Cheap/Knock-off lures

[rich_ace_G]

the wobble and action usually is not that different...durability and stability is what differentiates between the 2. I have caught fish on dollarama lures but the hooks tend to rust pretty fast. like 1 day fast. and paint chips easily as well. but spinners, make sure they spin at all.

[MichaelAngelo]

(01-26-2013 01:52 PM)OldTimer Wrote:  so...........Question is........ when you do use the 1/3 you kept...........which ones are your "goto" lures?

Now Ken, that info would be quite valuable...

[MuskieBait]

I've been pushing out a lot of hardbait lures in favour for soft plastic lures.

Reason:

At $5-10 a hardbait lure, I can get a pack of soft plastics at the same price with anywhere from 5-12 pieces of soft plastic lures in each pack. This accomplish a few things in my opinion...

1) If the soft plastics are durable, you can potentially get multiple use out of each lure...extending the lifetime of each one to make it pretty affordable...

2) With multiple pieces of lures, you can take the risk and fish them close to cover. You don't have to worry about casting them deep into overhanging trees, fishing in rocky areas, pitching under docks...etc. You can explore many more fish holding structure and potentially catch more fish.

3) Soft plastics are more versatile. You can fish some of them in many, many ways. Soft plastics like twister tails can be fish swimming them in the water column, jigged on bottom, twitched slowly, crawled on bottom, fished with a 3-way rig in current...even fished with very little weight on a weedless weight over weed beds. It's much more versatile than say a crankbait...or a popper...or a rubber frog.

4) Soft plastics catch fish in freshwater and saltwater...and comes in sizes from 1" to 8"...again...versatility is everything. Common sizes that I like are between 2-3" long and it mimics most of the forage base on many, many bodies of water.

5) Salt and flavours can be impregnated into soft plastic lures...and ones like Gulp! have been very deadly for me both in freshwater and especially in saltwater.

So...to me, the pros in soft plastic lures outweight the cons (lightweight, some durability issue).

That's not to say I don't have any hardbait or spinners though...

Some of my go-to lures are hardbaits...

X-Rap 8 - absolutely love this lure for saltwater fishing...and it works well for freshwater too...

Zara Puppy (or Zara Spook) - absolutely love this lure for all my topwater needs...barracuda destroys this lure...which is both a good and bad thing...

Spinnerbait - a good flashy spinnerbait with premium barrel swivel is key...I like the Northland Reef Runner for muskie fishing

Mepps spinner - um...need I say more? #5 Mepps with big homemade bucktail trebles have been very good for me for muskies and pike

Yo-Zuri Pins Minnow - I like the smaller 2" size...it seems to catch a lot for me...even brown trout at the Niagara River.

Anyways, I can go on all day...despite the fact that I sold 2/3 of my lures, I still have about 4 tackle trays packed full of lures plus a lot of soft plastics...

I also have things that I bought and there is really no use locally...like 14oz knife jigs, 3oz Creek Chub plugs, and Luhr Jensen Woodchopper...those are really just bought for future use...to feed my inspiration to fish in Australia, Zambia and Brazil, respectively...

[OldTimer]

Got to agree re the value of soft plastics. My fav here being the Original Mister Twister jigs in either solid black or white.

We also match on Mepps - one of my "goto"s - #2 or #3 silver.

Top water - as you say Zara's.......... I also like Tiny (and full size)Torpedo's and my #1 favorite.......... Rebel Pop R, every size.

Mid water - Rattlin Raps or alikes & Rebel minnowbaits.

Cheers,

OldTimer

[MichaelAngelo]

Rapala F7 in silver/black does it in 3-4 FOW! My newbie go-to lure that just produces!

[kevintorcan]

bought a bunch of cheap lures off ebay (prob from china) not the best quality but i have caught a considerable amount with them