Old Lures You Still Throw

I recently saw that Northland had picked up the Bagley company and was looking around at the lures they still offer and the Bang-O with a single tail prop is back on the market which really makes me happy. More of a nostalgia deal, it was the first bass lure that I absolutely slayed with. It’s got a jerkbait lip on it, but it’s a topwater prop lure. So you’d jerk it and it would dive about 6 inches max, with the prop spinning and then float back to the surface. I think I have one left and haven’t thrown them for years. Going to have to change that now.

What are some old school lures you guys still throw, or what were some of the first lures that as a kid or when you first got into bass, that you crushed them on?

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Miller Wobbler and Pork Rind discontinued the bought up and marketed as Mighty Wobbler now discontinued again should of bought at least a couple dozen if I knew they were going out of business.

Bass oreno. Red and white

I used to love throwing a Jitterbug that my grandpa gave me, but I can’t say that I ever caught much on it.

How can you go wrong with a spinnerbait?

I use to catch a ton of bass on a Smithwick Devil horse. There was one of the pro’s at last weeks BASS tourney throwing a new version of one and doing really well on it. I still have a few of them. I may have to pull them out and throw them some this next season for old times sake. I also use to do real well on a Heddon Tiny Torpedo. Nothing better than catching bass on Top water baits.

Hula popper and a rubber popper (don’t know actual name) in the pads.

I’ll throw a Hellbender off the end of the dock now and then. Fun to watch muskies, Northerns and large mouths take swipes at it.

There are a couple spots in the Alexandria area where we have good luck with Lazy Ikes. My granddaughter likes the way they wobble when we troll with them.

For me, the progression was live minnows, nightcrawlers, and frogs to plastic worms (Mann’s Jelly, Pradco, and Powerworm when they came out, spinnerbaits (Roland Martin Big Bass), beetle spins, and buzzbaits, then floating raps, crankbaits (Bombers, Norman, Bagley, Rebel, Mann’s) and topwaters (Hula Poppers, Jitterbugs, Spit’n Image).

I don’t throw any of that stuff anymore except for the Spit’N Image on rare occasions and a beetle spin. I really should get back to throwing plastic worms, if nothing else, to get rid of my stockpile of baits that I have had sitting around for years. I could probably dedicate a rod to it this year.

gimruis wrote:

Bass oreno. Red and white

This. I don’t fish bass much but these things crush. Kinda laughable how well they work for me.

Fishthumper, I have and still use the smaller two hook Smithwick Devils Horse. When they were discontinued…I called Pradco and bought every leftover they had in the warehouse.

Beetle spins really good for early spring went through a lot of them this last spring out fished everything else for a while and cheap.

Safety pin spinners. Its where my passion started. When I was 9 I used to make them with my uncle for my other uncle’s bait and gun shop. And I still make them. Poe RC series cedar coffin bill crankbait. I caught some of my largest walleyes on that lure. When it finally broke I had to go on ebay and order some more. Crawler harness, river rocker, beetle spins, bobber, hook and lead sinker… Way too many to list. I like tossing old baits. Some are still mass produce. My favorites are ones that have not been make for over 20 years. They are almost like new baits since one knows the fish have not seen them before.

The old Virgil Ward bass buster marabou jigs, especially the red/ white or yellow in 1/4 or 3/8 ounce. Tipped with a fathead minnow absolute walleye getter in open water. I buy every card of them I can find on ebay. Personally I think the jig head design and marabou make it a slow falling combo that works well.

The original Mister Twister curly tail grub still catches a lot of fish.

Charlie W wrote:

This. I don’t fish bass much but these things crush. Kinda laughable how well they work for me.

I catch a lot of pike on it too. And an occasional muskie. Mine has teeth marks all over it.

Power-Slug, Excalibur titanium spinners, Balsa Fat Rap

Jitterbug. I’ve got a couple green frog patterns, couple red/white, and a couple black ones. The green frog one caught my largest LM to date, a 8.2# down at my in-laws winter place in Florida. It also caught a 3.5 foot alligator on the same little pond one year, luckily it popped off its back about ten feet from shore.
I really wasn’t sure what I was gonna do with it at the time.

Doctor Spoon. You can still buy them, but I have some old timers of my grandpa’s.

The good old Slug-Go and Power Slugs have mostly gave way to the stick worm style of baits. I know guys who will still pay dearly for those old Black or Red shad original slug-go’s. They say there is something different in the old ones than the current ones sold.

Not old but often over looked is just a jig and mister twister, even ad a beetle spin at times. Especially on the river for smallies

Zarra Spooks are one of the things I’ve gone back to. Used to buy them for bass fishing and topwater pike bites until a few years a go a buddy started catching trophy walleye at night with topwaters. Pretty fun to see a wake in the moonlight and all hell breaks loose in the dark and out comes a walleye.

Walleye on toppies? Cool
One thing that is fun about pike is they sometimes do a mid air 180 in the strike
its like a Outdoor Life cover

Been throwing a shad rap and catching all sorts of species since I knew how to cast.

I’ve been using old school bass plastics. They work great for walleye!

tim hurley wrote:

Walleye on toppies? Cool

I have had great success using the old Scum Frog on the inside of the weed line at 2 AM.

I tried and tried to be successful with a Jitterbug but never had much luck… Still fun to throw…

OG Chug Bug’s were the best, I lost my last one to a toothy guy a couple summers ago. Also when the bite is tough going with a plow jockey can change your day around….

A few years back, my father and I dusted off some old lures from his collection and I added a few from mine. I wanted to see if and how well it worked to kick it old school, so here’s what I tried.

Lazy Ike (various colors) – Worked really well when the conditions and depth were right. Not as easy to cast. One of better old plugs as far as running deep, although “deep” with this old stuff is nothing like as deep as modern cranks.

Flatfish – We absolutely lit up the walleye trolling along weedlines. This was the surprise of the test. They worked as well as any “modern” option we had. The only downside was the number of hooks on these lures make C&R a pain. For trolling shallow, these were really good. Best color was a silver belly/black top but there is also an orange and black color that was very good.

Pul-Ver-Izer – Weird and wacky, but get the speed right and get them to run right and we did catch fish on these.

Rapala Fat Rap – These things changed my life when they came out in the late 1970s. This was the deepest-running, easiest-to-tune, plug I’d ever used. Unsurprisingly, they still work really well on walleye on reefs and flats.

Just a few of the plugs we tried.

Yes Thump those stick baits have replaced the power slug and the slug-o, but the stick baits do not glide as well and float up in the strike zone. Many throwing a stick bait do not ever rig it texas style, which works very well for all weightless plastics.