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

[fishinwrench]

Just out of curiosity I looked to see what was the oldest bait in the boxes that I carry, and it turned out to be a floating Rapala F7 in blk/silver. Pretty sure I have had it since I was a teenager.

Second oldest is either a Baby Torpedo in "baby bass", or a Pop-R in silver/blk.

The really cool thing is that I can vividly remember every good sized fish I have caught on those baits even though it has been MANY YEARS AGO.

I can remember where, what boat I was in, and who (if anyone) was with me.

I should really hang them on the wall, cuz if I was to loose them now I think I'd cry.

[Brian Jones]

The Midge oreno is another great smallmouth bait from yesteryear.

[ness]

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".

I know you've shared pictures and diagrams of your twin spin before, but I don't remember your ho-made cranks. Can you share a picture?

[ness]

I think probably the most popular old bait is a Beatle Spin.

Ha! Our generation will always struggle with spelling BEETLE correctly

[msamatt]

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.

Al, I know you're right about clear water. I've always wanted to do a night time float down the Huzzah. Maybe this summer.... That's also sound advice (pun intended) about not just setting the hooking when you stop hearing the bait. It's all about feel. You also get the added entertainment of having baits and largish bugs fly into your line all the time. We spend all of our daylight hours trying to make accurate casts to the perfect looking holding spots so I find it really fun and liberating to just chuck that jitterbug towards those spots I scouted out before nightfall and having to rely on my sense of touch and hearing.

[Old plug]

We have a man here that has been collecting lures rods and reels for over 40 year. How does has over 16000 lures, over 6000 realls and I have no idea how many rods. He is a bit on the shy side of showing any of it. considering the value of lot of that stuff I do not blame him.

[XP 590]

My new favorite oldie is Lefty's Red and White Hackle Fly. I just started fly fishing / fly tying seriously for bass and that thing is killing them for me so far this spring. It's the ultimate in simplicity to tie also, so there's that!

[Johnsfolly]

When I first responded to this thread, it hadn't occurred to me that I fish the original floating Rapalas all the time. I buy the black/silver and hand paint them. I didn't even consider a bait developed in the 30's as an "old time" bait, because I catch a lot of fish with them. I am noticing that it's getting harder to find outlets still selling the original floating baits. In a lot of circumstances, I just don't like the noise from the rattle chambers in most of the new plastic baits.

[Al Agnew]

If there is anything that proves that lures are designed to catch fishermen, not fish, it's rattles. Yep, rattles have their place, but try finding any hard bait these days that doesn't have rattles. It's one reason I carve some of my own lures out of wood...no rattles. I've also been known to drill a hole in a lure and squirt in some 1 minute epoxy to stop the danged thing from rattling. I'm convinced that in some cases quiet is better, and in fact studies have shown that heavily pressured bass learn to avoid noisy rattling lures much quicker than quiet ones. One study showed that they learned to avoid Rattletraps quicker than any other lure that was studied.

[hoglaw]

Don't tell that to the bass in a private lake I fish Al. It's about 10 acres and I feel like I know the big fish by name by now. Lots of 6 ' s and the biggest so far is an 8. I'm about the only person that fishes it anymore (and have taken a few OAF folks), and every fall and winter I re-aquaint the fish with rattle traps. They haven't gotten tired of them yet.

Although I guess just one person fishing it every few weeks probably isn't a lot of conditioning.