I recently retired from a local state park after 12 years and I would venture to guess that at least a third of the lures in my tackle box are lures I've found at the park over the years. Either left on the ground around the lake or hung up in a bush etc... around the lake.  I once found a Ugly Stik rod and baitcast reel after we'd dropped the lake level down about 8 ft. for winter maintenance. At another lake one day I snagged into a snarl of braided line and when I pulled it up there was a nice spinnerbait on the end.  This had to have been from someone fishing from a boat as there was no bank fishing access at this lake.

11 hours ago, VTFan said:

a local state park after 12 years

I am soo envious.  A job that involves being outdoors and gives you access to shorelines, trees and lures bushes containing fishing lures! That is my dream job

Edited April 29, 20233 yr by WaterOtter
typed the wrong word

I don't understand.....why so many whopper ploppers....the lure floats!?!?

 

I have bought three whopper ploppers and caught fish on one of them and still own three and don't see that ever changing.  ?

Found these today

 

 

On 4/29/2023 at 8:08 AM, WaterOtter said:

I am soo envious.  A job that involves being outdoors and gives you access to shorelines, trees and lures bushes containing fishing lures! That is my dream job

Like any other job it has it's ups and downs, good days and bad days. 

Another tricky one - find the lure in this picture.

 

a hint: it's white

15 minutes ago, WaterOtter said:

Another tricky one - find the lure in this picture.

 

a hint: it's white

white is very hard, can be a hair jig and broken middle brunch or a crank bait/jerk bait on left brunch.

Had to zoom in a bit...is it that spinner bait hanging from the end of the branch? 

Yup.

5 hours ago, MAN said:

is it that spinner bait hanging from the end of the branch? 

OMG I love it!  That's a great job of photoshopping!!  I went back to the original photo thinking "did I miss THAT??!"  LOL

 

The lure in the picture is actually a white blade bait with white trailer, shining up through the water.  I warned you it was tricky!

 

 

It’s whopper plopper season y’all. I’m done buying lures just gonna hunt them from now on.. I bought this same one on Black Friday, haven’t even thrown it yet. There’s a kid at the local pond I see putting in the work all the time I’m going to give this to.

I've got a big pile of baits I've found in the last month that I've slacked on sharing. Don't think I've found any ploppers but tons of shallow cranks. 

In today's finds are two rigs I haven't seen before - 1) a very large lead head with a tethered treble hook and a small plastic, and  2) a spoon with a bare lead head tied on ahead of it.  Are these the new big thing?

At one point I was in a shallow, stinky slough pulling up a braid that wasn't connected to anything on the business end, and I was literally thinking "I really don't want to be doing this," because I knew the line was going to be a country mile long coming from the fishing spot on the bank and it was coated with stinky muck, when suddenly the line brought up a ball of weeds, and in that ball of weeds was a brand new Whopper Plopper!  After that it wasn't so bad pulling up the rest of the braid.

I can't remember the last time I actually found a frog in the water.  I pulled this Spro down out of a tree with my lure retriever.

Anybody know what the trailer is on this jig?  I found it underwater, and it was oversized and hard.  When I cut it off the jig it had a bunch of little internal pockets full of water.  It looks like it was probably normal trailer size and it swelled up and hardened in the water.  Gross.  Be pretty terrible if that happened inside a fish's belly.

8 hours ago, WaterOtter said:

Be pretty terrible if that happened inside a fish's belly.

 

Never thought about that before. I've seen lots of baits swelled up like that, but never considered they might swell inside a fish. Good question.

 

No idea what the bait is.

This weekend I found 2 lures with great vintage vibes, in different lakes ... I think the bait with the metal lip is a J.C. Higgins Paw Paw Bass Seeker, and I haven't found info on the spinner-spoon yet.   The metal lip has some surface rust, but the paint looks brand new.  On the spoon, the paint looks vintage, and the skirt cannot be replaced without removing a screw that holds the wire.

 

10 hours ago, WaterOtter said:

This weekend I found 2 lures with great vintage vibes, in different lakes ... I think the bait with the metal lip is a J.C. Higgins Paw Paw Bass Seeker, and I haven't found info on the spinner-spoon yet.   The metal lip has some surface rust, but the paint looks brand new.  On the spoon, the paint looks vintage, and the skirt cannot be replaced without removing a screw that holds the wire.

 

The spinner/spoon looks like a Nemire Spin Ripper with the wire modified a bit.

On 6/1/2023 at 5:24 PM, Spy said:

Nemire Spin Ripper

Hmmm, very similar, same concept.  Thanks for pointing me in that direction, I'd never heard of them.

I've been looking at this lure more closely and the mismatched wire and shapes, I think someone added the spinner with their own wire, and they did a pretty good job.

Edited June 4, 20232 yr by WaterOtter
added more

Years ago I had a lure that looked similar to this, but it had a metal weed guard like a Johnsons Silver Minnow. I don't remember the brand, and cannot find an example of it anywhere....but it was called (as I recall) The Weedless Wedge. I have never seen another one like it, and wish I had not lost the one I had.

My first find of the year, will definitely be putting this one to use.

I caught a fish yesterday!  I was pulling a line out of a tree and both ends led into the water, and there was a fish on it!  He actually put up a good fight

 

Lures are all around us.  I retrieved this one with a stick.

This never gets old ?

4 minutes ago, fin said:

This never gets old ?

Dude now that's epic, how was even hung up with the keeper still on ?