the right equipment

Question
Hey, I've been fishing small lakes with a few of my friends for only about a year now, and need help with what kind of tackle to get for smallmouth, largemouth, and panfish for not a lot of money. I fish Northern Indiana and Southwest Michigan. I've visited Lunker's, a large outdoors store and looked in their huge fishing department and didn't find anything in my price range. I received quite a few lures from my grandfather but they are a few years old. I don't think that lures expire but a year ago I thought crappie was just a fish that wasn't very good. So do you know of any lures that aren't very expensive but that could land a big one? Thanks a lot for your time.

Answer
Tom,
Sorry it has taken so long to answer, but my world has been upside down at the moment, plus I have seminars this weekend.

As for your question, small lakes and ponds are good places for an old standby - the Beetle and Beetle Spin.  Curl tail grubs will work as well.  These are cheaper lures, and they catch all species of fish.  You may want to go smaller for panfish, and up to 1/4 ounce for bass.  

I also use tubes.  They are one of my big producers.  I've caught some of my state award fish on 3 and 4 inch tubes, which were rigged Texas style with an XGap XPoint hook.  A Daiichi Fat Gap will rig the same.  This type of bend in a hook is the best to tubes since there is so much plastic area.  A standard sprout worm hook does not work as well.  Tubes will work on jig heads, but again, go smaller for the panfish - crappie tube size, which is usually 1/32 to 1/8 ounce.

Colors can be kept simple - white, chartreuse, black and pumpkin.  Watermelon is another good producer in some areas.  I've also used smoke and smoke with red flake.

There are many other lures, but I wanted to keep this simple, so we can hold down the amount of money being spent, as you requested.

Hope some of this has helped.  If you have any further questions please do not hestitate to get in touch.

Best of fishing,
Dan