If you only had one lure, and only one, regardless of season, conditions, etc. what would it be?
I’d go with either a 1/4 oz black jig with a two inch two tail grub or a floating 4 1/2 inch brown and gold Rapela. Probably the Rap because I can use it in heavy weed cover or put a sinker on the line four feet from the lure to get deeper.
MARK, THAT’S 2! NOW PICK ONLY ONE
and THEN, yakfish and
PADDLE ON!
-Frank in Miami
Choice depends on where and what
you fish for. On small rivers in Texas, I’d pick a Mepps 0 or 1. On the lakes, go with plastic worms. For salt, maybe a tout with plastic tail or a mirror lure. The Mepps can also be used effectively for them slimey cold water fish y’all call trout.
Lures…
I like fishing the Strip Pits in the Greene/Sullivan Area of Indiana…and can’t go wrong on the Small Floating Rapala’s…Cast and Twitch …Bass , Bluegil,Crappie.etc…
My all time favoite lure!
just one?
a black with gold blade Panther-Martin spinner.
Only one would have to be a jig
but I love that black bodied gold blade Panther Martin. First time I used it I got a 3 1/2 lb rainbow out of a Canadian wilderness lake. Mepps used to be my go to lure for summer run steelhead, brass or silver #2, but the Blue Fox Vibrax has surpassed it in my tackle box. But for one lure, freshwater or salt, it would have to be a lead head jig. I’d make it a fairly big one with some salt water in mind, 3/8 ounce, maybe red head and black marabou, or black and chartreuse, with a few mylar strips in there it is deadly on walleye.
Hmm…choices, choices…
But if I can have only one…
It would have to be a Black/Red Flake Tube, either Venom or Case versions.
Tubes are probably the most versital lure out there. Weighted and bounced on the bottom, or dead-sticked. You can nail 20 inch+ smallies in the dead of winter and fished around weed beds, pads, wood piles and other structures…you can nail Bucket mouths in the heat of summer.
And unweighted…you can use with a fast retrieve and keep it on the surface as a surface lure.
Ah, the old one lure question…
Let’s set some criteria. If you only had one kind of lure to fish the rest of your life…freshwater, saltwater, both? Any species or just one family or species? Any time of year?
Let’s say freshwater, as many species as possible but concentrating on warm water fish, all times of year. The one lure would have to be something that appeals to any predatory fish, comes in different sizes (unless you also limit it to only one size) and colors (unless you only limit it to one color), and can be fished a various speeds and in various depths.
My choice would be the simple marabou jig. You can catch about anything on it (I’ve caught brown and rainbow trout, all species of bass and sunfish, crappie (I know, they are sunfish too), pike, pickerel, walleye, sauger, catfish, suckers and carp…and even chubs and other minnows on marabou jigs. If I had to limit it to one size and one color, it would be a 1/8 ounce white one.
Having said that, I’ll also say that I SELDOM use a marabou jig unless I’m going for crappie and sunfish. At any given time, I feel that there will another type of lure that will work better than a marabou jig…but what might work better under a certain set of conditions will not work at all under different conditions. For instance, if I’m fishing for smallmouths on a river in the summer, crankbaits, spinnerbaits, and surface lures will all catch more and bigger fish than the marabou jig. But in the winter, those lures will hardly work at all, while the jig will ALWAYS produce at least a few fish.
Along this topic line and the one on
old lures, there is an interesting article in the Sunday Houston Chronicle that talks about old lures and also about the one lure to have if stranded on a deserted island…a Johnson gold spoon…replace the hooks before you get stranded.
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/outdoors/3299510
Definately a Rapala
Assuming
you mean where I fish most often. This is trout country so a Super Duper #503 would be my choice. I’ve caught more trout (and perch, bluegills, etc.) on that lure than any other in my tackle box.
Went with the
Rap.
criteria
– Last Updated: Aug-08-05 9:11 AM EST –
One lure with no defining conditions.
Rapala Skitterwalk
Best Dang Lure for NE Fla
well…
…the US Navy issues a white bucktail jig in their survival kits…
Z
Number 14
Black Foam Spider with white rubber legs.
I caught 21 fish on it two weeks ago. 3 I kept.
Good for Panfish, Bass, Trout, and once a curious Pike that sheared my line like it was nothing.
My one and only for trout
A Mepps Black Fury (dressed) - with chartreuse spots - in #2 or #3 on 4 lb. line thrown next to some structure.
Hell hath no fury like a Rainbow or Cutthroat that is hooked!
Pure pleasure (almost better than sex)
Vancouver Island Guy.
One Lure
A size 6 gray ghost streamer on 4 test tied with a double surgeon’s loop. Let out about 50 to 100 feet of line and paddle backwards in Z, or S pattern. You can use fly line, or just monofilament.
One Lure
I know the type lure depends on the type of fish but, if I had to choose one lure to carry in a survival pack, it would have to be a red and white daredevil. I have used this lure from Alaska to southern Texas and IMHO, it could be a lifesaver.
Cheating
Cheating, I would choose a single #4 Aberdeen hook. I could tie feathers to it with string and make a fly or streamer. I could crimp a split shot to it and make a jig. And I could tip it with so many kinds of live bait that I would never go hungry, ice or warm, fresh or salt.
But that’s cheating.
If I had to choose one lure, it would be a silver #0 Mepps Comet (the Aglia doesn’t always spin) with a strong #8 single hook. It can be still-fished for tiny fish with a worm on it (yes, Virginia, bluegills and perch will hit a stationary spinner with a worm on it). And, it would catch just about everything else.
My criteria include ice fishing; you can’t catch fish ice fishing on a surface plug, and jighead that is too big is useless.
For bass, my one lure would be the 3" black/silver Rapala, but I had to think long and hard about a 1/4 ounce silver Little Cleo. The Cleo will fish deeper more easily, can be tipped (a tipped Rapala has almost no action) with rind, plastic, or bait, and can be rigged with weedless hooks to fish weeds and pads. It can also be jigged, skittered, and trolled.
Thank goodness I don’t have to fish with one lure! Then there’s my hand-carved crankbaits, a carved bass popper, plastic worms, a maribou Road Runner, the Rebel crawfish, a Rat-L-Trap, panfish poppers, trout streamers, on and on…