What happens before a fish bites a lure? This involves knowing why fish bite lures.

[INTIMIDATOR]

I have a couple research threads on the Ohio forum "CJ Water Temps" thread....
Your overall reaction bite theory plays out well, but alot more goes into why a fish bites.
CRAPPIE has fabulous eyesight, they can see micro-orgaisms and feed upon them, they do see in color in the day and HD black and white at night.
They will feed specifically on certain food patterns, that's why matching the hatch comes into play.
In some lakes, colors change and mute...the color you see and like will look different to a fish...gin clear water effects colors also.
Spinners and blades, reflect light and vibrations like baitfish, all baitfish create disturbances in the water...big or small.
Fish can tell size, distance, speed, etc,, from lateral lines....they can see and relate shapes, sizes, patterns, etc....they smell and can tell differences....same with taste. They are far from stupid...they are highly evolved predators.

Our jobs, are to pattern what's going on, find them, understand temps, water color, etc., match the hatch or make them react, choose the right lure, color, and technique, to get them to bite.

[Cmj]

I have a couple research threads on the Ohio forum "CJ Water Temps" thread....

Your overall reaction bite theory plays out well, but alot more goes into why a fish bites.

CRAPPIE has fabulous eyesight, they can see micro-orgaisms and feed upon them, they do see in color in the day and HD black and white at night.

They will feed specifically on certain food patterns, that's why matching the hatch comes into play.

In some lakes, colors change and mute...the color you see and like will look different to a fish...gin clear water effects colors also.

Spinners and blades, reflect light and vibrations like baitfish, all baitfish create disturbances in the water...big or small.

Fish can tell size, distance, speed, etc,, from lateral lines....they can see and relate shapes, sizes, patterns, etc....they smell and can tell differences....same with taste. They are far from stupid...they are highly evolved predators.



Our jobs, are to pattern what's going on, find them, understand temps, water color, etc., match the hatch or make them react, choose the right lure, color, and technique, to get them to bite.

Makes sense.

[huntinslabs]

They says I'm hungry, and my Roadrunner rings their dinner bell.

[Cane Pole]

Are you all calling my friends ignorant or incapable?

[Spoonminnow]

I can use the same exact lure design, same color and catch fish all year round and I'm talking all species. Regardless of whether crappie are hitting white perch, minnows or small yellow perch, they still hit the same color without fail.

Today the surface water temp was 84.5 degrees and crappie, bass, sunfish and yellow perch hit the lure pictured below from the time when I got on the water at 12:30 pm until 4 pm.



One could imagine it looks like one species or other, but the color was not important. What was important was a finesse tail action, jighead size, lure length (2 1/4" was just right, 2 3/4" got far fewer hits) and believe it or not, the number of reel handle turns per minute. Too fast/ few bites; to slow and the lure was too close to the bottom in 8-13'. An erratic turn of the handle was also crucial - a steady retrieve would not have cut it! The strikes were hard at times and at other times it felt like I had caught weeds, causing me to increase the rate of line taken in and raising the rod tip high. Most times fish had the lure in the areas I knew had few weeds.

None of my success had anything to do with matching anything or patterning fish according to where forage was or which forage they may have been feeding on - if any of the 60 plus fish I caught were even feeding. I worked an area in the deeper south end of the lake, 70 yards X 70 yards and had action almost every minute, catching the largest and smallest fish the lake had to offer.

The only thing I agree with is fish physiology (taken from Knowing Bass by Keith Jones); the rest is to sell lures and give fish and intelligence and bait selectivity, based on guessing a prey species, they don't possess. My way is proven on different waters; matching adds a useless, confusing step that will prove wrong more often than right and only allows one to imagine fish hit because they thought the lure was a live whatever.

The difference between the study and my topic content was how fish use their senses to detect, track and then be provoked by using a nuanced approach that takes into consideration technical aspects of tackle and presentation (technique). To say one should go as natural as possible when using lures means nothing because most lures fish bite are not natural simulations in any way shape or form and as was said about fish ignoring line and hooks, just another fact that disagrees with how close a fish views the details of a lure and thinks about what it's seeing, smelling or feeling (lateral line).

Fish don't think, they simply react.

[INTIMIDATOR]

I can use the same exact lure design, same color and catch fish all year round and I'm talking all species. Regardless of whether crappie are hitting white perch, minnows or small yellow perch, they still hit the same color without fail.

Today the surface water temp was 84.5 degrees and crappie, bass, sunfish and yellow perch hit the lure pictured below from the time when I got on the water at 12:30 pm until 4 pm.



One could imagine it looks like one species or other, but the color was not important. What was important was jighead size, lure length (2 1/4 was just right, 2 3/4 got far fewer hits) and believe it or not, the number of reel handle turns per minute. Too fast / few bites; to slow and the lure was too close to the bottom in 8-13'. An erratic turn of the handle was also crucial - a steady retrieve would not have cut it. The strikes were hard at times and at other times it felt like I had caught weeds, causing me to increase the rate of line taken in and raising the rod tip high. Most times fish had the lure.

None of that had anything to do with matching anything or patterning fish according to where forage was or which forage they may have been feeding on - if they were even feeding. I worked an area in the deeper south end of the lake 70 yards X 70 yards and had action almost every minute, catching the largest and smallest fish the lake had to offer.

The only thing I agree with is fish physiology (taken from Knowing Bass by Keith Jones); the rest is to sell lures and give fish and intelligence and bait selectivity, based on prey species, they don't possess. My way is proven on different waters; matching adds a useless, confusing step that will prove wrong more often than right and only allows one to imagine fish hit because they thought the lure was a live whatever.

The difference between the study and my topic content was how fish use their senses to detect, track and then be provoked by using a nuanced approach that takes into consideration technical aspects of tackle and presentation.
To say one should go as natural as possible when using lures means nothing because most lures fish bite are not natural simulations in any way shape or form and was was said about fish ignoring line and hooks, just another fact that disagrees with how close a fish views the details of a lure or thinks about what it's seeing, smelling or feeling (lateral line).

By varying your retrieve etc, you have caused a reaction bite...that is only one type of bite that fish have been shown to posses.
Like you, I normally only use 3 inch swimbaits or craws for all of my fishing all year long...I will downsize swimbaits for colder water and change techniques.
Research has proven they will take one food over another, when Mayflies hatch, that is all they will eat...period! If you adjust to Mayfly colors, you will catch fish.
Some fish only see in Black and white, some see in full color, all baitfish have a gold iridescence, some green colors turn gray in certain water colors....your baits can look like a certain minnow in your water system.
I will changed colors at my lake according to sunlight, clouds, water conditions, what fish are feeding on, etc! Then you have to determine the technique of presentation that they want,...different jig head sizes to keep the lure in the strike zone....sometimes presentation has to be slow and erratic, sometimes fast and constant, sometimes bottom bouncing, or stop start and dying....it all factors in!
Knowing your species and home lake makes all of this possible and easy to accomplish.
ALOT of research has gone into fish senses...a lot of good reading out there!

[Cmj]

Man, I guess everything I have learned and deduced over the years has been WRONG!! Too bad the fish are too stupid to know it!

[Tony the Tiger]

Boy Howdey, this is too deep for me.

[RCC]

Man, I guess everything I have learned and deduced over the years has been WRONG!! Too bad the fish are too stupid to know it!

Here's my take on this, probably also wrong. Fish only do a few things in their lifetime. They eat. They try to stay comfortable. They spawn. They cannot go to Walmart and buy food, so they eat whenever they can, as much as they can. This happens everyday, high pressure, low pressure, snow, sleet, hail, summer heat makes no difference, they will eat if something is put on their nose that looks like food to them. One of the most important aspects to crappie fishing is finding the crappie nose. Because they like to stay comfortable, that helps us fisherman to know where to look for the crappie nose at different times of the year, at different depths, or perhaps holding close to structure to find shade, or even perhaps coming to the top to sun in the winter time depending on water temps. Luck does have lots to do with fishing, but bad luck plays as important of a roll in your fishing as good luck does. You give yourself an edge by arming yourself with the knowledge of what the crappie may be eating at that time of year and where the crappie will be the most comfortable, and knowing that if you make a good presentation of your bait on the crappies nose, he will eat it....every time. Lots of other factors play into this as well such as stealth or shadowing. If you are noisy, or shadow your targeted fish, your target may then think that he is to be lunch rather than have lunch. If that happens, you're gonna have some "bad luck". This stuff ain't rocket science. If it was, I only know of one person on this board who could catch a fish.

[scrat]

Now I know why I don't catch a lot of fish. I am only catching the dumb blonde ones.