What's The Hardest Bait/Lure To Fish with?

[Munkin]

Since I rarely use deep diving cranks I will go with jerkbait. After a few hours my wrist starts to hurt and if they are still working I switch to a spinning rod.

 

Allen

[papajoe222]

I voted for big swimbaits/glidebaits because of physical limitations, but jerkbaits are the hardest for me to master. I can catch them on a Fluke, switch to a jerkbait and come up empty. Go figure.

[Hammer 4]

3 hours ago, papajoe222 said:

I voted for big swimbaits/glidebaits because of physical limitations, but jerkbaits are the hardest for me to master. I can catch them on a Fluke, switch to a jerkbait and come up empty. Go figure.

You must be using the wrong Brand.. Just kidding.

[GreenPig]

Deep cranks for me as we have grass out to 17 FOW that's 6' thick that drives me insane. I can only crank so many pounds of grass before I put it down. 

[fishwizzard]

Jerkbaits all the way. At least fishing them slowly is absolutely maddening to me.  I fish from the bank in winter and if it takes jerkbaits to catch a bass then I would rather just go hiking that day.  

[scaleface]

  Whenever you see experts talk about deep cranking , they always say to make a super long cast to get the most depth out of the lure . That is true but not always necessary . I often use a bait that dives way deeper than the bottom being targeted and make much shorter cast . It is quicker and more efficient . A Dredger 17.5 in 10 foot of water will not require a Hail Mary,  just a normal toss . Deep cranking has been the  hardest genre for me to get  decent at .

[Deleted account]

e) None of the above. It's fishing, we aren't trying to open up a giant telescope in space remotely, or killing Zombies....

[AManWearingAHat]

I love swim bait fishing of all sizes, I picked them up pretty quickly.

Crankbaits are still elusive to me. Never had much luck with them.

[T-Billy]

I've broken both wrists and have tendonitis in my elbows. Not a fan of jerkbaits anymore. I'll suck it up and throw them if I gotta, but if I can get them to bite something else I'll be going that route.

[Dvo509]

I would say a big soft swimbait like a Hawghunter or hudd style bait. It takes a lot of patience to slow roll(most the time) for less bites.  

[king fisher]

1 Big Swim bait glide bait.  I haven't tried yet.  I am scared I would catch my PB on the first cast, then would end up broke and divorced long before I would complain about fatigue from fishing them.

2. Crankbaits.  I was catching bass with them when they were called plugs.  I don't have any difficulty catching bass with crankbaits.

3.  Jigs.  I catch bass with them, but they are my most difficult lure to fish.  I constantly miss bites, and snag them in wood and rocks, far more than other lures.  I plan on working hard on my jig fishing skills this year.

4. Jerk baits.  I caught hundreds of bass and other species before I even knew you were supposed to jerk them.  I jerk them now and catch bass, but if my wrist gets sore I simply switch to straight retrieve and catch bass.

5.Buzz Bait spinnerbait.  Only difficulty fishing these lures is sore muscles from landing bass.

[gim]

Big lures don’t bother me physically because I do a fair amount of muskie fishing and the gear is much bigger, stouter, and heavier.

 

Of the options given, I voted for the jig. Not my thing.

[AManWearingAHat]

11 hours ago, gimruis said:

Big lures don’t bother me physically because I do a fair amount of muskie fishing and the gear is much bigger, stouter, and heavier.

 

Of the options given, I voted for the jig. Not my thing.

Amen to that. Good friend of mine is a bigtime muskie fisherman, so I started going out with him. Makes my bass gear feel like I'm flicking a feather around. 

[BlakeMolone]

Jerkbaits for me, every time I go out it takes me a little while to get that perfect crisp snap down and when I’m working the bait aggressively it can wear my arm out in an hour, super fun and rewarding though!

[gim]

7 hours ago, AManWearingAHat said:

Amen to that. Good friend of mine is a bigtime muskie fisherman, so I started going out with him. Makes my bass gear feel like I'm flicking a feather around. 

Haha.  It certainly is a noticeable difference.

 

Several muskie reels have been modeled after bass reels in recent years.  Almost all muskie reels used to be big round bait casting reels.  Now there are several models that look like over sized low profile bass reels.  It actually makes muskie fishing less physically-demanding for long periods of time.

[ATA]

2 hours ago, gimruis said:

Haha.  It certainly is a noticeable difference.

 

Several muskie reels have been modeled after bass reels in recent years.  Almost all muskie reels used to be big round bait casting reels.  Now there are several models that look like over sized low profile bass reels.  It actually makes muskie fishing less physically-demanding for long periods of time.

I am using one of those reels for my oversized swimbaits for bass fishing. Toro Beast by Abu Garcia, Thats exactly what you described.

[gim]

3 hours ago, ATA said:

Toro Beast by Abu Garcia

That’s a great reel.

[FishTank]

Its almost a tie between jerkbaits and swimbaits.   One wears out my hands and the other is mentally fatiguing. 

[Luke Barnes]

Thats easy for me. Jigs. Because I am terrible at detecting the bite and only recently i started using finesse jigs and actually catching a couple. I probably got lucky that I felt the fish there. 

[Cdn Angler]

I'm the opposite. Can't catch a cold on a fluke, but on hard jerkbaits I've caught hundreds of fish and have total confidence. Go figure indeed. 

[J Francho]

The hardest to learn was jigs, but well worth putting in the time.  The most exhausting is an umbrella rig or a big swimbait, but also well worth it.  Any bait, fished into the wind is difficult.

[scaleface]

4 minutes ago, J Francho said:

The hardest to learn was jigs

Thats the best way to put it . Even though I caught bass on cranks since I started fishing , they were the "hardest to learn" to do well  in deeper water  . 

[Luke Barnes]

13 hours ago, Cdn Angler said:

I'm the opposite. Can't catch a cold on a fluke, but on hard jerkbaits I've caught hundreds of fish and have total confidence. Go figure indeed. 

That's a good one. I can't catch anything but leaves on a hard jerkbait and they do get tiring doing jerk jerk pause..... Jerk jerk jerk pause..... It wears on my patience and doing the same thing over and over and over. 

 

So hard jerkbaits for me as well. 

[Mike L]

Anything on a spinning rod and lighter line.  
Obviously not the hardest things to do,  just can’t stand doing any of it. 
 

 

 

 

 

Mike

[RDB]

On 10/25/2021 at 4:25 AM, Bluebasser86 said:

I'd say for a lot of anglers, a jig is one of the hardest baits to master. 

I agree…if you had a way to capture the actual number of bites compared to bites detected, my guess is the bite detection for the average jig fisherman would be pretty poor compared to “masters”.

 

From a physical standpoint, for me it’s deep cranks and big swimbaits.  I have bone spurs in both shoulders and they won’t hold up to the long casts and lure weights anymore.