Limited To 5 Lures

[Wayne SW/MO]

My favorite 5 baits when I was a youngster was a red and white Lucky 13. It was an awesome bait. The Lucky 13, the Bass Oreno, the River Runt and the Midget Digit were great producers for their time.

[Al Agnew]

The Peck was an in-line type spinner but with a prop instead of a blade. It had a heavy lead head behind he prop, and a feather dressed hook on the back. Back in the real old days during the heyday of float fishing with wooden johnboats, it was one of the favorite lures of the guides, except that it got hung up on pretty much anything. I've got a couple of them, but they are hanging on the wall.

With a little bit of addition, the Baby Lucky 13 is still one of the best river smallmouth lures around. My homemade crankbait acts the same way.

I know it's sidetracking the thread, but the old lures do still work. My twin spin is very close to the old Shannon Twin Spin. My crankbait started out being similar to the smaller version of the BassOreno, the MidgeOreno, though I've changed it quite a bit. If I had the guts to use it and take the chance of losing one of the three I own, the ancient Heddon Crab Wiggler is still one of the best night fishing lures for river smallmouth. I have no doubt that a River Runt or Midgit Digit would still catch plenty of fish.

[cnr]

Zoom Super Fluke, pearl white, 5 bags

Yep, hard to beat. Simple, effective, just plain works.

[Dutch]

I'd only need 2---- topwater and a tube

[Seth]

1. trigged craw or yum dinger for pitching up stream of brush

2. pink trick worm

3. black/red buzzbait

[405z06]

On the river I don't need 5.

1) 1/4 oz Booyah tandem spinnerbait in white or chart

2) 4" Senko-style bait in a dark color with 3/0 offset red hook and 1/8 oz weight

3) Strike King Bitsy Tube in crawfish/earthtone colors

Every once in a while I'll throw a Wiggle Wart or a jerkbait, but the 3 above constitute about 95% of my fishing.

[Al Agnew]

I love it that many of you don't fish topwaters...keeps the fish from getting too conditioned to them

[Gavin]

I agree with Al...plastic on the bottom...any brand, shape, or size will catch fish....but reliance on those lures will cheat you out of a ton of fun.

[RSBreth]

Al has a point there - when I first started fishing Smallie streams here in the Ozarks I hated it when I got caught fishing behind a bunch of people in "used" water - but I generally catch fish behind people, and big ones, too. Most people I see on the river are using tiny grubs or a bitsy tube or something little. And I rarely see any topwaters besides buzzbaits (I haven't been throwing them much anymore either) so I think most of the time people who fish faster and higher up in the water like AL and Gavin and I do are fishing for different fish than the majority of people who are pecking around on the bottom. I'm not saying you can't catch fish, including big ones, bopping a tube around on the bottom, but like Al said I think it boils down to how YOU like to catch fish more than any special lures.

Although, I had a couple of hours in the rain on lower Beaver Creek last month where I caught one Bass after another - almost one on every cast - fishing a Spit-N-Image topwater right behind a couple of guys using lures so small I couldn't see exactly what they were using from just a short distance away. I never saw them catch a fish in the mile or so a dawdled along behind them to the take-out.

[Greasy B]

When most places in the creek are no more than 3' or 4' deep there really isn't much of a difference between top and bottom. Now dredging a large eddie on a river I would say you are fishing for different fish or at least fish that may be less aggressive. Most of my "bottom fish" this summer were caught sight fishing in less than 3' of water.