Hardbaits for Gills ?

How many of you fish hardbaits ?
Small cranks , F1 Rapalas, spinners ( Mepps and Roostertails) , spoons , and beetlespins ?
I have a box full of all of these and they’ve been getting ignored .
It’s just hard to put down something that works most of the time , a jig .

My next meet up with my fishing buddy , we’ve agreed that the first two hours will be devoted to fishing hardbaits only .
Then, depending on results, we can go to , our go to bait , a jig .
I particularly want to try some kind of topwater bait . I have some ultralight popping lures and the F1 Rapalas work good for topwater gills .
At least they did the last time I fished them . :)
What kind of hardbaits have you found effective for gills ?

I use beetlespins and rooster tails sometimes, mostly as a search bait. I’ve used Rapala floaters in the past but I admit, I’m not that patient. Even fly rod topwater strains my limited patience. My take on them is that they need to stay motionless for 15 seconds or more and they’ll get aggravated and smack it. My limited experience with smallies drive this home. I have some micro cranks and micro rattle trap looking baits that haven’t been wet yet. I’m a lot like you in this. It ain’t broke, why fix it.

My favorite small top water is the storm hopper popper. I love throwing it around in the river around this time of year. The redbreast flat out wreck it. I’ll take a pic of them when I get home.

I'm a jig guy but if I had to choose a bait other than a jig it would be a beetle spin type of bait since I've used them a lot in my early years with good success.

1/16 oz. Z-man flashback mini chatterbait. Will catch just about anything that swims in freshwater. I use a Charlie Brewer 1 1/2" crappie grub, or Z-man shad fryz and baby ballerz as trailers.

I spent about an hour this morning checking my micro crankbaits to see if they would float .
I want them to float to use them as a topwater bait .
I plan on casting it out , let it sit , twitch a few times . Maybe wind a couple feet , stop , and let it rise , twitch .
Found about six out approximately fifty that floated .

Most trout spoons will do really well for gills. Think like Forest Miu spoons up to around 3 grams. Mine have single barbless hooks on them.

Same goes for spinners. I recommend making the treble hooks barbless for easier unhooking.

Any crankbait under 50mm and especially under 45mm will work. The sort of stuff on the smaller end of the spectrum for trout fishing. Megabass Great Hunting Humpback, Duo Realis Mid Roller 40F, OSP Tiny Blitz (lots of depth options), Lucky Craft Pointer 48. I think JDM stuff is far superior to Rapala, but I have a soft spot for their Mini Fat Rap. There's way more out there as well. I suggest replacing all the hooks with inline single hooks or making the trebles barbless for easier unhooking and not messing up a gill's tiny mouth.

Spoons/spinners are incredible at times. Better than minijigs. Small crankbaits are definitely more of a challenge, but they may find you more bass or crappie depending on the water you're fishing.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by gillchaser999

I spent about an hour this morning checking my micro crankbaits to see if they would float .
I want them to float to use them as a topwater bait .
I plan on casting it out , let it sit , twitch a few times . Maybe wind a couple feet , stop , and let it rise , twitch .
Found about six out approximately fifty that floated .

---

You're in luck. OSP makes a 2" wake crankbait called the "Buzzin Crank". Dives 0-2 inches.

I’m kinda scared to tie on the tiny spoons I have. They’d probably have a very short life span. Where I fish is mostly less than 2’ and downed trees everywhere. Low visibility makes most of them phantom snags and new ones with every strong wind.

Micropoppers should work….

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by skeetbum

I’m kinda scared to tie on the tiny spoons I have. They’d probably have a very short life span. Where I fish is mostly less than 2’ and downed trees everywhere. Low visibility makes most of them phantom snags and new ones with every strong wind.

---

Since my shifting of location at our favorite lake , I’ve been losing a few more jigs and lures .
The shorter rods I’m using have help me stay out of the trees that weren’t around the boat ramps .
But I’m finding more bottom snags .

Just my thoughts, when I know it’s grabby I tend to work the jigs or whatever a bit faster to stay away from the junk. While that works, it also cuts down on the catch rate cuz it’s moving too fast for some of em. For that I like a beetle spin and if I need to slow down a bit more I put a darker curl tail on it. I slow down til I bump things and speed up just a touch. Then I get hung up anyway but it helps for a while.

I used a beetlespin about an hour last meet up , IIRC I caught 6-7 gills while my Bud got ahead of with about double that amount . But mine , overall , were , bigger.
Last year , I cranked a deep diving Ultralight Rapala around the boat ramp and lost two , at $7 a piece.
That’s why I’m interested in a floater/diver .
Hard to beat jigs .
I find that if I swim them , I don’t get hung up as much.
Hard to beat a jig . You can fish them so many ways.
And retrieve does matter .
Twitched one day for an hour with nothing but short nippers. Started a pull and drop retrieve and started picking up fish in the same water I’d just fished .

#1 Panfish poppers behind small indicator/float-no comparison for topwater bite.#2 small panfish spinners/spoons dressed w/small plastics/other dressings.#3 Deepwater bite, panfish spoons fished SLOW,SLOW,SLOWER!#4 All panfish crankbaits, fun and effective under certain conditions.This has worked for me in the past.Attachment 489302Attachment 489303

I tried a couple of micro crankbaits today . Mainly to see if the floated and wiggled on retrieve. It was good in both respects.m
I had several smack at them but no hookups . Probably too small to get hooked although the trebles are tiny .

As far as fishing around brush and other cover, the OSP Tiny Blitz is a square/coffin bill 0-3 foot diver so it should deflect off structure quite well. Spoons with single hooks instead of trebles are way safer around cover as well.

Keep in mind of all these things I've suggested, I throw a .8gr jighead with a 1.5" plastic about 90% of the time, go up to 1.5gr about 9% of the time, and use all that other stuff the other about 1% combined. It's just my trout stuff that works ok for panfish when I'm in the mood to be goofy.

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.

Maybe closer to what requested. Yozuri, Rapala, Strike King, Rebel, Hula-Popper, Torpedos. These are all listed as panfish sizes and most come in float or sink versions. Attachment 489652Nice to mess with if you just want to try different baits, not for catching lots of fish. As mentioned, hard to beat jigs for thatAttachment 489651. Also a big fan of small single hooks on all panfish lures. Good Luck!

Good to hear from moon. Hope he is feeling Ok. Always enjoy hearing how western PA is fishing.
Bob

I like small top waters but don't throw them often because of treble hooks and my fear of burying one of the extra hooks in my hand. Hooked a goggle eye on a small rapala that managed to get 5 hooks in him, two in the mouth and all three hooks in the throat area. Took a couple minutes to get them all out but no bleeding and it swam away fast. Need to replace the trebles with single hooks on some. Also the little blades under the belly look promising as well and will try that on a couple. Another option is a single hook on the front of the bait with a dropper line tied to the back with a small jig or fly tied to that. Lot's of options to try.

Like Moonrunner, I attached a rear circle hook and removed the front treble on a Risto Rap. Yesterday I caught crappie no problem.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by moonrunner

Maybe closer to what requested. Yozuri, Rapala, Strike King, Rebel, Hula-Popper, Torpedos. These are all listed as panfish sizes and most come in float or sink versions. Attachment 489652Nice to mess with if you just want to try different baits, not for catching lots of fish. As mentioned, hard to beat jigs for thatAttachment 489651. Also a big fan of small single hooks on all panfish lures. Good Luck!

---

Thanks Dan , good to see you post.
I’ve swapped out several on my trebles to singles , but need to do the rest .
Thought about attaching a short leader ,less than six inches to avoid tangles , to the rear hook of a small top water lure and add a tiny fly . The plug will attract the gills and the fly will be the morsel that’s hard to pass on .
I think the hula popper, which I have several would be a good choice . Might even remove the rear hook completely and add a small jig .

I fish Rebel Teeny Wee Craws quite often and catch quite a few species on it.


Sent from my iPhone using Crappie.com Fishing mobile app

I fish Rebel Teeny Wee Craws quite often and catch quite a few species on it.


Sent from my iPhone using Crappie.com Fishing mobile app

Megabass recently released the 44 and 52mm Bat A Fry to the US market. Designed for trout in faster current to get to the bottom and bounce better but I could see it being an effective bait for bottom oriented shellcrackers or something. Interesting bait at the very least. All my UL plugs are floating/suspending, so a fast sink would be something very different.

I love the Rebel series, and have had success with them all. I need to convert some more to single hook. Trebles caus too much damage, in my opinion.
Bob

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by BobC

I love the Rebel series, and have had success with them all. I need to convert some more to single hook. Trebles caus too much damage, in my opinion.
Bob

---

I started using single hooks on hardbaits I only used in saltwater years ago and it was one of the smartest things I ever did. So many spiny and toothy critters, the less time dealing with them the better. I've since gone single hook on everything but my bass lures and it is just so much easier to handle fish and release them safely. Crappie and bluegill on trebles are a death sentence way too often