primetime

The Original Xcalibur lures were top grade lures and the zara spook from Heddon and super spook used to be under this label in the 80's and the one's you see in these packages today are not the same lures. Kind of like the bait bonanza lures that have cotton cordell name on them but are not the same in quality. I have alot of the older xcalibur swim n image crankbaits, spooks, ghost minnows, even the Mark Sossen Long a which I just sold on Ebay for $22 since it was in original packaging....collectors item, new Xcalibur lures are the Hi tek versions and much better...These are special big box retail store lures, so are pretty much value brands.... Bill Dance and Jimmy Houston, Kvd, Timmy Horton and many other pro's had Xcalibur lures under their names before Pradco seperated Heddon, Bomber, Smithwick, Cordell, Lindy, Arbogast, and the rest... The older xcal's are hard to find but if you can find the ghost minnows they are one of the best topwater jerkbaits to this day... I think people feel Cotton Cordell, Heddon, and Bomber are cheap due to the xcalibur value line, they are not the same at all....A real Spit N Image is made by Heddon on the pradco site and is $6.99 and worth every penny, the 2.99 lures are good, but are 2.99 lures....Rebel and bomber have value series and then the real deal...big difference...

cold water- zoom critter craw or bass pro tournament craw-I want less action, crawbugs by yum can be good as well. active fish- Bass Pro Flippin craw, crack craws, Rage craw, Mighty craw...so many good ones.... small profile- yum big show craw or culprit incredicraw

I am not sold on the blinking led lures, although I can say with certainty that they catch fisherman really well. The shop I used to work for had a tub full of those Blaze lipless cranks that lit up when underwater and flashed red, and they were only 1.99 or 2.99, but we sold more Blaze lures than we did Cotton Cordell spots right next to the tub for same price by a large margin. Everyone knows the Cordell spots are a good lure, but they were attracted to the demo and flashing lights...Some of the most expensive lures, actually most, always have exotic paint jobs or awesome looking packaging, but ultimately, if you are good with a walking bait, a zara spook is going to get the job done in the right hands, I think it is more the angler than the lure most of the time, give KVD some Blaze crankbaits and I am sure he will do just fine with them.....

we just has a few warm days here in the south and I went out for a few hours before a rainstorm and the fishing was really good after a good week of cold weather which made the bite super tough..We were hitting local ponds and trying new lures out and modifications, but they were all over topwaters and really wanted the dressed treble hook on the rear with maribou/flashabou and even though the materal gets destoryed fast, it breathes and looks alieve, and in the cold I like to throw a Popper like the sebile splasher or Rebel Pop'r with a dressed treble longer and larger than normal since weeds are not an issue, and neither is action since we barely move them, just twitch it or pop it once after it hits the water and then simply let it drift or move the rod an inch or two every 30 seconds..It sometimes will work in the dead of winter, although I like a prop bait in winter like a torpedo or devils horse, I have caught fish on them at night in cold weather, usually smaller fish however.

love the Mighty Craw and Big Show instead of the bb cricket

I never remember this lure, saw them today, grabbed them cause they were a few bucks, could not find them anywhere and saw Ebay sales for $20 and thought maybe they were like a pre rapala wiggle wart or something. I guess some people must really like this lure, it looks pretty basic to me, I probably will use em, just figured maybe they had some "magic" in them.....I am always happy with Spro lures so if they stopped making it I would think it was not a good seller, since all their lures and terminal tackle is high end....

mister twister hawg frog.....

I just found a few of these lures at a local liquidator and I picked up 3 of these crankbaits and when I looked them up I realized that they are no longer made. I then checked Ebay and it looks like people are paying $20 for each crankbait. I never threw this lure, 2 say charlie Ingram special, one is just a crank 25, but are these worth keeping? I don't want to sell them if they0 are "special" and I could not find much about them online except normal marketing hype, so hopefully someone can help me out and let me know if they are any good or should I sell the for $60 and place a TW order, or get some other tackle..... Any help appreciated, I would feel bad charging $20 too anyone I knew, but if people on Evilbay want to pay it so be it....Thanks again for honest feedback. I am not a crankbait expert by any means.

I believe I read somewhere that some companies are actually pouring some tungsten in with the worms to increase weight and action and putting it in different places, so basically what Tom stated is the same thing if in fact that is what type of worm it is....Nail weights are fantastic, I used to buy the Lunker City nail weights but now I actually just use finishing nails the few times I still use them...I used to think they helped alot, but now I just feel like it is overkill and other ways to achieve the same action....Only time I use a nail weight is to get my worm to backslide under a dock without having to skip it and make a loud noise...

Just wait until you learn about Rebranding, that is an interesting subject.

I fiind that once November comes around I do better with a swimbait that has limited action, I really like The SK KVD shiners or even the GYB swimbaits, or swim senko is probably my favorite or confidence bait I should say, and for a swim senko I use an Ewg hook as small as I can get away with just as long as I have plenty of hook point left after compressing, and I often use small swimbaits in the 3" range. I have had good days if I have open water simply lip hooking a swimbait with a gamakatsu split shot hook and my hook up percentage is way better, I lose more baits, but the action is much different and adding a weight 18" above can be helpful at times.... Overall, In weeds in summer, the Skinny dipper gets an Ewg 4/0-6/0 depending on size as they have a few different sizes and I use the bass pro swimbaits as well which look very similar and are softer which I like. The GYB swimbaits in open water are my favorite by far, but I use a jighead with them.

Only if you want them to match....I like to contrast colors for visibility reasons at times, when I fished up north in clear water i always kept my colors and trailers natural and matching for the most part or I would use a brown jig with a watermelong trailer but that matches and is not way out of whack, but for smallmouth sometimes I would use a bright trailer almost like using a firetail worm, and I would try mixing up some oranges, white, or a trailer with alot of metal flake for flash etc., In clear water I usually will stick to matching colors or natural I should say, but that is just my preference as their is truly no right or wrong way to do anything when it comes to color, I have been with people who do things I would never think about using and they are very effeciive because they have confidence in what they are using. One of my favorite colors for flippiing cover is black and blue or black and red with a green pumpkin or watermelon trailer, and it has worked well at times. I like to mess around with crawfish and sunfish coloring so browns, orange, greens, and then maybe something with purple or black, but I have done well with black and blue jig with rage craw in a green pumpkin or Dark Red color, I forget what they call it, same with a rodent. I know guys are getting into UV stuff now, and if water is deep or stained, fish are only seeing a shadow, but I plan on experimenting with UV trailers as I have used them for years in saltwater and they are awesome, not sure why I never really messed around with them for Bass. I am a huge believer that giving a new look is important especially when you are fishing water that gets pounded by others. We all use the same colors for the most part, I know fish are seeing a black and blue jig all day long, but it works, but I have found changing the profile or color so it is completely different can really pay off, and when it does it does, sometimes you have to just trust your gut and hope it works out, sometimes it doesnt, but it never hurts to experiment. I like to go back over old bassmaster tournaments to see what the winning bait was and you will see colors like Tomato with chart flake and start to think to yourself, how did that guy have the confidence to try that worm when that much money was on the line? Only absolute in fishing is you can never say never, I have seen bubblegum worms be effective and some people still throw pink floating worms like it is their job in the spring and it works for them....Pink Sluggo is the only soft bait I use when I visit Long Island 2x a year for stiped bass fishing and we put UV gel on the pink sluggos both shallow and deep, for some reason pink is our most productive color. I bet other guys only use black and do just as good. I try to pick colors that make sense with water color, forrage base, and size of bait, but for smallmouth, Orange and bright colors often used to be the best when I fished for them.

Ya, The Evolves do look awesome and I have heard they are good lures as well, they have always made good soft baits and baits that are different than other companies, so I was happy to see them come out with a line of hardbaits. The 78 lc pointer is one that I am going to use more this year myself as someone else pointed out, I keep hearing about the 78 size being the best cold water jerkbait for alot of people, and lucky craft pricing is not overly high in my opinion as you get good value for what they charge. I test all my lures in a pool or clear pond where I live, and modify some with tail feathers etc. and the Lucky craft pointers always look awesome right out of the box so I never modify them at all. I am afraid to add any dressed trebles or change a hook because that action when they suspend is very impressive. 78 is small but they do cast far as they are a top quality bait, I am intrigued by the baker lures as well, especially the suspending squarebill they make, that looks interesting, I love shallow suspenders here in Florida all year long.

I usually consider color one of the least important choices as long as I stick with the basics, but I can say with 100% confidence that color DOES matter, maybe not all the time, maybe not most of the time, but when you notice that it matters, it REALLY matters... Big fish get big because they are smart and cautious...I have read almost every book on bass and I would say the best theory on color I once read was to match the color of the water and weeds, rocks and underwater surroundings....Leeches, bugs, fry, baitfish, frogs all blend in with their surroundings to avoid predators, just like the bass blends in with weeds to avoid being eaten by birds when young, other fish, and Alligators and Humans later on, so they learn to avoid trolling motors left on, loud spashes, so the key is to think like the prey, and pick a color that blends in for protection, not threating, and then add some flake for contrast...Green pumpkin is not the best selling color for plastics by accident, and before that is was grape, I have never had a day when green pumpkin would not work, but changing flake can matter, black blue vs. black red I have seen the difference only a few times, but it matters. Usually you would not know, but the one time I can say it mattered to the point they would not hit anything at all, only a pumpkinseed worm, when it first came out, and my brother and I talk about it till this day...roughly 30 fish on Pumpkinseed worms while other colors produced nothing...That was the only day in my life I ever outfished my brother until I was able to back boat him, but I had pumpkinseed culprits,we were bank fishing, and I caught 5-6 fish in a row, and he had nothing, but he refused to believe it was color, after a few more, we left 2 hours later when we were out of worms...2 days later, pumpkinseed nothing, Junebug back to normal again, never understood why.... Only exception to my rule is there are no absolutes, there is a local phosphate pit that I fish where Metholiante is by far the best color to throw in the spring and summer, and if that color is not on, Red shad.....otherwise, black and blue, junebug, when in doubt, throw green pumpkin, gp gold and purple is my favorite as of late....soon it will be watermelon/orange.

I seperate mine by what they do and when will I use them, and I only bring the ones that will fit for that day.... Crankbaits are complex, I would say this...It is important to understand why a lure costs $15, and one costs $5 yet look the same...The more expensive lure may not be any better, or it may perform a function that is not helpful to how you fish....buy a flat crank, square bill, balsa, suspending, mid range, deep diver, lipless, silent, suspending lipless, nose down, and then figure out which ones are high pitch, low, mid, one knocker, and how they cycle or fall, some of the best lipless crankbaits fall like a rock, hellicopter and get tangled if you try to yo-yo them or use a stop and go retreive, but the lures that do that are often the best lures to rip through grass and have a nose down action that is killer...If I had to pick just one lipless crankbait that can do it all, I would say Red Eye Shad can do it all, yo=zuri vibe is a close second, but don't assume you get what you pay for....I hate that phrase, some times you do, sometimes you get alot less value than you pay for.... I have fished some expensive lures that had the exact same action as a less expensive model and actually was inferior in quality. I like to order from Tackle warehouse and look at reviews, and best selling, plus they match pricing and have best selection, they break it down for you as well so you can pick from each section, pricing is good and by far the best one stop shop for bass fishing.

I try to find out what the shad and baitfish or even fry near the shoreline look like. Are they darting or just in a ball not moving at all...If water gets a certain temp the shad start to die, it is never the same everywhere or for every shad so reading articles about Jerkbaits, and understanding the forrage in the water you fish will determine how you will fish your jerkbait....If they are dying them often all you want to do is crank or snap it down to the desired depth, and cadence is always changing and everyone usually has little tricks they learn to do over time that works for them. Most Strikes comes when the bait is at rest, and often 30 second pauses are what is needed to trigger a strike, some people wait a minute, but I find waiting that long to be unproductive from my experiences, I would rather be making more casts, or tyring to fish a different depth or find a model that either falls slowly, rises slowly, or suspends nose down...Sounds crazy but it all matters. I love fishing Jerkbaits, I try to fish them as much as I can and if I could texas rig and flip a jerkbait I would try it, I just feel that next to a jig and flipping heavy cover, nothing catches bigger fish than jerkbaits, but they are super complex and reading helps alot, but you just need to practice, it starts to become an instinct, and you are always learning new little tricks...if you are getting short strikes, try adding a tail feather and the type matters as it all breathes differently and changes the action but you will get bit more while deadsticking many times, not always, but if you notice you are only hooking them on rear treble, then try changing colors or size, or go silent to rattle...Once you catch one fish in the cold, usually they group together and you can hammer them and have a day to remember....Hard part is getting the first strike....but that is what makes it rewarding when you start to catch em after hours of nothing happening.

Good thread, I just learned some good stuff to try out. Always struggle with hair jigs, only use em on a float and fly, but I have wanted to get into some heavier ones...good stuff.

4" black blue tail bass pro curly tail worm on a split shot rig, or a pearl/silver 4" yamamoto grub on a ballhead jig, if I am really hurting I will drop shot a really nice streamer that I have my brother tie me which would probably cost alot of money...They have better action than any hair jig, silcone, plastic worm, just not as weedless, but put a split shot in front of a fly or steamer, and you are going to get action guaranteed, but it is all about the person making the streamer or worm as some hairs and feathers are super expensive but my brother used to guide and sell flies to tackle shops in college so I am lucky to have that hookup, I send pics of the colors of the baitish, get pics of mayfly hatch colors, have done alot of research to get the right color combos and they catch fish but usually alot of smaller fish, but it helps build your confidence.

I have a few of the DB minnows, but I have never really used them much....I have never really been impressed with team Daiwa or Daiwa lures in gerneral, but they do make an arched floating minnow that is good if fish are feeding on small baitfish, casts far, only 2.5" but is the only lure I have ever tied on and was impressed with. I have tried all the minnows and would say they are ok, I just would rather go with others, but for $7 try it out, The lures do what they say, paint chips off but that is good news for a jerkbait, that means it is catching fish.... I have heard the baker cranks are good from someone on this forum, and they look good, so I would give them a try. For $7 grab one of the new Evolve jerkbaits, I have heard good things about their new line of lures, and for the price they look awesome. I mainly throw suspending Rogues, Pro Long Tim Horton Long A's are probably my favorite for windy days, and I like the Spro Mcstick and a few house brands, but Smithwick, Bomber, Luck E stirke, Spro, Pointers, are probably the most popular besides the ITO 110, I will never pay that for a jerkbait and not sure I am good enough to notice any difference than from the Luck E strike once I change out the hooks.....It looks almost the same maybe it does some tricks or suspends better, but I just can't afford that money for one lure, I am careless and take high risks when casting, I have lost some nice stuff by being in a rush to cast...

I have been checking those out and when I went to look at the 6th sense which looks really similar, I keep seeing those new Evolve cranks and someone told me the topwater is really good as well and every comment is super positive just like the 6th sense lures. I don't usually go by comments since everyone fishes differently, but rarely do you see people raving about the lures in this thread, not sure anyone bashed the spro on TW either. I love the colors 6th sense offers, but I am getting some Evolve lures for sure. I used to use the vibra grub and was a cool drop shot bait just expensive and tear easily but it will catch anything that swims, really small. Great Smallmouth Dropshot lure, they love those things.

The adds are out for the most part and Cabelas always has good deals leading up to black Friday. I would say other than the ABU casting rod, they also have the Fenwick Eagle GT Casting rods in Medium action for 29.99, verrano baitcaster which is a nice reel, looks like a lexa-half price $50, and on BF, I know someone is doing something crazy with the quantum tour baitcaster, Gander doing spinning supreme 69, lexa 69, but right now Lew's has 30 rebates and TW has them on sale, so you can score a speed spool for under $70 and for a bit more get into the BB1 etc. Bass Pro will be doing the normal $50 tourney combos, extreme combos for $99(love that one, but they go quickly) and I heard a rumor that they are changing up the line of reels and doing away with the Nitro, and it will be a door buster for $29 (was told by a friend, have not confirmed this, he is usually on point), but often the best deals are online and after black friday, I always look for brands that are quality but not "popular" and right now on a few places you can score Okuma, Pinnacle, Quantum Pt-Just won an auction for brand new catalyst for $36, Tatula are $85 roughly, Revo R in the 90's, Trion $59, but I still say Lews...I am upgrading all my stuff this year and consolidating so I have been doing my homework. I still think the Lews 30 back on the tournament series speed spool is a sweet deal, and I am just waiting for the Energy PT to go below $100 like the Smoke has been flirting with. I love this time of year but it is dangerous, especially with every major retailer, all the liquiddators, public wholesalers in Florida make it dangerous to walk into a fishing department.....be ready for the bins with the bogo or 50% of the second, I often break my mental calculator and just go to town when it is good stuff, but I need to focus on equipment, and pinnacle, Okuma, and Quantums always seem to be awesome way to go after BF as they are overstocked, cabela's house reels and rods as well. They make a really nice rods, Probably the best of all, although I have not seen Academy, I wish I had one more place to blow all my money...So glad their website always fails when I try to pay with pay pal, I get saved, but it was fun filling the basket. Anyone have luck ordering on that site? They have a few lures that are fantastic, prices are crazy cheap, colors that you rarely see, and they sell some nice stuff, $50 feeds the habit, free shipping, net of 12 lures to add to the pile I should open by 2020. I just love buying Topwater lures, I don't know what it is, I saw a magazine article one day with a picture of that yamamoto white Shibuki Popper, the page Jumped out at me, looked awesome, ordered a bunch of GYB lures that day, really have not used any, but that popper is the best looking lure in my box, the eyes just look awesome, I would imagine it is as good as most poppers, never really found one better than the Pop'r or zell pop, chug bug, and that little japanese one 68 duo I think is good when I used it, has cool tranlucent colors, really small but spits nicely, also the bass pro xts is decent....Love me some topwaters, need em all anyway, it is a nomal habit to collect things in life.

be cool to have a swing jig interchangeable like the Lindy jig head system where you can adjust weight and color of the jighead without retying, just snaps in, but that would be tough to do with different shapes..I am on board for one for penetrating mats, or shape of a swim jig, casting jig style....I will be on board for sure... I like everyones idea of changing hooks which would be great, hope they work out for everyone.

I think the swing jig is going to be one of the next big things in the terminal tackle portion of the industry, Kind of similar to how the stand up shaky head jigs have been. I notice that the guys on ebay who make and sell them (They never look like good quality so I am afraid of using custom tackle from Ebay) but I can see alot of people are buying them. I don't think most casual anglers or even serious anglers are aware this product exists, and once you fish the swing football jig on a hard bottom it is kind of hard to not like it. I like to tie the Rapala knot to give lures and jig heads extra swing at times for finesse fishing, but now that Gambler has the wrecking Ball, and Rage has the Structure swing jig, I see this product taking off especially for people who flip and get tired of losing fish due to a pegged weight and having to keep adjusting the bait etc....I started using the Freedom Jighead which are only available at Kmart and yes, I said Kmart, but for $5.99 they have 2 1/8, or 1/4 3/0 bullet shaped swing jigs that are awesome. Fish have a harder time throwing the hook, you get extra action, and you can change out hooks if you need to... It would be great to have a place to order them in different weights and hooks as I love them since it makes rigging so much easier, and gives a swimbait, worm, or any creature bait a more natural falling action, and it also allows the bait to swing freely and not lay on its side if it falls the wrong way. I have not seen them in stores except in Saltwater Section of Dicks and they are in a 2 pack, small hooks (1/0-2/0) 1/8,3/16 but I have been using them with swim senkos and soft craws as much as possible and the football jigs are a no brainer in my opinion for hard bottoms. I know some companies made them with eyes and all that, but I would love to get some heavier sizes up to an ounce, and I think they would be a hit as pegging a 1 ounce weight and then making sure you leave enough room for hooksets is not bulletproof, I feel it is a more efficient way to go weedless over a standard jighead because even with a slider bullet jighead, it is not easy to keep the bait straight, it always curls up on the shank, and I am not a fan of the shape that Gambler uses personally, I am looking to order some on my TW order in new shapes. People who use the Jig Rig by owner really like it, I have a hard time getting used to how it looks, but I see why they end up using it exclusively, a Tungsten small 1/2 bullet shaped or casting jig/swim jig shaped swings would be a really good item. I actually looked for them a few times on the Siebert site hoping to see them because I wan't to start using them alot more than standard weight, bead, snell, hook-too much to go wrong especially when it can take hours to get a strike some days and this jig keeps em on and they will not spit it like a huge bullet sinker slidiing...Just my .25 cents...I kind of like them you could say, I always have liked weedless jigheads over light pegged weights, especially a nice snug fit....

I have had bill problems with the regular Dt series, but the Dt Flats I have are older, they seem to be built well, but I have heard this alot and thought it was just a random issue in a batch from this area. I have only lost 2-3 bills on the dt's but I just figured it was a defect in one batch, I need to research this to see if Rapala fixed the issue as I would hate to lose a fish because the bill breaks off. I agree with the flash and I have wanted to try the new Sebile line, I like the price point and now I have a reason to try a few. Thanks for the tip. I like Sebile even though they get alot of negative reviews, not sure why....

Do you find the silent lipless cranks more effective in cold? I fish the silent red eye shad and sebile flatt shads fast and slow in cold water, I have done well both ways and awful both ways as well.I am not sure if silent is better or not, I find most people never fish the silent, and some say One Knockers, I guess the fish is not moving far anyway so may as well be loud and hopefully trigger an anger strike....