Home Forums Fishing Freshwater Name your no fail fishing lures (if you dare)

Crappie - Cubby lures Mini-mite.

Not sure why but when they don't want to. Bite, they slam these things.

17.5oz Solvkroken cod jig

Blue/white or green/white Rapala.

Silver & black Rapala J-7
Bluegill to bass, bows & browns.

River-1/8th black wooly worm pattern Joes Flies spinner, every thing that swims... bluegills, redeyes, crappie, bass, trout, whitebass, walleye, the list goes on...

Great lure and one I typically start a day on a river float with. When the chips are down, a bass will hit a plastic worm like a Senko or a lizard, or maybe a fluke, when they won't touch a hard bait. Problem with plastics is they are slower to fish and you can't cover water as fast, if you're bumping bottom. Not as much so with a fluke.

Panther Martins: if you can't catch fish on them, you need to stay home.

I don't think they even make them anymore but Creme or someone made a plastic crawfish imitation that sunk slowly and got hammered by everything. I got a couple left but i never use them because they remind me of my father in law. Rebel Wee Craw works great for bass and bluegill. Blakemohr roadrunner red with white curly tail or better yet turbo tail works wonders. Round blade for crappie and walleye, willow leaf for white bass.

Devil's Toothpick.

Jigs.

I was kind of surprised to see the rapala J7, I've had good luck with shad rap rapala' a but not those.

Now I have to go look up Devils toothpick... Never heard of that one.
I haven't used Panther Martins either... Rooster tails are what I've been using.

For Az bass Rapala X-rap #6 in silver. 85% of my fish are caught on this lure every season. Working a jerk bait will wear you out. I have a 6' super light rod with a small Pfluger Arbor reel and 6 lb fireline that minimizes the fatigue.


http://www.rapala.com/rapala/lures/x-rap-series/x-rapandreg/X+Rap.html

Salmon love those J7's trolled. Fish don't even have to bite the solvkrokens for them to work. They put food in the freezer.

Hank, I have three or four of those jigs in my barn, we used them cod fishing 30 years ago, I don't know if their worth shipping to ya thou.

I have a pretty good stash. I know this is the freshwater forum but I couldn't resist. I got all mine from some guy in NJ that literally had a pallet of them. USPS priority was my friend on that deal.

The jig is ubiquitous,universal,works shallow to deep on everything from salt water species (see above!) to finicky brown trout,and every fresh water species,every where.

It can be fished shallow or deep,so is not restricted as to depth and is deadly in both places;can be fished fast (to cover water) or slow. It imitates everything from tiny crustaceons to full sized baitfish; the style can be tailored to the species.

They are THE universal fish catching bait. The only thing that comes close is some type of spinnerbait of various styles.The right jig will catch fish world wide.

Turn me loose on ANY bass lake in the country with the right jig,and I will get bit.....even if I have never seen the place before.

You got that right! Mr Twister sassy shad has landed me many a trout. My old boss was a hardcore fly fisherman until he saw how effective jigs were, now he owns an impressive collection.

That gets my vote. My "one size fits all" for trout fishing is a 5 to 5-1/2 foot spin rod, open faced reel loaded with 4 pound maxima, and a handful of 1/16th oz "classic gold" panther martins. If I can't catch trout on that, they can't be caught.

Tom

Yep! And Ive found them as effective on bass and brim. I even waded out into the surf in P.C. Florida a long time ago and caught Spanish Mackerel and Sailers Choice on them.

Hank:

Jig fish.

Beauty!

I've been skunked enough to know I don't have one.

Should have used a jig

Jointed Creek Chub Pikie. But it ain't the lure - it's the leader that's vital.

I prefer a 6-foot hoop net as leader.

The only absolute sure-fire lure is a stick of Mr. Nobel's little invention.

Jointed shap rap.

When Hank showed that lure I thought Dang that thing is big.....

Now seeing the fish he's catching - I get it.

Hercules... Like JJ on good times said, it's DY-NO-MITE

I guess I'm not keeping up, I hadn't see X-raps or jointed shad raps...

That one I brought up backwards was 120lbs. Fun times.

How do you like that Mojo rod?

There is a house painter in my hometown. He long ago befriended the wives and decorators of all the upscale clients, many of whom live on estates with private ponds. He's brought over 100 bass, 10# or larger, to hand. Most all of them were caught on a jig/pig. His "bass boat", is a 12ft jon.

Bluemonday the Mojo is my favorite in the St. Croix lineup. I like the lighter casting models real well. They are nicely designed and pretty lightweight and tough enough for either mono or braid.

My biggest LM from here in the northeast are both J&P fish and both weighed between 9 and 10 pounds. Someone texted me a pic of a Massachusetts 9.5 pounder caught last week on B&B JP. Likely a local place not far from here.

A small boat will get you on some big fish water!

I wouldn't call them "no fail" lures, but my "go-to" lures vary by species. Up in Saskatchewan where I fish, my "go-to" for pike is a #7 Rattlin' Rap in either baby bass or black/gold color. When trolling for walleye I like to run the original Storm Hot N Tot in chartreuse/silver.


SS

I thought 7# was a huge LM in the northeast. I think I'm going to try a Mojo crankbait rod. Thanks for the info on them

Bluemonday: Yes a 7# bass is a very big one here. I classify anything 5#+ as "big".

But the Mass. record is about 15#,and far as I know is the largest Northern Strain LM bass on record.

Most any good sized lake or pond in Mass, Maine, or NH is capable of producing a fish 7-9 pounds with the 10 pound marker being scarce....but still there. My two biggest were similar to the one pictured.This was a 9.5# jig fish from eastern Massachusetts from last week..

I lost one last August about as big,at boat side.

But keep in mind we are talking only 3 fish in 40+ years of bass fishing up here.

Wow! That's a mule even down south!

Seal billy: My buddy last May. Southern Maine. 9.5 pounds. Spinnerbait.

That is a mule Bob!!

Totally agree with you on the jigs....

In certain conditions the stick baits are good on some jighead styles.

Same thing holds true with walleyes, only a little different style.

Snot rockets like them also...

Mike we have some good ones! I have been in tournaments when it took a 5 pound average to win it,


You are right on those stick baitsI like the Zoom Super Fluke,or Charlie Brewer swim bait on the Owner underpin early spring. Keiteck EZ Shiner on a Scrounger is killer.

Big small mouth and LM,too!

4# Plus. EZ Shiner

Nothing wrong with that brown fish either Bob!!

It is fun fishing plastics to compliment the jig. As you know, at times the plastics will outfish the jig, but for the really big fish it isn't very often, at least in this area.

My son is a master with a jig and I love to fish plastics. It doesn't take us long to figure out which bait they prefer that day.

Bass are soooo much fun....

You beat me to the punch Rocky. I buy up old Pikie Minnow beaters wherever I can find them, and they still catch fish. Kind of funny. I fished with a young kid who'd never heard of a Pikie Minnow last year. When I was up on him by 6 bass, he asked if he could try one of my "old lures." He's hooked on em now too.

Flippin-jig and pig or 4" paddletail worm with the sinker pegged.
Casting-chartreuse spinnerbait.
Surface-Smithwick Devil's Horse
Walleye-jig and minnow or leach
Smallmouth-anything in a crawdad pattern
Northern-Creek Chub jointed Pikie Minnow-the uglier the better
Crappies-small jig and minnow
Sunfish-ice jigs and waxworms.
Carp-bow and fishing arrow.

I posted earlier I don't have a no fail lure but I agree the jig is probably used sucessfully for more freshwater and saltwater fishing than anything else.

If I had to pick another one it would be a Rattletrap or Cordell Spot. They're pretty much the same lure except the Rattletrap's got a small dorsal fin. I've caught freshwater bass and trout while bass fishing with them and sea trout, flounder, redfish, bluefish, and stripers at Oregon Inlet, NC with one that had most of the paint worn off.

A rattle trap is a way more versatile than most people know. A 3/4 oz trap fished slooooow is good in the early spring, a trap yoyoed under a ball of bait or fished pendulum like with a snap along bridge pilings for spots. Damn here I am at work and there are fish out there to catch. Whew.

Yep, I use home made 1/8 & 1/4 OZ. jigs with a twister tail. From bluegills to muskies on the same lure. They cost about 6 cents for the hook and 15 chest for the tail.

Smallmouth fishing. Location is Door County - voted the best bass fishery in the country a couple times by BASS.

I have 2 go to lures.

1. Rapala Scatter-Rap in Penguin color. Caught 17 small mouth on it in 4 hours once. Largest 2 were pushing the 5lb area and people don't get excited about smallies up there until they hit 5lbs - heard 8lb small mouth being caught there.

2. Jig with Kalin grub. 4 inch in smoke. Fish it slow as possible. Jig head should be ticking the rocks. Me, dad and brother once caught 55 small mouth combined with them in 2 hours.

Teal, where do you find 4" kalian gubs? All I have ever seen is 3 and 5. I always thought 4" would be perfect.

Smallmouth- tube
Landlocked salmon/brook trout/brown trout/rainbow trout/whitefish- DB Smelt
Lake Trout- Flatfish

Order them direct from Uncle Josh.

Here

Smoke is the only one they don't offer in 100 packs IIRC. Brother called them and said they'd give a discount to us if we bought them 100 at a time.

The tails on them are super thin and I think that's their mojo. That also makes them a wee bit prone to tear.

We've seen them work enough to want to order them 100 at a time which would last all summer of hard, 12-14 hour days of fishing.

Fish them SLOW - can't stress that enough. If you're not getting hits and you know you're over bass - slow it some more. I fish them slow where they hang up on about every 1/3 rock and I have to pop it free.

I run 30-45lb braid with a 4 foot 10lb mono leader. Mostly because I never know what I'm going to catch here on the lakes. Done walleye, bass, sheephead, pike and king salmon all on the same day and never got deeper than 20 feet. Plus our zebra mussels will really wear on the line - for me, I go heavy and replace often.

Yeah, I fish them a lot and the tails drive me crazy with getting the hook through them and short strikes taking them completely off. I fish them in the winter slow in a 1/8 oz leadhead. Chartreuse with copper and black flake is my favorite. Are you positive they are 4"? I use 3" in the river and in the lake in the winter and 5" in the lake the rest of the year. I have never seen 4", even online. I will look on uncle josh's site.

Positive - 4 inch. Click the link - they have em there.

I rig them with the tail turning opposite of the hook curl.

Make sure they run 100% true.

ETA -

Fair double caught on said rig - not me in pic. This was a pair caught at the end of a blitz where we had 50+ in the boat and about 10 minutes before a monsoon cracked over us. Raining so hard we had to run the bilge in the boat.

Thanks Teal and a flurry of smallies like that would make me frisky! I have been in a fLarry of stripers, crappie, white bass, sunfish and spotted bass but never a large flurry of smallies. I bet y'all couldn't quit smiling. Thanks again!

Getting on a good smallie run/spot is more fun than should be legal.

Skip Reese told me once that we didn't know how good we had it up here for bass. He couldn't believe the numbers of good/big bass we had.

I'm not joking - unless your smallmouth is pushing 5.5 lbs - most people don't mention it. We don't talk length anymore - ours all seem to be short but fat footballs.

It's large water fishing tho - the ones in the picture were caught on a lake that is 14,332,160 acres in size (Lake Michigan).

I'll throw another out there, the good old flatfish. Different sizes and colors will take everything from small trout and panfish to monster lake trout, pike and walleye. And they are great for inexperienced fisherman, as anyone can feel the wobble and tell if it is fouled, weeded, or has a fish on.

Lure Jensen Krocodiles will take just about anything you can get them in front of.

Rapala floating Silver Minnow.

My other two will never be revealed

#11 or #13?

Yep. I've been made fun of over and over by fishing pards with my vast assortment of jigs. But they quit laughing when fish start coming in the boat.

Tube jig.

A buddy likes a Boob Jig, link here
We've had a few giggles and caught some fish too.

1NUT: Jig fish I could go on, but we get the drift.













Almost forgot....4#+ small mouth love 3/4 oz footballs, too.....

#4 or #5 Tony Acetta - Gold or Chrome.

Impressive !

Nice largemouth for up north

ribka: We have some good ones!

My two biggest in the boat from the NE are both over 9 pounds. Most tournaments where i fish takes a 3-3.5# average to win.

I won't say it's no fail but for the past few weeks I've had pretty good luck on bass using a Rapala X-Rap with a slow, stop and go retrieve parallel to the front of docks.

43: Makes a lot of sense...depending on water temp where you are we are in "pre spawn" and water in the 50's is CLASSIC suspending jerk bait time.

We have similar results with the Xrap and the Suspending Rogue when those dock fish will not come to a jig.

Wooly buggeger,#8 through 8/0, various colors and weighted/fished as needed. Muddy

Rebel Bluegill Squarebill is my go-to.

I rarely hear others say this.

Kalin put this one in the boat last weekend

You're not fooling anyone by holding a small fish up, at arm's length, to a wide angle lens.

Love those Cod jigs!

Black and silver Rapala bigger and smaller depending, but they work!