Lure choice is easier than many make it out to be

[SenkoSam]

I was watching over two dozen sunfish slashing the water on the surface as a threw bits of bread to them (a daily ritual that also draws 3 painted turtles). It occurred to me: what do bits of bread represent to these animals?  Certainly not an animal of any sort. Of course I have no idea what turtles eat but they gulp that bread down almost as fast as the sunfish that compete for it in 2" of water.

Most anglers on most forums assume fish strike a lure to eat it. In the case of bread (for over a year), these fish do want to eat it. But in the case of lures, what a fish's intention is - which is to feed - doesn't seem relevant as to what lures to cast or why they should be. Maybe the moving object they may have never ever seen before may represent a potential food item. But as many of us have experienced, on any one day we can and do catch fish on many different lure types as well as different fish species on the same lure such as these thin tail grubs.


These three species were caught on it on the same day:


One might think, ah, it looks and moves like a minnow!  But to who - you or the fish?  

Another lure that did well that day that caught four fish species was this Crappie Magnet grub modification in different colors:


All these different colors, shapes and actions couldn't represent the same prey to fish - could they? Do many lures that mimic prey animals of some sort, not do as well? Of the 63 fish I caught that day, few lures would have caught fish that didn't have the right action, that were too large or had shapes fish would reject.

I modify soft plastic lures or use a mold to pour soft plastics. The search is ongoing for lures that move right and that have the right profile and size. What those lures represent to fish is not relevant, but how those lures affect a fish's senses is. Each of the lures pictured puts off different vibrations using the same retrieve. Once a lure's action gets the fish's attention and holds it long enough to watch it, a combination of lure characteristics triggers the strike - not what a lure looks like to a fish or what it thinks it is.

Here are a few more that did well using a Joker grub's tail attached to a segment of Fry Fry worm:


What were these fish thinking or their intentions when they struck this unnatural shapes?! Nothing really....

[wiperhunter2]

In all likelihood it is the vibration the lure puts off that gets the fishes attention, it really does not have to look like anything they have ever seen to get their attention. That is what all three of those lures have in common, they all give off a vibration, when they are retrieved, not sure they would work as well if they were just hanging under a bobber, that is not being retrieved, unless you put some sort of bait on them.

[SenkoSam]

[font="Open Sans", sans-serif]"In all likelihood it is the vibration the lure puts off that gets the fishes attention, it really does not have to look like anything they have ever seen to get their attention. That is what all three of those lures have in common, they all give off a vibration, when they are retrieved," [/font]

That coincides exactly with what I think when it comes to the strike: aggravating the fish with vibration and then the visual element takes over. What I've found that work best under a float are straight-tail plastic designs and hair jigs. This includes cone tail, straight wide thin tali (above), spike/prong-tail, Crappie Magnet grub tail and thin taper tail. Curl tails, like you said, need to be retrieved faster whereas straight tails display action with the slightest movement of the float or when be dragged under the float and paused.:




spike tail:


cone tail:


Thin taper:


Even short finesse worms have caught fish:


All of these have caught fish under a float: