If you could use only ONE brand of hardbait...

[Bassmar]

I have a box full of Lucky Crafts and must say that these are my FAVORITE cranks. However over the past two seasons the Rapala DT's have outfished all others. They have by far been the most PRODUCTIVE cranks for me. I suppose in my case it is a case of the one catching the fisherman and the other catching the fish.

[Elpablo]

Bassday and Lucky Craft

[LPFC]

Strike king
Great lures at a price everyone can afford except the sexy swimmer and king shad.

There lures average 4 to 6 bucks.
The customer service is also outstanding.

I wish they had a spook type lure though

And they sponser Kevin or does Kevin sponser them,

[floriano]

This a very good question !
Herre in France, modern lure fishing (with bait casters and catch and release) has just begun 10 years ago, only through the japanese brands, so we know them better than old classic american brands ! Though, recently we are more oriented to USDM, because we have understood that your lures were great and so much cheaper than japanese ones !


Japanese brands I've tried :
Jackall : very good design thanks to Seiji Kato (best lure designer ever), some of the best action in some categories (Squadminnow, Tiny fry...) but solidity is a real issue in my experience
Imakatsu : innovative (killer bill series, javallon... ), good finish (except with Trairao, they lose eyes quickly), very good colors, very specific action (Riprizer)= very underrated compared to Megabass !!!
Evergreen : same as Imakatsu, with some of the best lure I've tried (Side step, Faith, Combat pencil, Delta spinnerbait, Combat popper bambino, Showerblows...) = very underrated compared to Megabass!!!
Deps : too expensive, good quality lure (Balisong minnow is a very good jerkbait), swimbait too expensive for their swimming action (american ones are generaly better)
Smith : very good lures for L and UL trout fishing (beautiful trout patterns)
OSP : innovatve design (Bent minnow is a special bait), strong lures
Tsunekichi : hard to find...just tried a spinnerbait (very good , Owner stock hook)
Megabass : good solidity due to a thick finish coating but a lot of hype around. Some very good baits ( Cyclone crankbaits, Dog-X séries, Flat Slap, Popmax..), with very good color patterns but way too expensive. Some great disappointments and weird designs : Vision 110 magnum, Anthrax.... Too much hype compared to efficiency.
Luckycraft : the standard, and still the best in a lot of category (pointer...). Not the best finish but better than Jackall.

In a word : Luckycraft for classics and Imakatsu or Evergreen for real specific and inovative designs (not Megabass )

American brands :
I've tried some of them (Strike King, Berkley, Spro, Storm, Heddon, Xcalibur, Bomber...) but not as extensively as japanese ones. My prefered at the moment are Norman lures (cheap, tough, quite good stock hooks, great action), love to throw them for trouts (not designed for it, I know, but very effective in that way !).

[buzzkidd]

Pretty happy with my Spro cranks although I really like Norman too.

[be85]

Lucky Craft they just make alround good baits

[crankmaniac]

Like many lucky craft come first in my book but the daiwa td line-up is a close second for me.

[Johnny A]

O.S.P.

[Bodeen]

This is a tuff question. I used to swear by Mepp's as my go to lure. But then I found walleye and do more Rapala fishing for them then anything else. I catch my share on reef runners, thunder cranks, and wally divers, but old school Rapala lures work nice.

[Gabriel]

I would go with Rapala, fairly inexpensive and they have a good line up.

I do a lot of fishing with husky jerks and they always seem to work well for me. I also picked up the X-walk and Sub walk-lures and I really think they will work well. I lost my favorite Husky Jerk after a hard summer of fishing, it was missing tons of foil plastic off the body and was scratch up from nose to tail. I was trying out some new flouro at night when my bail flipped shut mid cast and it sailed into the darkness. I was grumpy for days even after I bought a replacement.

Other companies make nice stuff but I know Rapala will be around for a long time and I can't afford anything higher end.

[g11k11]

Deps

[Steve1982]

I would go with Lucky Craft as well. i like them more than Jackall and other high end company

[Huskybass101]

It looks like LC is getting lots of votes. Other than some of the finishes being easy to bait up, LC makes a great lineup of baits.