Lost Lure Memorial Thread

[NorthwestBasser]

During this weekend's club tournament I lost a lure. I lose lures fairly often, it happens. My good friend says if you're not getting hung up, you're not fishing right. But this wasn't just any lure, this was one of my favorite squarebills. I have plenty more, even of the same color, make, and model. But this one was my favorite. We'd gone into battle so many times together, fought the hard fights, dug into the chunk rock, banged into the hardwood, caught and lost many fish together. It was scarred up, the bill was chewed and rough. Gone through many hook replacement surgeries. And in the end, on my third cast of the day, it was gone. Never to be tied on again. So in remembrance of ol' threadfin, id like to start this post so we as men and women, fishermen and fisherwomen, have a place to post fond memories of lures lost. You can tell your story, post a pic of you and your lure sharing a beautiful moment together or just say good bye to an old friend.  So here's to the brave baits that risked it all for that one last tight line!! RIP Threadfin Shad, my friend...

[Bluebasser86]

My last French Pearl STX, cast into oblivion thanks to some zebra mussels. I searched the shoreline where it landed for awhile to no avail. Yeah they still make that color, but it's not the same as it used to be. I'd like to remember the good times with it.

[Tucson]

Rapala DT10 - Seem to lose them faster than I can replace them.  

 

I have an original wiggle wart that I've gone to great lengths to keep, got replacements but that is "the one".

[Esoxfreak]

Good bye mad mortarman. I made this jerk rise bait myself. Can't see him too well in this pic but I don't have any others on this device but this was the prototype, the first one I did.12 1/2 inches of wooden sadness .i spent months getting this bait to act right, didn't wanna use weights nor a metal tailpiece. This was its maiden voyage. Many repaints and eyeballs later it met its end because I neglected to close a clasp. I waited for half the day walking up and down the shoreline waiting for it to float in. And it never did.

[Jaderose]

Lost a trap last week that I was fond of.  I can buy another but I liked THAT one

[buzzed bait]

had one break me off the other night with my white python pop x on.....  that bait was a killer in this pond close to my house!  been a rough few weeks on the lures lost for me:  phenix special fx bladed jig, whopper plopper (x2), vision 110 and a MS mini slammer all gone in just like 2 weeks....  the one plopper and the slammer were somehow lost out of the kayak or out of my truck.... they were there and then they were gone!

[Scarborough817]

almost lost a bladed jig i got from @Bluebasser86 a few weeks ago but i snagged the line and was able to get it back

[Bankbeater]

I lost a small Cordell Big-O years ago that would catch bass anywhere.  I am not sure what it was about that bait, but the bass loved it.

[soflabasser]

8 hours ago, Esoxfreak said:

Good bye mad mortarman. I made this jerk rise bait myself. Can't see him too well in this pic but I don't have any others on this device but this was the prototype, the first one I did.12 1/2 inches of wooden sadness .i spent months getting this bait to act right, didn't wanna use weights nor a metal tailpiece. This was its maiden voyage. Many repaints and eyeballs later it met its end because I neglected to close a clasp. I waited for half the day walking up and down the shoreline waiting for it to float in. And it never did.

 Nice Tiger Muskie! I recently came back from a fishing trip up north and caught 2 Muskies on light tackle. They are a blast to catch!!!

[iiTzChunky]

Lost a red eye shad a week ago, really liked that lure. Had a clear body and can't find another like it around me either. The wind pushed my cast into a tree and I tried to flip it out and ended up breaking the line and I heard it plop into the water 

[Esoxfreak]

2 minutes ago, soflabasser said:

 Nice Muskie! I recently came back from a fishing trip up north and caught 2 Muskies on light tackle. They are a blast to catch!!!

Thanks! I think the smaller tiger muskies like this one are prettier than the big ones...I'm way super south tho?

[Jtrout]

Caught my pb a few weeks ago on it went to a different pond sent the hook into a underwater tree. She gone lol

[Buckeye Ron]

Great thread! A few years ago I was really tearing into some nice bass in a buddies pond. I was using a small spinner bait and catching a few,then switched to a square bill Sisson crankbait in a summer craw pattern and started catching several 3 to 5 pounders. On the last one I hooked, she jumped several times and as I got her to about two feet from the bank my knot came untied and she went one way and my bait landed two feet from shore.

 

As I started to throw different lures at it in hopes of snagging it, it kept drifting farther away. I thought about going in after it but one step and I was almost to my knees in mud. Knowing I was in a place where no one would find me for a long time, I gave up. Even though I have other baits in the same pattern, that one was the ONE.

[crypt]

 lost my favorite Rattle Trap.......the only problem there was a rod and reel attached to it.   never saw em again. bounced right out of the boat when my buddy stepped on the handle. didn't notice it gone for about 1/2 second. ever see 2 guys dive in to the Stick Marsh to go after a lost combo? we didn't forget to anchor the boat...................oh well......still can't forget it.

 

[NHBull]

Said good by to a waiver 168 today......but it did sail a mile!

[Avalonjohn44]

At the end of last summer I lost my favorite spinner bait.  It was a beater of a Booyah spinnerbait with a green and white skirt. I laid it in something that stained half the strands of the skirt this mottled redish-pinkish color.  The blades were dull as hell and the wire was pretty kinked up. I must've caught two hundred fish on it, and would've caught two hundred more but for that one day I heard that dreaded snap of line as I bird-nested my reel. I watched it sail away to plunk down into the water with about fifteen feet of mono, which I could see floating on the surface for a few seconds, but was rapidly disappearing underwater inch by inch... I was able to paddle over to where she sank, but not quickly enough to grab the mono as it was dragged under... I tried to snag that line with a DT10 with a couple of split shot on it to reach the bottom for like an hour, to no avail...

 

Man, I miss that bait. I often catch myself rummaging around in my spinner-bait box looking for it before realizing its gone. Then the pain hits me again lol...

[flg2010]

I lost a spinnerbait that had produced year after year last year at the end of the season.  Recently I managed to recover it when my spoon caught the olf line it was attached to at the same fishing hole on the Walkill.  I didn't catch any fish that trip but I managed to get my lure back and thats really all that matters since it was one of my favorites.

 

 

[NorthwestBasser]

1 hour ago, flg2010 said:

I lost a spinnerbait that had produced year after year last year at the end of the season.  Recently I managed to recover it when my spoon caught the olf line it was attached to at the same fishing hole on the Walkill.  I didn't catch any fish that trip but I managed to get my lure back and thats really all that matters since it was one of my favorites.

 

 

THE RESURRECTION!!

[NHBull]

Another one......last yr I had a rat that was out performing every other surface bait compiled.

One early morning, a monster jump it and broke my line.

 

I put another one on and sat for about an hr.........45 minutes later it surfaced,  it without the tail.

Cant imagine how he got that loose.

[Master Bait'r]

19 hours ago, buzzed bait said:

had one break me off the other night with my white python pop x on.....  that bait was a killer in this pond close to my house!  been a rough few weeks on the lures lost for me:  phenix special fx bladed jig, whopper plopper (x2), vision 110 and a MS mini slammer all gone in just like 2 weeks....  the one plopper and the slammer were somehow lost out of the kayak or out of my truck.... they were there and then they were gone!

 

 

That happened to me one time with a slide swimmer.  Got home and it was gone.  I said "Oh HELL no" and drove back to where I was fishing and then retraced my path driving SLOWLY.  Found that baby on the third corner, no worse for wear.  BOOM!!

[bma3]

I lost a ratltrap a few weeks ago that had the paint all chipped and that I had for more than 3 years. It was my first real hard lure and by far my favorite lure even though I could easily buy a new one. Wanna know what I did to get my baby back tho? My dad happened to have a mask in his car and I stripped down to my underwear and went swimming down to it! I eventually got it back, probably one of my favorite fishing moments of all time.

[Munkin]

My #1 producing jerkbait is a LC Pointer 65sp in a Japanese color I bought off ebay about a decade ago. A couple years ago I was fishing from the bank below a dam after work for several days and lost it. In 3 days I had close to 150 fish during the evenings after work. I went down the next evening with a scuba mask and got my lure back! (along with about 20 others). The Game Warden who watched what I was doing said I was crazy for a single lure but it was worth it. The lure is semi-retired as it is on its 14th set of treble hooks and they have almost crewed through the plastic as the paint is long gone. When I say semi-retired I still carry it around but am afraid to use it since I have others but it has permanently earned a spot in the tackle box.

 

Allen

[papajoe222]

I 'customize' a lot of my topwaters and my favs are Spooks. My all time favorite was a Jimmy Houston that I'd added a white and red feathered treble on the end and switched out the belly hook to a SureSet. A splash of red on the belly and 3D eyes and I could keep that beauty in a spot forever or until a fish exploded on it.  I was in a hurry to get back to a school of nice fish and didn't check my line after my third catch.  My baby flew 30ft. past the trees lining the shore and I haven't seen her in three years this June.

[NorthwestBasser]

@papajoe222 heartbreaking... even years later, the pain doesn't get any better we just learn to live with it. (Virtual shoulder for you to cry on... if needed)

[Cgolf]

I river fish a ton from shore, so for me it is rare for a bait to catch even 10 fish before it is lost. I do however retire the good ones that seem to defy snags, but have long given up caring about lost baits. I have had a couple of Bandit 100s that got me 50+ fish without snagging up hard.

 

The closest I came recently to caring was losing a bait within the first 2 trips last year that had been good enough to me that I thought of retiring it. I should have just gone ahead and retired it, because debating it was the kiss of death lol.