One lure

[Big Mike]

If the fishing gods deemed that I could only fish one lure for the rest of the year it would be 3” chartreuse Gulp on a 1/8 oz jighead. This year alone I’ve caught bass, pickerel, crappie, bluegill, stripers, speckled trout, white and yellow perch, puppy drum, cutlassfish, flounder, and a Black Sea bass from it. The real bonus is you can catch some very large fish on it just as you can a 4” perch. Sure I fish other lures but when the going gets tough I know what I’m reaching for.

[DanMarino]

Safety pin style spinner with 1/8 ounce jig head and green pumpkin Zoom Fat Albert grub for me.
On the fly rod it would be a pink foam spider.

[ronaultmtd]

Gulp is expensive, has a definite shelf life and stinks like hell if you spill it...yeah, it works, but I only use it when I want to flounder fish...Bluefish and trout rip the tail off and then it is worthless...give me a 1/8 or 1/4 Oz Deathgrip jighead and a Zman soft plastic swimbody...color preference depends on water clarity and time of day...but why even think about such one lure limitations? A Zara Spook at the first light of dawn...a XRap tossed around structure...swimbaits over the flats and a metal flutter jig in deeper waters...I carry four rods rigged for different situations so I can instantly react to opportunities that do not stay there long enough for you to reel in and re-rig...luck favors the prepared..

[bassguy84]

Fresh water weightless zoom worm. Saltwater toss up of gulp shrimp (Jighead will change) and zman 5" diezel minnow (presentation will change on weedless weighted hook or Jighead)

Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk

[Mark]

It's hard to pick one lure, but for simplicity and versatility, it's hard to beat a 3 inch paddletail:

P1000892.jpg

It's the right size to emulate bait fish and catches anything from perch to pickerel. I've lost count of the species of fish I've caught on a simple jig and 3 inch paddletail. Fresh water and tidal. It's a killer. You can also use various weights of jigs to achieve the depth you want. The majority of time I cast 1/8 oz. jig with a 3 inch paddletail. If I troll, I may use a 1/4 to to 1/2 oz. jig depending on the depth of water.

As Tom mentioned, safety pin style spinners are great lures. I pour my own jigs and also tie flies. That combination allows me to make my own spinners:

A.JPG

The jig spinners above are each 1/8 oz. That's a good size for perch but also attracts stripers and most every species in between. Like the paddletail, I've lost rack of the species I've caught. I've also upsized the jig spinners to 1/4 oz. to cast farther and to target larger fish. That technique has worked for channel cats and stripers in the Bay. But I've caught plenty of stripers while perch fishing with the smaller 1/8 oz. version. So, I use that weight the most.

Flies are different ballgame. I have favorites there too.

I cannot dispute the effectiveness of Clouser Minnows:

Clousers.jpg

They are probably the best subsurface fly ever created. However, I do not like to cast them. Their lead eyes make them a relatively heavy fly to cast. I've walloped my head with a speeding Clouser on the follow through more times than I care to admit. I prefer unweighted flies that behave the same way as Clousers. That is, they ride with the hook point up. For me, that's a Bendback Minnow:

Bend back3.jpg

Just a little kink in the hook shaft before tying will turn the fly over in the water so that it rides with the hook point up giving it weedless qualities. If I need to get deeper, I use intermediate fly line. It's obviously a minnow imitation and therefore will catch a variety of fish. I especially like it for winter pickerel.

Finally, topwater. A foam popper, varied by size will catch most species I chase from bluegills to stripers.

I put rubber legs on my freshwater poppers and omit them on my tidal poppers.

Freshwater:

P1010528.jpg

Tidal:

4.jpg

It's hard to pick just one lure/fly, but if I was stranded and needed to catch dinner, a jig and 3 inch paddletail would be my choice. But since I don't smoke, I'd likely have no matches to make a fire to cook it.

[elkfish2]

I've also caught a bunch of fish on just the chartreuse gulp . But this season one color jig I've tied has caught more species of fish.
Both fresh and salt . Stripers, perch and 1 flounder

[daolai]

My one lure would be a 4" Zman pearl blue glimmer paddle tail with a 1/4oz jig head.

[Squirrel rash]

White Beatle spin. I have caught damn near every type of fish I target on one. I could take the jig head off and jog with it.

[BarefootPetr]

1/4 oz Steelshad in white. It's been my best producer all year

[J.A. Veil]

My one single favorite is a 3/16-oz Trout Eye jighead (produced and sold by Eye Strike Fishing and also licensed for retail sale by Z-Man) with 3" Fat Sam Mullet paddletail (12 Fathom Lures -- not available in local store; readily available through online sales). I prefer light colors (white, pearl, chartreuse, tan, clear). I have caught dozens of species on that lure, casting, trolling, bottom bouncing.

2019-09-12 12-22-04a.jpg

I also like the Bignose spinners for perch. I go in streaks on 4" Gulp swimming mullet. Recently I have done well with them -- at other times, not so much.

[DanMarino]

Hi John Veil. Can you refresh my memory about the fat sam mullets? Do they float if not fished with a weighted jig head?

[J.A. Veil]

The Fat Sam mullets float (I have found floating plastics after a fish ripped them off the hook). I don't know if the small weight of a weedless hook would make them sink. If so, it would not sink fast.

[Slackdaddy]

While it does not get the most fish in a variety of waters,,, A Buzz Bait.
Nothing beats a top water explosion!
The Buzz Bait is used at least 50% of the time on smallmouth rivers, and about 25% of the time on Snakehead waters.

[Mark]

Tom,

I have used Fat Sams successfully in a weedless mode with an Owner 1/0 or 2/0 twist lock hook while fishing for pickerel and bass in Eastern Shore ponds. The weight of the hook will indeed make it sink, albeit slowly. That isn't isn't bad for shallow water fishing and suspended baits are great for cold water pickerel. It's also easy to drag a Fat Sam hooked in weedless fashion over lily pads to elicit top water strikes in the gaps in the pads.

But a better paddletail choice than Fat Sam for weedless and weightless fishing is Reaction Innovations Little Dipper.

I hope this photo works...

P1050172 (2).jpg

I put a Fat Sam and a Little Dipper in a baking dish full of water. That's Sam floating and the Little Dipper on the bottom of the baking dish. The Little Dipper plastic is just as pliable as Fat Sam so it has a great action in the water. But it's 1/2 inch longer and made with heavier plastic that sinks. Its extra weight casts farther than Fat Sam in weedless and weightless configurations. Finally, the Little Dipper has a slit in the belly and another indentation on top which helps to bury the hook point.

Again, Fat Sam will work with weedless hooks. But I think it works better with jigs.

One other thing...To increase hookups when fishing either Sam or the Dipper in a weedless mode, offset the hook point slightly. It will help greatly.

[Huntrava]

Easy: a 3/8 oz Underspin with whatever plastic worm/grub/paddletail is available.