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Posts: 8793
| What do you guys do with lures that have caught their last fish? I can't throw them away. I don't want them in the boat. Thinking of building a "wall of fame" and hanging them under a picture of the fish that did them in. #*^@ shame when your best baits get too old to throw... |
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Posts: 1083
| Over the past 30+ years of fishing, there are some baits that were absolutely and simply destroyed by just one or two fish. Those baits, to me, never really grew to become a legendary "favorite" and high producing bait for me, in my boat. So mentally I never grew any emotional attachment to those baits. So those were probably just parted out for their hooks, split rings and whatever may have been of use from the bait and either tossed into boxes with the idea that "someday" I'd do something with them, or...they were simply tossed due to no way they could be revived. If they were rubber baits that died a sudden and early death, I keep those around to be donors, to use as spare rubber material to fix other rubber baits with that ARE still repairable and useable.
MANY other baits, however, that DID reach that legendary, prestigious level of being big fish producers in my boat, to the point of being high confidences baits and go-to baits, that had seen so many fish to the point of having worked on them, re-worked them, melted them back together, many, many times...doing whatever it took to still continue fishing with those baits, to continue putting fish in the boat....there has come a time for so many of those to "know when to say when" and call it a day with those baits. Many of those specific types of baits, I have hanging in the large, custom made, wooden bait box cabinets in my garage. With the idea, that maybe some day...I might have something that would resemble a man-cave with a bar that those would make for some unique bar art to have hanging around in the bar. And yes...maybe hung from a framed print of one of, or some of, the fish that it caught. But for now...they're just tucked away inside the wooden cabinets. I still smile when I open those cabinet doors and see them hanging in there. Many great memories of great times, laughs and lots of fish tied to those baits. Looking at those baits is no different than looking at a photo album of when I was a kid or looking at a photo album of the fish caught throughout the years. The instant I lay my eyes on them...while they look destroyed and meaningless to anyone but me...I still know their past and their track records.
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Posts: 95
Location: Shakopee Minnesota | that was awesome mack. haha i cant wait till i get my first. |
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Posts: 331
Location: In the slop! | I have a little 'Hall of Fame' for my old warriors that have had to be removed from service. Just had to enter my favorite super-Believer into it, will be hard to replace Chuck. |
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Posts: 833
| A good friend and I were talking about "baits you do not want to retire" this past summer while night fishing. We came to the conclusion that you are not a veteran musky hunter until you have a lure that has a name and a story involving multiple fish. You know you've arrived when you have that one bait that you fear you'll have to retire soon due to too many hack marks.
Also reminds me of fishing with another good friend who labeled my unscathed Hawg Wobbler a "Virgin Hawg Wobbler." Good stuff.
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Posts: 386
| Mack summed it up nicely. The ones that get wrecked but don't hold sentimental value get parted out. But the ones that have been through a lot, have memorable fish, or a lot of fish, get their own special place in the basement on the "muskie wall". I retired my favorite spinner bait last summer after it's 42nd fish when I caught a fish on the exact spot where I caught my first fish....with the same bait. I figured it was her time to retire. It's the only bait that my wife allows upstairs and it hangs on my side of the side on the lamp shade. It was given to me from a very close friend of mine who taught me everything I know about muskie fishing and has more value to me than all my other baits combined. If my house went up in flames right now, that would be the first thing I would gab. |
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Location: Eastern Ontario | I have a number of old firetiger Suicks that have been through many battles and are no longer used because the amount of raw wood causes the hooks to hang up. They are all named Suzy and live in there own plano box that is kept in the boat. I don't want them feeling like my son-in-laws old lab when the duck boat leaves the yard with out him. |
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Posts: 386
| I have a mag dawg that barely resembles its out of box looks - starting to turn into a rainbow. But for some reason it still produces when others don't. It's going to be a sad day when it finally gets a spot to hang from in the garage. My favorite part of it are the eyes. Ones completely gone and the other managed to flip around so you just see a kind of milky-silver circle. It's the "zombie dawg" |
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Posts: 24
| I cut the hooks off my favorite "retired" baits and use them as fobs on the the pull chain light switches in my garage and utility room closets. Nothing like going to do some chore and then reaching up and grabbing a treasured Suick or big Jitterbug. Just remember to remove the hooks first. |
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