What are your favorite lures to throw? Looking to possibly expand my aresonal... I expect some love from my PA brothers in this thread! Only interested in artificials not live bait....
Before I transitioned to mostly flyfishing, I always had good luck with these: Olive/chartreuse/white rooster tails White/Silver Flake Tubes Brown/Red Flake Tubes Small Rapala (Classic Black/Gold)
Small plastic worm like 5 inch Berkley power worms with bullet heads. Also, grubs and tube jigs. Berkley power lizards are great as well, especially in the spring or late fall when the smallies want a big snack before winter. I like to throw the plastics upstream onto the outside of some form of structure, let the bait fall a bit, then pick it slowly. Unless of course the bite is strong then I will be ready to reel quick to pick up the slack. I like the worms in red shad and generally darker like purple..purple/black.....motor oil. But I am slanted to plastic worms and such since I use them 99% of the time. Here is my ALL time go to for any type of bass.
Scott... do yourself a favor and pick up a pack of Manns Hardnose Frogs... rig them up with an extra wide gap hook and you have the best stream lure that I have found for smallies. The white have been incredible for me. http://www.cabelas.com/p-0034473120497a.shtml
I live in smalie central right on the best shore of Champlain. Put on a 1/8 oz jig head and a 4" white twister tail.....throw it out and retrieve. Done deal.
I do alot of fishing in the Juniata River and a couple streams for smallies. I'm freakin excited, I have two floats planned for the Juniata this weekend. My 3, big fish (you will also catch numbers) lures are a Bomber crab (i prefer the fat A's in 1 1/2" or 2" but any model in a crab color will work), a black jitterbug (with clicker) and a zoom fluke hooked in the nose with a Mustad 92553 2/0. With these three I'm confident in any river or stream i fish. A husky jerk with a dressed up rear treble is a good one also (i caught a decent smallie today on one).
I could fish the rest of my life with only the following lures. Basic Rapala in black/silver, blue/silver, or black/gold Crawfish pattern bomber A Brown tubes with black flake Green tubes with black flake Of course I use more, but probably 95% of my catch comes from these 4 "food" groups. Adjust tube size for target fish size. I good fat 4" tube will weed out a lot of small fish if you are after bigger ones. But if you still want the small bite while catching big ones too, a normal 3-3.5" size is tough to beat when they are taking tubes.
I think tubes are God's gift to smallie fisherman. I literally go whole summers throwing three things. A bass colored 4 foot crankbait, 4 inch green pumpkin tube with either a 1/4 oz head or an 1/8 oz head, and a 5/8 oz jitterbug later in the summer at dusk. I fish the Susquehanna River.
So far the only type of setup I do not throw is the berkely worms Virginia mentioned... I also havent used the hard nose frogs, but rather the sizmic toads is what I throw... Fats... I love throwing a fluke... Especially in clear wated when you can see them explode on its erratic action :D Now that I think about it, its been YEARS since I threw the bomber crawfish cranks.... I don't think I even own any of them anymore. I should get some...
Off the top of my head other stuff I throw not mentioned... "Panfish" sized chatterbait... Cotton Cordelle Big "O" (in the smallest size) The small countdown rapalas, small castmaster spoons (these last two especially in faster moving water).... May think of more...? I dont have my tackle to look through currently to jog my memory.
Keitech Swing Impacts (weightless texas rigged, or on a jig head) Senkos Tubes Flukes Rapala's X-Raps or Pointers (cold water, or when they are in deeper water) Grubs Jitterbugs My preference is in that order. Do yourself a favor and order some of those Keitech's........you will need to get them through either a local place or www.tacklewarehouse.com. Most of the box stores won't carry them but they are one of the most versatile plastics out there. Based on water clarity/cloud cover, most of my fishing will be with smoke/black fleck baits or watermelon/black fleck. I will also fish black/white, or black/gold patterns for the Keitech's. Rapala's, X-Raps, Flukes, and Pointers are all almost exlusively black/white or black/gold. 2 weeks ago I managed to put together a 16lb+ five fish bag of smallies on nothing but Keitechs and Senkos. When I know I'm in a body of water that holds bigger fish, I'll throw anywhere from 4-6" baits to weed out the dinks.
I bought up a TON of Strike King "Itsy Bitsy" jigs in pumpkinseed color and put a small orangey-brown craw trailer that I break off the body so it doesn't trail as far behind on them... they can all be found at Wally World. SLAUGHTER the smallies on the Ozark streams just a few hours west of here with those. Great thing about these is the weedless guard on the jigs; I can throw them under any log jam and drift them in deep without fear of haning up as the current whisks us on by through the rapids. They're great to tie on my boy's setup as well because they pull out of trees easily too. :D
For streams and rivers the following. Shad Rap (Bluegill, Silver, Gold and Shad) Original Floating Rapala (Silver and Gold) Rooster Tails Jigs with twister tails Clouser Minnows
Oh I almost forgot my all time favorite...top water fishing early morning or later in the evening. I can do it right from my dock and kill them with lures like a popR or heddon dieing minnow double prop bait.
Sizmic's are made right near where I live. They are also great for summer Largemouth. Let me know what three colors you like best. I have a connection that does not cost a dime. PM info with address and next time I am up there I will pick them up for you.
Alright Scott.. another killer for me is 2-1/2 Yo-Zuri Pins minnows.... they have a much better action and color scheme compared to Rapala's.... they smallies really smash them.
I only throw a few different things. Why? Cause I beat the crap out of em all the time with these. Spinnerbait. Gold. To mimic a bluegill color. Or, white/chartruese. War Eagle makes one I really like, color Blue Herring. Jigs. Eakins. Green pumpkin/green flash or Texas craw. Back that up with some sort of beaver tail. I like Yamamoto flippin hawg, green pumkin w/ copper flake. Rage tail shad. White or Chartruese w/ a 5/0 EWG hook. Even Torpedo's work really good. When you get in the shallow, rocky flats, topwater beats 'em up bad around here. I'll sometimes toss a super fluke or a centipede, but really, the above 3 is pretty much all I use.
