05-29-2004, 12:09 PM
When we think of matching, we think of matching a prey species and it’s size. The lure chosen may look a lot like the real thing and may even move like it, but duplicating the real thing perfectly isn’t necessary most of the time. Mad Tom Craw tubes are a perfect example of a super-realistic design that doesn’t impress craw eaters most of the time. In fact, tubes and grubs usually are preferred under most conditions.
A lure that has a basic visual structure or makeup and that incorporates anatomical similarities is probably more interesting to a fish and appears to be something worth tasting! Every good lure that catches fish has those elements, either in their action or surface appearance.
For example, a plastic worm is flexible, wriggly, visually slim, long and soft. Leeches and worms of all kinds fit the overall design that nature has allowed fish to accept as edible. Raplas and other floating minnows have an emphasized, wobbling, swimming-action that resembles a drunk fish trying to waddle away. (Sober, healthy fish don’t waddle!) Spoons are usually oblong and concave, which allows darting, fluttering and a rhythmic- wobbling that may represent a school, being fed on.
Most creatures have some kind of texture that affects it's hydrodynamic signature (to quote Rick Clunn). Madtoms have whiskers and barbs; fish have fins – top, bottom and rear; crayfish have antennae, claws, multiple legs and hard plates; insects have wings (dragonflies have large wings almost perpendicular to their bodies); furry creatures have furry, plump bodies and small legs; millipedes and centipedes have many little legs and segmented bodies; carp have large scales that are more like shingles than scales and; larvae is rarely smooth or straight.
In fact, most prey items are not straight, but are curved and that have colors that seem to be a reverse camoflage. Maybe that's why fish reject square or rectangular items, even if they are made up of the protein they normally eat.
Food or prey preference may not be related to a specific species, but related to size, location and motion. If bass are feeding on a school of minnows, a large jig & pig nor a large flashy spinnerbait might not be the lure of choice . If there is a surface hatch being fed upon, a floating jerk-worm may do more harm than good, whereas a 3" Rapala may do better.
If bass are routing craws from a rock bed, a surface lure may be ignored, whereas a tube worked on the bottom, may be the ticket due to it's size and bottom location. If fish are active in the shallows, just about any lure will work, as long as lure size and shape preferences are respected.
Matching may be important key to generating interest and a strikes, but in my opinion, most times a lures appearance is related to non-specie factors such as life abstractions.
Sam
[signature]
A lure that has a basic visual structure or makeup and that incorporates anatomical similarities is probably more interesting to a fish and appears to be something worth tasting! Every good lure that catches fish has those elements, either in their action or surface appearance.
For example, a plastic worm is flexible, wriggly, visually slim, long and soft. Leeches and worms of all kinds fit the overall design that nature has allowed fish to accept as edible. Raplas and other floating minnows have an emphasized, wobbling, swimming-action that resembles a drunk fish trying to waddle away. (Sober, healthy fish don’t waddle!) Spoons are usually oblong and concave, which allows darting, fluttering and a rhythmic- wobbling that may represent a school, being fed on.
Most creatures have some kind of texture that affects it's hydrodynamic signature (to quote Rick Clunn). Madtoms have whiskers and barbs; fish have fins – top, bottom and rear; crayfish have antennae, claws, multiple legs and hard plates; insects have wings (dragonflies have large wings almost perpendicular to their bodies); furry creatures have furry, plump bodies and small legs; millipedes and centipedes have many little legs and segmented bodies; carp have large scales that are more like shingles than scales and; larvae is rarely smooth or straight.
In fact, most prey items are not straight, but are curved and that have colors that seem to be a reverse camoflage. Maybe that's why fish reject square or rectangular items, even if they are made up of the protein they normally eat.
Food or prey preference may not be related to a specific species, but related to size, location and motion. If bass are feeding on a school of minnows, a large jig & pig nor a large flashy spinnerbait might not be the lure of choice . If there is a surface hatch being fed upon, a floating jerk-worm may do more harm than good, whereas a 3" Rapala may do better.
If bass are routing craws from a rock bed, a surface lure may be ignored, whereas a tube worked on the bottom, may be the ticket due to it's size and bottom location. If fish are active in the shallows, just about any lure will work, as long as lure size and shape preferences are respected.
Matching may be important key to generating interest and a strikes, but in my opinion, most times a lures appearance is related to non-specie factors such as life abstractions.
Sam
[signature]
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