Top 10 Lucky Craft Lures - #1
By: “Triton” Mike Bucca
(www.tritonmike.com)

With the extensive lineup of baits that Lucky Craft has I can certainly understand why it might cause a lot of people mass confusion on what tool to purchase and for what job. I have received countless emails pertaining to my opinion of various baits in the Lucky Craft lineup. I have been fishing with Lucky Craft lures since the late 90’s and I have also been on the Lucky Craft Pro-staff for the past year and a half. As a fishing guide here in Georgia with over 200 days a year on the water, I have extensive experience in using pretty much every bait in their entire lineup, and several Lucky Craft baits that aren’t even offered here in the U.S. I felt this top 10 list would help ease your pain in your bait selection before you plop down the bucks for one of these fine pieces of craftsmanship.

Be sure to check in here at Probass.net often, as I will give a different review on my top ten Lucky Craft baits that I rely on the most. You just might be surprised to see some of the baits I rely on everyday that you might not think is an effective bait.

#1 Flashminnow 95MR

Here it is!! Drum Roll Please!! Lucky Crafts Flashminnow 95 jerkbait gets my nod for #1 rank in my top ten listing. If I had to pick my favorite jerkbait to fish with in the 1-2 ft range it would have to be the Flashminnow 95 hands down. The Flashminnow 95 is my all time favorite jerkbait to fish with. It is absolutely an awesome working jerkbait with a very cool action. The Flashminnow 95 also comes in 15 different shad colors and dives anywhere from 1-2 feet with 12lb fluorocarbon line. The Flashminnow is also a perfectly suspending jerkbait and the numerous color selections can be seen at the Lucky Crafy website.

The Flashminnow 95 has gone through two changes in its lifetime. The discontinued Flashminnow 95 TR was the first attempt to make this bait work. The TR version had somewhat of a square lip on it and the action wasn’t very erratic. With the TR version I had to sand down the corners of the bill to get them to work the way I liked them. Also the TR had dual #6 hooks. The new MR is basically the same profile but thicker and has the already rounded lip and has dual #4 treble hooks. So in a nutshell the newer MR, which came out in 2004, is much improved over the older TR version. The newer MR version is very difficult to find on the Internet as many dealers do not sell the newer MR for reasons unknown to me. In fact, I had to scan the picture above of one of my own personal baits to present a picture in this article because there are no pictures of it on the net that I have found. Some internet sites just have the bait labeled Flashminnow 95 but they do not state which version they have. The easy way to tell an MR from a TR is if you look at the picture above the newer version will have the words “Flashminnow95 MR” written across the back of the bait. Also the two #4 treble hooks are a dead giveaway as well. Here is one place that I have found that sells the Flashminnow 95 MR: LandBigFish.com

Ladies and gentlemen the Flashminnow 95 MR is by a landslide the best jerkbait that I have tried in the 1-2 feet diving range. I will put it up against any jerkbait you can find from Duel, Jackall, Duo, Bassday, Zenith and even the famed Team Daiwa Minnow that I have relied on for many many years as one of my former favorite go to baits. Having said that, the Flashminnow 95 beats them out in every feature that I look for in a shallow water jerkbait. The Flashminnow 95 is unique in many different ways. A great selling feature of the Flashminnow 95 is its ability to suspend perfectly during any pause in your retrieve and it is absolutely lethal in catching active and inactive bass. But the above is only a minor reason why the Flashminnow 95MR is my favorite jerkbait. Since the TD Minnow from Team Daiwa was my former favorite jerkbait I will tell you the single most important reason why the Flashminnow 95 is better. This bait has two sets of #4 treble hooks versus the TD Minnow and other baits of this size, which have two #6 treble hooks. Even though the Flashminnow has the bigger #4 treble hooks it still has the wide erratic action as well as the suspending features. I have tried upgrading the hooks on the TD and other similar jerkbaits and they cannot handle the bigger hooks very well and lack in action department and in the suspending characteristics with the bigger hooks. The bigger hooks in my opinion help me to catch those Spotted Bass that are notorious for trying to pocket pick or tail slap your bait. I would much rather have two #4 hooks than two #6 trebles on my jerkbaits if I can get away with it without ruining the action and suspending features of the bait.

Two Magnum Spots that fell victim to the Flashminnow 95MR

What I like to do is I like to start jerking the rod sideways vs. straight downward in a walk the dog fashion. What this does is makes the jerkbait walk the dog under water. When I mean walking the dog with a Flashminnow, I mean this bait is capable of a true 180-degree side to side sweep with no problem just like the Flashminnow 110. I know at first glance this bait doesn’t seem very unique, but in my opinion it blows the TD minnow and all other shallow water jerkbaits clean out of the water due to the increased size hooks that come with it.

I like to use the Flashminnow in the clearest water I can find. I do the best with it between Late February (once the fish are moving up shallow for pre-spawn and spawn) through Late May, which is basically through our post spawn and into early summer. Due to its 3.75 inch slender profile it reflects the shape of some of the main forage in our lake like the Spot Tail Minnow. The length of this jerkbait is also a good size to attract both big and small fish alike. As I stated earlier, I like to walk the dog with this bait, but I do allow the fish to tell me what they prefer the best. Sometimes they want a long pause and other times they want you to keep it moving very fast. My favorite colors for the Flashminnow 95 are silvers and whites. Colors like the MS MJ Herring, American Shad, Nishiki, Original Tennessee Shad, Chartreuse shad and Shell White are also effective.

As far as equipment is concerned, I like to use 12lb Triplefish fluorocarbon (www.triplefish.net) fluorocarbon line when fishing the Flashminnow 95. Fluorocarbon is a sinking line and it also allows the bait to dive more effectively to its maximum depth better than monofilament lines. Also, due to the low stretch characteristics of fluorocarbon you will have no problem detecting the strikes, which are often very subtle when fishing jerkbaits. Besides fluorocarbon line being more expensive than most monofilaments I am finding that fluorocarbon also lasts three times longer than regular mono making it a very economical choice for the frugal angler. Most medium action 6ft to 6.5 ft rods are great choices for using jerkbaits.

The knot that I use for fishing jerkbaits is called a “Loop Knot”. I feel that the loop knot allows the jerkbait more freedom to move more erratically since the knot is not cinched around the split ring in the eyelet of the jerkbait. Here is an Internet link with directions to the loop knot that I use on jerkbaits. http://www.stren.com/knot4.htm

That’s my review of my #1 pick and that completes my Top 10 of my most often used Lucky Craft baits. Give the Flashminnow a try in your favorite waters. It is actually a breathtaking sight to watch wolfpacks of some Magnum Spots or Shoal Bass approaching and attacking this bait while doing its 180-degree walk the dog, especially in ultra clear streams and reservoirs.

I have also decided to do a few “honorable mention” reviews of a few baits that didn’t make my top 10 rankings, but I have relied on these honorable mentions baits quite heavily over the years. In reality, it’s hard to pick just 10 baits from Lucky Craft for all the given situations and conditions that you run into.

If I can be of any help please visit my website at www.TritonMike.com and shoot me an email.

All the SPOTS!!

“Triton” Mike Bucca