So in this day of forward facing sonar, it seems like all you need is a little minnow on a jig and you throw it out in front of your sonar and look on the screen and catch fish like you don't need any other baits. Well, no, nothing could be further than the truth. There's a bunch of old school lures that still work today. They've survived the decades of bass fishing and they have come out to be the baits to use day in and day out year round.
Now I'm not talking about antique lures and just for the sake of this discussion, my definition, antique lures are anything that's older than say the 70s and even the 70s is kind of a transition period, 70 to 80. Some of those could be considered antique lures, but primarily eighties, 90s, early 2000s, like those are old school lures that many of them you can still get today and they still work.
So let's talk about some of them. For example, let's talk about this. Here's a bunch that you can still get today that work really well. The Devil's Horse. Ah, Devil's Horse. Top water, double prop bait. This has been around forever. I think they started making these. I'm not sure, I'm not an expert on these. Probably back in the 70s or 80s is when they started making these. This one's made out of balsa wood by the way. They they don't make them like that anymore and they they are kind of a collector's item, but I fish them and they work really, really well. Most of these baits these days now, they make them out of plastic, but some of them they still make them out of balsa. So that's a fantastic lure to use.
The Rogue. How many remember fishing the Rogue, like the original jerkbait? The Rogue is like the bait everybody used when it came out and still today. Still fishes really, really well. It's a little bit longer profile slender, has great darting action. You can fish it real slow, almost like a wake bait. As a matter of fact, thinking about a wake bait. This one. From Cotton Cordell. Look at that. Yeah. This is. You know, it was originally marketed as a jerkbait, but many of us figured out that it's actually like the original wakebait, just the way that it comes through the water. See that that bill? Real slender. It floats on the surface and you just barely move it and it works. It's a perfect wake bait and we’d slaughter bass on them. Many guys were fishing it like jerk baits, but those of us that figured out how to fish like a wake bait did really, really well and they still make them today. They still make these Red Fins. Cordell Red Fins is what that is.
Same thing with these Rapala jerkbaits. The original floater #11 jerkbait, yeah. That is money. Size 11. It's a perfect diving shallow jerkbait. Just pop pop twitch pop pop twitch. Let it pause, give it a few more pops and the bass will blast them. Great bait and it's, I mean, I've been fishing those for decades and they work fantastic. I've got to change out the hooks every once in a while, but they're very, very durable. A couple others I can think of here are thinking I've got kind of a top water theme going on, but the Heddon Spook and the Jitterbug by Arbogast, right? These baits. Look at how weird that is with that weird lip. Right. This kind of plops on the water, back and forth, just wobbles back and forth on the water, and this zigzags back and forth. You got to work it. You got to learn how to work it. You don't just pull these baits, you got to learn how to work them. But they stand. I mean, the test of time. I've caught many, many, many bass on the Zara Spook. Fantastic baits to use.
Couple others you should have in your arsenal. Look at this, the Hula Popper. They still make them guys. There's a newer version out that you can get that has feathers instead of rubber skirt. If you want, you can still get this kind with a skirt. I remember I think my first top water bass may have been on a hula popper. So that goes back into the actually 60s. So I don't know how old this really is. This is the new one and. They've been making them all these decades because they work really well. They just sit on the surface and you bloop it along, bloop, bloop, bloop, and then pause it and bloop, bloop, bloop. Pop-Rs are another one that works similar and they've been around for quite a long time. Definitely have these popping type baits in your arsenal.
Here's another old school one that people don't talk about very much. The Johnson Silver Minnow. Some of you guys might remember this now I put the skirts on myself on the end and I got a video that. I'll I'll link here. You guys can look at how to fish these things, but these are fantastic they're weedless. I mean super weedless Look at this it's a wire guard, not a. Not a fiber guard. But an actual wire guard, so they can go through thick, heavy cover and they just kind of sashay back and forth and wobble as they go through the water. And when I put a tail on that, it just looks like something swimming in the water. And again, I got a video on this on how to fish these too, but they've been making them for decades and decades and decades. I mean, great baits to use.
Another good old standby that you guys got to have, you have to have is you got to have a selection of Rat-L-Traps, you know, lipless crankbaits. I mean look at how thin these are, super thin body these work year round. Year round. This is not a bait you put down anytime during the year they're given. That Rat-L-Trap name because of the rattles in it, but they they make a One Knocker. That's another brand that makes a similar type. In a plethora dizzying array of colors. So you get a few that are. A bait fish pattern and a few that are in a crawdad pattern and you're good to go. And they're relatively inexpensive.
Rapala makes. Some really good. So like a Husky jerk I think this is I believe. They make a whole bunch of different variations of the Husky jerk and so this is one type but they make a ton of them and nice narrow bait, narrow bill, nice tight wiggle. Really good for early early pre spawn fishing, really early super, even the cold conditions great bait for that. This is a Flicker Shad I believe. I'm not sure but. This is better when the warmer months a little bit. This is also narrow, one too tight wiggle but dives a little bit shallower. These they still make these baits. They still make them and they're great to use. You know, don't don't forget these baits guys, you got to use them because they're they're proven they're tried and proven and you can catch a ton of fish on them.
Let’s talk about some discontinued baits that are highly sought after. You can find these on eBay or maybe you got a friend of yours that has them or maybe someone like me that has them and I still fish a lot of these. They're really good baits. One of them is the Mann's 20+. This one here big diving is one of the original first deep diving crank baits that went down to 20 feet. The original 20+ they also made a a Mann's 1- or 1+. The opposite end of it. Super shallow, big size bait. I have them somewhere. I couldn't find it for this video but I do have a few of them. Those are, you know, they don't make them anymore and they're highly sought after. They catch a ton of fish.
This the very first time I tossed this bait. This one in particular, I caught a 4 1/2 pounder on it the very first time. It's just like OK, I'm sold. And I've caught a ton of fish on them since.
The Lure Jensen speed trap now. You can still find the Speed Trap. It's a little flat, Bill. But these are made out of balsa. And they don't make those anymore. And the balsa ones. I think they perform better. They float up faster. They got a different kind of retrieve. You bounce it on stuff, they deflect different. You know, they came out with a Speed Trap. They went to plastic, you know, and I still have mine in the package here, but it says better than wood. No, I don't think so. But you can buy them. They're plastic and they have rattles in them.
You know, the big deal here is that with wood, you know, wood's unique. So you can have 5 baits that are the same manufacturer, same kind of bait, but they'll all act a little bit differently because of the variances in wood. Whereas you can make it in plastic, you can make it the same over and over again. Plus with wood, you really can't put rattles in them. They're silent, which is a bonus most crankbaits you get today are plastic and have beads and them rattles in them and they make noise. So the wood ones I like because they're nice and quiet. The bad side of it is that if the paint chips, then the water, you get water intrusion. Eventually a hook hanger is going to rip out or the bill. You'll just come back with a bill. The rest of the baits gone. That happens over time. You know, in cedar baits too.
Like here's a discontinued one. Some of you guys will remember this little gem. This is the Poe’s RC1 and RC3. Yeah, RC meaning Rick Clunn, and they have a coffin bill. Yeah, it's a coffin style bait. Can you see that coffin bill? It's not quite a square bill, so it deflects off a cover better and it goes through the water better. Man, and this is made out of cedar. And I caught so many fish on these baits. I'm down to the last few of them now because like I mentioned, you know, they're not they're not going to last forever. And they do fall apart, but they don't make them anymore like this. They they went to a plastic again Poe’s went to a plastic version before they discontinued it. And the plastic has rattles in it. But you know, this is the, you know, wood. There's no, no rattle. So I like, I like these cedar baits, some of going along that line.
There's a, was a huge following. Of handmade baits back in the early 90s. And this is from Tennessee. Again, coffin bill. And handmade, hand painted. Look at the Look at the paint on this. See that? Look at that paint job on these. I mean, brilliant, beautiful jobs. Again, it's made out of cedar, I believe, might be balsa. These baits are just, they're beautiful to look at. It's hard to throw them because they're so nice, but they they work great. They catch a ton of fish. And there was a big influx of these back in the early 90s and we had a bunch. I think there's a few guys left around or new guys that make some of these. They're all handmade. They're hard to find. You kind of have to know a guy. They don't make him a large quantity. And because of that, and because they're all handmade, they're expensive but really great lures to use and highly sought after. If you can find them on eBay or something like that, you can get yourself some of these.
This is another one the the Berkeley Frenzy. These are two of them that I still have. I have a few more. This is a deeper diver version here. Plastic bait caught a ton of bass on these baits and then for some reason they stopped making them. I don't know why. One of my favorite baits they they replaced it I think with a Flicker Shad, but it doesn't. The flicker shad is different. It's just a narrower body, doesn't dive as deep. This has a rounded bill to it as opposed to a narrow bell like the flicker shad, and so it just gives it a different kind of action. And these are really sought after baits. I mean the finish on them is really realistic, really nice. I've caught caught a 6 LB Smallie on one one time. What a battle.
Oh, I want to show one more of these again, going back to the same type of coffin Bill. They this is a Tennessee Killr. Some of you guys might recognize that that was one of the more popular baits back in the 90s. Again, it's a wood bait, I believe, Yeah. Yeah. Tennessee Killr. Yeah, that's what it says on it. Yeah. Now they're sought after bait. Great baits to use, guys. There's a whole bunch of these out here that you can find on eBay that still work. Still catch a ton of fish. Fantastic old school lures. Might want to see if you can't find some of those.
Let's go after some of the plastics I haven't mentioned. Plastic baits. Going along the same theme as some discontinued ones, the one that I would really stand out to me is is The Reaper. Right, that's this bait here. The Reaper they this is made. Don Iovino made these hand poured Western Plastics used to make a bunch of these back in the 80s and 90s. Don Iovino made these all the way up until just a couple years ago. And I can't find anybody who makes these. These are hand poured baits. I'm sure there's some people out there making them. I don't think they totally went away, but you'd have to know a guy or you know, it's somebody who makes them in small quantities. You just can't really find these anymore. More they're they're just kind of an extinct thing, but it's great finesse bait you put behind a split shot rig, slowly drag it behind it. I've got a video on that too that you can go watch and see how to use these killer bait when the bite is really slow. It's like no other baits will work sometimes, but you can still get them on a Reaper.
But baits that are still out there that are old school. The old ribbon tail worm, right? This one I think is Big Bite Baits B2. But you know, ribbon tail worms have been around since the 70s and they still flat out catch fish. Now you can get them Berkeley makes the power worm and they have the Max Scent worm and a few others. And there's manufacturers that still make ribbon tail worms that they don't make. As many out there, you know, as I'd like to see, I'd like to see every plastic bait manufacturer come out with them. But. For some reason they don't, but the ribbon tail worm flat out catches fish. You just put a. You know, quarter oz or an 8 oz sinker on it. Texas rig it and go to town and you'll catch a ton of fish on them. It's it's like the number one plastic bait. I bet if you look at how many bass were caught on plastic baits over the decades, the ribbon tail worm would probably be at or near the top. And so get get some of those.
Two others they just aren't talked about very much. But the brush hog and lizard. This is a brush hog by Zoom. And this is a lizard and I don't remember who makes this one. This might be Zoom also, but they still make them, you can still find them. Lizards were a mainstay, I mean 70s, eighties, 90s when it came to spawning bass. You better have a lizard. Some people call them salamanders, but you better have one if you're going to catch fish on beds. Now you don't hear about them very much, but that doesn't mean they don't work anymore. Boy, they sure do. They really, really do. I catch a bunch of fish on on lizards every year and the brush hog even more. I had one day I went out there fishing I I lost count how many bass I caught on a brush. One day it was probably 30 or 40 fish. The zoom brush hog is just a killer and they they also make them. You know, Rage Tail makes the rage hog and they make, they've been making the larger version for a long time and I think they just came out with the smaller version now and just the hogs. People don't talk about them very much, maybe because they want to keep it a secret. And I got some people that are like really angry right now. But that's that's killer baits.
Two other baits that they still make that are still really good. This centipede is one of them. I think the Zoom makes this, I'm pretty sure, and it's just a stick of plastic, but it's not. See. It's flat on one end. On the bottom it's flat. It is not a sluggo. It doesn't work like a sluggo. It doesn't have that shimmy action. But what it does have is a. It has a real nice limber move so it moves more like a worm in the water. This you can fish at weightless and on a spinning rod and skip it under docks. And I'm telling you guys this is incredibly productive fishing it that way. It's one of the best methods I've had on and best amount of luck I've had is with that. But under bushes and round weeds. You can Texas rig this and fish it anywhere you would any other Texas rig. Plastic weightless works the best or with a really light weight and a slow fall. It just kind of shimmies when it falls and tumbles and that. Is a killer bait.
And then the final one. They still make them, not as many colors, but they still make them as the old Sluggo. Yeah, by Lunker City, the Sluggo that came out about 1990, I want to say maybe 91. And this is before Sanko's existed. Senko's didn't come out till about 1998. The Sluggo was the original soft plastic jerkbait. And for that reason people would fish it like a jerkbait, bam, bam, bam, and give it, you know, and this would dart erratically in the water and tumble and turn. And you caught a lot of fish that way, and you can still fish it that way. But one of the ways that it fishes best is weightless. And then you just use your reel handle and give it real subtle twitches. You fish this through weeds, through reeds, and through. Lily pads and other weeds and it just kind of darts and falls and shimmies and kind of falls down and it goes up And there's all kinds of different ways, trick ways you can rig it. And I've got a video on that on how to rig it and how to fish it. But the bass just find this really enticing.
And when they first came out, we caught a ton of bass on them. A ton. I had one tournament I brought this, I caught, you know, 15-20 fish a day. When other guys were catching, struggling to catch one or two and I just kicked butt in that tournament. And this is one of the this first came out. You had to mail order it back then and nobody really knew about it. But actually that's what I did to win that tournament.
Nowadays people don't talk about it and don't fish it very often, and it's just as productive as it was when it first came out because the bass really don't see this anymore. There's no, no baits out there that act like this anymore. There was a ton of, you know. Copycats when this came out and became so popular, everybody copied it and now virtually nobody does anymore. But Lunker City still has it again, not in all the colors they used to have. They used to have a huge plethora of colors that they just don't make anymore, but you can all the popular ones, the alewife and shad colors and green pumpkins, they still all all the good ones and I would definitely get those just load up on some of those guys. You would be really shocked at how well they work so.
There you go. You don't need forward facing sonar you. Don't need to have that jig and minnow. You can go old school and many times beat those guys with all the high end expensive gear and have a lot of fun doing it, so I hope that helps. For more tips and tricks like this, visit bassresource.com.
