LC Gunfish 90, LC Sammy 100, Cotton Cordell Crazy Shad and Jackall SK-Pop Grande.

In addition to the number of baits that people have stated earlier do not dismiss a shallow swimbait or wake bait.  

For smallies, its buzzbaits. Unless conditions on my local river are crazy, I almost always start with a buzzbait and don't switch until it stops working. Booyah with the clacker and skirt removed. Lately I have have been running beaver style baits instead of skirt, sometimes a ripped in half Yum dinger.

Original #11 balsa Rapala, buzz bait, Yellow Magic, antique PIco Slasher, Jitterbug.

This one:

 

I'll switch to blue if I'm seeing a lot of damsel flies.

Super Spook Jr. with rear dressed treble. Also had great luck recently with the BBZ-1 Rat30 in nasty shad color.

1.  Cavitron

2.  RICO

3.  H2O Frog

4.  Whooper Plooper

5.  Sammy

On 7/18/2017 at 5:50 AM, smalljaw67 said:

It is tough to narrow down a favorite and I enjoy fishing them all. There are 3 baits that generate strikes from big fish more often than others, including buzzbaits. The first two are walking baits, I'd say it is a tie in effectiveness, the Super Spook Jr. and the Yo-Zuri 3DB Pencil! The edge would go to the Super Spook Jr. just because I've only had 2 seasons with the pencil but both of those are wicked effective for calling up the big girls. The 3rd bait is the Yo-Zuri 3DB Prop, I really like the Heddon Dying Flutter and of course the Smithwick Deveils Horse but the 3DB Prop is a different animal. It is similar to the 3DB Pencil in the body design but a little shorter and it has a single rear prop that is plastic, I dismissed it until my buddy got one and was thumping big smallies with it. The plastic or polycarbonate prop is UV treated so it has a light blue tint to it, I don't know if that really does anything, but I can tell you it makes a different sound than any other prop bait and the big fish respond to it and the prism finishes work in gin clear water, that is the one topwater bait I'd take for smallmouth if I could only have one.

What colors do you like on the 3DB?

Hubs Chub in either black or bone.

 

Pat

Whopper plopper all day! Will catch fish anytime of day where I am ! Loon and monkey butt 

Whopper plopper 90 bluegill.  Caught my personal best smallie on this just recently.

Zoom in on the avatar and you will see the answer. Torpedos away!

Zara Spook in black is my go to surface but I also have done well with poppers and jitterbugs.

On 8/3/2017 at 7:13 AM, Sam said:

1.  Cavitron

2.  RICO

3.  H2O Frog

4.  Whooper Plooper

5.  Sammy

Love the whooper ploopers haha

On 7/28/2017 at 9:39 PM, Further North said:

This one:

 

I'll switch to blue if I'm seeing a lot of damsel flies.

 

...still works...

For smallies hands down whopper plopper and for largies hands down Sammy.

One of my favorite topwaters is a Rebel Pop-R.

Zahra Spook...

      ...but I may have to try one of those expensive lures Wagster showed.

 

Probably going to need a faster reel to keep it on top though!

Super Spook Jr in bone

Whopper Plopper 90 in bone

 

X2 on the Super Spook Jr. in Bone Color - 7/16 oz. - 3-1/2"

Yamamoto Shibuki Popper in Black Bone - 1/2 oz. by 3"

Strike King Sexy Dawg or a Zoom Horny Toad, whopper plopper if the conditions are right.

love buzz baits and spooks so the whopper plopperfor all around bait

Any of the stanely frogs, but the baby ribbet is the bomb for me works day or night and up until the water temp drops to 60 degrees.

Heldon tiny torpedo jr.clear

It may be a classic but it always seems to produce

4 hours ago, A5BLASTER said:

Any of the stanely frogs, but the baby ribbet is the bomb for me works day or night and up until the water temp drops to 60 degrees.

I've never had much luck fishing frogs or toads for smallies. I have one lake I can get them to hit it pretty regular, but you can catch a couple dozen on a Whopper Plopper by the time you get 1 to eat a frog, but the 1 bite will be super violent.