How Often Do You Change Your Lures/jigs While Fishing

[maleko]

Do you change what your using say every 20 casts? Every 10 , 30 etc..

Do you stick with 1 or 2 lures all day.

I have a feeling I'm changing to much through out the time I'm fishing.

[slonezp]

Depends on what I'm trying to accomplish. Depends on what I'm fishing. I keep 4-6 rods on deck at any given time. I change up if the structure changes. I may toss a jig at the dock posts and then skip a fluke or senko underneath the same dock and then switch over to a t-rig on a drop. This could all happen in a matter of a few yards. OR I could throw a PB&J mop jig all day every day for the rest of my life and be happy.

[QUAKEnSHAKE]

It varies for me. There are days Ill take just one lure with me thats it. Last Friday I took just Palm Trees out and used them for 7 hours.

[WRB]

When I am targeting giant bass fewer variety of lures are used and a limited color range.

Rainbow trout size and color swimbait in light and darker color and 6" or 8" for example. I rig up 2 sizes.

I also use jigs when targeting giant bass and only 2 color combination and rig both of those. I change the trailer colors to match 1 on the colors in the jig (hair) skirt.

Big plastic worms, I only fish 1 or 2 colors during an outing when targeting giant bass.

The fact is I have a lot of confidence in the lures and color selection and know these work. This allows me to spend more time fishing, less time changing lures.

When I fun fish, then it's my time to experiment and play around with a wider variety of lures, presentations and colors. I do this to determine what is working best on that particular outing. After I have figured out what is working, then I will stick to those lures until they stop working.

I am not a shoreline pounder, I locate bass before experimenting with changing lures until I get those bass to react. Blindly fishing and changing lures in hope to find something that works is counter productive to the goal to catching bass.

Tom

[Bluebasser86]

Sometimes I'll change baits a lot just by switching rods if the conditions dictate a change.

[Gatorbassman]

I change something as soon as I loose confidence. I will either change the lure our change location. Usually location unless I just know there are fish there.

[Fishes in trees]

I change lures/approaches/ locations/ etc whenever I think I need to.  I carry a number of rods with me so that it can be easier to just switch rods than to stop, dig into tackle and retie.

[Grizzn N Bassin]

A lot when I'm fishing for fun I fish ball kinds of stuff BC I'm with some else.I want them.to see I can fish at my spoy.. then when I'm alone which is 6 outta 7 days I concentrate on the big bass.. I will bring my jigs and worms and swimabits.

[Siebert Outdoors]

Last year I took a black blue brush jig and 15lb flouro and never retied or changed it.  I went about 3 months before I lost it.  LOL

[Grizzn N Bassin]

Last year I took a black blue brush jig and 15lb flouro and never retied or changed it.  I went about 3 months before I lost it.  LOL

Was that the only rod you fished?

[Siebert Outdoors]

No but most of the time.  I have my local lake that in the summer all I fish is a black blue jig and its the only lake I fish.  Its one of those things that I do to see how long something will go before it breaks or wears out.  More of a testing of the product then anything. 

[shootermcbob]

I fish from the bank, so I try several different lures at each location. I will usually throw a topwater...sammy or spook usually, then I will throw a spinnerbait/swim jig for a horizontal moving presentation, then usually will try a swim bait type lure which is usually a 4.5 inch live magic shad or strike king swimmin caffiene shad on a 1/4 jighead, finally I will fish a senko. Lastly, I will drag a jig with craw type trailer around...in areas I can get away with it. In the really rocky areas that already have eaten several of my jigs, I go to a texas rigged craw of some type.

[(='_'=)]

Last year I took a black blue brush jig and 15lb flouro and never retied or changed it.  I went about 3 months before I lost it.  LOL

 

last year, on mid Nov, i went on a 3 day fishing trip, and the second day i finally began catching fish on senkos... i caught so many of them that from Nov to March i didnt fish anything else... i still would have 3 other rods on the deck (spinnerbait and 2 crankbaits) but the one that was always on my hands was the senko rod... it kept producing until the end of the season (march 10)... so far this year, all but one fish came out of that rod (i caught one on the rare occassion i grabbed the spinerbait)... season begins June 24, and i already have my senko rod ready to go...

[WRB]

Last year I took a black blue brush jig and 15lb flouro and never retied or changed it. I went about 3 months before I lost it. LOL

The fact I have learned about FC line is NEVER keep a lure tied on for more than 24 hours...retie it.

Regardless of the knot used FC line looses strength under time with pressure of a knot, FC cold flows.

Lets say you tied a perfect FC knot that has 90% knot strength, that = 13.5 lb strength with 15 lb Line.

24 hours later theat same 90% knot is down to 60% = 9 lbs line strength for 15 lb line. That may seem to be enough strength and is unless you happen to add the pull force quickly like a hook set, then knot failure will occur.

I lost several big bass learning this lesson and started to test FC line as a result using a very accurate Instron tensile testing machine at work. Retie often it's inexpensive insurance. Also check your hook points often, that is also free, dull hooks lead to missed hook sets.

Tom

[Siebert Outdoors]

By no means do I recommend not retying.  I wanted to see how long I could go.  Doing what I did is not recommended but sometimes I just see how long something will last.

[tomustang]

By no means do I recommend not retying.  I wanted to see how long I could go.  Doing what I did is not recommended but sometimes I just see how long something will last.

It'd Venice to do that here but by the fifth fish it gets cut off by toothy critters

[rmcguirk]

Thanks, I meant to start pretty much this exact topic, so I hope I'm not really hijacking.  This spring, I've generally have 9 rods in the boat rigged up and ready to go, though depending on the fishing, I don't use them all.  So far this spring those include (1) a regular jig, (2) a swim jig, (3) cranking set up, (4) jika rig, (5) jig head for soft plastics (lately the Biffle hardhead), (6) wacky set up, (7) jerkbait, (8) split shot or weightless plastic, and (9) a shaky head.  I find that, instead of changing what's on a rod, I'll just put down that rod and pick up another and go with a different presentation entirely.  Sticking with regular jigs for a moment, that means that I'll tie on say a North Star Black Series jig (probably in some type of green pumpkin) with a matching trailer, and instead of switching colors or even trailers to try to get the jig bite going, I'll move entirely to a different style of fishing, other than for cranks, where I will try a variety of cranks depending on cover/depth in the area I'm working.  And, except for cranks, I'll rotate through the various options until I figure out a "pattern" or at least what might be working.  I'm afraid that I'm not switching often enough between types/colors of jigs or soft plastics on the jika rig, etc.  One answer, of course, is to thin the line up a bit, perhaps only take three or four rigs and really focus.  

 

Thoughts?  If you have confidence in a color or style of bait, do you switch up to another, different color when you're not getting bit, or do you figure that it's not, for example, a "jig day" and move to something else? 

[PABASS]

While fishing I agree with Gene when I loose confidence in a lure I change, I have no preset time for that.  I am a rider and when my boater puts 6 fish in the boat to my 0 its time to change, when I cast to an area and not getting bit and the boater casts to the same area and brings in a fish, its time to change.

[flippin and pitchin]

Lures are tools.  Each lure type should be applied to deal with a specific situation.  With that, if you are covering water, changes will be fairly frequent.  Sometimes, a subtle change might be made while working the same area. I fished a tournament a few weeks ago and was pitching a jig to heavy cover behind my partner who was working a top water frog. I got bit on the jig but the fish just weren't on it. I switched to something long and slender with more action ( keep guessing ) and picked up two quick keepers and eventually caught 6 and my last fish culled one of my earlier fish. That was an important cull. I could have just kept dropping that jig but felt a different profile, slighter more action would entice a reaction and it did. The lure I switched to was a Rage Space Monkey.

 

Sometimes switching lures will happen pretty fast depending on the concept, are the feeding up or feeding down.  This applies to smallmouth often.  Drag a tube for an hour and don't get bit, throw a jerk bait in the upper water column. Bingo. That's partially how I approach lure changes.

[JT Bagwell]

I generally have a couple of crankbait rods (different depths), a spinnerbait, a vibrating jig, Senko and a couple of jig rods (swim and flipping).

 

I have had the same Black/Blue Siebert Outdoors Elite flipping jig and a Siebert Outdoors Bloody Shad Swim Jig tied on for probably around 6 weeks now. I have retied

a bunch of times but those jigs are getting a workout for sure.

[martintheduck]

I'm a habitual "lure changer" of sorts. I'll find an enticing spot, cover it with one setup, then cover it with another setup etc... Once I lose my confidence that a spot is indeed holding fish and those fish will bite (without dropshotting them to death) I'll move and try all over again.

[Bankbeater]

If I have caught fish on a certain bait in a certain lake, I will use that bait first.  After several different presentations with the same bait and still no bites I will change baits. 

[Revival]

Do you change what your using say every 20 casts? Every 10 , 30 etc..

Do you stick with 1 or 2 lures all day.

I have a feeling I'm changing to much through out the time I'm fishing.

 

Haha awesome thread man....i think the same way too.  Should i change my lure, should i change the color etc.  I just get impatient and think something else would work better.  At times I feel that i should I bring less lures so i have less things to choose from.  I struggled for a month but now I finally found something that works in the ponds i fish (KVD 1.0), Im sticking to it but just varying the colors.

[slonezp]

Depends on what I'm trying to accomplish. Depends on what I'm fishing. I keep 4-6 rods on deck at any given time. I change up if the structure changes. I may toss a jig at the dock posts and then skip a fluke or senko underneath the same dock and then switch over to a t-rig on a drop. This could all happen in a matter of a few yards. OR I could throw a PB&J mop jig all day every day for the rest of my life and be happy.

I'm going to quote myself. What am I trying to accomplish? I can fish a senko all day and get a ton of bites. May not all be big bites, but I'll get bit. I can fish a PB&J mop jig for the rest of my life and maybe not get anywhere near the amount of bites a senko will get me. I will however get a better quality bite. I would rather catch 1 good fish as opposed to 50 dinks on any given day. BUT if I take my dad out or a "guest" I'm using what's working. I've caught enough fish over the course of my life that catching fish is not important. I'm limited by my location, but I'd love to have the opportunity to fish regularly on trophy water like Fish Chris or WRB or Matt Lures.

[wngan9447]

Depends on the fish type and size first. I'll cater to what i'm trying to catch.

 

If i'm not getting nibbles after covering a decent amount of water, i'm changing the color of the worm. Then i'll cover the areas I've hit for fish in the past, if no nibbles then i'm changing my type of bait.