20 Best Bait For Salmon Fishing In The River (2023 Updated)

Alright! Two things – 1. Discount Tackle Price (need I say more?) and B. These “slam shady” soft plastics are extremely good to magnificent! These lures possess enough variation of colors in one lure to use in multiple settings; they are durable (think puffer fish!) and are suitable for a variety of conditions, such as Jig head / belly weight hook / popping cork / tandem rig / single or double twitch or swim.

My son & I mostly use three types of Z-Man in slam shady and are constantly pulling fish in whether it be the 3″, 4″ padllerZ, or diezel, and the 5″ fluke. When tandem rigged (we tie our own) we put a 3, 4 or 5 incher with 3/16 oz on the long leader and a weightless 5″ fluke version of slam shady on the front (short leader).

BOTH leaders get smacked! Last week we wade fished ONE SPOT and we both caught multiple Trout, Redfish & Snook as well as one of each Flounder, Grouper, Barracuda, Whiting, and Black Drum. Cannot overstate Discount Tackle Prices are the best I can find, and I have tried.

In closing Z-man products are amazing – that slam shady here in Clearwater, FL area is FUH-NOMINAL {8>D.

One of the best baits I ever used. It is soft but super durable. Only negative is you have to find the right jig for it. Cause they are so strong an rubbery that u really have to push it down on the jig.

But other than that they are amazing. Caught lik every inshore species there is on this bait. Ever color is good. I literally bought one of each, just because Zman swim baits are like the best swim bait around.

My favorite is THE DEAL. Here in south Florida we have mullet and pilchards basically year around so it’s a good color to fish clear or stained water that represents both those bait fish. A must buy, if you inshore even near shore fish.

Not much bad you can say about Z-Man. They always put out a close to perfect product and these DieZel MinnowZ are no exception. I have been using the downsized version for a year or so now and recently picked up the 5 inch version in search of a larger profile.

When you look at them in the water, they look real! These are fish-catching machines! Whether you’re fishing ponds for largemouth, or saltwater for striped bass, they get the job done.

I’ve been to Alaska fishing several times and I can say without any reservation that the #5 Mepps Aglia with the silver blade and two tone red/yellow body is THE BEST salmon catcher in my tackle box.

Last trip to Alaska I caught every one of my fish on that lure. I rarely see it in anyone’s top 10 when talking about salmon spinners but it should be. That big #5 french blade just chops the water hard and drive salmon crazy! If you’re planning a trip for salmon this summer or fall put 10 of these in your box and I guarantee you won’t regret it.

I’ve been using Mepp’s spinners for decades as the lure of choice fishing for trout in the many canyon rivers in northern Utah, and they are still the best I have found. Construction quality is always precision and dependable with Mepp’s, though I find I the rocky bottoms and heavy vegetation in and around the shallower Utah canyon rivers are quite rough on them and challenge their life span.

Warped spoons and stripped color flutes from the hooks are usually the first casualty that ends the life of the lures that survive the snags, so I usually only get about 3-4 useful outings from each.

I really punish them, so I think that’s reasonable for such a precision device (though I would like to see them hold up a bit longer). Overall, an effective and highly recommended lure based on decades of experience!.

The Rapala Shad Rap has been catching fish better than most crankbaits for more than 30 years. The Shad Rap is lightweight and therefore a frustrating bait to try to throw on baitcasting tackle especially in its smaller sizes.

But, if you can put down your baitcaster and pick up a spinning rod and go to work with this bait in cooler water temps and ideally fairly clear water it will catch bass (and every other predatory fish) when other techniques fail you.

Shad Rsps are perfectly balanced to fish at any speed.

When the fishing gets tough, my go to lure is the zman finesse trd. The action is supreme the durability is superb and the fish can’t resist. It has amazing hoping action and unlike other plastics that sink when you put them on a trd hook, the zman finesse trd floats hence standing up perfectly strait.

Its great for all predatory species, from large to smallmouth bass to snakeheads and Mayans this lure works amazingly for beginner anglers and anglers who’ve been fishing their whole life this lure catches fish no matter what.

In pressured water or your private pond this lure is always what their eating. It catches fish of all sizes from dinks to trophy sized fish. This lure never has and I dont think it ever will let me down.

I am excited for the upcoming Walleye season. My fishing partner has 2 of these Bandit 200’s in spring craw/yellow. The action will trigger Walleye when nothing else does. We troll with about 95 – 105ft.

of 10lb diameter line and hit out marks on the GPS. Yeah, they seem to be the trick that brings in the fish. Now, I have 4 and might even give him 1 for letting me use his 2nd one. I definitely recommend these Bandit 200’s.

My buddy told me of a mythical lure called the Bandit Lure. He described it as being colored similar to a crawfish and having the ability to swim shallow waters. I searched high and low for this mythical thing.

I asked the old timer at the local bait shop who recalled seeing one similar to what I described. Said the lure was made with Poseidons own hands. The old man hobbled and bent down below the counter and showed me the remains of what he described as the Magic Lure.

Let me tell you this, the lure I purchased through eBay on the interwebs is the exact replica. The first cast with this thing and I pulled in a 22 3/4 lb small mouth bass. The fish looked at me as if to say, Thats an illegal lure, my friend.

So retired it.

I have caught so many different species of fish on Bandit 100-200 chartreuse shad. Pike in Canada, snook in Florida, crappie in Pennsylvania. It’s one of my confidence lures. I do a lot of trolling from a canoe in my home state of PA.

Googan baits has,set the standard for an all around flipping bait, carolina rog bait, jig trailer and topwater trailer with the bandito bug, this bait is hands down the best bait on the market. I fish 20 tournaments a year and have made this bait my almost all around go to.

The feel and scent of this bait is unbelievable. The lifelike action is amazing. If you have not gotten on the googan baits bus yet, you are sincerely missing out. Now with the Bandito bug jr. in the 3.

3 version, they have covered the bases.

I love fishing Zoom Super Flukes, especially shallow. It sinks slowly and is very flexible. The tail kicks nicely when worked as a jerkbait. I catch a ton of bass on these, and the pickerel like them, too (which for me is a bonus because taking a pickerel home for dinner is a great treat after a day bass fishing.

) I rig it weightless Texas style on a wide gap hook and it works great. My favorite colors for clear, highly pressured water are: watermelon red and bluegill.

Love the flukes. They are cheap and very effective way to catch some nice bass. Had to try the lemon shad color for my river since chartreuse is a top producer. I think these actually do better with the added pearl color.

Love the action. Can’t beat the flukes from Zoom!!.

First started using flukes because of a tiktok video I saw of some dude cathching everything with these. Landed my PB off of a white pearl. Just when I thought it couldn’t get any better I tried the WATERMELON RED since I saw so many people commenting about this color.

First time using this color yesterday and landed 3 fish in a matter of 30 minutes. THEY ATTACK IT! Favorite lure to use and I can use it all day.

As long as the color is correct, these soft plastics can be used in almost any pond. However, like any lure, they work best when the conditions are right. I have used them almost always weightless, and used a jerk/drag and pause retrieve.

Best Texas rigged with worm hook, making them totally weedless. If you use with a weight, use a worm weight. Keep in mind, this makes it less weedless, and when casting into heavy cover and weeds/lily pads, weightless (Texas rigged, without worm weight) is the way to go.

I’ve heard of people using them in the middle water column and even as a top water reeling it in fast, and I have caught fish that way as well. The two “claws” move when the lure is jerked or reeled, giving it great realistic action like a real crawfish.

Just make sure the color you use is best for the water conditions, with darker being more effective in darker water. Also, if you Texas rig then, make sure to set the hook with reasonable power. They are pretty durable you should at least get a few fish on one before ripping.

They work great!.

Chartreuse Pepper & Delta Red are the primary colors I use to catch huge Large Mouths in our farm pond. When you throw these your ringing the dinner bell. I also use these in the river with the same results.

I always keep a good supply of these in my tackle box and they never let me down ! There well made and will catch numerous fish per bait so a good value !.

I was looking for a craw that had more action in the claws. A friend recommended the Strike King Rage Craw. The first time out my cousin and I caught 59 bass in 7 hours!! As far as durable — I caught 9 bass on 1 single craw!!!! That’s one tough craw!! I will definitely have the Rage Craw in my tackle line up this year!!.

This is how I’ve been slaying with it: been fishing the Newport Harbor in Southern California. I troll it behind my petal kayak at just over 2 mph where the rod tip wiggles the most = maximum action.

I’ve caught bass of all kinds with it, a few barracuda, and the halibut kill this thing during low slack tide when it can reach closer to the bottom. I have found that the 8 foot swim depth is pretty accurate while trolling it.

I use it every time I go out and I always catch at least something on it. I pair this with another lure of some kind, but it’s always on my trolling line when I am heading out to a spot or coming back.

I can only speak for the water I fish, but out here, this thing catches fish. I’ve had success with the black and white, but my best success with the sardine and blue mackerel. Been doing really well with the sardine 5 1/2 inch version too.

Idk if it’s the feather on the trailing hook, the subtle wiggle action when you slowly retrieve between jerks, or that nice rattle but this lure works for EVERYTHING. I’ve caught large mouth, smallmouth, walleye, pickerel, bullhead and perch with these guys.

Even got lucky enough to snag a snapping turtle once while jerking the bait along through the water ( got that lure back too lol). Just a few examples shown below with hooks in the mouth but you get the picture.

Great lure love using black and sliver in river and creek scenarios, yellow perch any pond you fish with perch in it. Also, I’ll have to wait till next year to find out for sure but I bet the 6’s in rainbow trout color will smash the stockies in the streams I fish in upstate NY!.

I bought this specific color (pilchard) to mimic the greenies and they worked great. I was fishing for Spanish mackerel at Sebastian Inlet and casting next to people using Gotcha lures, silver spoons, and jigs and I was easily outfishing them.

I was casting into the breeze and was still getting a decent distance thanks to the casting weights inside the X-Rap. I would recommend the X-Rap for anyone fishing for Spanish mackerel. In my experience, it also catches plenty of bluefish, but I would recommend changing the hooks out to 4X hooks.

The hooks that come with the lure tends to bend too easily from the violent head shaking bluefish tend to do.

The durability of this bait is really unmatched by any other bait I can think of, I have one that literally is missing half of it’s body, the plastic lip, and even the middle hook after dozens of beatings from Pike, Small Mouth Bass, Large Mouth Bass, Walleye, Musky, and even Bluegills all in one lure! I always have it one me as a lucky charm! It’s action is beautiful and perfect as expected from Rapala and always produced fish throughout the day.

And can be used for any tactic like trolling and casting. For patterns I have Silver, Blue, Yellow Perch, and Gold Plated Fluorescent Red. All are very good patterns, I would recommend Silver for sunny days, Orange for cloudy days, and any natural pattern at any time.

For sizes I’ve always used 4-3/8″ and up to 7″ for Pike, Walleye, Bass, and Musky. I don’t really recommend using any smaller as they become very light and hard to cast in the wind, unless your fishing for Crappie and all other species of Panfish.

I personally would recommend buying three patterns for each light level, one bright neon for cloudy days, one shiny/reflective for sunny days, and one natural for any other times. The only downside to this bait is the price.

It may seem like a pinch for the price but it is easily one of the greatest investments I’ve ever made. I have hundreds of lures and this is still my number 1! Thanks Rapala for another beautiful bait, that has caught me countless fish.

The go to bait! The perfect multi-species bait! Advantages Catches all species of fish, large variety of colours, beautiful action, the best durability in the business. Disadvantages Cost.

The Rapala floater has caught lots of fish for me all over North America. Most notably I have caught hundreds of pike with them over the decades (using the larger sizes and primarily standard/common colors).

I mostly use them on topwater, though a faster retrieve causing them to run a foot or two deep can work great, too. Again, I have caught hundreds of grayling in Alaska and the Yukon as well, using the 3 and 5 centimeter sizes — for some reason the grayling can not resist the gold color on a sunny day.

As a note, the Countdown and sinking models work fantastically in the Northwoods on walleyes, especially starting about an hour before sunset. On big lakes, let them get deep. Experiment with the colors.

If a lake has perch or bass, try those patterns for sure.

Bought this bomber lure and gave fished with it twice. Good colors for the lake where I fish. The ring on the bill of the lure is recessed so its difficult to attach your swivel to it. The dive on this lure is around 6 feet.

The wiggle on this lure is really fast and tight. It is summer now so this lure might be better when the fish are more active as I have had no luck fishing with it so far. For an inexpensive lure it is fairly solid and well made.

I’ve used Kalin’s triple threat grubs for about 8 years, they’re top shelf on my home lake. I primarily fish for crappie but these lures have caught most of the species of fish in this lake. I couldn’t believe the selection of Kalin’s at discount tackle and the price is well below where I had to buy them before, so I really stocked up for the fall fishing season.

Their catalogue was real easy to use so I told a lot of my friends who fish like I do, of my experience with discount tackle so they will buy their own and not always borrowing mine when I’m catching 3 to their 1 fish.

I have always fished bass and crappie minnows until I called down to a guide at patoka lake in southern Indiana and he asked if I ever fish jigs. “Son I’m tellin ya, you need to try the blue kalin jigs in clear water.

” So I took the plunge and ordered about 6 different colors. I only fish for crappie in the spring so I put a lot of effort into it while I can. These jigs kicked butt. My brother and I caught 125 fish in 5 hours using only these jigs.

No joke. I’m thrilled now that I don’t have to buy bait anymore. I use 4lb line and cast it out as far as I can, let it sink to just above the grass. And slow roll it with small pops on the way back.

Killed em! You gotta find grass or lots of down timber for the best success. Good luck. Buy em!.

Consistent fish catcher, I have zero credibility,so just listen to everyone else who has used these things. They are still crazy (good) after all these years. The price point is reasonable, so you don’t have to sell your kids to buy a few and you won’t find yourself crying if you lose one.

I have a few cranks that I like more but these still are often used to fool fish. Btw I’ve caught trout on them too. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it?.

Black chrome Orange Wiggle Wort has been “HOT” lately at the lake caught 6,7,7 largemouth in the last 3 weekends in a row , nothing over 3 lbs but it’s a winner!! The only thing I don’t like is that “hairpin” style eyelet to tie onto-whatever happened to an oval split ring?? Other manufacturers use them and they are great , easy to tie and don’t catch your line on those open curved hooks- how annoying!!.

Opened the package, clipped it onto a leader, cast it out twice. The third time casting out I caught a Pike. Same thing happened with the second one that I purchased and this time I was in an entirely different body of water.

brand new out of the box, third cast, blammo!!. another Pike. How the heck is that not worth 5 stars?! Btw – it also snagged a Perch.

Years ago, I owned dozens of Rapalas. Original Floaters, Fat Raps, Husky Jerks both jointed and non. I remember having great success with all of them, mainly for Bass. Sadly, I lost track of a Plano box I had them all stored in when I moved a couple years ago, so I lost all of them.

So anyway, fast forward to now. went out and bought a bunch of Size 10 and Size 12 Husky Jerks. Mainly in the Yellow Perch, Glass Minnow and Glass Perch colors. These things are so phenomenal, even better than I remember.

I took a size 12 Yellow Perch out, tied it on, and was getting bit on virtually every cast, and thanks to the 3 VMC trebles, if something hit this lure, it STAYED ON. One of the main forage fish in my area of the country is Perch.

Pike, Pickerel, Bass. they all love to eat them, and this lure in the water gives off a great flash when you’re twitching it. With jerk baits, one often thinks they’re really only good in the fall, and cold water.

Not so. The water in my area is in the mid 70s already, and all it takes is a faster retrieve in the warmer water to get bit. Repeated slight jerks of the rod combined with a slow steady retrieve, synced up with the twitches I’m imparting with the rod tip.

It makes the lure sort of dance very erratically. This was the retrieve that worked the best for me. I didn’t need to pause it very often like you would in cold water. Ended up catching a bunch of fish, multiple species.

Pickerel are sort of a nuisance fish where I live, and I caught several 18-22 inchers, and the lure held up wonderfully to their aggressive strikes & sharp teeth. The only complaints I have with these lures, and the reason I couldn’t rate it 5 stars.

is that these lures don’t really “suspend” like Rapala claims. They have a very slow float to them when paused, not a true suspend. It will sit head down in the water, and rise slowly. Does it make any difference? I don’t think so.

The only other complaint I have is that after I landed about 3 or 4 fish, the lure started running kind of funny until I made some tweaks to it and it returned to normal. It ran true out of the package to my delight, though.

I’ve had trouble with other brands of Balsa lures. Anyway, these are great jerk baits. A true classic, and in my opinion, just as good as any of the more expensive jerk baits on the market. If you don’t have any in your arsenal, you’re missing out.

If you’re struggling to land fish with other lures, give these a try. Especially if bait fish or perch are the main forage. They’re good ALL YEAR round.

The smaller DHJ-12 has long been one of my go-to lures for big summer pike, so I was excited to try the new 14cm model. Looks like I’ll have to switch the hooks first — these are the same size hooks you’d find on a regular # 8 or 10 Husky Jerk.

Any fish big enough to eat a 14 cm lure is not likely to come in on those dainty little things. Come on, Rapala! I can’t imagine why they’d put hooks on it that are so badly out of proportion they are with the rest of the lure! I’ll take these three hooks and replace them two bigger trebles, one on the front and one on the back — never mind the one in the middle.

But once that’s done, this should be good.

These catch fish 100%. I normally fish for walleye and these really put more fish in the boat than minnows. Unfortunately they are very horrible quality. I use VMC jig heads most of the time and the wire keeper cuts thru the plastic so easily.

I use other plastics and don’t have this issue nearly as often. It happens every time after 2 fish, or within 5 casts. For a pack of 6 costing what it does vs say a Mister Twister 20 pack, I’m picking the Mr.

Twister every time.

These seem like great baits, the action looks sextacular, but It was my fault that I ordered the wrong color. I accidentally picked the white pearl shad, and wanted the green pumpkin, but that’s my fault.

I have white chatters, buzz, and spinners I can use them on. Haven’t caught anything on jt just yet, but I have faith it’ll happen in time!.

I love these bait. They are durable and have great action in the water. They work great on the hook especially texas rig. Even after a small chunk is taken out of them after some use they still last.

I caught a big fatty yesterday with a saucy!!! Me and my 3 year old son love using these baits!!!.

I have had a short life when it comes to fishing. Recently I had to get some fishing equipment before heading out in the Northern Wisconsin area for a fishing trip. I believe I bought the 1/4 oz SteelShad lure and had very little expectations.

After trying out more expensive lures and things I decided to give this one a try since none else was working. On the 5th cast I got my first fish of the trip. Now this may come hard to believe but on that 5th cast I got five more bites ranging from Walleye, Bass, and Crappie (I believe these are the names as I state later on I am no expert).

One may say “that just luck” well I bought the two pack of these lures and my buddy got the same exact “luck” as I. The next day I went out in the mornin and got 9 more fish. I am not a “good” or “experience” fisherman in the slightest.

What I do know is that these lures right here are one of the best lures I have ever used and I will continue to choose these over the competition. The vibration along with the swimming pattern these lures make just work.

Please give em a try and good luck out there. (In reference to the photos I was only fishing off a 15 foot dock and have not got to try these lures out in the deeper depths). MY ONLY COMPLAINT is that the lure I used during the whole trip lost one of the 3 prongs, but still works like a charm.

I purchased this blade bait a few weeks back, and have been very satisfied with it. I would give it 5 stars, but the hardware was, to word it kindly, sub-par. At least it was on my particular lure. I was actually losing more hooked fish than I was landing.

I lost so many hooked fish, that I am able to be certain in saying that this was not operator error. Upgraded the hooks to #6 Gamakatsu EWG Trebles and have landed every fish I have hooked since. And MAN, does this thing drive the fish crazy! I have the 1/2 oz lure in “Tennessee Shad” and I have caught a fish with this lure every time I have tied it on! I have caught them by both jigging, and cranking.

Two years later I am still using the silver 1/4 ounce steel shad for the majority of my fishing. Since my last review I have found that updating the hooks with Mustad 2x number 12 hooks has greatly increased the species of fish that I can catch with this lure.

Last fall I had a day fishing for largemouth bass that I caught and landed and released 38 ranging from 1 to 4 pounds from one spot on the bank. And just last week I caught and released 43 white bass with the two largest ones weighing 3lbs 4oz and 3lbs 13oz respectively.

Two boats were fishing the same spot next to the bank and they only caught several each fishing the exact same waters. The fishermen wanted to know what I was using so I shared the information with them.

I have used these for my main jig trailer for the last 10 years. The price is unbeatable. Wide variety of color combinations to add an accent to your jig or blend in with the skirt pattern. Action on the arms is incredible.

On a finesse/ball head jig this is a big fish machine. Allows the bait to fall with control and will trigger fish on the way down. Also works great on the back of a swim jig. Can’t have too many of these.

One of the packages came factory sealed with a bonus human hair. I contacted American Baitworks directly for a replacement, and they pretty much told me to pound sand. Sorry guys, but I’m not going to do a bunch of leg work to return a poorly made product.

So, first and last purchase of this brand. Too many other alternatives to deal w/ shoddy build quality confounded w/ bad customer service.

I originally purchased a few of these looking for a more high end, durable replacement for my handfuls of 2in Husky Jerks that had fallen victim to their weak lip construction, and I’m glad to say these have outperformed any other lure alike, as far as durability, and productivity goes.

Not only do these have incredibly strong lips, but also have incredibly realistic patterns, an extremely tough outer coating with I believe to be resin, and a really nice, and consistent action. Though I’ve been using these for a year now, and in that time have caught possibly thousands of largemouth, spots, smallmouth, rainbow brown and brook trout, and even an accidental 44inch snook, in the past few months ive caught both a 9.

2lb largemouth, and a 7. 91lb smallmouth throwing a silver black back, and a v2 rainbow trout pattern on 4lb florocarbon, which is ultimately why I’m leaving this review as a sort of thank you to the company for providing such a quality product.

the lures themselves simply couldn’t be topped in quality, come with excellent hooks, and a variety of patterns, and most importantly have proven themselves to catch big fish. Ultimately their slightly high price point honestly has saved me money in the long run, as not once has a single component given way to my numerous crappy casts into the sides of docks, spillways, and exposed rocks, and I couldn’t provide any info as to how to improve this lure.

One recommendation I would like to see one day would be a sunfish pattern, as well as maybe a golden shiner pattern, but as far as what’s out there, it doesn’t get any better.

I was recently fishing a gold medal stretch of river here in Colorado when this lure in Ghost White really shined. I was the first car in the parking lot and the last to leave. All day the only fishermen I saw up there (bordering wilderness) were fly fishermen until about mid day when two other spin fishermen came by while I was fishing this lure in Brown Trout and doing pretty well.

Those two fishermen also had HD Trout lures tied on. Later in the day when they were heading back towards the parking area I asked them how they had done and they told me the Chartreuse Shad was really working well but a fish had broken it off the line.

I ended up tying on my Ghost White ‘cuz it was the closest HD Trout pattern I had to the Chartreuse Shad. That’s when things really picked up. Before that it had been slow for hours with various types of lures.

Now it was on. 15-20 inch brown trout were excited about this new offering. I saw things I hadn’t seen before in multiple trips to this river. On one cast I threw this lure just about straight up stream in a pretty fast bottle neck and had to reel about as fast as I could to keep some tension on the line.

About 6 feet from the bank just as I was about to pull the lure out of the water an 18 inch brown nabbed the lure. The last fish of the day was the best though. With only about an hour left ’til sunset to walk back out I cast the lure across a pretty fast section to near the rock island between the two channels of the river.

The lure was only in the water for about 1 or 2 seconds and had only traveled a few feet when a 20 inch brown hammered it. he tasted really good. Thanks Dynamic for helping to make my fishing trip.

I LOVE Dynamic Lures – HD Trout Lures!!! To me, they work better than Rapala Countdowns and are cheaper 🙂 I used to LOVE Rapala Countdowns because of their versatility on the various fish they can catch, but the Dynamic Lure’s HD Trout does the same and at times, much better.

I still stock up on both if I can find deals on them :-).