I've caught thousands of fish with man-made objects - lures - for longer than I can remember starting with a Mepps spinner and then a yellow Mr Twister curl tail grub. The number of articles I've read and the number of TV fishing shows I've seen amount to little when it came to why fish strike various lure
shapes/ sizes/ actions/ and presentation, but most important -
in combination like the combination of a lock.
Do fish
sense lures as forage or some other animal? Are fish
hungry or territorial when the are more aggressive? The answeres as to why fish strike have been contested for a long as the barbed hook has been around with all evidence pointing to this: fish
sense but have
no sense that allows
logical thinking that
associates lures to any animal.
It was established decades ago that fish senses became very well adapted to the environment in order to survive. The lateral line and other vibration detecting organs I compare to a blind person that develops an ultra sensitivity to what's moving nearby. A fish's larger eyes by comparison detect object shapes and actions from a distance.
A catfish's sense of taste and smell for example are enhanced by that which locate prey, avoid predators, return to familiar spots after months of absence, and find mates in murky water.
"Catfish have more than 175,000 taste buds on the surface of their bodies, making them virtual swimming tongues. The gills contain the highest concentration of taste buds, followed by the barbels and the mouth."
The many species of fish we catch do not have catfish senses so why do they strike with the senses they do possess? Your guess is as good as mine but one thing is certain:
certain lure combinations that involve sight and sound provoke fish to strike. Simple as that! To label the strike as one of hunger/feeding or territorial means nothing if a lure moves the wrong way, is the wrong shape or size or is too large.
Having caught so many fish over many decades on many lure types and colors, has convinced me that fish are incapable of putting 2 & 2 together. A spinner is no more representative of a minnow than a buzzbait. Human imagination is something fish lack.
What they
sense is what they strike given the lure-combination referred to. Predicting that is at the crux of lure choice invloving trial & error as well as fish locations.
Some insist that fish strike a lure because of it's
natural shape, action and color. but that is a bit reaching when very few lures look nor move
naturally - spinners, buzzbaits and large lip crankbaits for example. To say a fish is
fooled into biting a manmade object, takes for granted that the fish makes comparisons/associations to a real prey animal before it strikes. The simple fact that fish strike the
same lure on the next cast that a buddy was just caught on, strongly disproves even the slightest presence of fish logic or the sense of danger associated with the presence of hooks. How many fish have you caught from a school? Over 15 in my experience.
A buddy I fished with last weekend recently caught a
catfish on a particular soft plastic lure that along with a few other soft plastics, racked up 45 fish in total. Why? Just the fact that the lure also caught sunfish, white and yellow perch and crappie is proof that that lure and others had what it took to
provoke those fish to strike.
I base my choice of lures based on lure design - especially
tail design. These were the choices attached to various bodies - most attached with a candle flame:
spike tail
cone tail and bulb shaped tail
claw tail
curl tail (Ribbon tail epecially)
mini stick
modified Sassy Shad (belly and paddle tail cut off)
grub body / curl tail cut off or two grub bodies attached with a candle flame (no action action tail)
wacky rig after attaching spike-tails melted on to both ends of a grub body:
paddle tail (like the Sassy Shad's) (the Runcle for its thin longer body)
thin straight tail (top of the list)
There are others but you get the idea.
