Author Topic: Unloved Lures  (Read 4012 times)

Offline speckspotter

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Unloved Lures
« on: Jan 12, 2022, 10:05 AM »
The PK spoon thread got me thinking about which lures might have fallen out of favour with their owners. Which ones are currently taking space in your tackle box and never get used? Which have never lived up to their hype of being the latest trophy fish slayer? Who out there is feeling buyer's remorse for investing in unloved lures that inspire no confidence at all?

I have to concur with Ran7ger about the PK's. Heavy, ugly, and just about my last choice in any situation.


Offline Whytie

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Re: Unloved Lures
« Reply #1 on: Jan 12, 2022, 10:59 AM »
PK flutter spoon and Kamooki smart fish hasn't caught me a since fish under the ice or open water. But I have caught lots on PK spoons.

Offline ran7ger

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Re: Unloved Lures
« Reply #2 on: Jan 12, 2022, 11:13 AM »
I don't even use pk's as Christmas tree ornaments anymore...

Chubby darter was another dud but my 4 kamookis take the cake I think.  Just picked up a hyperrattle that feels like it will make the list at some point.

 Like many other's I'm sure, I've got a small fortune in lures and rarely use anything other than a buckshot and a white jig head with a minnow.

Offline Scrunt

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Re: Unloved Lures
« Reply #3 on: Jan 12, 2022, 12:57 PM »
The last 2 years I haven’t been using PK’s very much except for the glowing wonder bread. Clam flutter spoons, Northland buckshots and coffin spoons and dinner bells have been the hot ticket.

Offline jpicks

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Re: Unloved Lures
« Reply #4 on: Jan 13, 2022, 12:01 AM »
I don't even use pk's as Christmas tree ornaments anymore...

Chubby darter was another dud but my 4 kamookis take the cake I think.  Just picked up a hyperrattle that feels like it will make the list at some point.

 Like many other's I'm sure, I've got a small fortune in lures and rarely use anything other than a buckshot and a white jig head with a minnow.

I bought into the Kamooki hype when they came out, and couldn't catch a cold with them.  The chubby darters have always been a solid bait for me when things are getting tough.  Especially the smallest hot perch.

Offline canada

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Re: Unloved Lures
« Reply #5 on: Jan 13, 2022, 05:38 AM »
3/8oz jig head in various colours and minnow  hands down

small silver/blue rapala ice crank for jigging   rattles its way along and have done well with it

Offline stripernut

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Re: Unloved Lures
« Reply #6 on: Jan 13, 2022, 06:12 AM »
Quote
The chubby darters have always been a solid bait for me when things are getting tough.  Especially the smallest hot perch.

X2

Offline ran7ger

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Re: Unloved Lures
« Reply #7 on: Jan 13, 2022, 08:50 AM »
*unloved lures* Canada...you're up too early, get some coffee in ya!

Offline canada

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Re: Unloved Lures
« Reply #8 on: Jan 14, 2022, 08:53 AM »
*unloved lures* Canada...you're up too early, get some coffee in ya!

ha ha  I  was having one   have to get the day going bud!

Offline farmboy

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Re: Unloved Lures
« Reply #9 on: Jan 16, 2022, 09:23 AM »
I’ve been giving away a bunch of lures to my nephew and filling my little guy’s fishing play box with PK’s. Hooks removed of course...

I haven’t bought any ice fishing lures in years now. Most of them just take up space so I’m starting to get rid of them. Tough to beat just a plain old jig head with your choice of preferred bait in my experience

Offline Hatandboots

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Re: Unloved Lures
« Reply #10 on: Jan 17, 2022, 03:43 PM »
I had a subscription to one of those mystery tackle box deliveries, with random lures in it and it was always full of tons of strange lures that I don't see myself ever using. ANyone ever use those jigs that have a slot to pop in a glow stick, that you need to buy replacement glow sticks for?

Offline bootstrap

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Re: Unloved Lures
« Reply #11 on: Jan 17, 2022, 03:59 PM »
i have a ton of jigging raps that never get used. same goes with kastmasters. always using bibets or slender spoons.

Offline Hatandboots

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Re: Unloved Lures
« Reply #12 on: Jan 17, 2022, 04:01 PM »
i have a ton of jigging raps that never get used. same goes with kastmasters. always using bibets or slender spoons.

I'm loving slender spoons at the moment. I have some for perch and some for walleye. I'm sure theyd catch pike too if you sized up further.

Offline canada

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Re: Unloved Lures
« Reply #13 on: Jan 18, 2022, 05:47 AM »
I was in ct the other day drifted over through the hunt fish area wow some of the tackle prices are not cheap these days, even the price of minnows is up

Offline slicktrick

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Re: Unloved Lures
« Reply #14 on: Jan 18, 2022, 10:18 AM »
Damn scissor hooks only thing they catch these days are fines

Offline Doggy

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Re: Unloved Lures
« Reply #15 on: Jan 18, 2022, 10:41 AM »
i have a ton of jigging raps that never get used. same goes with kastmasters. always using bibets or slender spoons.
Let me know if you’re interested in parting ways with them.

Offline bigk

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Re: Unloved Lures
« Reply #16 on: Jan 18, 2022, 10:48 AM »
I can’t believe the hate on the PKs. I still use regularly with success. Half a minnow hung horizontal on two hooks. Crazy how some lures work for some and others will use as tree ornaments.

Offline ToonFisher

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Re: Unloved Lures
« Reply #17 on: Jan 18, 2022, 11:20 AM »
Lighter PK spoon strike a balance of flutter and weight to drop down fast. It catches all species without any bait in early or late season. Bait a tiny bit of worm or fish would make it super attractive.  Same on most other lures.

Offline speckspotter

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Re: Unloved Lures
« Reply #18 on: Jan 18, 2022, 03:53 PM »
So much depends on the mood of the fish when you are picking any given lure. My last time out on Blackstrap saw the perch so eager to bite that I switched out the Thinfish flutter spoon with a treble to a Deadly Dick with a single hook for easier releases. I had a second rod ready to drop rigged up with a heavy tungsten jig when I had to add more maggots to the spoon. That day, small or large presentations didn't seem to matter. I probably could have caught a few on a closed safety pin.

My beef with the jigging Raps and the Acme flyers, Hyper Rattles, etc. is that the fish need to be aggressive to take the lure. If you downsize, you need to deal with a lot of hooks in the fish. I have lost more walleye than I would like to admit when one of those hooks on a larger bait has caught the bottom edge of the hole. I am almost ready to set those aside for summer fishing exclusively.

My latest purchase of regret is the Freedom Minnow. Again, maybe it has just been bad timing or bad location, but it has failed to attract much attention at all. I will break it out on day when I get on a hot bite to see if hungry fish will hit it. If not, I'll give it to one of the kids and tell them its great for catching suckers.

Offline Ragman

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Re: Unloved Lures
« Reply #19 on: Jan 19, 2022, 11:31 AM »
I love this thread! My tackle box is full of lures that haven't worked at all for me...was starting to get a complex! Should really go through it and cull the herd. The small PK Spoons ans Flutterfish have worked for me on perch, but I've never caught anything on the larger versions. Lots of other lures in my box I bought thinking the perch would go for them and they didn't. Need to get more old fashioned jigs I guess. Looking forward to reading more posts.

Offline zcm_82

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Re: Unloved Lures
« Reply #20 on: Jan 19, 2022, 11:46 AM »
Johnson Min-O-Spoon... I bought a couple a few years back, and never caught diddly jack squat on them, open water, or through the ice. Completely worthless.

I bought some of those Northland Helium jigs a while back too, and they were pretty garbage imo. I didn't catch much on them, and the few fish that did hit them swallowed them halfway down to their butthole.

Offline Survivor

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Re: Unloved Lures
« Reply #21 on: Jan 23, 2022, 07:26 PM »
I have 45 years of ice hooks collected of every type imaginable. For every type of fish from kokanee to lake trout to bluegills, even though I only fish for perch, pike and walleye.  Box of tackle getting mighty heavy. Always on lookout for that magic lure. I'm sure almost all of them would catch fish if used with confidence. Way over 50 percent have never hit the water. Fun to collect and to organize. Once in a while I like to go through them and remember when they were popular and any special fish they caught. Out of the hundreds of hooks I usually grab a half dozen at start if season and use them till the end. Last couple years have tried old ones and they still work fine. Pulled out the old mepps rubber minnow that haven't used for 40 years and caught perch like crazy. Chubby daters and puppet minnows working good for walleye this year. I always like to use an airplane jig for pike near ice out. Old Len Thompsons seem good for almost anything. As a kid, an old blind fella using a single hook with deer meat bait and rubber core weight with a wood bobber and a stick for a rod always outfished us. Simple or fancy, they all seem to work. As I get old I wonder what what will happen to the collection once I pass on, hopefully to that frozen lake in heaven, don't suppose there is much ice fishing in hell.

Offline Hardwater2

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Re: Unloved Lures
« Reply #22 on: Jan 23, 2022, 08:01 PM »
I have 45 years of ice hooks collected of every type imaginable. For every type of fish from kokanee to lake trout to bluegills, even though I only fish for perch, pike and walleye.  Box of tackle getting mighty heavy. Always on lookout for that magic lure. I'm sure almost all of them would catch fish if used with confidence. Way over 50 percent have never hit the water. Fun to collect and to organize. Once in a while I like to go through them and remember when they were popular and any special fish they caught. Out of the hundreds of hooks I usually grab a half dozen at start if season and use them till the end. Last couple years have tried old ones and they still work fine. Pulled out the old mepps rubber minnow that haven't used for 40 years and caught perch like crazy. Chubby daters and puppet minnows working good for walleye this year. I always like to use an airplane jig for pike near ice out. Old Len Thompsons seem good for almost anything. As a kid, an old blind fella using a single hook with deer meat bait and rubber core weight with a wood bobber and a stick for a rod always outfished us. Simple or fancy, they all seem to work. As I get old I wonder what what will happen to the collection once I pass on, hopefully to that frozen lake in heaven, don't suppose there is much ice fishing in hell.

Strikingly similar….. sounds about right.

Offline speckspotter

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Re: Unloved Lures
« Reply #23 on: Jan 24, 2022, 12:40 PM »
Hey Survivor,

If you really have no idea what to do with those lures, why not call your local school and see if they have an outdoor education programme that includes ice fishing? I know of a number of schools that do. The kids would be thrilled to have a few lures to get them started.

I recently picked up 90 old spoons on auction that will be destined for the grandkids' tackle boxes. They won't care if a few are missing a bit of paint. In fact, I'm telling them that the ones with bent hooks are the best since they are proven fish catchers.

Offline eyeflyer

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Re: Unloved Lures
« Reply #24 on: Feb 03, 2022, 10:47 PM »
I love this thread! My tackle box is full of lures that haven't worked at all for me...was starting to get a complex! Should really go through it and cull the herd. The small PK Spoons ans Flutterfish have worked for me on perch, but I've never caught anything on the larger versions. Lots of other lures in my box I bought thinking the perch would go for them and they didn't. Need to get more old fashioned jigs I guess. Looking forward to reading more posts.

My best luck this year for perch and trout have been bead head micro leeches and a leech pattern I tied on a shad dart.  Fly patterns been the go to so far this winter.




Offline Hatandboots

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Re: Unloved Lures
« Reply #25 on: Feb 04, 2022, 09:29 AM »
Those looks really cool Eye. I've tried small plastics before without success for tentative perch, but I feel like a small hair tungsten would be pretty killer. Did you make those or buy em?

Offline bootstrap

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Re: Unloved Lures
« Reply #26 on: Feb 06, 2022, 07:22 AM »
I'm loving slender spoons at the moment. I have some for perch and some for walleye. I'm sure theyd catch pike too if you sized up further.


i have caught pike up to 38" on the 1/8 gold. i change the hook to a single. everything hiits it 

 



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