Your Go to

[Gator]

Since it has been a little slow on the boards I thought I'd throw this out there. 

What is the "go to" in your tackle box? For me, I like the Hopkins Spoons in 3/4 or 1 oz. I always have one ready to throw. I also use them for jigging too. I wouldn't be without them. Let's hear it.

[mwardncsu]

Not often that I throw artificial..... but I always have at least two rods on the boat with artificials at the ready.

1 rod with something to jig - usually a 1/2 or 3/4 jig-head with Pearl Zoom SuperFluke - though it may be a SwampMonkey with fluke
1 rod with a top-waterish plug - Zoom Jointed Thunderstick, YoZuri Crystal Minnow, Rapala X-Rap......
sometimes there is a 3rd rod with a swimbait

[lund1]

I'm with you Mike...i almost always throw a fluke when casting, but keep a topwater close by. Several years ago I fished with Todd and he told me there's no "wrong" way to fish a jigged fluke. Perfect.

I remember when Gator was the king of artificial...winning tournaments and catching as many fish as the bait guys....not sure what possessed him to go buy an SBT2.....having said that I'm tying on a Hopkins spoon.

[getlinewet]

Cotton Cordell deep divers and top water lures have been good to me in the past, though not so much lately. Think I'll give it a try tonight though. Also gonna try a spoon off the downrigger this pm.

[Gator]

Jul 17, 2015 12:05:29 GMT -5 getlinewet said:

 Also gonna try a spoon off the downrigger this pm.

If you have a Sutton spoon give that a try.   I may or may not have caught a few like that.

[Brian]

A 1/2 oz or 3/4 oz white bucktail will catch stripers, lmb and catfish 12 months a year. You can jig it, swim it, bump it along the bottom, or any other way you can think of.

If you think it is to vanilla, put a spinnerbait skirt on it, add a curly tail grub or a fluke, even call it a swamp monkey if you make it ugly enough!

[Gator]

Jul 18, 2015 13:51:05 GMT -5 Brian said:

A 1/2 oz or 3/4 oz white bucktail will catch stripers, lmb and catfish 12 months a year. You can jig it, swim it, bump it along the bottom, or any other way you can think of.

If you think it is to vanilla, put a spinnerbait skirt on it, add a curly tail grub or a fluke, even call it a swamp monkey if you make it ugly enough!

Certainly can't go wrong with a bucktail. I have some that I get from a friend in FL that we used for snook fishing and they work really well up here. It's actually referred to as a flare jig. They have a blaze orange head, chartreuse hair and the long red hair. I use the 3/4 oz. here. 

[Deleted]

I use a 2 oz spoon and a thunderstick. Every now and then, I like to throw a sassy shad on a 3/8 oz red jig head.

[formula180]

Magnum Hellbender has always been my favorite. Muskie, Silver Salmon, Bonita, SM, LM and Stripers.

[primetime]

Just started to catch stripers a couple of months ago.  Th e first two I caught before changing over to live bait I used a thunder stick. Only reason I used the thunderstick is because I tried catching ales for the first time and didn't know how to throw the net. I didn't have live bait that morning.