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

[Spoonminnow]

First off, fish don't know anything but they sense everything.

If you've ever studied fish biology, fish senses would be the first thing to capture your attention because they are so much different than that of land animals. Vision is and vibration/pressure wave detection are highly tuned to a water environment via the eye, lateral line and ear. Many articles have been written why fish bite lures, many insisting hunger or feeding the main reason. I'm going to suggest another reason:

contrast

For years is was assumed that a lure was a simulation of a prey animal found in nature. Anything from a Mepps spinner to a Beetle Spin was counted on to represent a fish or a worm or a grub, etc. The problem with that idea is that fish have no ability to categorize different animals much less name them. Their brains are nothing more than conduits connecting their sense organs to their muscles opting to go after anything that provokes them.

Do fish instinctively know a real minnow from a fake look-a-like? I believe they somehow sense when something is the real thing - I have no idea how. On the other hand, most crappie and fish in general have never seen fishing lures and have no frame of reference to suggest a spinner is a minnow or a plastic grub is a grub. Ice fishermen know that live bait left in place will always get far more fish than a stationary artificial grub regardless of scent added.

If fish have no clue what a lure is or that it even lives and breathes, the only thing I can think of is the possibility that since artificial lures don't act real, they still strike a nerve (no pun intended) leading to an attack. If so, what is it about lures that get fish to bite?

Every lure emits its own set of sense-detection characteristics whether they be sight or sound. Prey animals don't move or sound like the majority of lures we use. Being sight feeders fish can see lures, whether muted or bright that contrast against any background. Color outlines shape and indicates size, but more importantly contributes to the visualization of a lure's action. Even if fish had no sense of vibration detection, they could still track and attack an object that has no correlation to anything a fish feeds on.

Motion detection is a blessing to an angler using lures in that lure motions are strange to a fish. Lure speed and lure action speed (vibration, shimmy, etc.) along with color are key to getting a fish's attention, forcing its tiny brain into the track & attack sequence which will be hopefully unbroken until we hold that fish. The sequence starts with getting a fish's attention and then using a presentation and lure that holds its attention long enough (like lighting a fuse) until it is provoked uncontrollably into striking. It's like someone sticking you with a needle - your reaction is involuntary and angry at the same time, no different than a fish's once it makes its move to destroy an object it has no idea of its nature. Push the right buttons and it can't help itself - sometimes even attacking a lure multiple times on the same retrieve.

The key is to consider the many contributions on Crappie.com that indicate why some anglers have great luck using certain lures and presentations in combination that almost always catch fish. I have my pet combos based on unnatural contrasts of lure color, flash, motion, vibration, speed variations, speed in general, shapes and sizes. One or all account for my success and the fact that fish don't know anything but they sense everything.

Thanks for reading and for considering the possibility that the above can help you catch more fish by searching and fine tuning your lure selection and presentation.