What is the first thing we all learn about predators? They prey on the sick, the weak and the injured, right?
Which wildebeest gets picked off first by the lions on the Serengeti -- it's the newborn calf or maybe the old animal with the gimpy leg. That's common knowledge. A little kid knows and understands it.
Easy prey mean easy meals for predators.
So why do we fish with lures that are the image of perfection, that look and swim just like the perfect baitfish in its prime? We are trying to entice predators, in this case predatory fish, with replicas of prey that exude strength and confidence, that boast they are going to be anything but an easy meal.
Have you ever noticed that the older a lure gets, like the beat-up black-and-white Dardevle in the second photo, the better it works? Its raggedness is a turn-on for fish. It looks weak and injured.
Lure manufacturers should be making baits that don't track correctly, that start to swim forward and then turn to the side and go upside down, just like a dying minnow does.
Did you ever have aquarium fish that got the disease Ich? Their back halves usually turn white. Their tail fins rot off and they can just wiggle but not swim forward much. Wild minnows get a similar disease. Boy are they easy meals for a walleye or northern pike.
It's unlikely lure makers are going to follow my suggestion though. After all, their products don't need to catch fish, just fishermen, and people aren't as apt to buy a lure called the Sick Minnow as a beautiful Perch or Rainbow Trout.
But you can doctor your own lures to get the desired effect. By bending the fastening ring on stick baits like Rapala you can make the bait pull to one side. If you pause on your retrieve when it does so, you imitate a dying minnow. If you squish the loop so that it isn't round and bend the whole works downward, you make a greater wobble in the lure. It might imitate a fish missing its tail.
A file can quickly rub some of the paint off a new spoon, giving it the lived-in appearance of an old lure that has taken a lot of strikes.
When adding a trailer such as a plastic twister tail to a Johnson Silver Minnow or a Mepps Spinner, you can nick the grub with a knife in a few places, again, making it look less than perfect.
Give it a try this summer. One person in the boat can fish with a perfect lure, the other with a misfit and see who does the best.
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1 comment:
I have a lot of those ugly lures. They really do seem to work better than the new ones!
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