For those starting out or even experienced anglers, I wish I knew then what I know now many years ago. Opinions and beliefs vary when it comes to using lures to catch fish, ***but pictures don’t lie ***and I keep a bunch of them to refer to.
I started out as a live bait angler but after watching fishing shows and reading magazine articles about fishing lures - no more float & worms or minnows. Bass fishing was a step up learning to use more types of lures. I never believed that lures represented anything to fish including plastic worms, crankbaits, spinnerbaits, skirted jigs and trailers, spoons and surface lures just to name a few. Even started making my own skirted bass jigs using different color skirts and trailers to see if it made much of a difference catching bass.
A new world of fishing opened up a few years ago when I started making soft plastic lures and started modifying them as you may have seen in some of my posts on Bigfishtackle. Enter *soft plastic modifications - *or hybrids (the parts of two soft plastic lures melted together).
Catching fish on modified lures is a whole new challenge to catching fish and emphasizes ***lure action ***and whatever enhances that action such as specific retrieves. If I catch fish on a newly designed mod, fantastic! I don’t care how small the fish as long as it catches over a dozen fish, the more species the better.
Today I saw a young newbie fishing from shore using the wrong rod, reel, lure and line. I rigged a leader of my braid to his old curly monofilament, a light jighead and a small lure to be used under his float. In no time he caught a few sunnies and was thrilled. I had him watch the lure he was using while swimming it in the water and had him pay attention to its action on the slowest retrieve. His style of fishing has changed forever as well as him realizing the importance of lure action.
Here are some recent discoveries using parts of molded lures and melting them to other lures using a candle flame and a steady hand:
The retrieves were different for some of the baits but the actions were different for the different shapes. I realize catching large fish is important to most anglers but for me catching fish on lures I modify and test, opens doors to which lure actions-by-design provoke fish to strike. It doesn’t matter the size of the fish caught initially. So far I’ve identified different actions that provoke fish - most equally good. Here are a few as represented by the above lures:
body waddle
flapping tail (like a flag)
flutter
tail quiver
body darting-with-pauses
body quiver
Most or all of the above actions you’ve seen using plastic worms and sticks, plastic jig trailers, Zara Spooks, curl tail grubs, jerk worms, etc. No one is saying you shouldn’t stick with fewer lures in your arsenal that catch fish, but catching fish on a variety of lures opens your mind to what works, when and where. The whole point of catching fish more often is knowing what works more often and why.
Here are a few more examples of fish caught on small lures and a light action rod.
…or this 14" bass?
or one that’s a bit larger?
… and larger still.
How about these nice bass caught on the same day using different shapes:
…caught along with these 2 and 3 lb pickerel - also on different shapes/ actions:
Of course 12-14" crappie are noth’n to sneeze about after bending a light action rod in two:
Works for me and especially on days when many other lures don’t cut it!
One last thing. Fishfinders are fine in deeper water, but ultimately your lure is what helps you find fish and helps uncover a fish location pattern. To accomplish that you need to cast and cast and cast and cast your lures all over the place! Covering water can make the difference between catching zip and catching a bunch with a few hogs thrown in, but always remember that too fast a retrieve kills your chances. Fish senses need time to process what’s swimming by in order to decide to let it pass or attack. Small lures like all of the above are worked slowly - most with stop & and go retrieves.
Good luck and discover new things every time you fish.