What lure pleasantly surprised you?

[NavyVet1204]

Not really one that you have worked with tirelessly to achieve success with, but basically a lure  that you had never tried before and completely destroyed the fish on the first time. 
 

I can’t believe I’m saying this, but for me it’s the whopper plopper in bone color. I bought in to the hype initially and the first day I took it out I caught a 4lb’r and two casts later was another just short of 3lbs. Never mind that I haven’t caught a single fish on it since, but I do remember thinking I had struck lure gold when I wheeled that first one in. 

[LrgmouthShad]

Shad raps, bitsy bugs, zoom z hogs, and a z craw on a jig all pretty much crushed it when I first tried them. But probably #1 is a black and blue Zorro short arm SB that on my first trip fishing in NY in 2022 caught my best NY bass.
 

First time throwing it, on like the third or so cast. It was kind of ridiculous. 

 

[Jmcdole]

First time I nailed my first fish on the jig 

[Big Swimbait]

Cabin Creek Spider Parts in the small size. I like the fact that you can mix and match skirts and that one of the tentacles is thicker to rig it weedless on a 1/8 oz jig jead.

 

Edited April 17, 2022 by Big Swimbait
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[NavyToad]

Weightless Super Fluke. Right place, right time, and I’ve had confidence in it ever since. That was 20 years ago and next to a spinnerbait, there’s no other lure I’d rather throw.

[T-Billy]

The Sluggo way back when they first hit the scene. I couldn't believe the number of fish that stupid looking piece of plastic produced.

[Munkin]

25 minutes ago, T-Billy said:

The Sluggo way back when they first hit the scene. I couldn't believe the number of fish that stupid looking piece of plastic produced.

 

Same here,  I was a grub fisherman and bought some Sluggos to try. The first time I tried them bass were all over them. 

 

Allen 

[scaleface]

Texas rigs .

[DaubsNU1]

34 minutes ago, T-Billy said:

The Sluggo way back when they first hit the scene. I couldn't believe the number of fish that stupid looking piece of plastic produced.

 

Agreed!

 

Before I had a boat, or even a canoe or belly boat, we fished a road that cut through a local reservoir.

 

There were two 4' pipes that went under the road to connect the lake...I remember standing 30-40 feet to the side, pitching a Rainbow colored Slug-Go beyond the pipe, then jerking it past.

 

Caught numerous bass that way. Had a BLAST! 

 

[DitchPanda]

Swim jigs and Ned rigs.Admittedly I didn't "get it" right away...maybe because they don't look like much. But a few years ago I learned how to use them properly...realized the tool they were and what jobs they are right for...now I throw them as much or more than anything.

[roadwarrior]

Dark Sleeper

https://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Megabass_Dark_Sleeper_Swimbaits/descpage-MBDSLP.html

[Columbia Craw]

Max Scent Flat Worm

[gulfcaptain]

I would say the  Pompador Jr.  I tried it one summer day and caught a fish on it the first day. Since then it has produced quite a few times and is a killer for smallies.. thing is ugly as all but gets crushed.

 

[smalljaw67]

10 hours ago, T-Billy said:

The Sluggo way back when they first hit the scene. I couldn't believe the number of fish that stupid looking piece of plastic produced.

 

I remember taking my father-in-law on a smallmouth trip and breaking out the Sluggo. I just got a 42 piece kit I ordered from the Cabela's catalog and was ready for a good day. I had fished them once before and had an idea that they would be good for smallmouth the same way they worked on largemouth. Yeah, I knew it would be good but not THAT good!!! By the end of our day every Sluggo we had was laying on the floor of the boat. We were using a cigarette lighter to repair tears and holes in order to get an extra cast or two out of them. My father-in-law looked me straight in the eye and said that he never had a day that good, 137 smallmouth with a dozen or so in the 4lb range and the vast majority were keepers. He said, "if you would have told me you caught that many fish on that stupid looking piece of plastic without witnessing it firsthand, I would have called you a liar." Two days after that trip we made about 50 phone calls to find more Sluggos and ended up driving 107 miles one way in order to buy more of them.

[BrianMDTX]

The Neko Macho. And not as a Neko rig, but weightless on a 3/0 EWG Texas rig. It casts like a bomb from my baitcasters as it’s a heavy soft plastic, and that pinched area leads to a rounded tail that has surprising action. It gets hit dragging it, hopping it and on the fall. It’s an extremely versatile soft plastic. It skips well, too. Thanks to @roadwarrior for introducing me to that bait. 

[gim]

Probably the ned rig.  I wouldn't say I "killed" them on it, but it certainly was effective.  I remember looking at it before tossing it out and saying to myself "that thing is going to get endlessly pecked by panfish."

 

Turns out that it did too, but I caught several nice bass as well.

[scaleface]

This one . Had some spectacular days with it . 

[Bankc]

A neon orange trick worm on a shaky head jig.  I had never tried a shaky head before, because I assumed it was too similar to a ned rig or a T-rig worm, and I thought I could make one of those work well enough in a shaky head situation.  But I got the stuff on a super sale, so I thought I'd give it a try.  It's been my best producer this year, and by a wide margin!  

[Bird]

I've thrown Jigs my whole life but actually had a banner day earlier this month throwing swim Jigs....... just swimming them along and bumping cover.

It's kinda of a hard technique to screw up. Lol

[NavyVet1204]

3 minutes ago, Bankc said:

A neon orange trick worm on a shaky head jig.  I had never tried a shaky head before, because I assumed it was too similar to a ned rig or a T-rig worm, and I thought I could make one of those work well enough in a shaky head situation.  But I got the stuff on a super sale, so I thought I'd give it a try.  It's been my best producer this year, and by a wide margin!  

That’s how shakey head was introduced to me was a sale that I got the worms on(junebug) and so I rigged it up and caught a few instantly off of a lake bank and the I put on a Yum cranberry truck worm and really started pulling them out and I been hooked ever since.

[A-Jay]

18 hours ago, NavyVet1204 said:

Not really one that you have worked with tirelessly to achieve success with, but basically a lure  that you had never tried before and completely destroyed the fish on the first time. 

Had to think about this one for a bit.

I have a couple - 

The 6th Sense Crush Flat 75X and the SPRO Mike McClelland RkCrawler 55.

While I don't recall 'completely destroying' the bass first time out.

Both of these baits produced nicely in fairly shorty order.

And still do, thank you very much.

A-Jay

[ironbjorn]

The first time I used a Spook blew my mind. I remember it not being as hard to walk as I'd always assumed and it easily and vastly outperformed every other top water I've ever used and still does.

[Aaron_H]

The Luck-E-Strike 4" ring worm. When I first started picking up bass fishing, I couldn't buy a bite on any of the curlytail worms I was throwing. Took me almost two weeks, but that was the first lure I caught a bass on and continued to smash them on it.

 

Likewise, the baby brush hog did wonders from the first time I threw it. Caught two PBs on it that first summer, including my first "big" bass that fueled my obsession with the species, 7lb 5oz (it's the bass in my profile pic).

[Bluebasser86]

Big Bite Baits Yomama in Black neon/Watermelon Red. I meant to buy plain Black Neon but bought the laminate and tried it out. I've got a 100 pack in my boat now. 

[Jaderose]

Mine is a "Well, Duh, Dummy" answer but I was pleasantly surprised by Green Pumpkin Senkos.  For YEARS I thought they wouldn't work because they were the "same color as the water" I fished.  Yeah...not so much...lol