Lure design/ lure craft - why it makes a difference re: fish strikes

[Spoonminnow]

Over the decades as a lure user to the exclusion live bait, I remember reading so many articles and watching so many show that claim why fish bite certain lures. It pretty much came down to the imitation of a prey animal or someone else's lure design. There are classic trout fly patterns that go back decades as well as soft plastic shapes copied by thousands of lure makers. Most catch fish. But when you take into account the incredible variety of lure designs that catch the same or different species on the same day, it should make one wonder if imitation is all that big a reason fish strike regardless of what is being imitated.

Most of us have witnessed fish striking the most outlandish lure designs and not only by chance. Go back the next day or month and fish still strike the same designs. Some would say fish recognize a lure as some animal/easy prey and that it was feeding time. Some go as far as insist fish were targeting a prey species when they hit a lure. Apart from that classic thought process, I would suggest turning the page and look closely at how lures that catch fish perform in the water.

Many on crappie.com have seen my many hybrid designs - all of which get struck. Do I imitate or modify them? Sure, if they consistently catch fish. But as usual, I tire of casting the same stuff regardless how many fish are caught and try to discover different shapes & actions combined that fish strike because it's in their nature to do so. Simple as that!

Again, there's nothing wrong with imitation and in fact if an angler stuck with only one lure (Crappie Magnet & light jig), he or she could do very well and on one color to boot! But for me, I like playing with fish like I do my dogs, seeing what excites them, chase and then hold on to an object. Granted it's not fair, but animals don't know right from wrong espcially when it comes to bullying as well as what to bull - which includes moving objects almost as large as they are.

Next time you catch fish on a lure, rather than think what were they thinking?!!, try and remember - they didn't and don't. They simply strike as is their nature confirming time and again that simple is as simple does.

Cases in point:
This rather large white sucker attacked this chartreuse Magnet-tail soft plastic hybrid and unpainted 1/16 oz jig:



add to that bite, these species caught in the same lake on the same day:


...along with this nice size chain pickerel:

[GrumpyLoomis]

When I worked with Iowa DNR in the 80's they tagged and released 25 large mouth bass, one of those fish were caught and released 7 times in the same area by different anglers. 6 out of the seven catches was on a white spinnerbait. I really wonder if these fish get so called conditioned to a bait that does not equate to food. I have several jigs that work well here on my home waters but if I go to Tenn. or Florida that data is not effective. That is something I could never nail down without numerous visits. What a wonderful hobby this is.

[Spoonminnow]

I really wonder if these fish get so called conditioned to a bait that does not equate to food.

I can't remember how many times I've caught fish on lures that were previously caught on lures - similar or dissimilar.

I unhooked this wacky rig worm, swivel and plastic leader from this bass:


The lure was not in sight and the only thing visible was the mono leader.
I caught the bass on this small Magnet-tail hybrid soft plastic:


I don't think of what motivated the fish to strike whether from hunger or something else, only that it did as well as other fish on the same outing. (Black is not even my favorite color based on nothing.)

[DockShootinJack]

We were catching flounder in the shallows off the pier. An Asian man walked up asked what we were catching and what we were using for bait. He pulls out a jighead and threads on a piece of chicken. My buddy was snickering and laughing that you can't catch flounder on chicken. That fella put on one heck of a school on how to catch flounder on a jig and chicken. Beat all I had ever seen

[GrumpyLoomis]

I too have seen this in fact earlier this year I had a walleye with a shad in his throat not even in the stomach yet and it hit my jig. Don't think that was a hunger hit but a get out of my space hit. They are hard to figure out some days and want it all on other days.

[Spoonminnow]

Don't think that was a hunger hit but a get-out-of-my-space hit.

[Micanopy]

Another way to look at this is - why is it that some fish refuse ? It is perhaps at least possible that most fish refuse. Maybe it is aggression, or desperation, or curiosity, or maybe something entirely unconsidered as of yet.


PT Barnum understood how to lure people into biting. Many today can charm you right out of your money still. It could be said that they are targeting people and ensnaring them into a trap. Fishing for suckers. That by the time the victim figures it out, it is too late. Many times greed is used as the lure. Carnival workers show this huge stuffed animal. Your greed has you wanting to cheat him out of it for a mere quarter. Never stopping to consider that it is he who is doing all the cheating.

Other animals have tricks, and the angler fish depends on being able to trick fish. I agree that fish probably do not use wisdom and study when biting, rather pure instinct. I mean if they did think, we probably would have far fewer pictures to see.

I would also offer that we have a huge role in all of this. Bass Masters are known for certain techniques. Crank bait specialist, worm guy, jig, spinner bait. They become more proficient at using one type of lure over all the others. You need to consider that as you noodle this question out.

[DrNip]

Fish are smarter than we give them credit for and I’ve read articles of studies that they remember stuff even up to a year later. Now how smart is a crappie in the fish pecking order I don’t know. Over the years my bait of choice has evolved and I’ve made and thrown at them some of the brightest colors both in plastics and hand ties in water conditions that you wouldn’t think would work. Also have made some of the plainest colors I wouldn’t think would work but do. I believe at the end of day presentation trumps whatever color or style of bait you are using and the trick is getting them to bite it. Some days they are aggressive and it is easy. Some days they have lock jaw and won’t even bite a minnow. If they don’t bite move along and try to find active fish.

[Spoonminnow]

Another way to look at this is - why is it that some fish refuse ? It is perhaps at least possible that most fish refuse. Maybe it is aggression, or desperation, or curiosity, or maybe something entirely unconsidered as of yet.

Good way to look at it.

Supportive of what DrNip said:

I have to look at it by constantly testing where fish are on the aggression scale. Low on the scale, no strikes; high on the scale (i.e. schoolies going nuts) and fish will strike 3x on the same retrieve. I discovered this ice fishing years ago:
I found a school with my portable sonar in this one spot, drilled two holes and used different baits. One bait I let hang under a tip-up was a wax worm on a small spoon. Five feet away in the other hole I jigged a small plastic tube on a light jighead. Only the tip-up caught fish but not many.

On another day one hour before sunset, my partner and I slammed over 60 crappie fishing a large circle of holes cut through the ice going from one to the other. He used maggots, I used that same small tube sometimes catching 5 fish from one hole.

Why fish strike or don't strike is grist for magazine articles and fishing shows on TV. I leave it to those with an imagination to tell me why fish strike never expecting them to tell me why they didn't strike what they were advertising. I follow this one simple rule: right place/right time/right lure & presentation increase my odds of finding aggressive fish prone to striking - for whatever reason. Patterns are nice, but much of the time I catch one or a few fish in different spots and then move on hoping to find loose schools scattered in one part of the lake with aggression levels near 10. As anglers, we have to adjust our fishing to where fish are on the aggression scale - slower and smaller lures on the low end; a bit larger lures and an expanded speed range of slow to medium-fast.