Spankey

I don't think you need to go binge buy or impulse buy. I'm not much for buying some lot of baits because I for the most part only see maybe 10% of it that I'm interested in. You could take an approach where prior to going out that week, you pick up a few different baits of a certain technique you want to work on and fish them hard and try to make something happen. The following week do the same thing again possibly a different technique or expanding the pattern that is working. By the end of the season you'll have a heck of a lot more than what you started with. I believe the baits you acquire will be a lot more productive and be cheaper in the long run.

I use to fish that SubWart on the river a lot back some time ago. Got hooked on the Bandits. Should have bought more of them back in the day, I still have the initial handful I bought. They should bring it back.

Casting the 1/4 oz. Traps has never been a baitcasting issue. My set up is a bit lighter than most as I'm tossing 8#. They certainly cast well with a spinning set-up, majority of my river fishing is done with spinning set-ups.

I ordered (4) of my most productive/proven patterns in 1/2 oz., I feel this will be an apples to apples comparison. Slightly bigger profile, can fish it a bit deeper, may fish better in windy conditions, may make a bit more noise. There is no mistake in trying this. I use to fish the Mini Traps hard back some years ago. Throw a handful of color patterns my whole time out. They certainly can get the attention of the river smallies. I see the lipless style of CB's is pretty endless now days, a lot more choices. Not that I just crawled out from under a rock or anything but got started and hooked on Bill Lewis and kept it that way. Looks like they have newer pattern series that I never thought existed. I'm just gonna keep it simple with the 1/2 oz. Traps. There are some real natural patterns that caught my eye but I found out with a few of the natural series Rapala baits I fish they are not worth a ***t. Gonna stick with some proven patterns and not send my experiment in the wrong direction. I appreciate all the input.

I use Bill Lewis Rat-L-Traps. They work. I do fish a few SK Red Eyes but I bought them because of their color patterns. I like the RES but have not intention of switching over to them 100%.

To OP you don't need to spend a fortune to get started with a few lipless baits. Keep color patterns pretty simple. In my mind I really only need 3 patterns but have many others that work great. The SK Red Eyed Shad are a big favorite here. I'm a bit more old school and am a Rat-L-Trap guy and Cotton has a Super Spot that has time proven patterns as well. Spots are a bit cheaper but good baits. I believe it's a bait that can't be fished wrong. Fast, burn it, slow, stop and go, yo-yo....if things are right they'll get bit.

A lipped bait is designed to run to a certain depth. Lipless you have control of depth and action of the bait. As someone mentioned yo-yo ing of the bait. I find lipless baits a big part of my fishing. They are a good search bait.

I've been a river rat for many years. When I got into fishing Rat-L-Traps I settled into using the 1/4 oz. Mini Traps. Why, I don't know. Most likely because it wasn't the larger original trap (probably didn't expect back than to fish 1/2 oz. baits) and not the small tiny trap that seemed to me to be for trout fishing a smaller stream. Being a creature of habit and sometime being reluctant to make even slight changes I have not thrown the 1/2 oz. size. I've been kicking the idea of buying some of my proven patterns in the 1/2 oz. size just for the slightly larger profile when the water becomes slightly more stained than the norm. And maybe I've should have stepped the size up years ago. I don't think there will be a confidence factor to this. I'm ready to pick up a few. More curious if you guys think the size difference is a slight advantage or just leave it alone 1/4 oz. There is not a night vs. day difference in size wise between them. But noticeable. Might be worth fishing for a whole season with the 1/2 oz. size change to see how it goes. Kicking it around, a few baits are fairly cheap in the long run. A cheap experiment really. Your opinions are appreciated and thanks.

It's ok for an external cleaner. WD 40 is very popular. It has had its hayday. WD has some water to it, and it will gum some. I would not spray it internally but some guys will probably say they have been using it for years. I will never use it on any part of a gun.

I use prescription brown/amber. A lot better than black. Way better than black. They work excellent when shooting sporting clay also.

Go back on Saturday they'll most likely be cut in half again. I picked up boocoo Gammies in the beginning of the last week on clearance. Went back on Saturday to pick the grandsons up a bunch of Super Spots and the hooks were 50% less again. Just check it out again if its not far out of the way.

Don't be afraid to fish a Rat-L-Trap on the fast side.

I'm Foremost a Rapala Fan. But will not leave home without Rat-L-Traps, Bombers and Bandits. I guess these are are not expensive baits these days. Stepping outside of my box over the last few years has been with some Live Target stuff. Not overly impressed yet. For my b-day I'll ask for a few bait ball patterns. I know they'll work. More of a couriosity thing. Have to build a bit more confidence also. Pretty much a creature of habbit. Hard to pull me away from something that works. I like trying different patterns of things that have worked for me. *Any Rapala I've used has caught fish. *Bomber are a no brainier, Can't go wrong. *Bandits are fantastic baits. I feel like I was their first customer years ago in the North East (know I wasn't). But I feel like they have taken a major nose dive. Don't know what is going on at that company. I own many of the good discontinued patterns the work. Consider myself lucky in that regard. * SK I'm on board with them, the KVD stuff I've been throwing has good results. Not sure how much KVD has to do with it. Even the high end stuff comes from China Mexico Guatemala .....

I throw mostly a Rat-L-Trap. Got hooked on that brand years ago. Hard to convince me anything is better but I have patterns on Super Spots and Red Eyes that are productive. I'm a river rat and have settled on the 1/4 oz. Mini Traps. Feel it's the all around trap size for me. Ive posted this many times. And this is only my opinion. Not gospel, and not trying to push it. But if I were to only have three with me it would be a chrome with black back, chrome with a blue back and a gold with a black back. If I had to start out buying a few those would be it. Dont know now where you are looking but most Traps are $4.99 - $5.50. In my area Wally World has little to nothing. Buy the patterns you want on line. What's nice about a Trap it's easy to fish/ swim it to match contour. Just try it. You could check Wally World for some. The Spots were $1.50 and Traps were $3.00 on clearance sale Check it out. I believe Rapala is doing away with the Rattling Rap. See they have been on sale also. The $1.96 bin at Wally has a lot of these Spots in it also. The patterns do float my boat but they will catch fish.

Nice fish. Don't want to guess. Tuff to guess from a pic. Nice PB and hope you break that one this season.

I would like to get to one of these nice Wally's that you have. The two in my immediate are no prize. Nowhere near the selection you guys have. Did pull off a few good finds because of this post. 1/0 to 5/0 various Gammy and EC Worm hooks for $.50-.75 pk. VMC ds hooks $1.00, #6 bulk trebel pk. $1.00,Original Super Spots for $1.50 and Rat-L-Traps for $2.00, Shad Raps $3.50, Missile Pitchin Craws $1.00 pk. Nothing I really needed but a few extra things to try. A few things I can give someone to try.

If you get a chance to get back to that Wally World to dig through that $1.96 Cotton Box of baits look for the Grappler Minnow that is the tan/brown top over chartreuse belly and buy it. I find it to be a half decent bait. That perch pattern works well also. I'm not throwing that stuff that often but I like to tie them on during a tuff bite, most times that odd ball stuff saves the day or gets something started. I find the Cotton Cordell stuff to run pretty decent. Got my grandsons a bunch of stuff in this recent clearence. Picked them up some 1/4 oz. super spots for $1.50 ea., every pattern was clearenced out.

I have flouro leader material to use. For the conditions I fish it will probably be necessary. Rocks. I'm constantly feeling for nicks and retying when necessary now with the flouro and mono. Didn't give much thought about it fraying. Pretty obvious I don't know much about braids. Thanks for the all help.

Yes, I'm guilty. I'm one of those guys after 50 years of fishing mono and flouro seeking braid line info. Two posts, sorry for taking up too much site space.

I have to start by saying thanks for the help in last post. I want to local tackle shop. His braid selection was not that great. I went with the Power Pro because it seemed to be the right thing to do with the lack of him having Suffix to even look at. There were a few version of Spiderwire but the dude there had no idea how to tell me the differences. I picked up the Power Pro 20# with the diameter of 6#test in moss green. Wish he would of had it in more of a bulk ydg. pkg. option but he didn't. Maybe for a first timer that was best. I understand the use of a fluorocarbon leaders but, want to get an opinion on possibly not using a leader. If my prime use for this set up will be in water that for the most part would be considered stained, river may stay stained all season, hard to say. With my line being a low visibility moss green, and the diameter being small @ 6# test approx .010, would it make sense to tie direct to my crankbaits? I don't think it will be used for anything other than 1/4 to 3/8 oz. crankbaits. Your opinion is appreciated. I might be making this braid thing out to be more than it is. Thanks.

All replies are appreciated and is a huge help. Thanks, Spank.

Guys, VERY VERY appreciated. I'm not going to even spool with the XL. Should just go with the braid from the get-go with these micro guides. As said not really trying to be cheap but it appears some of you guys have been buying up the Wally World clearance of the Red box Spider Wire. I'll get to local bait shop where I'm pretty sure I'll be able to touch and see them physically. My Wally isn't for crap anyway on a good day. Thanks.

I've been throwing some reds into my mix of lures. I'm trying to make something happen with it. My catches have came off or Rat-L-Traps also. Been throwing some of their red patterns and Rapala reds. I'm going to stick with it. Looking for a nice one it. Not too much yet with my finesse worms. Have used red Shad Power Worms for a long time. Good worm. Just trying to get an idea how much the color red is in the mix for you guys and maybe what conditions are possibly better for it. Probably just coincidence that it has worked in tidal section of the river. In low to no salinity, light brackish at most. Thanks.

Corrected title some. Sorry and thanks.

I don't have an up coming season to try a bunch of new lures. Not gonna dabble into a bunch of new techniques. Will basically fish the way I do and throw a few new color patterns on lure into actions that I'm already throwing. The past two seasons I've been throwing reds with limited success. Had done some reading on it. Had a pro guy tell me about red being part of a crawdads color in their life cycle.......blah, blah, blah......I believe a percentage of what I've read and what I've have been told. Im gonna stick with it a bit this season. Color has not been the major factor in catching fish to me. I don't put color in front of action. Im a Yank, live in the north, I'm not a biologist. Can't really say that I've come across this red being a pronounced color in crawfish life cycle up here. I've seen and captured some but have not truly seen red on them. The limited success the bass have come in tidal water. Just throwing it out there what your success rate have been with reds. Not looking for the specific lures being used. Just the red colors in general.