I was witness to Terry's 17lb. King on a lizard, and that was awesome! It was in about three feet of water and almost beached itself on the riprap. A bright Lower Columbia springer.

Looking back it was great to put a hand on that thing, but it was the first fish we ever hooked at a NW Bass tournament, so we couldn't even keep it and it felt like a total waste of time!  It would have made some niiiiice fillets.

Cool topic.  I have personally caught my biggest other species of fish on bass tackle.  17 lb. King on a lizard, 12 lb. Tiger Musky swimming a lizard, 12 lb. channel cat on Senko, 5 lb. cuthroat on spinner bait and so on.  I did catch a bass on Powerbait years ago when I was tempted by the dark side before I found the force.

My answer is Powerbait 

As a kid me and my brothers would ride our bikes to a park in Reseda Ca. and scrounge around for used tackle..(hooks, weights, line etc...) to rig up sticks or old fishing poles for stuff to do in the summer heat....we had no bait and Meal Worms were the only avail. bait around as there were peppercorn trees nearby where we could get them but there were several fires that year and bait was scarce so one day I picked up a cigarrette butt and hooked it on my line and hucked it out there! about 10 mins later I went to wind my line in and it started tugging...I yanked and yanked and was very afraid I was gonna break one of the line grafts..(Tied three pieces of line together with granny knots!!) apart but ended up landing a two or three pound Catfish! I was so proud of that fish! I hooked him on the stringer made of twine I found at a construction site and for several days my only confidence bait was a Cig. Butt!

and yes...I was found to wander the park like an addict asking smokers..."You finished with that Butt?" 

Multiple times when I've been working on small streams I've gotten trout, usually cutthroat, to rise to a custom trimmed twig with some flower left on it. Works like a charm!

A stick with a hook tied to it. I guess you could say it was my very first "Stick" Bait. Early 80's on a farm pond.

Russ

A plain hook   

For me, it was a piece of plastic window molding back in the 70's.  I had seen a show on TV as a kid and they were useing this long piece of plastic with tenacles on it.  Suppose to look like a squid.  ( yeah, the show was about salt water fishing )  Being an industrious 9 year old, I tear thru our garage and find some old plastic window molding.  Cut the end of it up to make some tenacles and shove a couple of hooks thru it.  Next time we went to Lake Powell, I break this thing out and throw it to a bass sitting in a bush.  Come to think of it, the molding sank real slow with a funny wobble.  ( can anyone say Senko )  Next thing I know, Bam fish on.   Used it for the next 3 hrs and catch a number of fish on it.  It final broke apart and stupid me didn't think to patent the idea and become the next Gary Yamamoto   

Mark

when i was younger i was fishing off the dock at mardons and i tied on a flying lure or whatever the lure was that went backwards.  anyway my mom asked what it was and i dropped the lure off the side of the dock and as it slid under the dock about a 2-3lb largie ate it.  it was probably only 4 ft of water and people were walking up and down that dock all day it was weird.

troy

What's the strangest lure or bait you ever threw and actually caught something unexpected on?

I've caught a bass on Gummy worms (it started as joke and I was shocked when a bass actually hit the candy!

I also caught catfish on a 3/4 oz spinnerbait... weird!

And of course, the grass carp in Silver Lake ("that ONLY eat grasses and vegetation") - have twice succumbed to shallow running crankbaits!  (The F&G Biologist frowned and told me he found that hard to believe.)  I guess the grass carp didn't read the same book the biologist studied in school.)