Not trying to offend anyone here for sure

But I have to wonder about various lures...and in particular...HOW a fisher-person uses a specific lure with no results.

Many lures have IMHO sublte intricacies about them...and this is born true many times...by the fact that the manufacturer gives specific tips for using them.

My PERSONAL 1st lesson about baits...spoons...to be specific...came at a young age. I grew up on a small river in central Minnesota...which at it's widest point...was barely 200 feet across. It was fed by a reservoir about 60 miles away (from my place)...at which point...the small dam was (is) barely 30 ft wide.

Water was clear unless we had a big storm.

My neighbor caught both pike and walleyes with a 3/4 oz red & white DareDevle.

But for SOME reason...I NEVER caught a fish with one of them.

At the same time though...I had a 5/8 oz hammered gold / orange Aqua spoon that I caught pike with.

A smaller version of the same spoon caught me MANY rock bass around laydowns near the shore.

I also had a 1/2 oz black / white spoon (and another painted all black) that caught me walleyes when these were reeled in slowly just above the bottom.

There were also certain weedbeds in the river...that if I fished at either 1st light or dusk...with a green / white spoon...would yield a largemouth bass on occassion.

In other words...there are certain times / techniques / colors that will work in a given body of water.

Fast forward to 1998. I was in California...and had reconnected with an old Army buddy from the late 1970's.

He had a boat...and decided we were going to fish Lake San Antonio (central CA) one Saturday morning.

We were on the water by 8:30 am. It was sunny out...but the wind picked up by 11 am to the point of 20 mph gusts.

Between the 2 of us...by 3 pm...had fished with close to 100 different lures in all.

During the course of the afternoon...we talked to 3 other pairs of anglers.

Out of the 8 of us...the only person who had caught any fish was me....

with a....Banjo minnow  ...out of a brush pile that ALL of us had fished heavily...as it was one of only 5 "wooded" areas on the entire lake.

I guess what I'm trying to say here is that....just because a lure doesn't catch fish for you a couple of times...doesn't mean that the lure isn't any good. YOU are the one trying to convince the fish that your "offering" at the end of the line is something edible.

So it's up to you to try various techniques with lures to make that happen....to include paying attention to the details of how the mfg'er suggests using the lure in question.

One last note....and think about this for a moment. There are hundreds...if not thousands...of anglers that have never caught a fish with either a Jitterbug or a Hula Popper. They were both in production in the 1940's.

AND....still are today. WHY? Because many folks DO catch fish with them.

That said...the Banjo is STILL in production...going at about 15 years so far....so they are working for someone!

Hopefully...none of you are offended with my post

im gonna step on some toes and say Lucky Craft, with the exception of the Sammy, i have caught very little on. As amazing as they look, they did a better job at catching me then the bass i was looking for, however i feel if i tried more subtle colors it may be a little different. i love he action, i love the fact that they are 100% ready to go out of the box, but i cant get a fish to hit them.

i must say its interesting to see this post cause spinnerbaits are my go to lure, i start with those and try to figure a pattern from there, faster retrieve, or slower? breach the blades off the surface, or slow roll? IN FACT, i couldnt get smallies to hit my line the other day, unless i was throwing a spinnerbait around wind blown rock outcroppings, 40+ plus smallies came on spinners this past tuesday alone. but goes to show bass behavior.

A lot of interesting posts here. It's funny how one guys go-to lure is another ones reject. I think we all have our subtle differences in presentation which works well for some lures and not so well with others. Another factor is probably how many of which lures a fish sees, if everyone on the water is throwing a daredevil the person throwing a husky jerk may be the lucky angler that day. Like Dave said, if the lure isn't catching fish and no one is buying them they won't keep making them. I remember one of the best fishing trips my dad and I had was when we had about a 2-3 hour window when we were catching fish ( walleyes, smallmouths and pike) on almost every cast. After using my favorite lure for awhile, I decided to try all the lures in my tackle box and it made no difference. With the exception of surface lures, I was still catching fish at the same rate. I concluded that all lures will catch fish, in the right situation. That's why lure manufacturers are still in business and most of us have large tackle boxes that are overflowing. After reading all these posts I think this season I'm going to give a little more time to some of those lures that haven't been used much over the years and see if I can't come up with a couple of more go -to lures. Here's to a great season guys.

yup have to agree with Dave on this one , I personally don't use the Banjo Minnow but it is really no different than the many Fluke type plastics that are out there that folks swear by. These I know catch fish and I do use some of them so maybe if your not catchin them on your Banjo Minnow maybe your the problem not the Lure. Rethink how your fishing it and try doing something different with it and see what happens!!!!

How can someone say they have never caught a fish on a zoom super fluke really seriously ? My five year old son catches bass and bluegill on the super fluke jr all the time

I like to think of myself as not the problem...

I think this whole topic is pretty humorous because of the disagreements on what the worst and best baits are. It's quite clear that every lure that is made has a certain set of conditions or situations in which it can produce. It's all about your style of fishing and the types of water you are fishing that determines your best (and worst) baits. I will say for me personally, I can't catch diddly poo on chatterbaits. I would much rather throw a spinnerbait.

Posted By Captain Quantum on 08 Mar 2011 03:22 AM
This may be very controversial, but here goes. I know Rapala makes some incredible lures, but in my opinion, a lot of them don't work! They just don't produce! When you look at them in your hand you think, "Man! The fish will love this!" But out on the water, many of them just don't produce. I have often found myself switching to other lure brands and THEN hooking up! I love you Rapala. I do. Your lures are amazing. But not all of them.

I agree.  I have a few Rapalas and rarely use them because the times that I do use them, I never catch anything on them.  I love the look and the tradition behind the lures but will not buy more of them until (1) they start catching me fish (2) they go down in price.

Never had much luck with the banjos, but I'm giving what I have left to a fishing buddy who swears by 'em so go figure.  Re: jig & pig/plastic, I had a bunch in my box that hadn't caught a thing.  I was living out in Calif. at the time and they were the go-to for a lot of guys I fished with.  One day, I went (alone) to the lake to fish from shore and only took my jigs and a bunch of plastic trailers.  Once I got my first hit, the light went on!  I took a while to get the hang of it, but to this day, IMHO, catching bass on jigs is second only to topwaters as my favorite method.  It doesn't work in all situations, but when the conditions are right, it makes me glad I worked it out.

Posted By dpeterson84 on 15 Jul 2011 06:55 AM

Posted By Captain Quantum on 08 Mar 2011 03:22 AM
This may be very controversial, but here goes. I know Rapala makes some incredible lures, but in my opinion, a lot of them don't work! They just don't produce! When you look at them in your hand you think, "Man! The fish will love this!" But out on the water, many of them just don't produce. I have often found myself switching to other lure brands and THEN hooking up! I love you Rapala. I do. Your lures are amazing. But not all of them.

I agree.  I have a few Rapalas and rarely use them because the times that I do use them, I never catch anything on them.  I love the look and the tradition behind the lures but will not buy more of them until (1) they start catching me fish (2) they go down in price.

90% of the crankbaits in my tackle box are Rapalas.   When fished during the correct conditions, I've never had a problem with them, particularly the Original Floating and Jointed Rapalas.  I've caught tons of bass and other species off them.  Those are my favorites by a long shot.  The DT Fat Series Rapalas have produced for me quite a lot, too, but I find that they are poorly made and often have many defects.  On one occasion, I caught two 13" Yellow Perch off one.   Yes, the price of Rapalas are outragious, but the lures are usually very well made and last a long time.

My least liked lure has to be the jig. Probably because the waters I fish aren't jig situations. This  probably applies to a lot of these other comments here. Just watch Denny Brauer and Tommy Biffle on TV killin'em on jigs. If i was in that boat with them, I'd be pitchin' one too!

It's really quite easy how someone can say that since it's true{1}****il last night actually, was bored so decided to give it a shot, caught a 12" smallie).  I'm happy for your 5 year old, he's a better fisherman than I.

Never caught a fish on a twin tail spider grub either, they are now at the top of my list as least liked.

Wow, my quote didnt work (was directed at Jaysun7776). Gotta love the censorship too! A parenthesis and the word until somehow is equivalent to a word that starts with C and rhymes with hunt, lol!

My least favorite lure is the Helicopter lure. I never caught anything on them and I used them alot. Banjo minnow is a very close second.

Location of the fish, determines the presentation of the lure and after that it's up to the angler to figure out the color. Sounds simple huh? By all the comments above, not really. Prime example, fishing below a dam for walleye. The hot lure at the time was a Rapala Husky Jerk or Original Floater. Among 20 people fishing all the same lure, including myself, with a fish being caught about every 15 to 20 minutes. All different colors were being used. So I decided to change it up and throw a Rebel Wee Craw with brown back, chartuse sides and orange belly. I started averaging a fish every five minutes ! It could have been a different action or different color I don't know. All I know is people were digging thru their tackle boxes trying match what I was throwing.

Posted By davesett2000 on 03 Jun 2011 04:04 PM
Not trying to offend anyone here for sure

But I have to wonder about various lures...and in particular...HOW a fisher-person uses a specific lure with no results.

Many lures have IMHO sublte intricacies about them...and this is born true many times...by the fact that the manufacturer gives specific tips for using them.

My PERSONAL 1st lesson about baits...spoons...to be specific...came at a young age. I grew up on a small river in central Minnesota...which at it's widest point...was barely 200 feet across. It was fed by a reservoir about 60 miles away (from my place)...at which point...the small dam was (is) barely 30 ft wide.

Water was clear unless we had a big storm.

My neighbor caught both pike and walleyes with a 3/4 oz red & white DareDevle.

But for SOME reason...I NEVER caught a fish with one of them.

At the same time though...I had a 5/8 oz hammered gold / orange Aqua spoon that I caught pike with.

A smaller version of the same spoon caught me MANY rock bass around laydowns near the shore.

I also had a 1/2 oz black / white spoon (and another painted all black) that caught me walleyes when these were reeled in slowly just above the bottom.

There were also certain weedbeds in the river...that if I fished at either 1st light or dusk...with a green / white spoon...would yield a largemouth bass on occassion.

In other words...there are certain times / techniques / colors that will work in a given body of water.

Fast forward to 1998. I was in California...and had reconnected with an old Army buddy from the late 1970's.

He had a boat...and decided we were going to fish Lake San Antonio (central CA) one Saturday morning.

We were on the water by 8:30 am. It was sunny out...but the wind picked up by 11 am to the point of 20 mph gusts.

Between the 2 of us...by 3 pm...had fished with close to 100 different lures in all.

During the course of the afternoon...we talked to 3 other pairs of anglers.

Out of the 8 of us...the only person who had caught any fish was me....

with a....Banjo minnow  ...out of a brush pile that ALL of us had fished heavily...as it was one of only 5 "wooded" areas on the entire lake.

I guess what I'm trying to say here is that....just because a lure doesn't catch fish for you a couple of times...doesn't mean that the lure isn't any good. YOU are the one trying to convince the fish that your "offering" at the end of the line is something edible.

So it's up to you to try various techniques with lures to make that happen....to include paying attention to the details of how the mfg'er suggests using the lure in question.

One last note....and think about this for a moment. There are hundreds...if not thousands...of anglers that have never caught a fish with either a Jitterbug or a Hula Popper. They were both in production in the 1940's.

AND....still are today. WHY? Because many folks DO catch fish with them.

That said...the Banjo is STILL in production...going at about 15 years so far....so they are working for someone!

Hopefully...none of you are offended with my post

+1. Said very well Sir.

Really is hard to pick a lure you like the least! Since I am not physically able to move around like I use to I have tried just taking one rod and reel with one lure. Seems like it makes me really use the lure more methodically and definitely not spending so much time changing lures. Out of this experiment I seldom fail to catch some fish and have not been skunked too many times. Of course it does help to live on small lake. I probably would have just as much a problem trying to pick my favorite lure. Couple of months ago I started going through some old tackle boxes and picking lures I have not used in a long time--they still work as good as ever. I was amuzed to find one small tackle box I used in fishing one of my favorite rivers. Seems like fish hit lures that had a flouresent orange gills and belly. There must have been twenty lures in that old box painted in that hot orange. I enjoy going through tackle shops and have come to believe that many of the lures today catch a lot more fishermen than fish. With fall not far away enjoy the cool mornings and hope you catch a bunch. Uncle Tom

Hold on Unc, you never did give us a least liked lure. So what is it?  

As far as my favorite lures, I think my on-site forum name kind of gives it away: jigs. From 1/64 oz. on up to 3 oz., I've caught more fish on jigs than a lot of guys have driven by! Hair & marabou jigs in cold water, plastic bodies in warm. And, as I always say, if you can only carry one type of lure around with you, make it jigs. The only thing you have to remember with them is that the angler is totally responsible for the action the jig has. Most jigs (swimmer-heads are an exception) don't have any action to them. The angler has to fish them. But once you get the hang of how to use them, you may not want to fish with anything else. As far as Flying Lures go, the 2" and 4" all-black are the only ones I've had fish on, that 2" being the all-time champ... everything from rock bass to white bass to walleye to sauger to bucketmouths to large bullgil{1}**** that small black bug like the thing owed them money. Alex Langer can keep the rest of those Flying Lures, tho.

As far as my least favorite lures, I know I'm gonna get a lot of flack for this, but crankbaits are useless. The only crankbait-type lures I've ever had success on were red RattlTraps (just in the spring, and just in clear water), and, more successfully, Rebel minnows and original Rapalas, both in the jointed model rather than the solid-bodies, and in black back/silver sides/white belly in clear water, black back/gold sides/white belly in stained water. The Rebel jointed bodies seem to do a little better than the Raps, maybe because the split is closer to the tail on the Rebels, where the Raps are usually split right in the center. Don't know why... just seems that the fish I've chased like the Rebs a little more. Any other crankbait (all the fat, stubby ones everybody else raves about) won't ever see one of my rod-and-reel combos again.