" I don't understand what these fish are thinking" - maybe because they can't
I was sitting in my workshop yesterday looking at the slew of lures I've bought or made over the last 30 yrs. and my first thought: what the heck were you thinking blowing all that money???!!! Obviously I wasn't. Exposure to the media - written or fishing shows - kept me brainwashed and going through fishing catalogs to find that magic lure that kicks a**. Over a 1000 lures later and I still haven't found one but have come close, discovering many lure shapes and actions fish attack.
Was the money wasted? Definitely not! Rapalas catch just as many fish now as they did in 1980. Same for the Beetle Spins and curl tail grubs. But why the huge variety of lures that do well? Theory: fish react without a thought in the world, seeing as how they don't and can't think, and do so for the simple reason: fish strike some moving objects as is part of their DNA.
Think about it: fish don't know what an earthworm is seeing as how they live in dirt not water. But worms move constantly on a hook and fish figure, maybe it's time to try something different? :) My grandkids throw bits of bread to a school of sunfish that attack them like it was their last meal!
I've posted many soft plastic shapes that I made by connecting the parts of different lures (hybrids) and almost all catch fish - and not just panfish. Lure action speaks loudest same as the action of a worm on a hook under a float. The thing gotta move the right way or fish ignore it of which there are many right ways.
Fish are very sensitive to objects that move underwater whether flesh or soft plastic. Unlike humans who can decide whether to strike that annoying fly landing on our skin, fish must react as is part of their DNA regardless of stomach contents or lack of. Thought never enters their microscopic brains. Instead: senses sense, sending signals to it's fins and mouth that the moving object must be stopped - just because.
Sorry again for another long bedtime story, but it's 3 in the morning, nothing's on TV and I got noth'n better to do.