ARTIFICIAL LURES: THE ART AND SCIENCE OF TRICKING A FISH

 

CHOOSING A TOPWATER

Not all topwater baits are the same. Pay attention to size, sound and color. Large lures can turn off pressured fish. Smaller baits are a bit more subtle and often preferred, but the hooks might be a bit puny. As for sound, louder isn’t always better. Concave front ends for popping and chugging are one way to make noise; other lures rely on rattles or propellers to create a ruckus. That’s OK when the wind has the water murky and choppy, but the calmer and clearer conditions are, the quieter your bait should be. Color can be a big deal, but generally what really matters is using a dark lure in dark conditions and vice-versa. Don’t be afraid to vary your retrieve — steadily walking the dog may get no interest, but if the bait suddenly stops and starts again, or sits still for a moment and just barely twitches, fish are more likely to pay attention. When a fish attacks your lure, stay cool. Wait until you feel the pull before you start pulling back. Many anglers jerk topwater baits away from fish. If there’s no pull back, wait a moment and then start your retrieve again. Redfish are especially awkward at grabbing topwaters and may try two, three, or six times before they succeed. Let them.

DO YOU DROPSHOT?

Of all the freshwater fishing techniques that have been adapted for saltwater fishing, few are more productive in winter than dropshotting. A dropshot rig basically consists of a teardrop- or pencil-shaped weight with a soft plastic lure tied 18 to 30 inches above it. The rig is cast into deeper water along a dropoff or point and then reeled very slowly back. As the angler reels, he constantly twitches and bounces the rod subtly. This imparts a lot of action to the bait, which is always in motion despite the slow reeling. Our water is about as cold as it’s likely to get for the year, so fish are moving much more slowly than usual. The dropshot rig allows you to keep a bait in the strike zone longer while still having it dart frantically about — very tempting to a fish that doesn’t want to chase prey fast or far. Although the method will work with almost any soft plastic bait, for our winter fish a smaller lure is best. One that has plenty of built-in action, like a curltail grub, is also ideal. Bright colors, such as electric chicken or hot pink, will help get the fish’s attention, and it never hurts to add a dose of Pro-Cure or other scent juice to your bait. Anything you can do to convince them is good when they need a reason to eat.

HOW TO CHOOSE A BAIT

When you’re looking at a wall with hundreds of different hard baits and your budget will only allow for a handful, how do you decide which ones to go with? The first consideration is water depth. Are you fishing at the surface or just below? Maybe you need to get down deep. Somewhere in between? Most lures are made to work at a fairly specific depth, and this is usually shown on the package. The next consideration: How does the lure move? Some baits are amazingly lifelike when they’re sitting still, but the illusion vanishes when you see them in the water. If it looks like a fish but swims like a piece of plastic, a snook will probably think it’s a piece of plastic. On the other hand, a lure that looks like a stick but swims like a fish is probably going to fool some predators. What about size? Well, what are your target fish eating? Try to get close to that if you can. Remember that size means the profile of the bait, not just the length. The last consideration is color. Use dark colors in dark water and light colors in light water. Can’t find the right color? Don’t worry about it. Studies have shown that a lure’s color matters a lot less than its size and shape, so get that right and don’t fuss too much about the paint job.

LEARNING TO FAKE IT

A lot of people have trouble using artificial lures. It’s true that fish will often ignore an artificial bait that doesn’t move the right way, and it’s also true that getting the right action can be a little tricky. But it doesn’t have to be. Some lures have built-in action that makes them easy to use. A good example is the Rat-L-Trap — all you do is reel, and the bait does the work. The Jitterbug burbles across the surface with nothing more than reeling. Live Target lures are available in a short-lipped wakebait version, which has plenty of action just reeled in slowly. For most lures, though, there’s some effort involved. If you have a swimming pool (or a friend with one), tossing a lure in and playing around with the action is both entertaining and educational. When you do this, remember what the lure is meant to do — it needs to look like something a fish wants to eat. Fish eat smaller fish, but they look specifically for the weak and the wounded. The more you can make your lure look like a small creature in distress, the more likely you are to draw strikes. The key is generally erratic action. If you’re fishing with a soft plastic lure, don’t just cast it out and reel it in. Instead, twitch the rodtip every few cranks. Maybe slow the retrieve and speed it up. Pop the lure up to the surface and then let it sink to the bottom. It needs to look alive but like it’s having a really bad day. If you’re fishing a lipped bait, you can reel it and it will wiggle back and forth. You might get a hit, but you’ll get a lot more if you make the lure dart, twitch and generally look like it’s in its death throes. Learning how to walk the dog with a topwater bait isn’t that hard — just twitch the rodtip rhythmically as you reel. But you’re trying to imitate a fish dying on the surface, so go slow and don’t make it a steady retrieve. Mix it up a little. One thing a lot of anglers overlook: The power of stopping. Gamefish will often watch a lure go past with little interest, but if it stops dead the fish will come over to inspect it. Then, when it starts moving again, predatory instinct takes over. There’s noting a predator hates more than seeing prey escape. Fish on!

LET IT SIT

When it comes to lure action, sometimes less is more. Mark Nichols, the founder of DOA Lures, says a lot of anglers would do better with some of his lures if they knew when to let the bait stand still. For example, the Terror Eyz can work as a vibrating bait when it’s retrieved quickly — but it can also work held still in the current. Mark says that from a fish’s point of view, anything that can hold still in flowing current must be alive. And anything small, alive and with a baitfishy outline is potential prey. This is a very effective way to fish bridge shadowlines at night for snook and tarpon. If the fish are eating bigger bait, the Swimmin’ Mullet can be used the same way. A very effective technique with suspending hard plastic baits is to just stop them for a moment. Baitfish rarely swim long distances nonstop. Instead, they usually hover in place, then move in short bursts. You can mimic that exact motion with a suspending plug, like a MirrOdine, Storm Twitch Stick or Rapala X-Rap suspender. Fish will often watch a lure as it sits still and then attack when it moves. Use this pause near structure that a fish might be using as an ambush point, and it can be a deadly technique.

Put on a dive mask and stick your head underwater for a while. Watch what little fish do and what they don’t do. You’ll probably notice they often do … nothing. Baitfish will often sit in one spot, barely moving or not moving at all. They they’ll dart off a little way and then hover again. Can your lure do that? Maybe. Suspending lures (actually, they usually are just very slow sinkers) are made for just this type of action. However, since they’re completely dependent on the angler for their action, they can be tough to master. There’s another option: Put your lure under a float. It’s dead simple, but think about how much more enticing your lure will be to a predator when it acts more like a real baitfish. Imagine a Rat-L-Trap buzzing along. If you try to pause it, it falls to the bottom and lies on its side. Not very natural. But if there’s a float above it, it simply hangs there in the water column. You can do this with almost any sinking lure, including your favorite soft plastic rigged on a jighead.

OFFER A VARIETY

Most anglers understand the concept of matching the hatch — using a lure that resembles what the target fish are already feeding on. But sometimes throwing something completely unlike what the fish are seeing can get very positive results. Have you ever had meatloaf for dinner a couple nights in a row? When you got to that third night, did you want meatloaf again, or were you ready for a change? Now we’re spoiled, of course, but even fish like to change it up a bit. There are biological reasons for this: Different foods contain different nutrients, and a fish or a person needs a wide variety of nutrients to stay healthy. When the fish are eating whitebait, a shrimp may look very appetizing to a fish in search of variety in its diet. If you’re using artificial baits, you can try a couple of experimental things. Try tossing a lure that imitates the shape but not the color of whatever bait is plentiful, or one that imitates the color but not the shape. Color can be a strike trigger in many circumstances, and don’t be afraid to try some totally unnatural patterns. Fire tiger is one of the most popular colors for some northern freshwater fish, but it can produce in the salt as well, and of course white with a red head is a local standard. At certain times of the year, lures with prominent purple or orange colors can be hot. Your goal is to attract a fish’s attention without spooking it, and an outlandish color pattern can be just the ticket. You can also use size to your advantage by throwing a lure bigger or smaller than the baitfish you see. Usually smaller will get you more strikes, but bigger can be a good way to target the larger fish. One trick I like is to use “freshwater” soft plastics — how often do you think a redfish sees a plastic worm?

PICK A COLOR, ANY COLOR

Take a good hard look at the lures in your favorite tackle shop. How many of them have colors that look nothing like anything in nature? Yet often, these baits will catch fish when more “natural” colors are ignored. It seems strange until you realize something — what a fish sees and what you see are not the same thing. Many fish can see ultraviolet. Others have eyes that are sensitive to polarized light. While it’s not possible for us to see the world the way they do, it’s obvious that they perceive it very differently. Colors that may seem outlandish to us, such as neon yellow or electric purple, are often readily accepted by fish. Anglers who are looking for an advantage can find one by experimenting with different colors. Sure, we’ve all heard that you should use dark colors in dark water and light colors in bright water. But have the fish heard it? If your favorite color isn’t producing, don’t be afraid to try something crazy. Fire tiger and electric chicken may look like clown vomit to you, but to a fish they may look just like a scared mud minnow. If you want to hook them, you’ve got to excite their predatory instincts, and color is just one more tool in your box.

PUT A LIL STANK ON IT

Do you get a sudden rumble in your tummy when you drive past restaurants at mealtimes? Even if you’re not particularly hungry, the smell of meat cooking or hot fryer oil can get to you in a hurry. That’s something that you and fish have in common — the aroma of food makes you much more willing to eat. That’s why it only makes sense for you to add scent appeal to your artificial baits whenever it’s practical to do so. The smell can come from adding natural bait to a lure. A strip of fish belly or a chunk of shrimp is pretty easy to add to most jigs and spoons. But when you’re working a lure, concentrated scents are better. Some anglers like menhaden oil, which can be used as a marinade for soft plastic baits or splashed onto a nylon or hair jig. Others prefer paste formulas like Pro-Cure gel, which is thicker and takes longer to wash away. Fish Sticks scent attractants are packaged in a tube like lipstick for easy, no-mess application (just don’t confuse it with your Chap Stick — blecch!). Whatever method you choose, adding a bit of shrimp, fish or crab smell can be just the ticket to get finicky fish biting.

SALTWATER VS FRESHWATER LURES

What is a saltwater lure? Does a bait have to look like a shrimp or a mullet to catch fish in marine conditions? Not hardly! When you moved down here from Ohio/New York/Pennsylvania/Ontario, you probably brought a tackle box full of potential saltwater lures with you. The brightly painted jigheads used for walleye fishing work just fine here, and bottom bouncers or walking sinkers can be repurposed to catch trout in their deeper winter hangouts. Flatfish-type lures are also good for trout, and freshwater bass love them. In salmon sizes, they’re a fantastic snook lure. Inline spinners will catch bass and freshwater panfish here, or take them onto the Harbor for ladyfish, bluefish, trout and redfish. Spoons are very popular in fresh and salt water alike. Heavy spoons for fishing deep are great for Spanish mackerel because you can rip them quickly through the water. The big topwater baits used for pike and muskies will drive amberjacks crazy out on the reefs. There is one caveat: The hardware on some freshwater baits isn’t going to last long in salt. Be sure to replace light-duty hooks with beefier models, and don’t forget to rinse your lures in fresh water and dry them well — rust is bad.

SCENT APPEAL

Exciting a fish’s predatory instinct is the key to catching it on an artificial lure. Since fish use all their senses to hunt, you can increase your success by using a bait with more than just visual appeal. Rattles of various types, both built in and added on, help fish home in on a lure but can also scare them away in calm and clear conditions. Soft plastic baits have the advantage of texture — fish will hold them longer than most hard baits. Although many soft plastics are also scented in some way, this is an area where the angler who is willing to experiment can gain an advantage over those around him. Fish, shrimp and crab scents are readily available at the bait shop, but it’s well known that garlic oil attracts fish too. What about using other scented oils to impregnate your lures? Maybe patchouli is irresistible to redfish — but you’ll never know unless you try it.

SO LIFELIKE?

When you’re trying to pick the right artificial lures, what criteria do you use? Judging from what I’m seeing on tackle shop walls, a lot of you are going for lures that look as realistic as possible. I suppose I can understand that — after all, you’re trying to trick a fish into thinking your lure is an actual shrimp or baitfish. But let’s think about that for just a minute. If fish hunted using solely sight, using artificials that mimic real bait might be a winner. They don’t, though. Sight is important, but fish hunt more by feel. The vibrations a lure gives off are much more important than its appearance. A Rat-L-Trap is a great bait. Knock all the paint off it, and it’s still a great bait. I have some old Yo-Zuris that have no finish at all left on them. The snook whack ‘em just the same. When fish decide to attack a lure, the vibration and the way the bait moves have much more to do with it than the scale pattern or the painted-on fins. The oh-so-detailed finish is more about catching fishermen than it is about catching fish. Try it for yourself: Go fishing with a buddy. Both of you use the same lures, but sand all the fancy off one of them. As long as you’re both competent with the bait, you’ll have the same luck. Many of the world’s most effective lures are pretty short on detail. A white bucktail, a Silver Minnow spoon or a Zara Spook will outfish most of the $20 baits out there, and they do it by giving the impression of a fleeing or injured baitfish. There’s nothing wrong with a realistic pattern on a lure, but just be aware that it’s not going to mean beans to the fish — it’s there so you’ll buy the lure and fish it with confidence. It might even work. But in the final analysis, it’s the confidence that matters the most — that’s what will keep you using it, and a bait in the water catches a lot more fish than a bait sitting in your tackle box.

SOFT PLASTIC BAITS

Soft plastic lures are among the most popular artificial baits, but how do you choose which one to use? Some considerations are easy: If you determine the size of what the fish are eating, match that as best you can. If the water is dark, use dark or intensely saturated color; if it’s clear, use light or pale colors. Others aren’t, such as what style of bait to use. Imagine what the tail will do in the water. A split or pointed tail will vibrate with a quiet, high-pitched sound. This is ideal when fish are spooky or conditions are very calm because it will get a fish’s attention in a subtle way. Curly tails are a bit louder, and the frequency is a little lower. This is good when there’s a bit of wind or if the water is tinted — a fish can hear it from farther away and home in on it. Shad tails and paddle tails thump with a loud, low-pitched noise. When the water is choppy or very dark, or if you’re fishing at night, that bass thump is ideal because it will carry a long way. The bigger the tail, the louder the bait. Sound gets their attention, and only when they get close enough to see the lure do size, color and scent factor in.

SUMMERTIME SLOWDOWN

When you’re out in the heat, you probably don’t feel like running sprints. Fish are the same way — they would much rather avoid having to chase down a fast-moving bait or lure. In summer, it’s time to slow it down. Instead of a soft plastic swimbait, try a curlytail grub on a jighead. You can hop that slowly and still produce a lifelike action. Ditch your treble-hook spoon for a weedless model that you can skip across deep grass. Try throwing a suspending twitchbait that you can work as slowly as you want instead of a lipped lure that relies on forward motion to produce its wiggling action. And when you think you’re going slow enough, dial it back by about a third.

THE MAGIC SPOON

Spoons are deadly on all sorts of fish. They imitate the flash of a twitching baitfish — something every predator recognizes and is turned on to. How you fish a spoon will have a major effect on whether or not you catch fish with it. The most common spoon type is a concave piece of polished metal with a hook at one end. These spoons tend to twist when retrieved, and a twisting spoon will twist your line. Always use a ball bearing swivel with these spoons. They can be worked by simply reeling them in or by vertical jigging in deeper water. Other types, such as wedge-shaped Kastmasters and long, narrow Drones, tend to roll back and forth but not fully twist. They are more effective when trolled or reeled fast. Flats spoons, which are broad and made of thin metal, can be cranked in with a reel-and-pause pattern, which allows the spoon to flutter downward. All spoons rely on reflected light for their appeal, so they’re most effective when it’s at least somewhat bright outside. Hammered finishes will reflect light in different way than polished versions, and will sometimes draw strikes when a plain spoon isn’t working well.

TOPWATER TRICKS

Working a topwater lure effectively is a skill that takes a bit of time and practice, but it’s one that pays huge dividends. There are few types of fishing that are as thrilling as working a topwater plug — when a big fish blows up on your bait, it’s a genuinely heart-pounding experience. The basic method of fishing a topwater bait is called walking the dog. Although many plugs will do this, few do it more beautifully than a Zara Spook. Cast the plug out and let it sit for a moment. Reel up any slack, then start your retrieve. Crank at a steady pace, keep the line taut, and twitch the rodtip about a foot two or three times a second. This is easiest to learn if you keep your rodtip pointed straight down at the water. With every twitch, the lure should switch direction and travel forward just a bit. The net result is that the plug will zig-zag across the water, and for some reason this drives predatory fish bonkers. Once you have the basic retrieve down, you can vary it a bit. Try twitching faster or slower, or speeding up and slowing down the retrieve. You can also pause the lure for a second or 30. When fish try to attack a topwater plug, they often miss. This is especially true of redfish, which have mouths that point down. When the water’s frothing around your lure, your instinct is going to be to set the hook. Don’t do it! Until you feel the weight of the fish, just keep walking that dog. You can slow it down after a miss, but it’s the action that makes them crazy, so don’t let it sit still too long if you know a fish is after it. You’ll find that topwater lures are available in a ridiculous variety of colors and patterns. When you’re trying to pick the right one, think about how the fish is going to see it. With the lure floating on the surface, anything painted on the top or sides is pretty much out of a fish’s view. All that really matters is the size and the color of the belly — and, of course, how pretty you can make it swim.

TROLLING PLUGS

Deep-running lipped plugs are hot for both king mackerel and gag grouper, but mastering their use is not quite as simple as just tossing them out the back of the boat and hitting the throttle. Each lure model has a speed range at which its action will be best, so be sure to carefully study the instructions on the packaging. In general, you can make a lure dive deeper by running it farther behind the boat or by using thinner-diameter line. This is important for gag, which will come a surprising way off the bottom to hit the lure but are usually more willing if you can get the bait within 10 or 15 feet of the bottom. Kings are more than happy to whack a plug near the surface, so don’t ignore the shallow-running lure models. If you can, run one shallow and one deep. The more of the water column you can cover, the more likely to are to find where the fish are. Once you get a couple on one lure, you can switch out the losing bait to match the winner.

TROUBLE WITH TREBLES

Catching fish on artificial lures is lots of fun. Many anglers enjoy the added challenge of getting a fish to eat something made of metal, plastic or wood. But there’s one thing about many artificial lures that isn’t much fun at all: Treble hooks. Trebles were designed in an era when almost every fish ended up on the table. The idea was to put as many hooks on the bait as possible, because that would increase the chances of at least one of the barbs getting stuck in the fish somewhere. But today, the reality is most fish end up going back in the water, either because they’re not legal size, or season is closed, or anglers simply choose to catch and release. When you’re letting fish go, you want them to survive if possible. Treble hooks are great if you’re killing fish, but lousy when you’re releasing them. It’s common for a fish to end up with multiple hooks stuck in, which means the dehooking process is much longer and the fish has more wounds that will need to heal. Also, it’s not unusual for more than one hook on a single treble to be buried in the fish, and removing those is slow work. Not only that, you’re also dealing with a flopping fish and a bunch of sharp metal, making it far more likely for you to end up hooked yourself. The solution? One single hook. Take your treble hooks, and the split rings used to attach them, off the lure. Then attach a beefy single hook to the farthest back attachment point. You can use assist hooks, which are sold with a short length of heavy-duty braided line. You can use a short piece of very heavy line. Or you can get a barrel swivel, clip off the solid rings and replace them with split rings, then attach one to the hook and one to the lure. You’ll see your hookup rate fall about 10 percent with topwater plugs; for other lures, it’s about the same as with trebles. Releases are so much easier and safer that it’s well worth the hassle.

WHAT TO DO WHEN BAIT IS THICK

Using artificial lures can be far more challenging when baitfish are abundant and easy to capture, which is often the case from late spring to early fall. Scaled sardines and juvenile threadfin herring are plentiful, and gamefish are gorging themselves on these swimming protein nuggets. So what’s an angler to do? First, try matching the hatch. Throw white soft plastic shad lures, white bucktail jigs, and silver or white spoons. And you should have these available in two or three sizes because those baitfish may range from 2 to 6 inches long. If that doesn’t get the results you want, a little scent appeal might. Soaking soft plastics in menhaden oil for a few hours (or days) will impregnate them with a smell you will find disgusting but that the fish will find irresistible. You can also dip a bucktail jig in the same smelly stuff. If you still get no bites, but you know the fish are there, your best option is to go with the flow and break out the cast net.

WHEN TO GO SMALL

Want to know the definition of frustration? It’s when you have feeding fish in front of you, but they’re eating glass minnows or other tiny baitfish and you don’t have anything small enough to get their attention. Here are some things you should have in your bag: Eighth-ounce Kastmaster spoons: Trash that dinky treble hook and replace it with a stout single. Put bigger split rings on while you’re at it. Now you have a tiny lure that can handle surprisingly big fish. Creme Lit’l Fishie swimbaits: An astonishingly good little lure with great action. Don’t forget the T’s Tackle Larva Jigs to rig them on. These are good any time fish are keyed in on small baits and can be a load of fun around snook lights at night. Small streamer flies tied on stout hooks are good. Don’t fly fish? So what? Tie on the fly, then tie a foot of line to the hook eye and add your favorite jig or swimbait. Now you’re imitating a small predator chasing an even smaller baitfish. This drives big fish wild, because they instinctively “know” a distracted fish (like one focused on its own meal) is easier to sneak up on and slurp down. Sometimes you’ll hook two at a time this way when a schoolmate tries to steal dinner from the first fish you hooked. Wheee!

 

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