win 90% of the money in the pre-spawn - Pointers simply have an action that cannot be obtained by jerkbaits from any of the companies listed there.......and try casting a Rogue in a 20 mph wind.  

For me, $15 isn't expensive for a lure that flat out performs, and especially one I'll rarely or never lose.  

 

[Maxximus Redneckus]

To get back to the original point of this thread...

I ABSOLUTELY DO NOT RECOMMEND any of Walmart's Renegade jig heads. I bought a few packs of those last summer. Within 2-3 weeks in my box every hook was rusted. And I mean thoroughly rusted, even through the painted head.

These days I keep a couple of those silica gel packs that you can get in shoes or whatever in each of my boxes (got that tip right here on BassResource.com!!!) So rusting stuff is not so much of a problem any more. But still, you should avoid those Renegade jig heads like the plague.

I still buy them but the key is too look on the back of the package if it says made in USA grab um they are way better hooks then the ones made in china .They are all starting to be made in china hard to find made in USA anymore!!!

[Maxximus Redneckus]

That's the kind of response I'm looking for. If the LC Pointer has a different action that unattainable with any other bait, then it is indeed, unique and deserving of costing a bit more. I used some sort of LC Crankbait (med depth) and it looked like a pretty Bomber to me. That's the point I'm making.

All baits have a diff action .Because its 15 bucks dont mean its the only action that will catch fish.The fact of the matter is if you spend 15 bucks on a lure its in your bones u just spent a whole lot of money on a simple design and it BETTER catch fish>If i painted my own RAps it dont mean im catching more fish ONLY if i no for sure they will bite this color will i know it was worth painting .But serious all jokes aside>Why is it a lot of people are downing AMERICAN products when BASS Fishing was the brainchild of americans who FOUNDED bass fishing as sport worldwide>We cant say creme,manns, bagleys,storm or anyother ROOTS manufactor dont no what they are doin when they been doin it the longest  FOR us to have fun and catch fish  

[bassman1282]

That is a very valid point tex! Glad someone finally said that! It seems that companies are taking advantage of us, so that they can produce colors, that are looked into by their R&D... What the hell?! Why do we spend the extra money for something, that we can get, and paint ourselves, and spend a fraction of that cost?! It's so pointless to me. I can see a bass boat being different, as some are inferior to others, but in tackle, it makes no sense... We are just paying for colors... If you know someone whom can airbrush from pictures, have them paint your cheaper rapala lure... It's the same thing!

I love the claim that you can paint your own or get someone to paint your baits so they look just as good without it costing as much as the high end stuff. You are either A) insane, full of it or C) you know something or someone i dont.

[MyKeyBe]

Well I guess this will be a little off topic but... ;D

Does it really matter?

Did you have fun catching fish on your $6.00 Senkos?

I had a great time catching fish on my .99 cent Riverside knock offs.

Someone else's budget might not be the same as mine but at least we both had fun, caught a few fish, and enjoyed nature.

That's what it's all about.

[Mattlures]

All of you guys will come to the realization tha RW is right. The problem is by the time you figure this out you will have already collected a ton of stuff you will never use.  I used to buy anything that was decent and cheap. Now I only use high end gear. Is a $200 reel worth that much more than a $50 one? actualy its worth about $2000 if you compare it like that. I wouldnt trade any of my good reels for a hundred Abus. Will thay catch more fish? No. Will you get more distance and less backlashes? Maybe but most likley it wont matter too much. Then what makes a high priced reel worth it? The experience!!! It just feels good. They are so much more enjoyeble to use. They are so much smoother and they feel like $200. A $50 reel feels like one. I bet in "regular" fishing I would catch the same amount of fish with a cheap rod and reel as I would with good gear but I wouldnt enjoy the trip as much. There are some actual advantages to higherpriced gear especialy reels. The DRAG is usualy the most noticable upgade. It may never come into play for you but if it ever does you will be sorry you bought that cheap reel. If your drag is just a little sticky and you loose a monster because of it you will hate your prized reel that you got such a great bargin on. Also since I fish a lot of big swimbaits and saltwater I can tell you that the lesser reels cant take the same abuse.

There is a reason people always say " you get what you pay for"

cause its true. The real bargin is to buy it right the first time and you wont need to upgrade.

Now with all that said ther are definatly bargins out there. I own 2 calias and 2 calcutta te's. I paid $200 or less for each one. 3 of them I bought from board members in the clasified section on my home board. the 4th I bought on Ebay. I actualy had to send that one to Shimano but now ita as good as new. wait for a sale or a deal on Qaulity gear and you will save money.

[Stringjam]

All baits have a diff action .Because its 15 bucks dont mean its the only action that will catch fish.The fact of the matter is if you spend 15 bucks on a lure its in your bones u just spent a whole lot of money on a simple design and it BETTER catch fish>If i painted my own RAps it dont mean im catching more fish ONLY if i no for sure they will bite this color will i know it was worth painting .But serious all jokes aside>Why is it a lot of people are downing AMERICAN products when BASS Fishing was the brainchild of americans who FOUNDED bass fishing as sport worldwide>We cant say creme,manns, bagleys,storm or anyother ROOTS manufactor dont no what they are doin when they been doin it the longest  FOR us to have fun and catch fish  

No one is saying American manufacturers don't know what they're doing - but their whole purpose, as any business, is to make money.   That's why Bandit took their quality made US product line and shipped production to China.  It wasn't so we would have more fun and catch more fish.   Bagley did the same thing - that company has changed hands a half dozen times.  

They don't care about Americans, they care about getting bigger bank accounts, and they'll sell out the quality of their product and the American workers to stay competitive and do it (obviously there are still some who haven't......good on em!)                

Poe's made a killer cedar crankbait line up out in California through the late 80's (I still have several of these from that production period).   Then they sold out and sent production to Mexico, and the quality went right with it.

My only point it, I could care less anymore what brand the lure is or who makes it - I only care if it is EFFECTIVE in my home waters.

Some people pay $15 to go get drunk every weekend - - I pay $15 for a lure that helps me enjoy one of the most rewarding pastimes in life......worth every penny to me.    

     

 

[Guest the_muddy_man]

Hey bassman 1282 its good to have such a pro and fisheman as yourself here to straighten the rest of us amatuers out. No I dont fish competition and I do fish a lot of hours. My Rapala baits and alurring plastics keep me busy with a lot of fish And You take exception that a Triton is better than a Tracker. I have been in both boats , both are great products but a Trion is EONS better then any traker. Its like comparing a Chevy Impala to a Cadillac both great cars but a Caddy is well a Caddy.