Original Floating Rapala's, size 9
Jr. Thundersticks
Smithwick Rattlin Rouge's (Not the suspending ones)
Nite Stalker's
Spikes Spoons, if you can find them.

Where do you plan on fishing and what time of day?

You are going to get a ton of suggestions as to what "you absolutely need to have". Start small, buy used if you can, the fish don't care.

This might help some.

https://muskratadventures.wordpress.com/2015/01/03/why-did-i-use-that-lure/

 

Anything Wonderbread or Clown. Vampire Rapalas have been killers for me lately. Get some blue chrome too

 

Jim, with the water as clear as it is, standard rapala colors will put fish in the boat...Black/Silver, Blue/Silver, Black/Gold.. Lures with Orange are nice also. I have some pencil plugs for you to try. I don't use them much but some of my biggest summer fish have come on them.

 

if your gonna fish nights floating rapalas in 7's and 9's, if your going the stock route orange gold, clown, bleeding hot olive, hot steel and vampire are all good starts..if your gonna fish days small flutter spoons and spinners. if you dont have the right boat control u wont catch fish,u wanna cut the current and not go straight up river

 

I have not hand lined since the late sixties when an old timer taught me how. I plan on getting back in next year. But he made all his own baits. They were hand carved flat fish that he painted in his hot patterns and colors. He said every bait has to have an eye on it as that is what the pickerel( what he called walleye) target. I have recently had success modernizing his technique by using a bottom bouncer and a Lindy's River Rocker. http://www.lindyfishingtackle.com/lindy-river-rocker Also these were always sweetened with a whole night crawler which we picked our own on rainy nights from the lawn with a flashlight. Note the crawler goes on two of the three hooks of the front treble.

 

As note above there's a bunch of choices and all produce depending on time of year and time of day.
If I were starting over and couldn't buy 500 different types and colors of body baits/spoon/spinner/harnesses and had to pick one........
F9 Rapalas as the starting point (ALWAYS buy 2 of whatever color you're getting )

Bigger baits tent to produce better early spring and late fall as well as help keep junk fish off.
Spoons in general tend to be day fishing lures.
Pencil Plugs tend to be night

Davido you're not giving him the PPlugs you got from me are you ?

 

Guys, Thanks for all the good advice. Obi Wan Davido I really appreciate the help getting started in this. BTW, I used the same Titelok rail mount you have to mount mine. I really lucked out because the bracket fit almost perfectly on a mid boat pop up cleat. Now I tried it out last Sunday morning-just doinking around and it worked great. I'm thinkin' i might be out Friday evening.

 

It's looking like I might be out Friday night as well down in the channel. If you see a two tone blue Crestliner putt putting around stop by and say hi. I'll give you the low down.

 

Until you get your setup fine turned make sure you have some spoons with ya. Floating rap have weak bills and break easy, and the Trenton channel isn't kind to them at all. My first couple trips I broke a lot of lures and that makes for an early exit with no back up gear. Dave does well so glad he got you started in the right direction. Good luck out there.

 

As note above there's a bunch of choices and all produce depending on time of year and time of day.
If I were starting over and couldn't buy 500 different types and colors of body baits/spoon/spinner/harnesses and had to pick one........
F9 Rapalas as the starting point (ALWAYS buy 2 of whatever color you're getting )

Bigger baits tent to produce better early spring and late fall as well as help keep junk fish off.
Spoons in general tend to be day fishing lures.
Pencil Plugs tend to be night

Davido you're not giving him the PPlugs you got from me are you ?

Bill, I still have em and they catch some fish from time to time. I was gonna share a few of them as I have a few more than I can ever use. Like I said earlier, some of my biggest summer fish have been caught on them. I guess big lure profile, big fish maybe. They also seem to do ok when the silver bass are in.