Making a splash is a fish attention getter!

So, lures in my mind are simply strike triggers. Supersensitive fish senses hear/feel a lure long before it sees it. Seeing it confirms what it feels via the lateral line and inner ear as regards to size and motion. Recently I fished in the deeper end of a local lake 9-11' deep. Weeds grew 4' off the bottom leaving a weed-free water gap above.

The bite was excellent for 10-11" crappie that hit a variety of lure shapes rigged on light 1/16 oz jigs. The gap from the surface to the tops of the weeds was about 4' so it was like fishing in shallow water.

The fish were super active and hypersensitive to anything that broke the surface and gave their positions away by smacking baitfish. So, I figured, since prey made ripples on the surface drawing predator fish to attack, why not cast a lure high in the air and letting it make big splash rather than casting it sidearm and dimpling the surface on touch down.

Sho enough, those chunky crappies hit many of those lures on the surface immediately as soon as they splashed down and if they missed getting hooked, hit the lures 3+ times all the way back to the boat they were so excited!

Touch-down strikes happen frequently in water 3' or less, but I never expected it to happen in deeper water holding schools or loose groups of fish holding in a 50 yd. x 50 yd. area. I'll bet surface lures would have done well that day under the cloudy sky and the sprinkling of rain - thunder heard in the distance.

Discoveries and, well - I'll - be !, are what keeps me hooked on fishing because, ya never know.....