Limited To 5 Lures

[Guest Brian B.]

Zoom Super Fluke, pearl white, 5 bags

[Greasy B]

This year has been kind of strange. I haven't caught scwat on many of my favorites: buzz baits, walk the dogs and soft jerks but man o man has that pumpkin baby brush hog made up for it. I haven't given up on my tried and true baits so far but if I would have never rigged one up my success wouldn't have changed. We'll see how the rest of the season plays out.

[TroutRinger]

1. Mustard Bitsy Tube

2. Brown/chartreuse bitsy tube

3. Brown bitsy tube

Really that's it. Mix some other things in occasionally.

[Kayser]

1. Green pumpkin Bitsy bug with orange craw trailer. Possibly as a swim jig.

2. Chrome Norman little N

3. F11 rapala, gold/black

4. Zoom fluke

5. Fly rod poppers- the frog has worked well this year.

[RSBreth]

This time of year it would be:

Compact Spinnerbait - I have a couple of ones I've been customizing so they're the size of the little 1/4-ounce "finesse" spinnerbaits but weigh 3/8- or 1/2-ounce with bigger blades. Burners.

Walk-the-dog topwater - usually a Spit-N-Image but sometimes the LC Gunfish comes out. This could also be a Zell Pop or LC Wakebait.

Medium diving crank - usually a Bomber 4A but I like the DT4 and Bandit 200. Strike King Series 3 is a good one, too.

Floating minnow - most the new Flat Rap in the smaller size - or the "Smallie size". I also use the floating Rogue Junior, and the smaller XCaliber suspender in deeper water.

My only "slow" lure is the 1/8-ounce finesse jig I make myself. I sometimes throw a wacky rigged stick bait instead, but that's not that often these days.

Color depends on time of day and water clarity.

[Al Agnew]

Are we talking lure "classes" or actual lures? If lure classes, I almost do limit mine to five. But I might have several different lures in a class.

For warm weather...

1. Walk the dog topwater

2. Homemade twin spin

3. Homemade shallow crankbait

4. Jig and trailer

5. Any of a number of lures depending upon water conditions. Could be buzzbaits, could be a spinnerbait, could be a tube, could be a Superfluke, could be a Senko, could be my homemade Subwalk, could be a deep-diving crankbait...Point is, I have four that I almost always use, and a bunch of others that get a workout if the first four aren't working, and often don't produce any better.

[Wayne SW/MO]

I don't know that 5 are even needed. Truth is for me if I'm down to #3 I'm all but stumped.

1.- Gitzit, any color as long as it's pumpkinseed or watermelon

2.- Jig, generally without trailer. Home tied with spinner skirt highlights embedded in a bucktail skirt.

3.- Shallow Shad Rap shad pattern. No shad in the rivers, but the smallies don't realize that.

4.-Sammie 85 or 100

5.-4" worm, black

5.-fluke

5.-spinnerbait

5.-Wart

There are conditions though that I think warrant something for different conditions. I like a Sammie for topwater, but if you're hauling to the takeout a buzzbait is hard to beat.

[DADAKOTA]

Used to flat wear them out on floating #9 jointed rapalas in Chart back and white sides. Then they quit making it for awhile and I started throwing flukes/sluggos. Haven't thrown the j-9 in years.

[Al Agnew]

Yeah, I've gone through a number of lures over the years that used to be favorites and now never get used. The 2 3/4 inch, black back/silver sides, floating Rapala was my go to lure for quite a while way back when...I don't have any in the tackle boxes anymore. The Tiny Torpedo supplanted the Rapala...don't have any of them in the boxes, either. I don't use buzzbaits as much as I once did. My favorite colors of my twin spin used to be brown hair and white trailer, and yellow hair with black trailer...still carry brown ones but almost never use them, don't even carry yellow ones. I don't use flukes as much as I did for a while.

Which probably says one thing: there are lots and lots of lures that will catch river smallies just fine, so it really all boils down to what you like to use, not what's the best.

[DADAKOTA]

My wifes grandpa used to guide on James River before Tablerock was impounded. He and his wife owned the drug store in Galena and outfitted overnight float trips. He always liked a Lucky 13. He also said they sold a lure call a Peck's Bait at the store.