Lures for different species and different conditions

I'm a ground pounding shore fisherman. I also like spinners for pike but I also use spoons. They cast a mile and pike really seem to respond well to them.

For a all around lure I like a 4" floating Rapala. I fish the Mississippi river so I use perch, black/silver and black/gold colors. Very versatile bait. I've worked them like jerkbaits with luck. I've also just twitched them on the surface and have had smallies blast 2' to 3' out of the water as they hit them on the surface. You can also just cast them out and retrieve them as search bait to see what a strange body of water holds. I've even caught sunfish on these. I'm sure it's a territorial reaction as it invades their beds.
 
I've probably caught more fish (panfish, walleye, bass, northern pike, musky, even a few carp and bullheads) on a beetle spin than every other lure combined, because I use it more than any other lure. I have also caught many panfish on flyrod poppers. I make a musky plug called the Eddie Bait but it is pretty large and used mainly for pike and musky.
 
I have found the Storm soft baits to work well at times. Especially the herring pattern.

For the freshwater panfish, I will work several types of baits including crankbaits until I find something they hit on.
 
Spinners have worked well for me for northerns, I have decided that it must be the noise and that they just attack out of anger, because pikes are just angry angry fish. This last summer I pulled in a 42" northern fishing from a boat landing because i'm too poor for an actual boat.

For Bass I enjoy bottom fishing with a Carolina Rig with varying power baits, and have an unfortunate amount of luck catching stupid bullheads with the same rig with a salamander shaped power bait, so if you enjoy those, they love the salamanders. They are a fun catch but too much work for me. Due to being roughage fish in MN, any that I catch are tossed into the grass to die and be thrown in the garbage. Not supposed to put them back.

Stumbled upon a strange trick for sunnies this last summer as well. Ended up having some waxies that were about half way into their cocoon stage, brown, semi hard, smell like death when you stab them with a hook. Well the sunnies go absolutely nuts for those ones, caught my limit in about 5 minutes one day.

Otherwise I wander through stores looking at lures and just pick up random things every so often to play with.
 
All time favorite: #9 original floating rapala in the chrome/shiner pattern fished very very slow and steady at sunset and after dark for pig walleye. Sometimes other minnow baits work better but that baby was my ace in the hole till I got bit by a raccoon and slacked off the solo night fishing a bit.

Close runners up:

White trout magnets for trout. The don't look like much but when paired with 4lb fluoro, they fish as good or better than bait. TRUST ME.

Green pumpkin colored mizmo tubes on an 1/8 jig head for smallmouth bass.

Yamamoto spidergrubs and senkos for largemouth bass.
 
D'oh! I meant to say a #11 not #9 rapala for walleye. This forum is a bit different than the ones I'm used to.
 
I agree that the #11 original floater rapala is one fish catching minnow plug. At dusk for big walleyes they are tough to beat. My favorite two colors are Perch and GFR-- gold fluorecent red. One of my fishing buddies prefers the larger size #13, and another swears by the jointed rebel in a similar size. They are all good, the main concern is finding the big walleyes. Since I normally fish from a boat the racoon usually leave me alone, but I imagine getting bit would be a real bummer.
 
I am fairly new to fishing with Rapalas, and have never caught a walleye. So whats your method for fishing with the #11 floater? Jig it along? slow retrieve? Throw it out there and just twitch it every so often?
 
gonna have to take notes... up until last year jitterbugs were always my standby, caught a lot of bass on them over the years, but I got skunked last year. Completely. I caught 1 panfish all year. Need to find a new spot, I think the chain o lakes may have lost it's magic for me.
 
Thanks Bart

I never heard of Trout Magnets I'll have to give them a try.

Looking at them reminded me of the first bait I mastered that I had to work to catch fish at age 9. A pink/white/white maribou jig. I learned how to put the right quiver to them to catch crappie on nearly every cast from the boat docks. The guy who showed me how to use them even taught me to file down the barb so I could release the fish instantly without even touching the fish. Just grab the pink leadhead and a twist of the wrist and the fish dropped back in the water and you looked cool doing it. That was a great few summers till I turned 12 and discovered girls.
http://www.basspro.com/webapp/wcs/s...-E881-DE11-B712-001422107090&mr:referralID=NA
 
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