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

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.....