What "old time" lure do you still routinely throw and why?

[Ham]

Lol, Charlie I'll have to look thru all my old junk. I have a Herb's Dilly or two that would be happier in your tackle box.

[msamatt]

Guys, I'm enjoying this. I love the super spook jr myself, its easy to work and the price is right. I've caught my largest MO smallies on a twin spin and I'll almost always have one tied on in the warmer months. A 1/4 to 3/8 oz jighead attached to a jig spinner and tipped with a curly tail grub or swimbait is a deadly bait for just about everything that swims in the Canadian shield lakes I've fished. Kind of a Beetle Spin on steroids approach.

[rFisherk]

I think probably the most popular old bait is a Beatle Spin. It's still the main bait for country folk. I use Jitterbugs a lot, not just on rivers, but on ponds too. Started going to Charlie Brewer's Sliders whenever fishing got tough back when I was guiding on KY Lake. Love fishing the Baby Zara, especially during the summer. The Bass Slider, I think, will work as well, if not better, than the Ned Rig and the Shakey Heads. Part of the equation seldom considered is the size of the bait. Ned Rig and Shakey Heads are smaller than most baits people throw, and I think that's why they work. Sliders are small, too, and have better action.

Does a Road Runner qualify?

[LittleRedFisherman]

BeetleSpins for an all around bait, zara spooks for topwater. In the heat of the summer in super clear water, Jet Black single blade spinnerbait at night!

[Feathers and Fins]

Thinfin oldie but produces still.

[Al Agnew]

I'm old enough to remember when some of those "old" lures first came on the scene. The first versions of a lot of lures we use today appeared in the late 1960s and early 1970s, when B.A.S.S. and tournaments came along and pushed the development of bass lures and tackle. I grew up in the 1960s, and I can remember the first floating Rapalas, then the Rebel Minnow which was a direct knockoff of the Rapala in plastic, then the Thinfin, which was the same idea but in a shad shape instead of a minnow shape, and then the jointed Rapala and Rebel, and the Humpback Rebel, which was one of the first fat profile crankbaits. All those came out in the 1960s. So did the Beetle Spin, and a little later the Roadrunner. Heck, except for a couple of early prototypes, all the spinnerbaits we typically fish for bass are descendants of the Scorpion and Tarantula, which were developed in the 1960s to fish Table Rock and Bull Shoals. The Lunker Lure was probably the first safety pin style buzzbait, and it came out around 1970. All the plastic worm types we still use today descend from worms developed around 1970 like the Mann's Jelly Worm. Before that there was only the Creme Worm, which came rigged with three hooks. The development of the Texas rig idea brought about a whole bunch of soft plastics starting with the worms.

The Hellbender and Bomber, which I used religiously back then, had come onto the scene not long before. The Mudbug came out as a knockoff of the Bomber with a more detailed crawdad appearance made possible because it was molded plastic instead of wood like the Bombers. They were THE go-to crankbaits until the Big O made a huge splash on the tournament scene sometime in the early 1970s...up until then you never saw anything resembling the fat profile deep diving crankbaits that are so common now. I believe the Arbogaster, a metal lipped, oval-bodied plastic lure with a skirt in the rear, appeared around 1960.

So for me, "old" means something that was in existence before I started fishing. Most such lures are no longer in production, though a lot of them lasted well into the 1980s and 1990s. You can't buy Shannon Twin Spins anymore, but I make my own. You can't buy South Bend Midge-orenos, but my homemade crankbait is based upon them. You might still stumble upon a Heddon Baby Lucky 13, but if I wasn't making my own crankbaits I'd be using them. Smithwick Devils Horse is still in my tackle box...it came out in the 1950s, I believe.

Seems like old lures still survive best for night fishing. I haven't done any night fishing on the rivers for a few years, but I still have my night fishing box, and it's full of Jitterbugs, Heddon Crazy Crawlers, and the Heddon Meadow Mouse. If I wasn't afraid I'd lose them, I'd still be carrying my three Heddon Crab Wigglers, which were always one of the best lures for moonlit nights on the river. It and the Meadow Mouse were a couple of the original "wake baits".

[Kcdangler]

Thanks Hoglaw for info never thought of it that way I'll sure try it

[Kayser]

Looked up the Heddon Lucky 13... I think I have quite a few of those, on a shelf, looking pretty.

Have a few weeks to kill in August, so I might have to liberate one and see if she's still got what it takes.

[Al Agnew]

Thanks Hoglaw for info never thought of it that way I'll sure try it

Yep, Hoglaw is right on with that advice. Bass feed where the food is, and at night the food is shallow and the bass feel safe to go into the shallows after it. I've always found water willow beds to be great places at night...water that's a couple feet deep at the edges of the beds and lots of food emerging from them. If you come upon a water willow bed with current going through a gap in it, you've found the perfect place for a big smallie to be feeding. You'll also find big ones at the bottom of riffles, but they'll more likely be in shallow eddies instead of the deep eddies at the bases of the riffles. And for sure don't neglect the shallow tail of a pool, especially if the bottom rises quickly into the next riffle. Deep water is almost a waste of time, but rocky banks with big rocks dropping gradually into deep water can be great, especially rock points jutting out into gentle current. Basically, the fish will be in three feet of water or less much of the time at night.

Another thing to consider for night fishing...clear water is better. If your river has less than 4 feet of visibility, the fish may not be as active at night, although you might still encounter the occasional big one. But clear streams can be magic at night. And my rule of thumb is, always fish topwater, but the brighter the moon is the quieter your topwater should be. Jitterbugs work better on dark nights than in bright moonlight. In bright moonlight, a wake bait, something that disturbs the surface but doesn't make much noise, is often better. And I always liked lures that you work by reeling fairly steadily, rather than stuff you have to twitch and pause. Seems like the bass home into a steady retrieve better.

One other trick...if you get zoned in on fishing those steady retrieve topwaters like Jitterbugs and wake baits, you'll be getting strikes where the fish miss. Don't set the hook on the sound! Wait until you feel the fish on. If the fish misses, pause the lure for a few seconds, then just give it a tiny twitch or two. Often that will trigger a solid strike.

[Guest]

forgot to mention:

Cotton Cordell crazy shad single prop (the dollar bin version at Walmart in the frog color is killer on summer river smallies),

Cotton Cordell super spot has caught the majority of my bass over 6lbs in the springtime on shallow lakes.

Mann's jelly worms, fliptails & mister twisters accounted for all my worm fishing bass in the 80's

Mann's super George: I caught 7.75 at Dardanelle that netted $600 big bass in a tournament, people thought I was nuts.

Bomber 6A is a staple bait, it stood the test of time