i have a question!

[williambaxter4]

What lures can catch more then one species of freshwater fish? thank you help is appreciated!
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[lskiles]

I have mentioned before how much I like the Trout Magnet, I am not affiliated with the company that makes them I am just a big fan.
I have caught trout, bass, crappie, perch, etc. It is a system involving a 1/64th ounce jig head with a split-tail grub, that comes in a variety of colors, under a small float. They recommend using fluorocarbon as a leader, but I usually just tie on to the 3 lb. monofilament I have spooled on most of my rigs.
I will not leave a link here because I am not sure of the rules, but if you do an internet search of Trout Magnet you will find them. They have some tutorials and such on their website too.
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[TubeDude]

[#0000FF]That is a very basic question. It does not take into consideration what body of water you are fishing, what species you are targeting and what the primary food resources are.

There are many lakes that have multiple predator species...and they all feed mostly on a primary forage, like threadfin shad. When you have that situation you can throw a crankbait that looks like the size and color of the main food on the menu and catch almost any of the available species.

Small jigs, tipped with worm, will also catch multiple species of fish in the same day on the same water. That is especially true if there are several varieties of bass and sunfish. They all feed on crawdads and other aquatic invertebrates. If you fish a small jig to imitate their favorite food...and add some "sweetener"...like a piece of worm...you can definitely catch multiple species.

After that, spinners are a good lure to throw for a variety of different species. You may have to change sizes and colors to find the right one for the day, but spinners are a good choice for someone with limited experience.
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[williambaxter4]

how do you retrieve ir? how to rig it?
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[williambaxter4]

what color seemed to work best for you?
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[tubeN2]

The color will be a wide variable. Different fish like different colors at different times of the year depending upon the moon phase, the mood they are in and the type of bait they are used to chasing.

What area are you in? Some basic information will be helpful. What lake, river or stream do you usually fish from? [cool]
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[lskiles]

I just tie on to the jig with my mainline (3 lb mono), the website where they come from tells you to use a fluorocarbon leader. You need to tie it so that it remains upright, it was suggested in one article I read to use a drop of super glue to keep the knot from slipping on the eye, I tried it, but it is more work than necessary in my opinion, but if you pull it up and it is consistently slipped so that your jig does not hold horizontally I would put some on.

I fish mostly in small lakes and reservoirs I find what looks like structure, logs, trees, docks, etc. and I toss it out, let it sink, and then I sort of twitch it back to me letting it fall each time; that is when you get the most hits, during the fall.
As far as color it depends on visibility. I usually start fishing a little after daybreak so I use a chartreuse, white, or other high visibility color.

You need to understand that I am not a great fisherman, I never had anyone to teach me to fish, so most of what I know I have learned from magazines, Youtube, and I have learned a lot from this website. A lot of these guys are on the water often and they know what they are talking about.

Interesting thing about color to pick up on what TubeDude said. I read in a magazine a long time ago that virtually every piece of water in the US has crawdads in it, so the logic went to catching a crawdad and trying to match his color in whatever lure you use.
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[SenkoSam]

Many small soft plastics catch pretty much any species that attack lures. The emphasis on attacking lures. IMO and after making or modifying many soft plastics and rigging them on jigs, I've come to the conclusion that a few designs work every time you fish a lake (if lakes are where you fish).

But equally important to the lure used is retrieve/ presentation. Power fishing has its time and place (burning certain lures through the water), but generally I've found slow is always best to entice fish to hit an object they have no experience ever hitting. In other words, they are sensitive to the real thing from the fake and hit the fake only because it trespasses their personal space with an action that live prey don't usually possess.

I've been experimenting with some basic grub designs and caught many freshwater species last year and this. In fact I won't even bother casting some lures I've owned for years such as curl tail grubs and Sassy Shads. Finesse action grubs are king in my book such as the ones pictured:

[inline "bullet shaped grub on 1-16 oz.jpg"]

[inline "thin tail grub.jpg"]

[inline "crappie on cone tail grub.jpg"]

[inline "Bob at Stillwell in May_13 in crappie.jpg"]

[inline "cone tail and thin tail grubs in tackle box.jpg"]

As you can see, there is nothing complicated about lure choice - all of the above work in the colors shown and on all pan fish species, bass, pickerel, trout and even catfish. Trying to come up with conventional reasons why they always work is nice around a camp fire, such as prey matching, but not helpful in the least. Why make something complex when simplicity trumps it every time you fish.

When retrieved slowly and with slight changes in lure speed (rod tip twitches), fish get really annoyed and attack - even on the next cast to the same spot if the hit was missed!

As usual, lures help find fish after a few are caught and sometimes in specific location types (weed lines, open water with scattered weeds, near rocks, etc.)

Line size may matter but I've found 8# test to be the max I'll use for any jig heads from 1/16-1/8; 6# for all jig head sizes. (BTW, I only use unpainted jig heads with no bait barb and use a wire I attach to keep lures in place for dozens of fish caught.)

Much to take in but standard when fishing most freshwater locations and easy to adopt with instant success without overthinking what prey they're eating or what colors that simulate it. (Even clear soft and hard plastic lures work most times.) Fish react with zero analysis of what their reacting to. JMHO
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