Must have lure, cast your vote

[DTro]

Ok, you and a bunch of buddies are taken blindfolded to an unknown area. The only thing you know is that you are in the Upper Midwest somewhere. You are given the choice of the following items, and you have 2 days to catch as many fish as possible. The winner gets to go home, and the losers get a pair of cement shoes.

Which item are you taking?

[DTro]

The Jigworm comes flying out of the gate, but will it have the staying power down the stretch?

[PierBridge]

Go Rapala...maybe not the greatest early season lure but my fav for the entire open water season!

[waterbound]

If I can't get bit on a jigworm, the fish ain't biting. For the most fish I'd rather catch a couple hundred pannies than a few good bass/pike/etc. especially if it meant wearing cement shoes.

[pushbutton]

every year learning how to use various swim baits more and more effectively....my starting point for anything other than gills and cats

[deadeye]

I guess that a jigworm sounds the closest to what I always have on one of my lines. A 1/4 or 3/8 oz jighead with a 3" powergrub/twister tail.

Not much you can't catch with that. It's kind of like a jigging spoon for ice fishing, you could tie one on and keep it on all season with good success. It will work for aggressive-neutral-negative fish depending on how YOU present it.

[Northlander]

Swim bait. Very versatile.

[Duffman]

I went with swimbait as well.

I trim a 2" Power Minnow down to 1" and match it with a swimbait type jighead. Northlands Mimmic Minnow Fry is about the same size, but I've been using my version for the last 10 years. There's something about a fry sized bait that fish can't resist. If I had to rely on one bait for my life, that'd be it.

The list of the conquered:

Sunny

Crappie

Tulipee

Perch

Pike

Walleye

Lake Trout

Brownie

Rainbow

Looper

Brookie

Splake

Creek Chub

Largemouth

Smallie

And I've hooked into two Muskie, no chance on landing them.

Amazing that such a large fish would go after such a small offering.

[mainbutter]

Worms, particularly high quality sinking stick worms (senkos), are my go-to nowadays for new water. I only fish 'em wacky rigged.

Everything from crappies to muskies eat 'em (I've got pics of a 45''er with a senko in his mouth), and I've even caught a lake trout on one. I don't know what he was doing near the surface when all his other buddies were in 35 FOW, but I saw him jump and cast to him, and he took it.

If I'm not catching SOMETHING on a stick worm, there aren't any fish there.

[JBMasterAngler]

3" white/cream or milky shad powergrubs (twister tails) are my favorite and most used lures (#2 mepps spinners are 2nd). I've caught just about everything (no trout, yet) on them in various presentations.

[Black_Bay]

This can actually be kind of a tricky question if you think of a lot of possibilities. You stated one must catch as many fish as possible. Maybe it's during the winter when my buddies and I were dropped off. Given that situation I'd choose a sinker and hook especially if the hook was small. I could use live bait or rig up something and catch panfish all day long. The other baits can't do that, especially in the winter, or in pike infested waters. Sooner or later you're going to loose the other baits to a toothy critter. Having said that if it was strictly open water season and I had to catch a number of different species I'd choose the stick bait.

[PierBridge]

Agreed!

[blakeb]

i had to look at it differently, while i am a fan of fishing swim boats and Mister T's worms, If you were hard pressed to catch a fish you would be up a creek the moment a fish pulled the body off these lure, Very hard to try to catch a fish on a bare jig.

I feel confident that with a Rapala i can consistantly catch fish all open water season, as a matter of fact it is normally my go to lure on most outings.

[Wish-I-Were-Fishn]

I voted for the jig worm twister tail. It's one of my go to baits. The hooks are not very good however. I lost a huge fish two years ago when the hook on my rig bent open

[harvey lee]

Rapala for me.

[Borch]

I'm a crank guy. My response is hardly a surprise.

[lindy rig]

Tough to beat a shad rap

[tunrevir]

Yep, I love my stickbaits and cranks as well but as an "all around" fish catching lure minus live bait I have to give the curly tail my vote of confidence. Plastics can produce in warm water, cold water and everything in between. You have the versatility of using it to work the top, middle or bottom of the water you fish. You can jerk it, rip jig it, steady retrieve it, drag it, bounce bottom, vertical jig, hop it, work it weedless, hop it, pop it, burn it, work it in heavy current, shallow water, drop shot it. Many more applications IMHO and very versatile. Of course this requires a different selection of jighead weights and hooks but I have caught everything from panfish to lake trout on curly tails. They get my vote for multispecies.

Tunrevir~

[Duffman]

Quote:

You can jerk it, rip jig it, steady retrieve it, drag it, bounce bottom, vertical jig, hop it, work it weedless, hop it, pop it, burn it, work it in heavy current, shallow water, drop shot it.

In my head, this part came across as Bubba's voice from Forrest Gump.

I need a ruling here, isn't a swimbait nothing more than a glorified jig/worm (curly tail)?????

[Down Deep]

I chose the Mepps Spin Type bait based on personal experience. In my tackle bag you would find a well stocked box of Mepps willow leaf style baits in various sizes and colors. When I'm unfamiliar with the water I'm fishing I'll go to the Mepps box. I've produced fish of all species smallmouth, largemouth, trout, walleyes, tons of northers, and panfish. I've taken them to Alaska and caught silvers salmon and rainbows. I've used them and produced fish in saltwater I also call them my lunchbox lures and start throwing them when the fishing is tough and I'm looking for a fish fry.

[waterbound]

I need a ruling here, isn't a swimbait nothing more than a glorified jig/worm (curly tail)?????

It can be considered a swimbait, yes but I think for the purposes of this poll a swimbait refers to a hard bait like this one:

[mainbutter]

The term "swimbait" is as general as the term "worm". The basic definition is along the lines of "something that moves with a swimming motion on a straight retrieve" so as to give the impression of a swimming fish. This motion is GENERALLY side to side, but curly tails are a bit more erratic.

There are 3 main types of swimbaits:

1) curly tail swimbaits

2) paddle tail swimbaits

3) jointed swimbaits.

[genegodawa]

My Dad always said "if you can't catch 'em with a Mepps, you can't catch 'em"

But my most verstatile would be a purple or black Mister Twister.

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GIMMEE A LEECH OR CRAWLER UNDER A NICE RED AND WHITE ROUND BOBBER!

[Bassinbob84]

Depends on the species.

Bass lucky craft Sammy

walleye Secret homemade topwater during the mayfly hatch. How many people can say they've caught eyes on a topwater?

musky pacemaker

I'll would rather catch fish on a topwater than anything else.

[516]

minnow rap