It is one of those “if you were stuck on a desert island. . .” questions. Which half-dozen lures would you pick for all fishing?
It?s an easy question with no easy answer. Think of fishing for everything from trout to panfish to stripers to pike. Consider ponds, streams, rivers, lakes, and bays. Figure on surface fishing to plumbing the depths. Think all seasons, all species.
Under my hot-stove debatable hypothetical question, changing sizes, colors and adding trailers is wide-open; changing lures is not. And while all lures will not catch all fish, each should catch a few different species with size and color adjustments.
My lure hit parade is: the Zara Spook, Rat-L-Trap, plastic worm, tube lure, Mepps Aglia spinner and jig. The topwater Zara is an obvious choice, even with other-brand substitutes. It is a classic stickbait lure from 1939, (updated from the 1920?s wood Zaragossa), and proven on everything from redfish to bass to stripers. Work it silently, walk-the-dog around a stump, bob-and-weave, to do all kinds of fish-taking tricks.
The Rat-L-Trap is another classic that has coaxed copies out of the woodwork. This original lipless, sonic-vibrating crankbait in sizes from 1/8 to 1-1/2 ounces takes trout, crappie, yellow perch, largemouth and smallmouth bass, pickerel, pike, stripers, bluefish, tarpon, snook – you name it. Pick any of 100 colors.
Plastic worms have been a staple of fishing since Nick Crème developed them in the early 1950?s. Today, in any color and all sizes, they take trout to trophy stripers, crappie to giant catfish. And you get to choose straight or curly tail, tiny or huge, Texas or Carolina rig. Think of a big striper gulping an elver swimming its way back from the Sargasso Sea and it is easy to see how a black 10-inch worm fits the striper menu.
Tube lures are terrific for bass, but in small sizes good for trout and panfish; in large versions great for offshore dolphin. The offshore MoldCraft vinyl skirt is essentially a large tube lure in a pencil-point shape.
Mepps Aglia spinners were introduced into this country from France in 1945 (first made in 1938), and have dominated the fishing scene since. Pick the right size (1/18 ounce to 2-1/3 ounce), color and blade finish among the 4,000 models made, and you have a lure for tiny trout or monster muskies.
Jigs are universal lures, with books written about them and how to fish them. Ranging from 1/80-ounce up to 12-ounces plus, jigs come in all colors, all tails (bucktail, feathers, fur, plastic skirts, synthetic hair) and take trout to tuna, pumpkinseed to pike, shad to stripers.
Then too, you can add trailers to make these lures even more attractive. Try a chamois strip on the end of a Zara or Rat-L-Trap, plastic worm stuffed into a tube lure, maybe a pork chunk, plastic lizard or plastic strip tipped to a jig.
That?s six lures for all fish, anytime, anywhere.
C. Boyd Pfeiffer is an internationally known sportsman and award-winning writer on fishing, hunting, and the outdoors. He can be reached at [email protected]
