Underestimated Lures (or Unappreciated)

[DirtyD64]

Always love to start a conversation and had some new ammo to do so. Just got a recent JDM order in; mainly lures/terminal this time. The last lure I added to my cart was a Jackhammer Stealth Blade. I have seen mixed reviews on them but needed some 1/2oz bladed jigs to stay down a little better. I got into lighter ones (1/4-3/8), but now have been using more 1/2's and plan on even switching my Mini-max chatters to 1/2 versions.

Either way, I was very impressed with the Stealth Blade yesterday. I thought that it vibrated pretty quickly, not original Jackhammer fast, but still pretty quick. I caught 5 fish yesterday in around an hour (good for our river) during a weird time and not the best area to fish. Caught all decent LM bass, best going around 17" and one smallmouth probably 15". Used a 3" green pumpkin Zako with the skirt trimmed a bit, same as my regular Jackhammers.

So, this made me wonder if anyone else was left impressed by a bait that you underappreciated or underutilized. Not a specific lure, but another example of mine would be the NED rig, thought it was a gag but ended up working very well.

What were you impressed by that you previously had no confidence in or even thought it was useless?

[slipperybob]

Bomber Slab spoon. When you look at it, it's too simple of a design. An oval shape with a flatter side and a raised V side. It's quite heavy for it's size too. That makes it's a total bomb cast for distance and fast sink rate too. When fishing in current where most other spoons and lures will tumble, the heavy weight of the Bomber Slab spoon works and remains functional. In open water, the spoon has quite a bit of side to side pendulum swing. This is pretty unique to just this spoon at this particular steady moderate retrieve rate. You almost had to fish it like an inline spinner method.

Most memorable was on a certain cloudy cold day when I wasn't getting any hits on anything else and decided to just try the Bomber Slab spoon. On this day, this was the hot lure. I was totally impressed when the freshwater drum fish were hammering it like hot candy or something. Also caught several smallmouths and white bass on it too that day.

[slipperybob]

Bay De Noc Vingla



It's a variation of the Swedish Pimple spoon with some side fins/wings on the lure. Instead of how the Swedish Pimple spoon with it's kicking retrieve, the Vingla sort of has more of a slower side to side wobble. However due to the uniqueness of the wings/fins, you can almost topwater surf this spoon on high speed retrieve without it blowing out. That gives it a unique subsurface or surfing adaptation that most other spoons can't do. Topwater strikes on a spoon is pretty darn rare in itself.

[LowRange]

I refused to throw a number of baits for years because they made no sense to me but later became staples of my arsenal.

Jerkbaits: these are weird long minnow things. We don't have those in our waters so obviously I wasn't going to throw them and didn't, for years, until one October on the southern end of Tablerock. I still resisted for years on my home waters until a spring trip to West Okoboji. Now I throw them every spring and fall.

Senko: I had no idea how to work one back to the boat. All the talk was about the intial fall. What am I supposed to do? Cast it out, let it sink then just wind it in the other hundreds of feet back to the boat? At the time I did all my fishing from a boat power fishing and covering water. It wasn't until I later when I got into dock fishing and also into cover focused kayak fishing did the senko make sense.

Lipless crank bait: I was an early adopter of crankbaits in the 90s and the snaglessness of the floating bait with diving bill was key for the appeal for me. The lipless sank like a rock, made a God awful noise and was supposed to imitate shad which we don't have. It wasn't until I woke up to the jerkbait did I also start throwing lipless in cold water and widely adopting the bait.

[DirtyD64]

All great stories and info. Looking back, it took me a while to get into jig fishing. Now I crawl jigs on the river almost the same as plastics like a shaky head worm.

Flukes, whether rigged with a light belly weight or weightless are very underappreciated.

[DarkShadow]

When I first looked at a chatterbait, I laughed out loud.

Now, I always have one rod rigged with one on deck. I like a particular JDM model. The blade is already vibrating before I turn the handle. :-D

With the advent of forward facing sonar, the Lil George is bound to make a comeback, right?

[Gone Phishin]

When I first looked at a chatterbait, I laughed out loud.

Now, I always have one rod rigged with one on deck. I like a particular JDM model. The blade is already vibrating before I turn the handle. :-D

With the advent of forward facing sonar, the Lil George is bound to make a comeback, right?

Dude, right on...same here. I always have one tied on too now.

[DirtyD64]

Laughed and thought of this thread scrolling through TW... They have a Banjo Minnow kit for $40, maybe they are making a comeback or underappreciated??? Lol

[dragon1]

Laughed and thought of this thread scrolling through TW... They have a Banjo Minnow kit for $40, maybe they are making a comeback or underappreciated??? Lol

LMAO.

Rapala Floating minnows are very underappreciated in today's world with so many lure options that are floating/sub surface, it is regularly forgotten but still extremely effective.

[DirtyD64]

Laughed and thought of this thread scrolling through TW... They have a Banjo Minnow kit for $40, maybe they are making a comeback or underappreciated??? Lol

LMAO.

Rapala Floating minnows are very underappreciated in today's world with so many lure options that are floating/sub surface, it is regularly forgotten but still extremely effective.

I hoped someone would laugh at that. Did get me to watch the original ad from the 2000s or whenever though for nostalgia. What you just mentioned, and a ton of other Rapala broke back varieties and others all are underappreciated. Shad raps in general seem left out for bass fishing around here. My father swears by a crawdad colored #7 shad rap all year, for walleye, bass, etc. He has a point though because it always either works or gets hung.

[dragon1]

Laughed and thought of this thread scrolling through TW... They have a Banjo Minnow kit for $40, maybe they are making a comeback or underappreciated??? Lol

LMAO.

Rapala Floating minnows are very underappreciated in today's world with so many lure options that are floating/sub surface, it is regularly forgotten but still extremely effective.

I hoped someone would laugh at that. Did get me to watch the original ad from the 2000s or whenever though for nostalgia. What you just mentioned, and a ton of other Rapala broke back varieties and others all are underappreciated. Shad raps in general seem left out for bass fishing around here. My father swears by a crawdad colored #7 shad rap all year, for walleye, bass, etc. He has a point though because it always either works or gets hung.

Down in the SE Region and even NE, a shad rap is king for cold water cranking. As a matter of fact Mike Iaconelli rated the #5 & #7 Shad Raps as his #1 winter lure.

[DirtyD64]

Laughed and thought of this thread scrolling through TW... They have a Banjo Minnow kit for $40, maybe they are making a comeback or underappreciated??? Lol

LMAO.

Rapala Floating minnows are very underappreciated in today's world with so many lure options that are floating/sub surface, it is regularly forgotten but still extremely effective.

I hoped someone would laugh at that. Did get me to watch the original ad from the 2000s or whenever though for nostalgia. What you just mentioned, and a ton of other Rapala broke back varieties and others all are underappreciated. Shad raps in general seem left out for bass fishing around here. My father swears by a crawdad colored #7 shad rap all year, for walleye, bass, etc. He has a point though because it always either works or gets hung.

Down in the SE Region and even NE, a shad rap is king for cold water cranking. As a matter of fact Mike Iaconelli rated the #5 & #7 Shad Raps as his #1 winter lure.

Maybe more good and novice anglers know about them than I realized. I just see 90% crankbaits, spinnerbaits, and top waters when you talk to people on the river. Most people fish a few times throughout the summer, and most through whatever the local sporting good store pushes.

[dragon1]

Laughed and thought of this thread scrolling through TW... They have a Banjo Minnow kit for $40, maybe they are making a comeback or underappreciated??? Lol

LMAO.

Rapala Floating minnows are very underappreciated in today's world with so many lure options that are floating/sub surface, it is regularly forgotten but still extremely effective.

I hoped someone would laugh at that. Did get me to watch the original ad from the 2000s or whenever though for nostalgia. What you just mentioned, and a ton of other Rapala broke back varieties and others all are underappreciated. Shad raps in general seem left out for bass fishing around here. My father swears by a crawdad colored #7 shad rap all year, for walleye, bass, etc. He has a point though because it always either works or gets hung.

Down in the SE Region and even NE, a shad rap is king for cold water cranking. As a matter of fact Mike Iaconelli rated the #5 & #7 Shad Raps as his #1 winter lure.

Shad Raps and the floating Rapalas aren't flashy and sexy, and additionally are difficult to cast with BC gear...and they tend to be finesse oriented lures, which in today's world of longer casting power techs, isn't the best combination for gaining popularity. Most peeps have also forgotten that The Bass Professor, Doug Hannon, who has recorded well over 500 double digit bass catches, credited the floating F-11 and F-13 for many of those catches.

[MK49]

Shad Raps and the floating Rapalas aren't flashy and sexy, and additionally are difficult to cast with BC gear...and they tend to be finesse oriented lures, which in today's world of longer casting power techs, isn't the best combination for gaining popularity.

I think you're right about the F11. That's what I used 85% ~ 90% of the time between 1991 and 1995, and caught thousands of fish with it. I even caught my PB, a 12 pounder. My life was very simple with the Rapala F11. I stopped using it about 25 years ago, mostly because it just doesn't cast well with baitcasters. I think it still catches fish, and I know I should use it, but I just don't.

I still prefer floating jerkbaits over suspending, though. But, most of them don't move like the F11.