Thread: Hardbaits for Gills ?

When I think of hard baits, Beetle Spin isn't one of them. Granted the spinner and wire is hard but the main bait is a soft plastic. Going back to what lures are considered hard baits, I think more in terms of action - especially actions not associated with soft plastics. Take floating minnow-types like the Rapala. When twitched with the rod tip, it darts back and forth and then pauses at the surface. The soft plastic stick with a hard tapered tail shown below has the same action when rod tip-twitched the same way.

The bulb-butt lure below it has the same action as a Zara Spook when used with a light jig: a zig-zag action but at any depth. Neither lure has an action tail same for a taper tail stick wacky rigged shown below. The plastic used was hard grade and the tips twitch with rod tip twitches. So it's more a hard lure than soft.

A grub with curl tail cut off, does excellent and I've caught pannies using it on a B Spin or on a light jig. The action is totally unique and sunfish slam it!

I have a Risto Rap that I will fish for all species when the weather cools below 92 degrees. Rebel and Rapala are at the top of the list for surface minnow-types, but hard/ soft plastics are close behind.