Standout Lures/Plastics in every category

[WolverineVanFish]

Hey Everyone!

 

This past year I coughed up the big bucks and bhave bought one sooner! So now Im wondering,"What else am I missing out on?"  I am interested in hearing everyone else has learned about specific lures/plastics and which ones seem to far superior to the competition within the same category.

thanks!

[tcbass]

For topwater the Whopper Plopper, for frogs a Homemade Teckel Sprinker Frog, for plastics, Senko 5" and Zoom Super Fluke nose-hooked with an Owner CPS Twistlock. 

[Cgolf]

Grubs, to me the 2nd most versatile bait next to a tube. For me Kalins 5" grub is the #1 grub out there. It is very tough and will hold up to many fish and can be fished on a ballhead jig, swim jig, slider head, texas rigged, sure there is more. Next to being tough as nails, the tail has the best action at slow speeds of any grubs I have fished and I have tried quite a few. They have great colors, Ron's Craw is one in particular that has worked in clear and muddy water.

 

Grubs also catch big bass and even got my PB Musky on one. The grub is a bait a lot have forgotten about or isn't sexy enough, but man do they catch em.

[Dorado]

@cgolf I find grubs sexy. I have a huge ziplock bag stuffed with them. I feel like every time I have one on the line I’m almost guaranteed to hook something. I mostly use 3” grubs so it could be a crappie, cat, bluegill, bass, walleye, white bass.......

[d-camarena]

Whopper plopper, frog, senko, flukes, any craw bait and some swimbaits

[Deleted account]

29 minutes ago, Dorado said:

@cgolf I find grubs sexy. 

This ^.  I'm always on the look out for full body fishnet and heels for my Fat Alberts...Wait, that didn't come out right...

[bigbill]

Don’t forget the perfume with those fish nets and high heels. Garlic is the flavor of the month.

 

the new baits look interesting, but I carry mainly the older brands and colors which still work today. The craw colors in crankbaits. The reds, browns, greens, chartruese, etc still work.

 

the yum money minnow, the senko type baits, worms in black shad, red shad, black, electric blue, baby bass(two tone green), brushog in red, brown, electric blue, etc.

 

the best, the most fish catcher bait of all time is probably a split shot rigged 6” black worm. Remember getting back to basics on a slow day.

 

i just ordered the rattle trap stutter step, so soon I’ll post the results.

[scaleface]

I've been real impressed with the Berkely Dredgers .

[BuzzHudson19c]

This year a standout for me was the Rapala scatter rap crankbait. I got one as a gift and performed so well I went out and got a few more colors.

[Angry John]

Kvd 1.5

Duo pencil 110

Keitech easy shiner 

Rage craw

Sierbert jigs

Lucky craft lv500 lip less 

Owner beast hooks

6 and 4.5 roboworm Aarons magic

Big bite dean rojas cane thumper worm green pumpkin 

Big bite baits green pumpkin double tail grub.

[scaleface]

The Red Eye Shad is the only lipless bait I have thrown for the past two years .  It fits my style of jigging it in deep water better than any other lipless lure i've used .

[Fried Lemons]

For soft plastic toads, keitech noisy flapper. In my view it combines all of the best qualities I’m looking for in a toad: the commotion of a stanley ribbit and the aerodynamics of a horny road, all while being more durable than either. I’m honestly sad I didn’t discover this bait earlier in the season when the frog bite was hot.

[Dorado]

22 hours ago, cgolf said:

Grubs, to me the 2nd most versatile bait next to a tube. For me Kalins 5" grub is the #1 grub out there. It is very tough and will hold up to many fish and can be fished on a ballhead jig, swim jig, slider head, texas rigged, sure there is more. Next to being tough as nails, the tail has the best action at slow speeds of any grubs I have fished and I have tried quite a few. They have great colors, Ron's Craw is one in particular that has worked in clear and muddy water.

 

Grubs also catch big bass and even got my PB Musky on one. The grub is a bait a lot have forgotten about or isn't sexy enough, but man do they catch em.

What's your favorite tube on the market? i only fish small finesse tubes during the spring,but wish to fish larger tubes at some point

[primetime]

Must have's for me....

 

Swim Senko's

Ribbit's

Dingers

Gambler EZ's and Skinny Dippers

GYB Grubs single and twin

Jigs, Big Jigs, Small Jigs, Brown Jigs, Black Jigs, Finesse Jigs, Culprit worms, Strike King Caffiene Shads, Zoom Swamp Crawlers, Pit Boss, Gambler Craws and flipping baits.

 

Rapala Original, Shad Rap, Shallow shad rap, Bomber Long A, Zara Spook, One Knocker Spook, Rebel Pop'r, Torpedo, Xrap Prop     Suspending Jerkbait- Timmy Horton Long A & Lucky Craft Pointer..

 

Plus a bunch  of other stuff but I use these baits the most. Also love the GYB curly tail worms and cut Tails. Spider Grubs, and lastly, Zoom Tubes.

[Spankey]

This year I've jerkbait fish more than I had over last few years. Rapala Husky Jerks and Countdowns have always been productive. I started using some Rapala Shadow Rap Shads in shallow and deep models. They are catching fish and will use them as long as possible this season. I don't like the shallow version. I'm having a tough time getting them down to the 3-4 foot level. More like two feet if that. Probably something I"m doing wrong. Might need to use them with a spinning setup and 6 lb. test to get them deeper. ???don't know???

[Cgolf]

4 hours ago, Dorado said:

What's your favorite tube on the market? i only fish small finesse tubes during the spring,but wish to fish larger tubes at some point

Here are some I have used and liked. Yum tube, not the vibra King tube on TW,  strike king flipping tube, Strike King 3.5" coffee tube, Bass Pro tender tubes, and Swing Oil J tube just about covers it for me, unless you can find the discontinued Trigger X tube which was very solid for me. For me a tube is pretty generic and I might change up the length depending on the bite, but have never put a lot of thought into the diameter of the tube. 

 

As as far as durability, swing oil probably the best, but you can expect multiple fish on pretty much any tube, even the tender tubes which are very soft. 

 

Just make sure sure to get a variety of colors. A tube can imitate it all, from craws to baitfish depending on how you fish em. 

["The Ghost" fisherman]

9 hours ago, primetime said:

Bomber Long A

I own several of the 15A long Bombers in black. One of the most deadly lures ever, IMO. I always have at least one in the old "Plano Hydro-flo" frog tackle box.  

[scaleface]

3 hours ago, "The Ghost" fisherman said:

  12 hours ago, primetime said:

Bomber Long A

I'm also a Bomber Longs A user . One of the most successful lures for big bass I have used . Caught  bookend 7 lbers on back to back cast and also my biggest limit ever . I won a fishing derby with them , all legal fish were weighed in   any species . 2 bass 13thirteen lbs .

[Cgolf]

For square bills, the good old Bandit 100 really whacks them. Over the years this bait has caught a ton of smallies for me and I have also done really well using it for largemouth on lakes. The interesting thing is the fish don't appear to become conditioned to it, so it must have a little something something to its wiggle that sounds natural.

 

For lipless the RES has been hands down the best I have thrown. It works in many different conditions. Others may whack them at certain times, but they don't come close to the consistency of the RES.

[BassNJake]

14 hours ago, Fried Lemons said:

For soft plastic toads, keitech noisy flapper. In my view it combines all of the best qualities I’m looking for in a toad: the commotion of a stanley ribbit and the aerodynamics of a horny road, all while being more durable than either. I’m honestly sad I didn’t discover this bait earlier in the season when the frog bite was hot.

This is my opinion as well and I throw soft plastic toads/frogs the majority of the time, the majority of trips.

I think its design allows for it to be retrieved right-side -up more often than other similar baits.

 

With its slightly wider design I like to rig my hook slightly crooked/ slanted to which ever side(bank) I want it to run.

This way I can stay off the bank a little more yet still be able to run my bait parallel to the shore/breakline/weed edge.

 

I also like how slow it can be reeled and still stay on top, kicking and leaving a trail.

 

[fishballer06]

Staples in my arsenal:

 

Lures:

Rapala DT

Lucky Craft Flat Deep DR

Lucky Craft RTO 1.5

Mann's Baby 1-

Lucky Craft Pointer 78 and 100

 

Plastics:

Keitech SIF - Keel weighted, underspin, or VMC Boxer jighead

Mann's Jelly Worm

Netbait Paca Slim and Baby Craw

Netbait C Mac 

 

[NYWayfarer]

Standout plastics:

Yum Dingers

Zoom Flukes

Zoom Fat Alberts

Z-man TRD's

Roboworm

 

Standout hard baits:

 

Whopper Plopper

Rat-L-Trap

[Darren.]

Welcome aboard!

 

This year, standout has been the Z-Man TRD on a Ned Rig.

In second place, Yamamoto Shad Shape Worm on a drop.

[Scarborough817]

berkley chigger has been the standout craw, the hula sticks was the standout finesse bait both on a ned and a drop shot. standout hardbait has been the dt10 in bluegill for sure with the red eye shad in yellow perch a close second

[WIGuide]

One of my favorite soft plastics I started using this year was the Missile Baits D-stroyer. It has a unique profile and action that I think leads to more fish.