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Posts: 1516
| How about the baby weagle? |
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Posts: 1451
Location: Kronenwetter, WI | Agree with many who said unless it is a better version of something, I don’t get too excited. Example, I used to throw jackpots, but heard about this thing called a Weagle so tried it. I liked how it threw so much more water. I felt it sent out it’s signal a greater distance as a result. Personally I had instant success and continue to use it as a tool every time I need to work a located active fish. Boated 3 in 20 minutes one night when the gills were hammering bugs on the surface. Regular and XL size are always in my line up.
Now, I also love large dive and risers, when I couldn’t get wooden Foolers any more, I found this cool bait on Facebook called a barfighter. $35 bucks, what the hell. Loved it because it pushed a lot of water (yes that is a theme for me). When I needed a new one two years later, I was told it was over a year out on the waiting list so I said put me down. Got contacted a year later saying I was up to bat and how many did I want and what size? How much, sir, I replied. Ouch! I was shocked by the price so I merely congratulated the maker on his success in creating a high-demand product and left it at that. By the way, foolers are made of wood again and one showed up in my stocking this year! |
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Posts: 8774
| Pepper - 1/2/2020 2:24 PM
How about the baby weagle?
I've never had much luck on the little one. I do like the squirrely baby Wabull, though. I'd catch a lot more muskies on it if I could get the pike to leave them alone. |
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Posts: 661
Location: Roscoe IL | It's funny in the sense that I say I mostly use certain lures when fishing, yet i'm making a list of lures I'm interested in for the approaching shows that are different... What's wrong with me?
All those bright shinny colors and well crafted lures, displayed in a manner that I can't resist. |
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Posts: 93
| Squirrely tail Hell Hound in walleye, #1 for me.
If there is a bait that can be fished at more different depths, and that travels farther side to side, I would like to know about it. |
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Posts: 4080
Location: Elko - Lake Vermilion | Windy City - 1/2/2020 4:36 PM
Squirrely tail Hell Hound in walleye, #1 for me.
If there is a bait that can be fished at more different depths, and that travels farther side to side, I would like to know about it.
Big Perka. |
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Posts: 633
Location: Duluth | I love my Musky Buster Super AP, unreal action. Still waiting for it to get bit by something bigger than 30 inches though. Same with Manta's they get a ton of action but most often from smaller fish. |
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Posts: 171
| North of 8: I saw a sizeable fish miss a flopping perch TWICE on top. So imagine the batting avg on live swimming prey is pretty low.
Brett: And wear "the hat"......all lures work better with that....... |
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| Cowboyhannah - 1/2/2020 2:25 PM
Agree with many who said unless it is a better version of something, I don’t get too excited. Example, I used to throw jackpots, but heard about this thing called a Weagle so tried it. I liked how it threw so much more water. I felt it sent out it’s signal a greater distance as a result. Personally I had instant success and continue to use it as a tool every time I need to work a located active fish. Boated 3 in 20 minutes one night when the gills were hammering bugs on the surface. Regular and XL size are always in my line up.
Now, I also love large dive and risers, when I couldn’t get wooden Foolers any more, I found this cool bait on Facebook called a barfighter. $35 bucks, what the hell. Loved it because it pushed a lot of water (yes that is a theme for me). When I needed a new one two years later, I was told it was over a year out on the waiting list so I said put me down. Got contacted a year later saying I was up to bat and how many did I want and what size? How much, sir, I replied. Ouch! I was shocked by the price so I merely congratulated the maker on his success in creating a high-demand product and left it at that. By the way, foolers are made of wood again and one showed up in my stocking this year!
good news,one of my first fish on a jerkbait was on a wooden fooler.just for fun how much he ask for the barfighter ? |
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Posts: 219
Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota | I agree with most of you that the vast majority of overpriced baits won’t work any better than the regularly priced counterparts that they are based on, but I’ll go out on a limb and say I think the auto clear version of the lee lures leviathan is worth it. I have never seen a dive and rise that has an action like it. It dives just like a weighted suick but when you pull it it has a shimmy almost like an original floating rap. The auto clear version is half the price of his regular ones. Now I have only caught pike on it so I’m probably just trying to convince myself that it was worth the money by saying this, but I think that unique action and solid build is worth it. It’s also nice that if something breaks on it he’ll fix it for you. I haven’t used it but I’ve been really tempted to try his flaptail also, I think how the hooks are set up in it it would have a pretty high hookup percentage |
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Posts: 1767
Location: Lake Country, Wisconsin | Hellhound is as average as average gets for a bait.
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Posts: 8774
| Lures are what you make of them. I think a lot of guys take a particular lure, throw it for a bit on a down day, see/catch nothing, and on the wall it stays. Other guys never take the time to figure out what that lure can do and how to work it effectively. If these threads teach us anything, it's the fact that one angler's "meh..." is probably another man's golden ticket.
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Posts: 941
Location: Freedom, WI | Hellhound was never a basement bait, always mass produced. If a lure is correctly converted to mass production they work, sometimes better. |
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Location: Contrarian Island | sorry to relate musky fishing to golf again, but, lures to me are like a golfers clubs.. a novice could have the best clubs in the world and still suck... a pro could use the cheapest clubs in the world and shoot under par... lures are just that... a fish doesn't care when you cast out and throw a hellhound versus a sq phantom...if it's gonna hit a glider it's gonna hit a glider.. guys get way too caught up in lures somehow putting a lot more fish in the boat... a good angler knows it's more about the timing of the cast and location than the lure.
Edited by BNelson 1/6/2020 2:44 PM
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Posts: 1023
| I agree BNelson. There is no magic lure and too much emphasis is placed on “the lure”
However, some lures which appear similar are just better than others - slight difference in action, sits a little lower on surface, wanders, lasts longer... |
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| BNelson - 1/6/2020 2:43 PM
sorry to relate musky fishing to golf again, but, lures to me are like a golfers clubs.. a novice could have the best clubs in the world and still suck... a pro could use the cheapest clubs in the world and shoot under par... lures are just that... a fish doesn't care when you cast out and throw a hellhound versus a sq phantom...if it's gonna hit a glider it's gonna hit a glider.. guys get way too caught up in lures somehow putting a lot more fish in the boat... a good angler knows it's more about the timing of the cast and location than the lure.
Pro golfers adjust irons by one or two degrees of angle because of the importance of equipment to them. Yes, they could use cheap clubs right off the shelf and beat any amateur but they are very fussy about their equipment. Arnold Palmer had thousands of putters in a garage and tinkered with them his entire life. |
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Location: Contrarian Island | yah sure, but you are missing the point... angler skill level has a lot more to do with someones success on the water than the lures they throw... |
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Posts: 633
Location: Duluth | Agree with BNelson, much like golf, it usually comes down to user error. But you buy quality gear to ensure that you are indeed the weakest link, nothing worse than losing a fish due to equipment malfunction. |
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| BNelson - 1/6/2020 5:47 PM
yah sure, but you are missing the point... angler skill level has a lot more to do with someones success on the water than the lures they throw...
Nope, not missing the point at all. Pro golfers do everything they can to make sure they have exactly the right tool. Yes, there may be only a slight difference in performance between variations of a certain type of lure but if one has slightly better action, why not use it? |
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Posts: 767
Location: Ames, Iowa | I don't think it's the tool at all. Don't forget the Fish and Presentation part of the FLP formula. If a muskie in in that cabbage bed because I didn't spook it, and it's ready to eat or chase prey, then does it matter that I throw a 6 inch Slammer vs. a Pig vs. a spoon vs. a weighted 10 inch Suick? |
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| djwilliams - 1/6/2020 10:03 PM
I don't think it's the tool at all. Don't forget the Fish and Presentation part of the FLP formula. If a muskie in in that cabbage bed because I didn't spook it, and it's ready to eat or chase prey, then does it matter that I throw a 6 inch Slammer vs. a Pig vs. a spoon vs. a weighted 10 inch Suick?
Not arguing that lure choice is the most important part. But watch the pro bass fishermen some time. They change lures, change colors until they find one that works. They make their living fishing and if it all depended on presentation or fishing at the right time and place, they would not spend the effort with lures. Same with expert fly fishermen. They "match the hatch". |
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Posts: 2012
| While I don’t think comparing trout and bass to Muskie fishing makes much sense.. any fishing..just get time depth speed action and location right and the lure you throw doesn’t make any difference-ha! Muskies are catchable every day in any condition (sure some days aren’t safe on the water) . Weagles have been really good to me over the years easily over 100 in the net on those baits... you’d have to pay me well to waste my time throwing hellhounds, guess I don’t remember that craze? Maybe right after Bob’s Pig craze?  |
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Location: Contrarian Island | North of 8, that's the thing, you are saying there might only be a 'slight' improvement in performance...a guy can go mentally crazy thinking about ways to catch more muskies, by and large, all the guys I've known over the years that overthink it don't do very well.. while I do agree, use the best tool for the job, the bottom line is an avg fisherman, with every hyped and "best" lure out there is still going to have avg results... as I noted in another thread, I do have a few lures that do seem to have something special in attracting big fish, other than that, I could go to Lake of the woods for a week with 10 lures in my boat and catch just as many fish as I would with 500 in the boat, heck maybe more.... it's just fun to have lures 
Edited by BNelson 1/7/2020 10:03 AM
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| BNelson - 1/7/2020 10:02 AM
North of 8, that's the thing, you are saying there might only be a 'slight' improvement in performance...a guy can go mentally crazy thinking about ways to catch more muskies, by and large, all the guys I've known over the years that overthink it don't do very well.. while I do agree, use the best tool for the job, the bottom line is an avg fisherman, with every hyped and "best" lure out there is still going to have avg results... as I noted in another thread, I do have a few lures that do seem to have something special in attracting big fish, other than that, I could go to Lake of the woods for a week with 10 lures in my boat and catch just as many fish as I would with 500 in the boat, heck maybe more.... it's just fun to have lures
Not really disagreeing, just pointing out your pro golfer analogy might not have been the best comparison, since they are incredibly equipment focused.
The thing I find interesting is that from one body of water to another, lure performance can be quite different. Talked to two different guides who have spent many years on the waters in Vilas and Oneida county and both said they and their clients had very limited success with double tens on local water. Yet in Canada and big lakes like Vermillion, they worked well. When I got back into Musky fishing about 15 years ago after several decades of not fishing for them, I did some research on lures and among the handful I bought right away was a Top Raider. I have thrown it a lot, with very limited success. But, I was at a musky show the first spring the Fat B*****d was out and bought one. I was kind of put off by how loud it was but on the dark, heavily stained water on the chain where I live, it is probably my most productive lure in terms of fish caught per hour used. Both are top water prop baits, both are lures others have a lot of success with, but only one works well for me. |
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Location: Contrarian Island | Most good anglers are VERY equipment focused. Rods. Reels. Line. Leaders. Hooks. But not to the point of being ocd about lures. Maybe the golf ball is more the lure. Not the club.
Edited by BNelson 1/7/2020 12:43 PM
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Posts: 93
| I could go to Lake of the woods for a week with 10 lures in my boat and catch just as many fish as I would with 500 in the boat, heck maybe more.... it's just fun to have lures ;)
Okay...so you're saying that this coming summer, you can pick the major types you want, but you'll let me pick the particular 10 versions for you to use?
You're thinking Apostle...but nope! You're getting a Woodie.
The internet has enabled us to crowdsource figuring out what those better mousetraps are, and in large part it boils down to: 1) bigger, 2) faster, and 3) noisier. And I don't think you can separate rod and reel advancements from lure design in being able to present a bigger/faster/louder bait effectively.
There absolutely ARE some better mousetraps, and some others that just plain don't catch very many mice. The Weagle will improve catch rates for most people over the Jackpot. It might not move someone from 3 fish a year to 30, but it can move them from 3 up to 4 per year because they triggered an extra strike and the lure was way better at keeping it hooked. That'd be a 33% improvement! And when you're catching a relatively low number of fish per year, every one matters that much more. That means using the best possible tool is MORE important for low volume fishermen. Of course, being "hot" isn't a sign that a lure is better at catching fish, just that it's better at catching people.
Edited by undersized 1/7/2020 12:56 PM
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Posts: 8774
| No8, I think that's a lake-specific thing. We have a stained lake like that. Tail props are a riot, but they only connect about one out of 3 times. The only lures that they don't miss are big WTD lures, worked slowly with a lot of pauses, and the Nimmer Swimmer Wolly Pog. Slower, bigger, and louder is my guess.
It's just the opposite on a nearby (clear) lake. The slower stuff just gets a lot of lookers. Small tail props + speed gets the job done there.
Some lures just suck. What makes a lure "great" is 1. Throwing it in the right place, 2. Throwing it at the right time, working it in a way that makes the fish decide to eat eat it. |
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Location: Contrarian Island | weird. I know some guys who do pretty well on double 10s in Vilas, must be a lake specific thing lol.
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Posts: 4269
Location: Ashland WI | North of 8 - 1/7/2020 11:56 AM
BNelson - 1/7/2020 10:02 AM
North of 8, that's the thing, you are saying there might only be a 'slight' improvement in performance...a guy can go mentally crazy thinking about ways to catch more muskies, by and large, all the guys I've known over the years that overthink it don't do very well.. while I do agree, use the best tool for the job, the bottom line is an avg fisherman, with every hyped and "best" lure out there is still going to have avg results... as I noted in another thread, I do have a few lures that do seem to have something special in attracting big fish, other than that, I could go to Lake of the woods for a week with 10 lures in my boat and catch just as many fish as I would with 500 in the boat, heck maybe more.... it's just fun to have lures
Not really disagreeing, just pointing out your pro golfer analogy might not have been the best comparison, since they are incredibly equipment focused.
The thing I find interesting is that from one body of water to another, lure performance can be quite different. Talked to two different guides who have spent many years on the waters in Vilas and Oneida county and both said they and their clients had very limited success with double tens on local water. Yet in Canada and big lakes like Vermillion, they worked well. When I got back into Musky fishing about 15 years ago after several decades of not fishing for them, I did some research on lures and among the handful I bought right away was a Top Raider. I have thrown it a lot, with very limited success. But, I was at a musky show the first spring the Fat B*****d was out and bought one. I was kind of put off by how loud it was but on the dark, heavily stained water on the chain where I live, it is probably my most productive lure in terms of fish caught per hour used. Both are top water prop baits, both are lures others have a lot of success with, but only one works well for me.
He wasn't debating that pro golfers (or pro fishermen) don't care about the specifics. He was saying a pro golfer could still shoot par with average clubs off the rack (this is true), whereas an average golfer just won't no matter what clubs (lures) you give him. |
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Posts: 8774
| BNelson - 1/7/2020 1:22 PM
weird. I know some guys who do pretty well on double 10s in Vilas, must be a lake specific thing lol.
We all know some guys. I know a guy who catches nearly all of his fish on Burts. I know another guy in Vilas who caught 73 fish on one glider. That was probably 10 years ago, so who knows what he's up to now. But then Gliders suck, right? |
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