Yesterday I took along a family relation that never caught fish on lures. At first he thought I was going to give him lures to try that looked like forage. I gave him a quick lesson in what and why fish bite based on what fish senses tell them. This was his first fish hitting in open water, caught on a bright white flat-tail that struck the lure 3x on the same retrieve.
With another lure similar in action but different in color, he caught two of the largest yellow perch of the day!
One perch bit his lure dangling over the railing with only the slight rocking of the boat giving it action. That was in 4' FOW.
I caught most of my fish - including some 11" crappie - on this Crappie Magnet-tail/thicker body hybrid (note the chartreuse tail and motor oil body). It mattered what we cast because of my confidence in those lures and in those colors. As long as I found fish, we could have used one or 10 different soft plastic lures in different colors and caught fish. We were only out 3 hours but found fish in open water, on shallow flats and in shallow stumpy areas. The day was overcast - sunny and a cold front was due that evening.
Now, were any of those fish actively feeding or were most suspended anywhere they were caught? A few surface swirls did indicate active fish - some of which I caught. Other than that it seemed that the fish that attacked 3x on the same retrieve or at the boat vertically jigging after strikes, became activated based on lure-related factors. So, like the argument that fish attack lures that resemble prey, fish attacking lures to eat them is not based on anything but opinion. Better to relate the strike to lure specifics especially action, size and shape that either gets strikes in combination or doesn't.
With another lure similar in action but different in color, he caught two of the largest yellow perch of the day!
One perch bit his lure dangling over the railing with only the slight rocking of the boat giving it action. That was in 4' FOW.
I caught most of my fish - including some 11" crappie - on this Crappie Magnet-tail/thicker body hybrid (note the chartreuse tail and motor oil body). It mattered what we cast because of my confidence in those lures and in those colors. As long as I found fish, we could have used one or 10 different soft plastic lures in different colors and caught fish. We were only out 3 hours but found fish in open water, on shallow flats and in shallow stumpy areas. The day was overcast - sunny and a cold front was due that evening.
Now, were any of those fish actively feeding or were most suspended anywhere they were caught? A few surface swirls did indicate active fish - some of which I caught. Other than that it seemed that the fish that attacked 3x on the same retrieve or at the boat vertically jigging after strikes, became activated based on lure-related factors. So, like the argument that fish attack lures that resemble prey, fish attacking lures to eat them is not based on anything but opinion. Better to relate the strike to lure specifics especially action, size and shape that either gets strikes in combination or doesn't.