Live Bait or Lures, What Really Works Well

[deathb4disco]

Get yourself a bunch of 1/16 oz. & 1/8 oz. plain ball head jigs. Dress them with a straight tailed plastic like the Bobby Garland's Baby Shads and also a good "paddle-tail" bait, such as the Charlie Brewer's Slider Grubs. Select about a half dozen of each, dependant upon the water color you are faced with fishing. With this line-up, you will catch plenty of crappie. Guaranteed.

This ^^^^

[gatoloco]

if not comfortable selecting go to bass pro, cabelas etc and they have kits that has many of the similar baits noted above. just remember match the hatch natural looking baits are a good starting point and go from there. but you cannot beat a minnow

good fishing

[Bamafan2277]

Welcome to the board! A good substitute I use for live minnows is the Berkeley gulp Minnows. I just picked up 2 pint's at Cabela's for $12.88 each that have approx 40 baits in them. One of those will last many fish and once they loose their smell you just throw them back in the bucket with the juice to recharge them. I keep them on hand anytime I am fishing in case I can't find minnows or won't be fishing long enough to warrant buying live bait.

[Jerry Bryant]

Bank fishing I would go for minnows.

[scrat]

I like to have both minnows and artificial in my boat.

Minnows even the pros use them when tournament fishing.

[shipahoy41]

[SuperDave336]

Do you make the 1” stinger and silverfish?

[Spoonminnow]

My basic equipment other than lures:
8# test braid line with or without a 6# test fluorocarbon leader for best lure action
spinning or spincast reel that can take in line at a decent rate
5-6' light action rod for casting light lures
1/32, 1/16, 1/24 oz unpainted ball head jigs (paint is a distraction IMO) with hook sizes # 8, 6, 4 (smallest to largest depending on lure length)
oblong, weighted foam float for long casts and deeper water - if needed

lures:
1"- 2.5" straight tails are my best grub tail shapes (Bobby Garland Baby Shad as an example) for a large range of water temperatures along with cone tail grubs (IE Crappie Magnet Grub). Of course there are an unlimited number of body/tail designs that can catch all fish species and do.

For me the best lure action is attained using a very slow retrieve with slight variations in speed on every cast. Fancast near and out from shore and move along the shore to find fish. Try different depths by letting the lure sink or increasing line length under a float. (a 1/32 jig and 1" lure under a float can work fantastic at times!)

Not much different than fishing from a boat.