Maybe superstition isn't so bad - who knows except the fish?!
superstition - a belief or practice resulting from ignorance, trust in magic or chance, or a false conception of causation
I must admit that I indulge in a bit of superstition when it comes to lure choice. A tried & true lure speaks for itself in the numbers of fish caught over time. The skirted jig & trailer are one of my best bass lures, no question, but what about skirt and trailer color, trailer design and skirt fullness? Years ago when only living rubber was the only skirt material, I opted for solid black and black/blue but never white. Not too many years ago I noticed that anglers reported in BASS magazine the use of white skirts and trailers. To this day I have no desire to use a white skirt - a superstition on my part.
But then comes along a skirt jig tyer's dream - silicone skirts in more colors than you can imagine, in more patterns and flake colors. Goodbye black and just another superstition that one skirt material is or could be superior to the another, that if I remember correctly, caught large numbers of bass. As usual, the confidence factor is a big one - no confidence in a lure = no fish caught on it (unless your buddy slays them with it). And though we have confidence in a lure and chose it for reasons we believe it catches fish, doesn't mean those reasons are true or anything but hollow speculation. I know this is a crappie forum but the idea is the same for lure choice in general. As a lure-ologist - one who studies which lure designs do best and possible reasons they outperform, I am fortunate to live near lakes I can experiment using many different soft plastic lure designs in different colors.
I don't dwell on a fish's IQ (which is zero) as to why it strikes. As I posted recently, fish are reactive when sense overload is achieved by certain lure attributes. I don't care what the lure is or how it moves as long as it provokes a fish to bite and maybe bite multiple times until getting hooked (IE a fish that's on speed!) Natural looking is just another superstition many believe is appreciated by fish that don't know natural from supernatural and almost always tend to strike unnatural looking and moving lures. But what is it that causes them to strike? That's where trial & error proves once and for all the false claims about some lures as compared to those that get fish to strike. No superstition there!
But after all is said and done, I still have preferences when it comes to specific colors for specific lure designs and need not look further - unless of course I need to prove most colors work for a design. In that case, I'll cast many colors in one lure type once I'm on fish just to prove that action speaks louder than color.
I still have a color superstition when it comes to certain soft plastics. When casting minnow shaped lures, I can't go wrong with translucent water melon with black and gold flakes. Pearl is also acceptable. But then again so is solid pink and solid or translucent chartreuse anything but black. (Strange since I have caught many bass using black Mr Twister grubs.) But one thing about having confidence in a lure is that I seem to unconsciously impart a special action to it that ends up catching different species of fish. It seems the rational mind ignores all the reasons or superstitions I have for using the lure, but part of my brain instructs my hand to work it just right regardless.
Nice that fish have no clue why we cast lures just as long as they have no reason - period!
