Fishing lures

There are literally thousands of different fishing lures on the market. Many are designed for use in specific conditions to catch specific species. While those specialized lures will greatly improve your chances of having a successful weekend fishing trip at a familiar fishin hole, I don't feel they are the best choice for survival.

I would rather have multi-purpose lures that work well in a variety of conditions to catch a variety of species. My two all time favorites are the 1/4 ounce silver Kastmaster, and the 1/6 ounce silver Rooster Tail. I have multiples of each in my survival fishing kit, in case one or more gets lost.

Any recommendations for other lures?

I would recommend the following

-medium weight line
-small to med hooks/luers................


my reason being is that its simpler to focus on catching any size vs having all this heavy gear........never getting a nibble from lets say tons of smaller ones, while one may be wasting their time on large game-thats why and assortment and or a medium route is the most siimple to use


-an assortment of
-curly tail grub
-fly style spinner bait with treble/stinger hooks work well
-bait holder style hooks work well also especially if using live bait

-hope this helps

+1 on Izzy's info. I directed some hard-core fishermen coworkers to it and they all gave it thumbs up.

-Blast

p.s. Izzy, you get free stuff? I want free stuff!

I've had bad experiences with plastic lures melting to the inside of my tackle box on hot days. I won't use them anymore.

Nice write ups Izzy. Pictures are always a bonus. Especially with the crazy names given to lures these days.

You definitely want to get to know what kind of fish are around the places you are likely to be in if you find yourself in a survival situation.

The majority of fish where I am for example are Pike, Trout, and Perch (though the latter two make up many species of fish).

I almost always fish out of a backpack so my survival fishing kit is just a stripped down version of my every day fishing kit. All my lures fit in a small fly box (I'm not sold on having every kind of lure money can buy). I find that I can catch nearly any breed of fish I'm likely to encounter with a tiny set of tackle which is why the tackle box part of my fishing kit doubles as my emergency fishing kit

Here's what I carry right now(brand named only where I remember the brand name or the lures are labeled). The list changes as my tastes change but there are definitely some main styles I stick to. The list may seem long but this kit is literally pocket sized as it's all in a Flambeau sealed fly box with room to spare.

• Assorted Kastmasters (3 weights in gold and silver. The tiny ones work good for ice fishing)
• Mepps Aglia Long #2 spinner
• Mepps Black Fury #1 and 3 spinner
• 2 Blue Fox size #0 spinners
• Martin #4 yellow spinner
• Len Thompson Yellow & Red 'Five of Diamonds' #6 spoon
• Len Thomson Red & White #7 spoon
• Red Bucktail Jig
• Yellow Bucktail Jig
• White Bucktail Jig
• White jig
• Yellow jig
• Assorted curly tail grub jig bodies
• Assorted Ice jigs
• Pickerel Rig
• Extra snell hooks for rig
• Assorted leaders and clasps (and other hardware)
• Assorted weights
• 2 'Speedhooks' (these are the only hooks with the barbs intact as they're illegal and only for emergency use. Barbed hooks and 'automatic' hooks are illegal in Alberta)
• Assorted bare hooks for fishing with bait.
• Card with some 20lb test wrapped around it for emergency, hobo fishing, or repairs

Even this is overkill really. If I could settle on a single size of hook and consider it good for everything, I could cut this down to one of each type.

Google can provide you with many options on what the 'best' lure is but fishermen are very opinionated about that sort of thing. I researched it a ton and in the end most of the hooks I use today are the same hooks I used when I first started fishing as an 8 year old..at least in once case it's literally the same hook. Any 'best lures of all time' list (and there are a lot out there...I like the field and stream one as it's online) have good choices.

Nice to know that stuff is all marketing mojo. I've always thought about trying the gimmicky stuff but never really had a good way to be sure it was working. It's quite the placebo sometimes. If you think it's going to work, and you catch fish, then it's because you tried the new lure...fulfilling your expectations perfectly.

I went fishing this morning so since my gear was all out already, I took some pictures since I love posting pictures of my junk.





It started as a Pflueger travel kit but I've since modified the case to hold a Rhino 4 piece casting rod, Quantum bait cast reel, the fly box, a tape measure, Swiss Army Knife, and a precision oiler. The whole thing fits in my hiking pack or goes into the car easy as pie. The only thing I plan to add is an Opinel folding fillet knife.

As you can see I've yet to take advantage of the foam fly holder side off the box. I keep thinking the jigs would like to live there but I'm too lazy to move them over

When I go hiking or backpacking I just toss the whole fly box into my pack. It's overkill but way less hassle to just have one box for both purposes.

Nice kit, Hacksaw. What do you use those monster #2 weights for?

To hold the pickerel rig on the bottom of the river when it's flowing fast. The river is more silt than rocks so the weights need to be beefy sometimes or the current will just sweep it away. I normally use just a little egg shaped weight or that long skinny one.

I've tried using them as a slip weight too but I don't carry floating lures or floats so that's less practical unless the river is just right.

The pyramid shaped ones act more like an anchor than the round ones do but they snag on stuff more easily too.

Think like the fish your after and buy the lures that you think look like the tastest ones.

Dangle your toes over the edge.

You'd be amazed what foods fish will bite on if you just throw it on a hook. Cheese is a popular choice around here. This morning I was using bits of pepperoni because it was what I had brought for a snack. It's easy to carry bare hooks and if you're creative there are things out in the wilds that make fine bait....bugs for example.

I have hundreds of bare hooks. I figure, in a survival situation, I would set up several trot lines baited with whatever kind of bait I could find, and they could sit in the water while I try to catch something with my lures.

Pretty much the same idea as setting up several snares while you hunt.

Night lines are the way to go for survival when possible. Bare hooks weigh nothing and take up little space compared to commercial lures.

First I would like to salute anyone who routinely carries a fishing kit. I, too, have been fishing from an early age and it is probably what lead me to enjoy the outdoors more than any other activity.

Opinions are like you-know-what and elbows, everyone has one. So here's mine:

1. Ditch everything that is soft plastic or feathers; replace them with hard-bodied lures that will not melt, tear, tear out, etc.

2. Carry no bare hooks; replace them with the color and flash of various spoon-type and jig-type lures starting with tiny ice-fishing sizes. You can bait the hooks on the spoons or jigs, but there is usually no need for bait- spend your time fishing instead of looking for bait. If you want to use bait, use parts of the fish you catch.

3. Use flurocarbon line and leader, because it is essentially invisible in water and is typically much stronger for a given diameter than monofilament.

Learn to swim, rip, hop, and slack line each bait through all parts of the water column.

This is not a survival fishing kit, so leave the bare bones survival stuff out of it. You may find adopting this gear so effective that you will re-think the appropriateness of classic bare bones survival fishing gear.

I've lost enough lures and bare hooks over the years to have opened my own tackle shop. Either they get snagged on underwater objects and the line has to be cut, or a fish snaps the line and swims off with my lure/hook.

Bare hooks are cheap and light weight. I have hundreds of them and they present no burden to me. If I have to cut one loose, or if a fish swims off with it, it's no big deal. I have more.

Lures can be expensive. I hate it when I lose one. I don't see myself setting up trot lines with my lures. I would hate to wake up in the morning and find my lures gone.

Not talking trot lines with a recreational, not survival, fishing kit. What we are talking about is getting to fishing, and hopfully catching, quickly and without the need to find bait. It's about conserving the most limited recreational resource - time.

My experience is that if you get almost any offering in front of a fish, you stand a decent chance of catching it. it's playing the odds. More casts, more fish. More locations fished, more fish. Hard lures do this very well.

Of course, my opinion is based on just my own experience in recreational and tournament fishing for several decades.

I'm not saying either one is useless. I'm saying they both have their uses, and that's why I have both.

Its enough to drive a good man crazy; all those lures. I have a hundred of them to be sure. They are more or less effective and my kit will always have a few different kinds, usually the ones on the smaller side. But the one lure that has always worked best for me and gives me the fondest memories is...
hook + worm

Back when I used to wet a line, I seemed to catch more fish, no matter what the species, with a lure that had silver and blue on it. Lots on Kastmasters and Rapalas...