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Catching - Fisherman Or Fish ?

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When buying lures it goes style(jerk, spoon, jig ex),depth, weight, size, profile, brand, and color. Packaging is of little importance for catching my eye but if it lacks information like weight, running depth or sink/suspend/float I am likely to buy the lure that has the need information on the package rather then ask the person at the shop.

When I fish I use different lures to preform different tasks I will experience out fishing. If the lure looks awesome but I cannot get it into the strike zone or lacks the action to get the fishes attention under the conditions I am fishing it’s useless in my opinion 

But I realize there is a ton of fisherman who will run one lure in one color till they loose it or the hooks rust off just because they have faith in it lol

In my opinion most fisherman don’t put a ton of thought into their lures. Many stick to their colors and brands or the local favorites. 

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My takeaway from all this (lots of good discussion here!): take time to develop your bait to make sure it catches fish.  Don't spend a ton of time during development and testing on fancy paint schemes, but then once you figure out how to make the lure catch a ton of fish based on shape and action, start working on your paint and presentation to make it look sweet to both fish and fishermen!  But if it's just for personal use keep the paint as simple as you are satisfied with.

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47 minutes ago, Big Epp said:

My takeaway from all this (lots of good discussion here!): take time to develop your bait to make sure it catches fish.  Don't spend a ton of time during development and testing on fancy paint schemes, but then once you figure out how to make the lure catch a ton of fish based on shape and action, start working on your paint and presentation to make it look sweet to both fish and fishermen!  But if it's just for personal use keep the paint as simple as you are satisfied with.

That is exactly my train of thought 

Caught a lot of fish on plain white lures and lots on sealed wood without paint well testing. 

I actually go for a basic white lure by choice often 

 

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2 hours ago, Hillbilly voodoo said:

I actually go for a basic white lure by choice often 

And as long as you call is something fancy and modify it just a smidge, it's a trendy paint scheme!  "Snowball," "Bread Dough," think candle names like "Clean Sheets," "Foggy Day in Ireland..."  The marketing possibilities are limitless!  

Simple stuff works great, it doesn't have to be too complicated. Solid white, solid black.  How many of us have had strikes while testing an unpainted bait?  I certainly have, and the first time it happened I about jumped out of my shoes because I wasn't expecting it at all!

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One follow-up on packaging.  A bait maker that sells at my store also asks for my opinion and observations.  He makes a shaky head style of bait that is totally different, and my testing shows works extremely well.  The problem is that the "blade" is crystal clear and you can't even tell in the package that it is a shaky style bait.  No one even looks at the bait because they can't tell what it does.

I suggested that replacing the clear blade with anything less "invisible" would likely improve sales substantially.

His lures work, work great, but ......................

Packaging is important, at least until a new lure's reputation is known.

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One of my buddies and I have a standard practice when we fish. We start out using similar baits in profile and action but in colors that are in the opposite end of the spectrum. It is almost always the case that one or the other of us will start catching while the other is less successful. Once we find “the color” that is catching the other will switch to that color. We do this even if we are not in the same boat. A couple of months ago I was in the yak and he was in an inflatable and I got a message from him about an hour into the day, after myself having been unsuccessful, that simply said “green is the color”. I switched to green and it was off to the races:)

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Funny story...when I was in college there was a reservoir near campus.  I found there were a bunch of crappie (small) in the lake and I would often go target them with small inline spinners off riprap and around a pumping station.  One day a buddy came with me fishing... We were both using ultra-light rods with small inline spinners.  I was out-fishing him by a wide margin.  After a while I cut off and tossed him the spinner I was using and started using the spinner he had been using.  Still out-fishing him by a wide margin we then swapped fishing poles.  After I caught about 5 more crappie to his 0 he just gave up, mumbled something about "never being able to catch crappie anyway," and started throwing logs and stuff in the water near me.

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1 minute ago, Big Epp said:

Funny story...when I was in college there was a reservoir near campus.  I found there were a bunch of crappie (small) in the lake and I would often go target them with small inline spinners off riprap and around a pumping station.  One day a buddy came with me fishing... We were both using ultra-light rods with small inline spinners.  I was out-fishing him by a wide margin.  After a while I cut off and tossed him the spinner I was using and started using the spinner he had been using.  Still out-fishing him by a wide margin we then swapped fishing poles.  After I caught about 5 more crappie to his 0 he just gave up, mumbled something about "never being able to catch crappie anyway," and started throwing logs and stuff in the water near me.

The retrieve, landing the lure in the zone and action the fisherman adds is a huge factor 

I have one buddy who just can’t grasp how the rest of us out fish him unless we are trolling even using the same gear

I hate to admit it but a lot of really good fisherman will catch fish even using crappy lures. The know how to adapt and read the water 

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10 minutes ago, Hillbilly voodoo said:

The retrieve, landing the lure in the zone and action the fisherman adds is a huge factor 

I have one buddy who just can’t grasp how the rest of us out fish him unless we are trolling even using the same gear

I hate to admit it but a lot of really good fisherman will catch fish even using crappy lures. The know how to adapt and read the water 

True enough!  My buddy was/is an excellent bass fisherman.  He just has a head for how they function, whereas I'm much more of a generalist.  There were times we fished creeks by where he lives and we'd both catch maybe 12 fish.  He would have caught 11 bass and 1 bluegill, and I would catch 3 large creek chubs, 4 bass, 4 bluegill, and 1 rockbass.  Funny how the little details make such a difference.

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I totally agree Hillbilly!  Watching people fish for years of guiding at the lodge it doesn't take long to figure out who will catch the most fish out of a group.  Even out of some of the really experienced anglers (mostly for bass) that were in my boat, some of them spent more time getting snagged, casting into weeds instead of around, or changing colors or flakes or getting a tube jig with a slightly different hue.  Meanwhile, the other guy was hauling them in with the same color the whole time.  Standing while fishing.  Casting accuracy.  Good polarized glasses.  Not drinking booze.  Paying attention to cadence/rhythm of a successful cast.   I was the one who picked the spots, but there was only so much I could help some of the fishermen with, especially the ones that refused to take my advice lol.   I don't know why some guests feel the need to do that, I'm not always right by any stretch, but I was on the water for over 100 days in a row lol.  

After fishing/guiding for that many years, color of lure is very low on my priority list (the Winnipeg river where I'm at isn't super clear, so it may have more of a factor in other places).   Action/placement/cadence/contrasting patterns/depth are all probably things I think about before color.   

Nowwww that being said, as a lure maker, the lures I make for myself are like 2 colors haha.  The ones I sell have much more painstaking detail, because lets be honest, it helps catch a fisherman's eye.  

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9 minutes ago, eastman03 said:

I totally agree Hillbilly!  Watching people fish for years of guiding at the lodge it doesn't take long to figure out who will catch the most fish out of a group.  Even out of some of the really experienced anglers (mostly for bass) that were in my boat, some of them spent more time getting snagged, casting into weeds instead of around, or changing colors or flakes or getting a tube jig with a slightly different hue.  Meanwhile, the other guy was hauling them in with the same color the whole time.  Standing while fishing.  Casting accuracy.  Good polarized glasses.  Not drinking booze.  Paying attention to cadence/rhythm of a successful cast.   I was the one who picked the spots, but there was only so much I could help some of the fishermen with, especially the ones that refused to take my advice lol.   I don't know why some guests feel the need to do that, I'm not always right by any stretch, but I was on the water for over 100 days in a row lol.  

After fishing/guiding for that many years, color of lure is very low on my priority list (the Winnipeg river where I'm at isn't super clear, so it may have more of a factor in other places).   Action/placement/cadence/contrasting patterns/depth are all probably things I think about before color.   

Nowwww that being said, as a lure maker, the lures I make for myself are like 2 colors haha.  The ones I sell have much more painstaking detail, because lets be honest, it helps catch a fisherman's eye.  

I noticed the same thing guiding in BC in the past. My favorite was the clients that told me the bite was off or my spot was poor or my choice in lure/fly must be wrong till I picked up a rod and caught a fish lol. I would never fish unless a client asked or they questioned me 

I had a repeat customer who demanded I fished with him when in came to fly fishing bull trout. He found it easier to watch me adjust to each run in the and copy me. 
 

I am also the same with lures. I fish with my rejects or basic patterns. Fancy is for customers lol

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On 3/3/2021 at 9:13 PM, Anglinarcher said:

One follow-up on packaging.  A bait maker that sells at my store also asks for my opinion and observations.  He makes a shaky head style of bait that is totally different, and my testing shows works extremely well.  The problem is that the "blade" is crystal clear and you can't even tell in the package that it is a shaky style bait.  No one even looks at the bait because they can't tell what it does.

I suggested that replacing the clear blade with anything less "invisible" would likely improve sales substantially.

His lures work, work great, but ......................

Packaging is important, at least until a new lure's reputation is known.

Because you mentioned packaging, do you happen to know a good place online where one can order bulk packaging suited to packaging lures?

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Interesting read. Being new to building hard baits I'm curious as to what (experienced) people are doing. 

When selecting a lure I consider its working depth and the type of action it has, color and pattern are chosen based on water clarity and light penetration. 

My thinking is that you have to present the lure to the fish where they are (within the range they are willing to chase) and the action should suit their mood. 

In all of the discussions (above) of color and pattern little was said if the lure was catching fish during prime time when they were feeding heavily or of it was off time when fishing is slower.

I think that "mood" is an important factor in choosing which lure to use. People often name lure types per the fish they catch on them (spoons are pike lures and jigs are walleye lures) where they are really associating the action to the (typical) mood of the fish. Pike are aggressive 75% of the time so a fast presentation with a spoon is a good choice,  walleyes are subdued 75% of the time so a slow presentation with a jig works well - mind that walleyes will hit a high-speed spoon when they aggressive - no problem!  Just saying that it seems that the fishes mood doesn't get considered very often in all this discussion. 

For the record, simple color schemes (darker back, light sides and lighter belly) have always worked well for me. Florescent blue, orange or chartreuse back for deep water and black, dark grey or olive in shallow water. Typically silver or gold sides.  If perch is the predominant forage I will use that pattern but usually it is simple colors.

That being said,  I am looking forward to learning to paint some of those beautiful sunfish patterns I have been seeing! 

So, fish or fishermen?  ...I let the fish tell me what they want  :)

Van

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