the one that surprised me was the Johnson Beetle spin 1/32
I was way back in a backwater and found a area with a spring that was holding a bunch of blue gills and some smaller bass.

I had run out of worms catching gills and I was digging through my box for something I could use to keep going on gills

I saw this tiny little Johnsons beetle spin it was red and yellow like candy corn and about that size

I caught several more gills and 2 small bass on it.

I also tried Berkley Choppo , it has a tail that smacks the surface of the water as it is retrieved it was a lure my son had left in the boat so I tied that on and started fanning casts over some shallow flats full of weeds about a foot below the surface.
pulled some northern and large mouth out with that.


what did you find or re-find last year

Berkley Nessie swim bait.

Orange and black wooly bugger on a fly rod. Kills the bluegill, and I had a 3-pound bass hit it. Of course, then it snapped my tippet.

Dollie Lama for trout and dollies in streams and lakes. For saltwater salmon it’s whatever works on that day, be it a certain color hoochie, flasher, plug, or herring.

My hand made jigs. In custom color I designed that NO ONE has but me.

Nothing worked well for me last year

Floating Rapala G11

If I had to use only one lure for the rest of my life, it would be the Johnson Beetle Spin.

Little Nippet, double rig 18” apart. If there are fish there, this rig will catch them

normally I am all about live bait on a chartreuse Jig , so last spring when I stepped on a charter and 8 rods all had chartreuse jig heads and we were putting mud minnows on them I had to laugh

for years my tackle box was a little Plano box of different size jig heads.

my son gave me a hard time about that so when I stepped on that charter I texted him , look and pic with 8 rods all rigged with chartreuse jig heads

the last 2 years I have branched out and done more artificial

with wacky rigs , small Rapalas , Jitter bugs , some of the frogs to through over Lilly pads and surface vegetation

I've been wanting to try one of those Zman chatter spinners but I'm too cheap. Just read the other day that the new texas record crappie was caught on one so maybe worth the money I guess. With my luck I'd lose it on the first cast.

Same as every year: jig and minnow early, jig and leech later

Kietech is the latest over here.

like these?

https://www.farmandfleet.com/products/546311-z-man-white-chatter-bait-fish-lure.html

when you start tying 5-15 dollars on the end of the line you start making very sure of those knots

12" fresh dead eel rigged on a 3/4 oz. 7/0 bucktail head for nighttime jetty stripers.

Tried this lure for stream trout last year and clobbered them, even caught some nice small mouth with them.

It suspends, I wish they made a countdown version

6th Sense rigged Panaroma 2.0, absolute beast on big bream, warmouth, crappie, black bass, rock bass, white bass and anything else that can see it and has scales and gills. gar, grennel.

I love the J11 Papala.

Caught 90% of my fish last year on a jig and minnow. With and without rubber.

For lake trout, tube jig tipped with suck at meat was hot all summer.

^^ Those were in Canada. Here river fishing rod and reel, chicken liver was great on Cats. Cut silver carp or minnows on set lines. Crawlers after a rain and late season cats loved grasshoppers, especially after a big wind blew a bunch in the river.

Too many to list.

What colors ya like?