Just wanted to post this based on some people saying they would never buy a lure over X amount. For me it is relative to what the lure is and how it is used. Lets take topwaters for example in this scenario, yes a $20 topwater is an expensive initial investment but answer me this. How many topwater baits do you lose? I have been bass fishing since 1986 and have lost exactly 4. Taking that into account how many senkos or Keitech baits do you go through and what do they cost? Jerkbaits are another bait, besides losing them to toothy fish how many do you lose? I have lost 3 in 10 years and broke 3 more hitting something usually the TM head. For me a LC jerkbait costs as much as 2 bags of senkos and while the senkos I can go through in a day the LC I will have for years. Throwing this though out there because it has been on my mind for a little while now. Honestly my main expense is gas and I spend more in Optimax oil a year that I do on lost or broken lures.

 

PS: Buy a good lure retriever.

 

Allen

4 minutes ago, Munkin said:

Just wanted to post this based on some people saying they would never buy a lure over X amount. For me it is relative to what the lure is and how it is used. Lets take topwaters for example in this scenario, yes a $20 topwater is an expensive initial investment but answer me this. How many topwater baits do you lose? I have been bass fishing since 1986 and have lost exactly 4. Taking that into account how many senkos or Keitech baits do you go through and what do they cost? Jerkbaits are another bait, besides losing them to toothy fish how many do you lose? I have lost 3 in 10 years and broke 3 more hitting something usually the TM head. For me a LC jerkbait costs as much as 2 bags of senkos and while the senkos I can go through in a day the LC I will have for years. Throwing this though out there because it has been on my mind for a little while now. Honestly my main expense is gas and I spend more in Optimax oil a year that I do on lost or broken lures.

 

PS: Buy a good lure retriever.

 

Allen

Great post, my hardbait collection is tarting to grow but a years worth of softplastics Is definitely more then buying a few quality hardbaits every season. 

A MB vision 110 is worth EVERY penny when it comes to catching fish. If you are worried about losing it, don't be.

I lose more terminal tackle than anything

1 minute ago, NittyGrittyBoy said:

I lose more terminal tackle than anything

Yep, I have more tungsten and trokars at the bottom of a lake than a 110.

Very good point.  I lose a fair amount of cranks in the river going after smallies so you'd never see me throwing a $15 bait there.  Other than that, I also believe I toss more money at plastics than hard baits.

Just trying to put things into perspective.

 

Allen

I have lost a lot of hardbaits this year already. I think it is because I am fishing new (rocky) water from shore.   That being said, I agree with your post—especially topwaters. 

4 minutes ago, microotter said:

I have lost a lot of hardbaits this year already. I think it is because I am fishing new (rocky) water from shore.   That being said, I agree with your post—especially topwaters. 

Buy a telescopic light bulb changer from Lowes, etc. pull the spring ring off the end and swap the metal fingers in electrical tape. You can use this to get back most lures from the bank and it will pay for itself after a trip or two.

 

Allen

Good thread.

 

However I will say that I lost 3 Whopper Ploppers to trees last year alone. I lose a lot of stuff. This is because I have no fear of putting my lures into a messy situation or making high risk casts because these areas are where the fish are.

Actually one of the Ploppers was lost to a concrete bridge piling. I was trying to cast right next to it and instead hit it and it broke the Plopper.

47 minutes ago, jbsoonerfan said:

A MB vision 110 is worth EVERY penny when it comes to catching fish. If you are worried about losing it, don't be.

Do they make a shallow version?

 

Edit: Actually it looks like the regular version is 4 - 6 feet. I thought it was 10 feet for some reason.

Ya’ll must not have an endless amount of pike trying to steal your lures.

7 minutes ago, Glaucus said:

Good thread.

 

However I will say that I lost 3 Whopper Ploppers to trees last year alone. I lose a lot of stuff. This is because I have no fear of putting my lures into a messy situation or making high risk casts because these areas are where the fish are.

 

I have never caught a fish in the trees they were all in the water, just sayin.

 

Allen

Just now, Munkin said:

 

I have never caught a fish in the trees they were all in the water, just sayin.

 

Allen

Yeah well when you're trying to get under trees or between trees, sometimes you miss. So many overhanging trees have eaten a lot of my stuff.

1 minute ago, gimruis said:

Ya’ll must not have an endless amount of pike trying to steal your lures.

 

Deep Creek Lake Merryland; Pickerel, Pike, Musky, Walleye all of which have teeth and love to steal lures whenever they can. The last club tournament I fished there I caught 2 Pike over 36" on a 1/2oz black jig flippin docks. Worst was one hit a jerkbait then spasmed in the net which wrapped teeth and 3 sets of teeth everywhere.

 

Allen 

1 minute ago, Glaucus said:

Yeah well when you're trying to get under trees or between trees, sometimes you miss. So many overhanging trees have eaten a lot of my stuff.

See my post above about the light bulb changer. I have a buddy that can cast a lure into the only tree on the lake from 300 yards away. I am the expert at retrieving his lures from trees with my light bulb retriever.

 

Allen

5 minutes ago, Munkin said:

 

I have never caught a fish in the trees they were all in the water, just sayin.

 

Allen

I have never caught a fish in a tree, or on land, but I keep trying .  I even tried to catch a fish on a power line once.  Thanks to the bait monkey, I buy more lures than I loose, the more expensive the lure, the faster I loose it.  Must be a law of physics.

Buying lures is part of the enjoyment of fishing for me. I use a lot of Megabass, Lucky Craft, Ima, Jackall etc and balsa crankbaits but always have a lure retriever handy. Swimbaits are what get really expensive though. Easy come, easy go....but I do my best not to lose them.

I actually caught a bass once that wasn't in the water. Casted a power hawg over this branch that was about 12" above the water. Shook the bait and it slowly moved down the branch toward the water then when it was about 6" above the water a bass jumped up and grabbed it. Fish was only about 15" but to catch one not in the water was a new for me.

 

Allen

I have caught several frog fish in trees.  Getting them back over the limb is almost impossible 

I lose more jerkbaits than any other hard bait by far. I fish them a lot for smallmouth and all of our smallmouth lakes have zebra mussels, so any slight touch of the line to a shell and my bait is gone, either while fighting a fish or sometimes on the next cast. I also deal with a lot of wipers, which take off so sometimes they'll pop the line unless the drag is set very loose. Also fishing in extreme cold I believe is taxing on a bait. Getting a bait we and then bringing it into teen or single digit air temps at times has to be hard on the plastic. Combine that with fishing around rocks a lot, I end up with a lot of broken bills and baits. 

This was just 1 day, I also lost a Slender Pointer that was obviously not available for the picture. 2 RC STX and 2 custom 110s. 

For that reason I have no issue dropping 50-100 on a swimbait, but I can't drop $25 on a Vision 110 because I know it probably isn't going to last me long. I've only ever lost 2 swimbaits, and one of those was because of zebra mussels too.  

10 hours ago, Bluebasser86 said:

I lose more jerkbaits than any other hard bait by far. I fish them a lot for smallmouth and all of our smallmouth lakes have zebra mussels, so any slight touch of the line to a shell and my bait is gone, either while fighting a fish or sometimes on the next cast. I also deal with a lot of wipers, which take off so sometimes they'll pop the line unless the drag is set very loose. Also fishing in extreme cold I believe is taxing on a bait. Getting a bait we and then bringing it into teen or single digit air temps at times has to be hard on the plastic. Combine that with fishing around rocks a lot, I end up with a lot of broken bills and baits. 

This was just 1 day, I also lost a Slender Pointer that was obviously not available for the picture. 2 RC STX and 2 custom 110s. 

For that reason I have no issue dropping 50-100 on a swimbait, but I can't drop $25 on a Vision 110 because I know it probably isn't going to last me long. I've only ever lost 2 swimbaits, and one of those was because of zebra mussels too.  

I started using this stuff in 13lb. It's extremely thin diameter and flexible. It will prevent bite offs and line nick's without affecting the baits action.

5 minutes ago, The Maestro said:

I started using this stuff in 13lb. It's extremely thin diameter and flexible. It will prevent bite offs and line nick's without affecting the baits action.

The water is also very clear because of the zebra mussels. Using anything that's very visible isn't an option without costing lots of bites. 

Frequest donations to the fishing gods is something I've just accepted as part of the "hobby sport".  If you think about it, once you get your big up front costs taken care of (rods, reels, boat), the rest (terminal tackle, line, lures) is fairly cheap compared to other "hobby sports".  Things like golf green fees/cart fees, ammunition, are all much more expensive on a "per outing" basis.

15 hours ago, Glaucus said:

Yeah well when you're trying to get under trees or between trees, sometimes you miss. So many overhanging trees have eaten a lot of my stuff.

That being said, my best River Smallmouth in years was caught with the line wrapped around a branch (not that I was trying to fish that way of course..)

Oh good, so it's not just me. Some days I go through almost a bag of JBs, 2 if they are Shadow Raps®...