Rapala Original Floating F07 - Silver

2¾ inches, 1/8 oz, balsa. The balsa is the whole reason this lure has outlasted everything built to replace it — a light body starts rolling at speeds a heavier plastic bait can't work at, so you can crawl it past a fish that isn't in the mood to chase. Silver is the original finish and the one to run in clear water and good light, where flash carries and a trout picks it out from a long way off.

Because it floats, you get three lures in one. Twitch it on the surface and it fishes like a minnow in trouble. Reel it steady and it runs three to five feet. Stop reeling and it rises, which is how you climb it over a weed edge or a rock — and how you back it out of a snag before you lose it. At an eighth of an ounce it casts like a feather, so keep your line light, use the wind, or flatline it behind the boat at Strawberry or Scofield. Two No. 8 trebles, hand-tuned and tank-tested.