4 hours ago, J Francho said:

I could have saved my money, and only bought my $30 Popmax for the past three or four years.  Seriously.  That one bait... I still would have caught plenty of bass.

You sold me. Time to feed the bait monkey!

You guys have nearly convinced me to try 6th Sense.  Does anyone have any experience with the tailored Super 6 box?  Would I be better off just selecting their offerings?

 

As far as hard baits I like, H2O Xpress really is a top value.  Berkley has actually been less productive for me.

1 hour ago, Catt said:

IDk! 

6th Sense is pretty impressive!  ?

Movement 80X owns that category 

You'll be hard pressed to out do their Cloud 9 Series

Liking the sound of this. Their end of year sale was crazy, got most baits for 5 or under. Got the monster sized Cloud 9 deep diver, really excited to throw that one. Tempted to use a leader due to deep water musky and pike. They look like high quality baits and from comments on the boards I expect them to hold up. The popper is an interesting design too.

 

The hyper jerk and hybrid swim crank are going to be on my next order too.

I haven’t tried enough of them yet to have a favorite. But I do have to agree about the popmax, no need to even try anything else. 

Thanks for the feedback.   I love the action of the strike king hard baits from the square bill, to driving cranks, and jerkbaits but feel like the hooks should be better quality and I think they use the VMC hooks and I dont think there treble hooks are good quality at all.   I feel like when you buy a bait and spend let's say $7 or more you shouldn't have to replace the hooks and it seems like yall have narrowed it down to 3.  Megabass, lucky craft, and 6th sense for me and thanks for the feedback.  

Rapala and the strike king KVD line I think are my top hard bait companies.  To me there lures seem like they have good quality. they are not throw away lures but, I am not afraid to fish them around cover or toothy fish.  still only paying $5-$10 dollars per lure sometimes, cheaper.  Best balance between value, quality, catching fish, and not mega bass prices. However, I do swap hooks out to kvd triple grips 

BEST is a loaded term. Best quality for the money? Best fish catchers with price no object? Most durable? Best overall quality?

If I had top pick one I would probably go with Jackall. The fish dont see these as often as more common brands, they are really well built, The fish really seem to like some of their models, Tuning is perfect out of the box, They have great color options, they come up with some unique innovations the competition doesnt steal for a year or so, and you dont need a second mortgage to buy (most of) them.

Some of their stuff is off the wall crazy, but a lot of it is the type of baits we fish every day. The Jackall I probably use the most is the Aragon, in any of the natural or ghost colors. I used to be a LuckyCraft man, but the Japan versions are getting harder to come by, and the LuckyCraft USA versions are an insult compared to the JDM versions. Like so many companies, they lowered their standards and went for the high profit margins.

I couldn't pick just one. I guess if I had to it would be strike king. I love most of their crankbaits and topwaters. Their jerkbaits thenjury is still out on but I've had decent success with them. I like my megabass although they're grossly overpriced.  I need to dabble in the lucky crafts some more after reading this thread as I also believe any bait should come ready to fish and a lot of what I fish I have to modify in some sort to suite me.

Fun topic. My decision on baits would be very different if I fished lakes that bass were at the top of the food chain. My collection would be smaller but of higher quality. Fortunately, I fish where pike love them some bass baits, so I might lose a bait or two during the season. And that can happen on any cast. Fishing for 50 yrs., your collection gets pretty large if you only buy a couple hard baits a year. So I have a mish - mash of brands with no favorite brand. Maybe I am missing out not fishing a $30 popper, but I like my chug bugs and pop R. I refuse to believe that one surface bait,  would out - fish any other bait. (pop r vs. pop max for example). Cheap lures will catch fish if you get it in front of them. That is WAY more important than throwing expensive baits where you won't get bit. Oh, I guess if I had to pick one, Strike King .

I forgot to mention that my opinion is for surface lures only. It changes with sub-surface baits...

If were talking individual baits then I woiuld mention Fat Raps , Wiggle Warts , Wee R's , Big Jims... The topic is one company that produces an entire  lineup of baits .Thats why I chose  Berkely . They have an extensive lineup with quality components . Those hooks on the Dredger series are downright dangerous .

On 3/26/2020 at 4:06 PM, Hook2Jaw said:

You guys have nearly convinced me to try 6th Sense.  Does anyone have any experience with the tailored Super 6 box?  Would I be better off just selecting their offerings?

 

As far as hard baits I like, H2O Xpress really is a top value.  Berkley has actually been less productive for me.

I have been getting 1 monthly.  It’s just the medium box.  Fantastic and highly recommended.

Strike King and 6th Sense are at the top for me. 

2 minutes ago, TBAG said:

Strike King and 6th Sense are at the top for me. 

ill add lucky craft to the list, it is so hard to say really. each of them made something to perfection.

Manns or rapala  IMO...

6th Sense, Lucky Craft, Strike King, Megabass, Spro and River2sea for me (in no particular order).

It is such a wide category that it is hard to say. Nobody is the best at everything.  

 

Rapala is great for jerkbaits, crankbaits. Topwater or spinnerbait? They tail off a bit or don't make as much. River2Sea I love their topwater/spinnerbaits/lipless, but other crankbaits or jerkbaits are average. 

 

Ima I love their jerkbaits/wake baits/poppers. The squarebill was meh. 

 

So overall I'd give it to Rapala as what they do make is pretty much all lights out. If it says Rapala on it I know it'll catch fish. 

 

Admittedly I have never fished like 99% of lures ever made so hard to say really.

 

When a brand puts out an absolute lemon though it can turn you off. I feel like rapala doesn't do that very often.