New to the James, lure advice?

[cdh4088]

About to purchase a nice kayak, and I have no idea what type and color of lures Ill need for river fishing.

Bluegill, goggle eye, bass, crappie.

What type and color of lures work out there?

 

Thanks in advance

[Slippery]

Anything that looks like/moves like a crawdad. (my personal preference)

My fishing buddy will throw Texas rigged green pumpkin seed finesse worms all summer and have just as good results. The point being, find a lure or 2 that you can actually fish correctly (technique) and own it. I can't work stick baits worth &^%_*&*, do people catch fish on them? Heck yeah they do. Because they know how to fish them. 

I like more natural colors in the rivers and creeks. It's not an accident that you see chartreuse tackle in the trees, people catch fish on those bright colors too.

Start simple (I like brown bass jigs with a brown craw trailer) and fish as much as you can. You may find it's more about presentation, and little to do with color on a particular day.

Ask 15 guys what they throw and you're likely to get 12 different lures.

Tight Lines

P.S. You won't get very far on these forums by asking questions like that. Many of these guys will take that information to their graves. Next time you see pictures of people's fish, try and find the lure in the shot. I've actually seen people (on this forum) black our the lure. Personally, I don't think my set up is God's gift to small mouth fishing, we're all catching fish.

 

[Smalls21]

search the forum for NED RIG, super easy to fish, and will catch them when not much else will. 2 colors needed are green pumpkin and PB&J. you can buy the best jig heads for it from Forum member DTRS5KPRS, super nice guy and more than willing to help get you started.

[Al Agnew]

Yeah, don't get too hung up on the "best" lures and colors...lots of stuff works.  Ned rig is probably about as good as it gets for "grab bag" fishing where you don't much care whether you catch bass, sunfish, or whatever's biting.  Personally, I'd far rather fish something a little less like watching paint dry in the summer, but that's just me.  If you want to fish something slightly different from the Ned, use more or less the same jig heads and put on a curly tail grub.  Then if you want to have more fun watching bass hit, throw a small buzzbait.  Or a crawdad-colored crankbait.  Or a spinnerbait.  Or any one of a number of topwater lures...pretty soon you got a tackle box full of stuff and you're spending half the day just trying to make a decision on what to fish.

 

[cdh4088]

Oh I figured that nobody was going to spill the beans on their best secret setups, i was just looking for some general guidelines to get me started. Trying to avoid spending hundreds on tackle that doesnt work, the kayak was spendy enough.

Its so stable that I plan to do a little bowfishing out of it as well during the carp and gar spawn. Choosing the right arrow has always been easier than picking the right lure for me.

[Al Agnew]

There really aren't many secret lures, or any best secret set-ups.  River fishing ain't rocket science.  Like I said before, you can catch river bass on just about any kind of bass lure out there.  But, keep in mind that the smaller you go on bass lures, the more little fish you catch, so if you want to simply catch a bunch of fish, go pretty small.  

As for colors...you can go natural, and if you do, then any shade of olive or brown will work on lures fished near or on the bottom, and anything that is colored something like a minnow will work on lures that run higher in the water column.  In things like spinnerbaits and buzzbaits, you can't go far wrong with white, chartreuse, and black.

[Roger Craig]

I am only over there during the white bass run, CAN"T WAIT FOR THIS YEAR.

So I just use two pretty much, swimming minnow, or a vibrex rooster tail lol.

We will see you there this year, plus one more puppy probably lol.

[Flysmallie]

You want a James River secret bait? Well here is one. Actually I think it works everywhere. When there is a kid in the front of my canoe this is one of their two choices. The other choice is also a small spinnerbait. Not saying you should be treated like a kid, but if you want something that will catch just about everything then here it is.

Lots of other good recommendations already listed. You can't go wrong with a small finesse worm. Sometimes on a jig head, sometimes split shot and other times no weight at all. I'd start small and go from there. Find the style you want to fish and then you can build on that. It's a great place to fish.

[crappie_adams83]

Everyone is right on throwing a confidence lure something you have caught fish with before that's about the best advice I can give