Yesterday wasn't a banner day but revelations made it worth the gas

The lure shape I call the carrot stick became a must-have lure in my box as of last week's blasting by many sunfish in 2.5 FOW. Color did' not matter as long as the retrieve was mixed with pauses and tod tip twitches.
Attachment 463853
Crappie bit it soon after:
Attachment 463854

I was'nt sure if the lime green would work, but as usual it was'nt the presentation that brought out the best in the shape/action combination. This color combo did just as well:
Attachment 463855

Since the day before, orange tails have been doing well though, again, shape & action & presentation matter most.
Attachment 463856 Attachment 463857 Attachment 463858
I attached a Crappie Magnet tail to a grub body for better action and in one area caught a dozen schooled sunnies. Man are schoolies fun. Catch one and the rest are turned on!

One more shape used the fin from a Fin S Fish lure and attaching to a grub body, the a photo in the next reply.

Yes, one Hooke one going nuts does seem to turn on the crowd!
Bob

This is the Fin S fish tail attached to a French Fry stick that usually never fails:

Mighty fine sir! Thanks for sharing

Nice mixed bag

looks like a great day to me:ThumbsUp

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Spoonminnow

This is the Fin S fish tail attached to a French Fry stick that usually never fails:

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I like the shape of this one...
Those are some real nice fish for sure. Well rounded lot, will make for some fine eats.

You are the Mad Scientist of lure experiments. Well done!
Bob

Quote:

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Originally Posted by BobC

You are the Mad Scientist of lure experiments. Well done!
Bob

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You know what they say: where there's a will, there's a spoonminnow trying to make it better! LOL (as in my recent post: how to fix a broken rod)

Word error in one of the posts:

I was'nt sure if the lime green would work, but as usual it was'nt the presentation that brought out the best in the shape/action combination.

Correction: I was'nt sure if the lime green would work, but as usual it was the presentation that brought out the best in the shape/action combination. (slow with slight variations in lure speed and action)

It’s a good thing that you aren’t a machinist. You would be staying up nights making molds for your new creations. Some cool stuff.

Thanks Skeet!

When I think of all the lures I've bought over the years, many of which caught fish when fish were found, even as early as 20 years ago I was fiddl'n with skirted jigs and spinnerbaits. I would vary skirt colors to see which did well -most did. Then it was spinnerbait blade shapes and sizes - most did fine. Same for in-line blade baits with various fur bodies - including my dog's hair LOL and jigs tied with the same.

Slowly it dawned on me that lures I could catch fish with didn't have to be bought. The reason for fish strike had nothing to do with edibles but everything to do with an irritation of a mysterious moving object that their senses told them wasn't real. The word natural isn't in their vocabulary and IMO, unnatural moving objects (like lures) set off a short series of events in their simple brains that take then out of their usual stupor and turn them into stike & destroy machines.

Before digital cameras, I kept a logbook with over a thousand entries of lures that caught fish at each body of water with dates (still have it). Now I have over a thousand photos stored on different media showing the same thing so I can easily duplicate those lures. There is no doubt that if I mass produced many of the shapes for sale, many would become classics like those of Mr Twister and Gary Yamamoto.

Better still is the ongoing search for designs that stand-out-from-the rest, especailly when I can't go fishing - like during this weekend's 4.5" deluge in my area.

Modification and hybridization are king in my book and forever my personal continuing saga of what and why fish strike things of which they don't have a clue. Catching fish is fun; catching fish on new shapes and actions is mind-blowing!

Very nice, looks like a lot fun.
Great creativity with the used baits.

Thanks BIG!
Met a guy at the launch who asked me what used to catch 35 fish in 2 hours. I told him all of the above and gave him some as well as showing how to work those lures. Gurarentee he's gonna want to buy some after he catches fish but won't be able to because I didn't give him my number.

Note: all the lures shown caught fish in a lake I hadn't fished in 5 years and was up a over 6" due to heavy rains this last weekend.