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Posts: 1150
Location: Minnesota. | I might be qualifying for an "unpopular post" award here but here's a morning thought over coffee.
We recently had a garage/house fire that took my boat among other things. I was fully insured, thank goodness. I needed to go buy all my muskie gear again, ALL of it and I'm doing that now...
Been at this game since 1980 so I'd accumulated much. Instead of refilling 4 boxes with many, many baits I bought $350 worth of American Hardwood Lures selections since I'd met the owner, Mick on vac. last year.
I have a very good friend who intro'd. me to this sport in 1980. He's got a handful of baits. A couple he uses a lot and he's made one or two that are his favs.
The point here is he catches some fine fish and only now uses around 3 baits, a Cowgirl, another jerk of some kind and that ol' Suick-style bait he made. Maybe he's got 4 baits, dunno for certain now.
I'm finding a tussle with myself, why the heck buy more and more to "try"? He takes a good lot of fish each year and has little.
I know, I know, I'm not able to do that either and got sucked into replacing much. I'm seriously wondering why! I think it's too much hype....Always looking for that next "fix" that works.
If the fish are going to eat, they will. If not, you'll find out. I'm really of the feeling that there's really little...very little, need to go "fill out the tackle box"!
There, I said it. Seriously now. But I suppose I'll go slip again too. I really wish I wouldn't and often wonder...
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Posts: 20281
Location: oswego, il | Depends on where you fish. If you fish the same types of lakes at the same times of year you can get away with a few baits. If you fish many different styles of lakes at many different times of the year you will need more baits. Lures are tools and i like having the best one for the right situation. It's been said a musky can flick it's tail and move 15ft well if it wants to. I like my baits closer to the fish than that for those many days they don't want to. |
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| Last year at LOTW I threw about 3 baits the entire week. Stuck with just 1 out of the 3 about 75% of the time, and all 8 muskies I caught that week were caught on that 1 lure.
But of course I have hundreds I don't need like most. |
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Location: Hayward WI | For me, the buying, trying and collecting of new baits is just part of the sport of muskie fishing. I think for most people, when you get into the sport, you buy what you can afford. As you age, and hopefully your income increases, you buy what you want.
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Posts: 1358
Location: Lake "y" cause lake"x" got over fished | I agree with Todd, It all depends on what water and how often... But I will say that Lures are more for the fisherman than they are the fish... That being said it's all about what you have confidence in throwing... I would get all the ones you can safety say you are more than confident throwing all day, on any given day...
I will say that I can't stop buying baits... Everytime I tell myself I don't need anymore I always find 5 or 6 different new ones that need to go into the box.. I don't spend money on much else, so when I spend fun money it goes to the Musky's.
Edited by FAT-SKI 5/17/2012 9:57 AM
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Posts: 265
Location: Manitowish Waters WI | It's an addiction for myself, i can't stop buying, trying, and reselling baits. I know I'm loosing money but it's well worth having a selection if the "go to" baits are not working on a given day. I haven't found the absolute magic bait yet, but I'm close!!!!! |
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Posts: 58
Location: Chicagoland area! | I like throwing many untill somethin works, lots of times a slight color change or different prop bait seems to catch more fish, which requires quite a selection, just my 2 cents |
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Posts: 8865
| I don't wish something like that on anyone, and I don't wish it upon myself.
But if a fire were to happen? I'd be happy to be able to go out and buy only the lures I need, which would probably number less than 30 when all was said and done. Like many, I fell into the lure trap early on, and bought hundreds and of lures. I don't even take half of them to Canada. And of what I DO take to Canada, I am lucky to throw half a dozen of them in a week. I have different lures I use for N. WI, and different lures for IN, lures for the Fox Chain, lures that I MIGHT use if I ever go down to KY early in the spring again...
But when all is said and done? For every one lure I have that I actually take with me and use when I fish in various places, I have 5 others that I do not use.
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Posts: 4342
Location: Smith Creek | Double 10's don't get down to 15' very easily, it's tough to work pounders over shallow weeds. All black doesn't work the greatest in coffee stained water. Hawg wobblers are lousy search baits.
I could go on, you get the point. |
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Posts: 225
Location: Nordeast Minneapolis | Absolutely you can fish all year, happily, with 5 lures. The 'what's your top 5 lures?' lists that we seem to generate every year on here attest to that. But the tricky thing is that it may take going through a couple hundred lures to figure out what your top 5 lures are.  I'm guessing the lures you through the most in 1980 aren't the same you'd buy today.
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Posts: 76
| Fishing Eagle Lake last fall I was referred to as "One of those change a bait every 15 cast guys." Less than 3 minutes after I was chastised I stuck a fat 51. First one on a crankbait in camp that week because "thee" bait for that time was the pounder. Everyone in camp was of course fishing pounders and why would you try something else? One of my fishing partners (not the name calling bully) caught his personal best two hours later casting a crankbait.
Yeh, I have my favorites but if they don't move something I switch. How do you know what a musky wants if you don't show them your menu?
Confession of a bait changer!
Edited by Walleyedoctor 5/17/2012 11:45 AM
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Posts: 785
| I admit I have way too many baits, and many I'll probably never even throw but fishing 3 people out of the boat has shown me that size, color and lure type can make a big difference in wheather a fish eats, follows or simply ignores you on any given day. I've actually gotten to not like fishing alone because I don't have the option to give them multiple options at once. I would honestly say I would not be confident on the lakes I fish with only 3-5 lures. I would barely be comfortable with only five bucktails for example. With the variety of blade shapes, size, color and material options that have there own applications to water color, light levels, shallow/deep, fast/slow, etc... lures being a tool I like having enough variety to fit whatever situation I'm in.
Edited by musky-skunk 5/17/2012 12:03 PM
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Posts: 242
| I fortunately didn't go through a tragic event like you did, but I did want to scale back on what I have and carry. I limited myself to one Lakewood Monster Box and after filling it up with what I really use, I got rid of the rest. It is nice just having baits you have confidence in and you don't waste time on the water changing to all these off the wall lures thinking they will be the ticket.
(My bucktails are in a Plano 3700 in the back pocket)
Edited by Lucky Craft Man 5/17/2012 12:16 PM
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Posts: 20281
Location: oswego, il | I bave had whole weekends where i threw one bait. I fished sturgeon bay for smallies last weekend, 2 lures was all i threw. Now i would not have done so well had i not brought those two lures with which i selected from well over 100 that i had brought. Those two were the best tools for those conditions. Much more effective to select the few baits you may only use when you have more to choose from. |
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Posts: 4342
Location: Smith Creek | Some of my good baits I have 2 or 3 of the exact same bait. |
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Posts: 2361
| Having good baits and knowing you can catch fish on them, and use them with confidence is great.
However, that doesn't foreclude someone from creating a BETTER bait, and most of the guides I know, and guys that fish a lot of days, have a lot more baits than I do(and I have a bunch), even though they only throw a few. Sticking to only a few historical baits is probably a limiting proposition in the long run. |
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Posts: 53
Location: Mn | The hardest thing to do is try a bait your confidance is low on during hot times or hot spots but that is how your skill level will increase on less familiar baits. Those who spend more days on the water get more time to play with more baits. Than pick the styles you like and grow your color selections. |
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Posts: 572
Location: Maplewood, MN | Personally, I don't have many lures because I am still growing with my musky fishing. What I have noticed is that I tend to buy many 'different from everybody else' type of lures because of the waters that I fish. I have the mindset that breaking away from the norm will give me success, therefore, the lures that I have are a variety of sizes, colors, and so on. If you fish only a handful of fisheries, then you could definitely get away with owning a dozen lures. |
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| I don't have a fraction of the selection a lot of guys have, but I feel like I have way too many. It's just hard not buying a bunch of different colors and sizes of a lure you have confidence in. And then there's having multiples of the same lure, as stated above. |
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Posts: 1308
Location: WI | One of my hottest lures last fall was a lure I've had for a couple years that I had never used. Casting I only have maybe 30 lures with me, and of those I probably only use 1-5 in an outing. Trolling I bring a lot more.
Casting, trolling, clear water, stained water, small lakes, big systems...seasonal... Could be worse, you could be drinking that money down or smoking it up. At least you can sell musky baits! |
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Posts: 968
Location: N.FIB | once I discovered ebay for baits and this board my collection got alot bigger,I sell some lures and then buy more,crazy,also mto and big wood
Edited by CASTING55 5/18/2012 3:22 AM
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Location: Eastern Ontario | Most of us have 2 hobbies Muskie Fishing and Lure Collecting. |
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Posts: 899
| I think I'm getting closer to having my collection being "complete." I have about 130 lures I'd actually consider using, and another 30 that are long shots (like heavy spinnerbaits, a few trolling baits - never do that, and some oldies that hang on the wall or are too beat up/rusty). The 130 are comprised of a good mixture of different categories of baits (bucktails, cranks, gliders, rubber, topwater, spinnerbaits), but in each of those categories I probably have 2-5 kinds of lures that I have confidence in and bought a bunch of different colors. So, yeah, I could probably narrow it down to 13 to 15 kinds of lures, but I wouldn't want to limit myself to one of each because color preferences change from year to year, month to month, day to day, lake to lake.
Out of those 130, I bet half saw the water last year and I caught fish on 20 or so different lures. |
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Posts: 53
Location: Bemidji | Great thread guys.
Lure 'collecting' is an addiction just like muskie fishing is for me. Unfortunately, I have a problem when it comes to scaling back what I have in the boat. Since I have them, I want themarithmetic me. Even if I only use a dozen baits over a weekend.
I have found I can fit about 250 baits in my just Encase deck box, and that's not counting baits stowed away in Plano boxes
This year, I have to find a way to scale back what I bring, and keep it to a manageable amount.
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Posts: 833
| I buy into the lures as tools thing. Sometimes there is one bait that handles a given set of circumstances better than anything else. One of my good friends has a great tale involving one of his biggest fish and such a circumstance.
I’m also a confessed serial bait switcher, but I’m trying to break the habit. The more I learn, the more I think this behavior costs me opportunities.
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Posts: 200
Location: Minnesota | Lures are to us what shoes are to women. I'll never understand why my wife can't get by with only 25 dozen pairs of shoes, and she'll never understand why I can't get by with only that many muskie lures.
As long as you aren't buying lures instead of baby/dog food, it's fine with me. |
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Posts: 121
Location: Plymouth IA | My wife calls fishing lures jewelry for men. Think the saying goes "so much tackle so little time".  |
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Posts: 1023
| I could live with 6 different baits in lots of colors myself. |
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Posts: 2389
Location: Chisholm, MN | Every year I say, "now I have enough baits", and every year I keep buying more! I'm getting to the point where I might start selling some. |
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Posts: 1150
Location: Minnesota. | Kirby Budrow - 5/19/2012 10:44 AM
Every year I say, "now I have enough baits", and every year I keep buying more! I'm getting to the point where I might start selling some.
I thought that very same thing, just before nature took over for me...
My wife calls fishing lures jewelry for men. -one of my all-time favorite quotes.
Some interesting shared thoughts here boys (and girls ??) and it all adds perspective to what we love every time you enter the tackle shop looking for just "one thing".
I'm a sucker for it all, try as I might but I'm really trying to keep it minimal. I'm not into this as deeply as most here and I don't catch near the fish some do. That's a function of not going to the "numbers lakes" (I mainly fish Vermilion) and some local lakes around the Twin Cities and I often get sidetracked into other species that hit topsides readily (pike and bass) as I fly rod a lot.
Still, it's hard!!! Thanks for sharing perspectives. I can learn much from this place, I already look in too much.
I need to make a trip to LOTW some day. Vermilion sucks in mid summer.
Jeremy. |
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Posts: 1270
| When it comes to how many musky baits I have I always say that if modern musky baits increase in value like ones made 60 or so years ago my grandkids are set for retirement! Of course they wont because 60 years ago they were hand made and made in VERY small numbers, todays baits, even the real good and expensive ones, are generally made is such quantities that they will never go up in value.
I've gone to Canada several times and only used 5 baits (except the couple casts I had to make with all the new baits I had bought in the last year). For me I could do 95% of my fishing with A Giant JackPot, Hellhound, Top Raider, 10" Jake, and a double bladed bucktail. |
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