Lure action speaks LOUDER to fish

[SenkoSam]

Humans are attracted to, ignore, avoid and - in some extreme cases - attack things, either by choice or involuntarily. Fish are simple but very sensitive to nearby motion of any kind. Anglers attempt to initiate fish attacks using lures based on that.
   Live bait, obviously, is a tried & true way to catch fish that tops the list of ways to get fish to strike - even when the baits used are no way a part of a fish's diet or that exist in the waters they live in. examples: earthworms, grubs and many insect species. Why attack them? Why, is what this post is - read it at your risk.

   Granted, fish see baits but they alsofeel bait motions via the lateral line and can hear vibrations, whether on the surface (insects) or on the bottom (craw). Odor/scent is another but not from a distance of more than a foot considering the fact that neither diffuses in water quickly. (Drop a drop of dye into the water and see how it stays in one spot as it slowly spreads.) The lateral line alerts / the eyes track. In anything but clear water fish see silhouettes of objects, leaving the lateral line to fill in the blanks as far as object thickness, size, direction and speed of movement, etc. but not lure details until it gets very close.
    Do fish ever strike lures to eat them? Could be, but not plausible in my book in that I believe fish are biologically programmed to attack various shape & action combinations: a concept all those lure companies have made billions based on that simple fact. What's been advertised via the media is that those lures are representations that fish want to (magically) consume. Yet fishing lures are the most unnatural objects they will ever experience in their lifetime yet they attack them over and over. (I've seen different fish with a lure stuck in their lips and yet still attacked mine. Again, lure action is key and, at times - the more unnatural the better! Here are a few strike-provoking actions many of us have caught fish on:
......the steady rotation of a brightly flashing, large willow-leaf or Colorado blade on a spinnerbait along with its pulsating skirt. Only a human would imagine what a fish sees when exposed to that lure!

How about the steady flapping of a curl-tail Mr. Twister grub or any curly tail soft plastic. More unnatural is when they are hopped off the bottom! Not too many aquatic animals bounce that I know of.

..... how about the large Dardevel Spoon with its wild side-to-side swings and flips, the bright flashes of its chrome side, and the red & white painted stripes. Hmmm- a bait fish - REALLY?!

The Zara Spook rhythmically swishes back & forth on the surface provoking even fish in a trance to explode on it!

You can fill in the blanks when it comes to the actions of the Chatterbait and crankbait. (reminder: wide back & forth wobble).

Even large swimbaits and the Sassy Shad have a steady tail-wag caused by a boot-tail.

One more: a skirted bass jig with an Uncle Josh green, spotted frog pattern pork skin trailer. Remember those? Crawfish duplicate?!! I've caught many a bass on the jig & pig but not for that absurd reason.

From those examples alone, the only conclusion I can come to is that fish don't see lures as anything but - objects that move a certain way at a certain speed - steady or paused.I won't assume to know what fish are thinking much less their motive for attacking a lure. Hunger or the sudden urge to feed is not a helpful assumption leading to lure choice.

So why do fish attack certain moving objects, but not all moving objects? Finding lures fish attack is the primary goal, and both friction and stimuli I think have a lot to do with it.
The word friction has mainly two definitions: it occurs by rubbing two objects together; the other being a clash of temperaments (the lure's and the fish's).
Another key word is stimulus:  an object, event, or factor that affects the senses and provokes an action.

Consider this: a lure is moving along minding its own business and out of nowhere - BAM! - it gets attacked. The lure clashes with the peaceful, quiet environment a fish hangs out in. No strobe-like flash; no on-the-surface swish/swish/swishing of a cigar-shaped object (Zara Spook); no fat wobbling tear-shaped plastic crankbait with bb's rattling around inside. Yet fish get really p.o.'d when these lures intrude on their meditation. Let's just say that some fish have a very short temper and are intolerant of trespassers that flaunt their stuff; others are more sedate.

The good thing about the above is the large number of lure actions + shapes that make fish attack for no reason other than, well - NO REASON WHATSOEVER, because that would require the ability to reason. As you've seen from the many photos I've posted of proven great fish catcher shapes and actions, all are different and most will catch fish in the same water on the same day. There's got to be something in a fish's brain DNA that once a lure is detected, a switch is flipped to either attack it or the switch stays off letting it pass.

Lure design and how a lure is used is everything and a good thing: I sure as H*** wouldn't want to cast the same lure no matter how good day after day, much less wait for live bait to get bit.

[Dark3]

Good read Frank, thanks. Aligns with your other write ups pretty well. Im getting back in school on the side pretty soon, Im going to have to copy and past some of these to use for essays. Very well written.


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[SenkoSam]

Thanks, Dark. I've been catching fish on lures bought and those I've made for over 20 years and I can't ignore the evidence. (I added more to the original post BTW)

One more thing when it comes to lures: those that thump the lateral line and those that tickle the senses.

You can figure out which category the lures mentioned fall into. Sometime are noisy, big action, large size and visually prominent lures that catch fish.
At other times, finesse action is key such as when there is the need for a drop shot nose-hooked worm quivering in place.

Fish are like me: very touchy and aggressive at times (i.e. me honking at a.holes who cut me off) or more sedate, requiring just a bit more finesse to get me to do what the wife wanted done - yesterday.

[Larry Francis]

I will state that this mornings trip found no fish angered or provoked by any of my offerings. SAD! 

[SenkoSam]

Maybe you should have tickled them more.   

[Larry Francis]

Maybe you should have tickled them more.   

I should have taken the BOW!