If you had to limit them to four, which lures would you choose?

Rule #23:  Until they're about 25, most boys are too dumb to be worth much.

THE FOUR ESSENTIAL LURES:

If I had to choose only four lures to put in my tackle box--for all species and all seasons--which would I choose?

To answer this, you have, first and foremost, to determine:

• What kind and size of fish do you want to catch?

•  Then, you need to figure in the kind of water and other conditions in which you generally fish.

•  Also, you need to take into account what seasons you fish: only Spring and Summer?  Or do you stretch it into almost a four season year?

•  Increasingly, you have to determine how much money you're willing to spend.  In a day when a Rapala can cost you more than $10, only the wealthiest of fishermen can ignore that factor.

For me, those factors are easily decided:

As I have said before--I fish for fun and for food.  I like to catch big fish, but a 1 1/2 pound bass often fights better than a 4 pound bass, and it always tastes better!  I like to catch fish. Period. If they're huge, that's great, but I will never fish exclusively for the enormous bass.

• I fish small waters.  Abandoned gravel pits, farm ponds, the White and the Mississinewa Rivers.  Small.

• Lately I have tried to stretch the season beyond the Spring and Summer.

• I am decidedly opposed to the prices major lure companies are asking for a piece of balsa and some treble hooks.  Even the soft lure manufacturers have joined this price expansion:  Imagine paying $9 for a small pouch of four or five plastic worms--I'm looking at you, YUM!!!

Given all of these considerations, here are the four lures, or lure types, that I would choose if I couldn't have any others:

1. In-line spinners--Mepps, Panther Martin.
2. Pre-rigged finesse worms--Kelley's Pier Boys. 
3. "Safety-Pin" style, "Beetle Spinnners" with Mister Twister jigs attached
4. Tiny crankbaits: 1/16--1/8 oz.--Strike King, Snap Peas