Best overall hard bait company?

[scaleface]

55 minutes ago, J Francho said:

the Aruku Shad for the way, and where I fish lipless baits.  It does what no other bait in the category can do, and it works right out of the package as well

What does it do ?

[Munkin]

Lucky Craft if I had to chose just one.

 

Allen

[J Francho]

23 minutes ago, scaleface said:

What does it do ?

It has a wide head, so it deflects off rocks better.  The faster you reel, the lower the head angle, keeping the hooks from hanging.  They transmit a distinctive wiggle.  So much so, that I swear I can feel the difference when there is a fish in close pursuit.  I've called it so many times, I'm not imagining it. Also, it catches.

 

If they don't look like this after a few hours, you're doing it wrong.

 

https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-s4fmHNk/0/X3/i-s4fmHNk-X3.jpg

[Dwight Hottle]

12 hours ago, Jrob78 said:

I have no idea who makes the best but my favorite is Lucky Craft. They make hard baits in most all categories, come with decent hardware, good colors and they mostly all run well. I haven't used any of their hard swimbaits but their crankbaits, top waters, jerkbaits and lipless baits are great.

X2

[Smalls]

1 hour ago, Finessegenics said:

Storm Arashi series are great too. It seems like they haven’t been making new baits since I always find them in the discount bin at my tackle shop. When I see a color I like, I go for it.

Just their crankbaits, it seems. And it looks like TW has actually taken the rattling version off their website. I've never actually seen anyone else fish one, now that I think about it. 

 

That's actually how I ended up trying em. Told my daughter she could grab a couple baits out of the bargain bin. Went back a week later to clear it out. 

1 hour ago, Finessegenics said:

 

 

1 hour ago, Finessegenics said:

 

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[DitchPanda]

Ok so Jfrancho is on to something here...I use alot of strike king and rapala hence why I say they are tied for me...but there are a few other things I can't do without...for instance a rebel pop r is my confidence popper..and for how I fish I couldn't do without spro aruku shad jrs and Cordell spots for lipless even with how good red eyes and ripping raps can be

[lavbasser]

Lucky Craft.  The success they have had over a wide range of baits.  The Pointer and RC 1.5 were game changers in the industry and the company was pioneering with their hard baits in other ways.

....

less known but also excellent I would add O.S.P.

[ohboyitsrobby]

I'm gonna go with yo-zuri. I've had a ton of success with their lipless and walking topwater. I've heard the jerkbait is good too. I'm just not a jerkbait guy. 

[WRB]

Good topic.

I remember when Lucky Craft hit the local pro shops, everyone had the same reaction...$15-$20 for a bass lure is rediculous! Then we learned how good the Pointers were! 

In the 90's when the Japanese hard lures hit the market place lures were $4-$5 like Bomber, Norman, Heddon and Rapsla's! 3X-4X more was a lot of $$.

Reading this thread is interesting, no mention of River2Sea.

Tom

[lavbasser]

8 minutes ago, WRB said:

Good topic.

I remember when Lucky Craft hit the local pro shops, everyone had the same reaction...$15-$20 for a bass lure is rediculous! Then we learned how good the Pointers were! 

In the 90's when the Japanese hard lures hit the market place lures were $4-$5 like Bomber, Norman, Heddon and Rapsla's! 3X-4X more was a lot of $$.

Reading this thread is interesting, no mention of River2Sea.

Tom

I remember it the same way.  Lucky Craft raised the threshold of what people would spend for a bait and that helped other companies, like Megabass, which pushed the limit higher.  The weight transfer systems, the colors (I believe the original ghost minnow but many other innovative colors), the quality stock hooks and hardware made them different.  

[Black Hawk Basser]

Rapala is my all-around favorite, but I'd put Lucky Craft first if I wasn't so cost-conscious.

[Choporoz]

21 minutes ago, WRB said:

Reading this thread is interesting, no mention of River2Sea.

Tom

This prompted me to go look at their entire line up.  Top of my head, I couldn't think of anything past WP and SWaver.  I've had Dahlberg Diver Frog, which is discontinued, and Bubble Popper, but neither impressed me much.  Until they have some knoockout cranks and jerkbaits, I don't see them in this conversation much.  Their cranks could be great, but not a very big line.  I'd never heard of them.

[WRB]

4 minutes ago, Choporoz said:

This prompted me to go look at their entire line up.  Top of my head, I couldn't think of anything past WP and SWaver.  I've had Dahlberg Diver Frog, which is discontinued, and Bubble Popper, but neither impressed me much.  Until they have some knoockout cranks and jerkbaits, I don't see them in this conversation much.  Their cranks could be great, but not a very big line.  I'd never heard of them.

The Whopper Plooper is the hottest selling hard lure on the market, S-Waver the top selling hard glide lure on the market, Tactical Baasin DD crankbait is so hot it's back ordered for 3 months. I think it's worth mentioning.

Tom

 

[Mobasser]

Only one mention of Storm. Wiggle Wart is a legendary crankbait.

[J Francho]

Old WWs are legendary.  New, meh.  If you've messed around with a lot of these, the ones that don't "work right" are the ones you want.  If they have a perfect wobble, they're not as desirable.

[Mobasser]

1 minute ago, J Francho said:

Old WWs are legendary.  New, meh.  If you've messed around with a lot of these, the ones that don't "work right" are the ones you want.  If they have a perfect wobble, they're not as desirable.

Yes. It seemed like the ones that didn't work right were the best

[J Francho]

Yet another discrepancy with my "so called opinion" lol.

[king fisher]

Times sure have changed.  When I was young, I liked anything made by Rapala, but couldn't afford to buy them all the time.  I  purchased Rebel instead.  Now Rapala is considered affordable compared to many other brands.  Even Lucky Craft prices are considered bargains compared to others.  Where will it stop? If I had to pick one company it would be Rapala as long as Storm and Luhr Jensen are considered part of rapala. So far the Bait Monkey has always convinced me to buy quantity over quality, but lately he has been trying hard to convince me to add some higher priced baits for bass.  He won that battle long ago with saltwater gear.  

[J Francho]

I could have saved my money, and only bought my $30 Popmax for the past three or four years.  Seriously.  That one bait... I still would have caught plenty of bass.

[WRB]

Storm Wiggle Wart is a classic example of poor quality as the tooling degraded the lures ran more erratic improving the bass catching. When Rapala bought the brand and retooled the Wiggle Wart and added higher quality hooks the lure lost it's erratic action.

Today the Major Craft Zoner Hunter replecates the old Warts erratic action and is a high quality lure.

Strike King lures today are very popular with Bill Dance followed by KVD promoting the brand. KVD changes the hooks on his own Strike King lures, doesn't say that much for quality out of the box.

Tom

[Mobasser]

As for Storm, another one was the Chug Bug. I still have an older chrome one that's caught quite a few bass. It outfished a Japanese Yellow Magic popper, fished almost side by side from a guy who raved about it. But, with things like this, we'll never know if it was the actual bait, or my retrieve style compared to his

[Black Hawk Basser]

45 minutes ago, Mobasser said:

As for Storm, another one was the Chug Bug. I still have an older chrome one that's caught quite a few bass. It outfished a Japanese Yellow Magic popper, fished almost side by side from a guy who raved about it. But, with things like this, we'll never know if it was the actual bait, or my retrieve style compared to his

The Chug Bug is my topwater MVP.  LC Sammy a fairly close 2nd, but is not useful in as many situations as the Chug Bug

[whitwolf]

When it comes to crankbaits the one I use the most is a Rebel deep wee r. I also throw the wee r when I need a square bill.

 

The older baits are much better than the baits made from 89 until they discontinued that series. I have hoarded 100's of the deep wee, wee r, and deep teeny's.

 

Like jfranco has eluded too though it's difficult to limit yourself to one company. I throw Nomans, Bandit's, and Smithwick Rouge's. In the early, early Spring and mid through late Summer I throw a Big M wood bait. Buy that time the fish have seen /heard every rattling crankbaits on the market. My thoughts for what they are worth.

[WRB]

My experience with Rebel crankbaits in the 80's wasn't good. Suspend R series didn't suspend and tended to roll over when retreived at a moderate speed and for that reason I stopped buying them. Bagley, Bomber, Norman and Poe's during that time became my go to brands because they run good out of the box and caught bass. All these early lures came with either VMC or Mustad treble hooks that needed sharpening. Today's lures have superior hooks compared to the vintage lures across the board IMO.

Tom

[Catt]

IDk! 

6th Sense is pretty impressive!  ?

Movement 80X owns that category 

You'll be hard pressed to out do their Cloud 9 Series