Lure restocking

[Drowning A Worm]

Planning on restocking for next smallie season, have a budget of about 150$. Mostly river fishing

Any ideas?

[IndianaFinesse]

Order from tackle warehouse before their 20 percent off everything sale ends tomorrow.  Get some green pumpkin zinkerz's or zero's (they're the same thing sold by different companies) cut those in half and put them on 1/15 or 1/20 ounce finesse shroom-z mushroom head from z-man.  Also try some 1/8 ounce inline spinners, they can be a killer river bait.  The rebel crick hopper is a great bait for when they're feeding on crickets and grasshoppers that fall in the water, which is surprisingly often.  The bitsy crank from strike king is great little crank for river small mouth to.  And lastly although I havn't got a chance to try it out yet, I think z-man's new finesse tubez will be a killer river smallmouth bait when rigged on a 1/16 ounce mushroom head.

[Scott F]

What did you use up this past season? Where do you fish?

[jr231]

Inline spinners are effective on all species nearly year round. I've personally caught. Bass, crappie, bluegill, pike, and a big channel cat on mepps inline spinners. I always pull one out on a rough day 

 

Just so I can fight somethin  @IndianaFinesse

 

Rebel crawfish, jigs both rubber and hair , tubes, stick worms, all nail smallmouth consistently. And I almost forgot the most simple of all.. a curly tail grub on a jig head. You can go as big and small as needed and almost impossible to fish wrong.. this technique has caught big smallmouth for decades. And continues to do so.. 

Try and find a worm like bait with alot of little appendages. Hellgrammite are a favorite snack of river smallies especially. 

[heavyduty]

zoom craws- ultra vibe and super speed craws, flukes, war eagle screamin eagle spinnerbaits, curly tail grubs and hula grubs, tubes- 2 3/4", zman finesse TRD, hula sticks, hellgrammites, beavers, senkos, baby minus 1 cranks and bandit 100's and 200's depending on depth, 3" swimbaits on a light jig head, jerkbaits, buzzbait, whopper plopper. These will cover topwater, middle, and bottom. Key is time of year and where the fish are. Lots of variables on brands for the above. Green pumpkin is probably the most versatile for me in plastics. In my neck of the woods, it they don't hit a trout colored senko fished weightless like a fluke, there aren't any fish left in that hole!

 

 

[Drowning A Worm]

4 hours ago, Scott F said:

What did you use up this past season? Where do you fish?

I fish a lake Michigan tributary. Used lots of crank baits and finesse worms

[Turkey sandwich]

Every river is different, but there are some constants.  A good selection of tubes from 2.5-5" mimic baitfish and crayfish equally well and will produce almost anywhere under 75% of conditions.  Like most soft plastics, cover your basic colors.   Twister tail grubs in 3-5" sizes also work year round and mimic any baitfish and also catch everything that swims.  Cover basic colors.  Most rivers I fish, both tubes and grubs are typically fished on 1/16 - 1/4 oz jigs 90% of the time.  You could include in-line spinners in this. 

 

After making sure these are covered, it all depends upon your style of fishing and what you need. Other lures that have been very successful for me on rivers are football jig/craws, a variety of lipped and lipless crankbaits, basic popping and walking baits, swimbaits, flukes, a variety of jerkbaits, and spinnerbaits.  I like picking new lures/presentations or styles of fishing to learn or work on each year. 

[Bluebasser86]

I stocked up on some tubes during the sales this week along with a bunch of Zman products. The V&M smallie tubes have been great for me this year and seem to be much more durable than other tubes I've fished, those wild smallmouth can really do a number on a plastic bait. 

["hamma"]

Replace what you used/lost, most likely you will need that stuff again

[roadwarrior]

Rage Tail Baby Craw

Rage Tail Menace

BPS Tender Tube #71

Sworming Hornet/ LFT Live Magic Shad

LC Pointer, Megabass Ito Vision 110 and/or McStick jerkbaits

[TnRiver46]

Strike king bitsy tube and zoom fat Albert. 1/8 oz jig head for both. Cheap jighead because you will loose a lot. That is about all you will ever need

[Spankey]

Buy a nice lure retriever. It will pay for itself on first lure or two hung up. Back years ago I placed an order with BPS. Somehow one came with the order. Clearly a mistake but I've put it to use. A casted metal piece shaped like a dog with sash chains hanging from it that slides down your line. Mason line attached to it to pull lures free.

If I'm fishing an area and don't want to make a disturbance because your catching or suspect fish are there. If you have a lure hung up I clip my line and attach a bobber to that line and I go back later to retrieve it. I may have to do some treble hook replacements but my lure bodies are perfect.

Just throwing it out there.

I agree 100% with above posts, excellent smallie baits. 

[Zach Winn]

I bought the woo davies pocket knocker off tackle warehouse for $6 and it's saves a few crank baits.

[smr913]

Things I always have on hand when on the river:

1. Zoom Ultravibe Speed Craw - Green Pumpkin & Black

2. 3/16 oz Spot Remover Shakeyheads

I started throwing a Ned Rig this winter and have been doing well with it. Been really likeing the Coppertreuse and The Deal TRD on a 1/10 oz shroom head. 

[The Bassman]

Get a few booyah pond magic1/8 oz. buzzbaits.  The strikes that come on those in late summer are a real rush.  Also seems to produce some of my bigger smallies.

[1BADAIR]

$150 of tubes and tube hooks lol

[gmoney13]

In rivers I like to use moving baits because it is easier in the currents. Fishing a drop is good though if there is an eddie or your river doesn't have current. Spinnerbaits and jerkbaits are great baits for smallmouth and poppers would work to.

On 12/1/2016 at 7:37 PM, The Bassman said:

Get a few booyah pond magic1/8 oz. buzzbaits.  The strikes that come on those in late summer are a real rush.  Also seems to produce some of my bigger smallies.

I agree all my fish that I caught on a buzzbait are over 2lbs, not to mention I caught my PB on a buzzbait.

[mike bat]

Gotta have tubes