The Benefits Of Realism?

[Matthew2000]

"Tis but a flesh wound" "bring out ya dead"

[Matthew2000]

I cannot imange being so close to all those places as a teenager... I would be in jail for something

[scaleface]

 LOL. I guess ill go to one of the whats your favert lure threads. 

[Matthew2000]

Or you could try the kidnapped and dropped in the jungle but they give you your bass fishing gear and you just so happen to be carrying a machete and tomahawk in your shirt pocket forum.

[aavery2]

 LOL. I guess ill go to one of the whats your favert lure threads. 

Get us back on track Scaleface, everyone was getting a little tense, now that everyone is loose again, lets talk realism.

[deep]

Yeah good idea, let's talk realism.

 

First off, I think bigger bass are picky eaters (of lures), because in a normal reservoir, there's a lot of real food for them to chase and eat (or sit and eat).

 

You have to press the right buttons to get them to react (positively) to your bait. Realism to me is a total package; size, profile, color, action, presentation, etc. Everytime you press a wrong button, your chances of catching them goes down a little (or a lot).

 

It's amazing how some of the most realistic looking and amazingly swimming swimbaits do *not* have a good track record. "Certain vibrations are bad vibrations." (Yes, I stole that from Ken Huddleston's interview on STE). They are giving off some negative cues that turn fish off, for whatever reasons. I'm not a bass, so I won't know.

 

You have to find baits that create and sell the correct illusion. Does a jig really look like a crawfish? Does a worm look like anything you ever seen in the water? You can fish a totally wacky color, but as long as it sells the correct illusion, we're good.

[cyclops2]

Agree with BAD noise rattles. 

[hoosierbass07]

Simply put....

 

In your experience, have you found that baits with the most realistic profiles/paintjobs/ etc. catch fish any better/bigger/more frequently, than baits that lack any level of realism in their design? 

 

 

So far its been my experience that says, No.  Ive come to figure that the fish typically know the difference between something like a fake craw, and a real craw.  But the fish seem more likely to strike at baits that have more ambiguity to them, and will for instance, go for a bait that (for lack of a better term) creates the illusion of say, a craw. 

 

What say you? 

 

 

 I 've been thinking about this topic the last few days.  I've been thinking about lures that are very detailed and lures that are more plain and less detailed.  In my two years of bass fishing so far, I think the more plain lures work far better than the more detailed.  For instance, one of the most plain lures is the Senko/stick bait.  Is there anything more plain than the shape of that?  And yet it probably is the number one bass catching lure out there besides live bait.  Then I have my two really big bass I caught last spring, both were on lures I didn't think would work at all and seemed sort of plain to me - a stiff El Grande lizard around five inches long and a Strike King KVD shad crankbait.  I remember putting the lizard on my hook and thinking the whole thing was just too stiff with little movement.   But I did end up catching my personal best at that time while using it on a split shot. I didn't think I would catch anything on that crankbait either but ended up catching my personal best.  I found that crankabait to be rather plain/cheap looking.  But it worked for me (in the spring).  To me those two lures were plain and boring but they worked.  Ok, they really only worked once the whole year, but they worked.  

[cyclops2]

Great post 07.

 

Bass fishing is not like salt water fishing with lures.  We do not get large schools of big bass to try 4 lures at once by 4 people at the same time. 

[hoosierbass07]

Im getting the impression, that when a fish has the chance to sit there and get a good look at the bait...the more realism that the bait is designed with, then the easier it is for the fish to tell that it is fake. 

 

 

 I think you are right.  Doug Hannon talks about this subject in his Big Bass Magic book.  To paraphrase - when fishing in daylight, bass have an easier time seeing the lure and telling the difference between live bait and a fake lure.  So in the daylight use smaller lures or real bait.  Use fake lures in darker situations like morning or evening or cloudy days.  But in daylight - you better use small lures because it's hard to fool a bass with lots of day light.  

 

 Bill Murphy mentions something about this in his book too.  He was talking about crankbaits and painting fancy patterns on them.   He said, according him, instead of painting lures with exact details, paint them with slashes of color you are trying to imitate, but don't paint it image for image.  Bass will be attracted more to the basic patterns more than an exact copy image.  

[SPEEDBEAD.]

I didn't notice a dramatic increase in the size of fish I catch until I started throwing realistic and larger baits.

 

Throw what makes you confident. I'm a firm believer that confidence in what you are doing is a bigger factor than what lure you select.

[Preytorien]

I think I would mostly say it has to do with which of the bass's senses you're appealing to.

 

If you are going to appeal to the aggressive feeding nature of a bass, or your conditions see bass feeding aggressively, almost with no caution, they'll more than likely be attracted to the lure out of habit and nature.

 

If you're on a tough day or conditions where the bass may study your lure or have a good look at it (gin clear water), then realism probably plays a good part.

 

I've used too many odd looking lures that don't really resemble anything a bass would eat, and still caught them to believe that realism is at the top of the importance list. I still can't figure out what a jig (with no trailer), spinnerbait, buzzbait, tube jig, or chatterbait are supposed to resemble.....but rememeber, those are lures that are appealing to the ambush nature of the fish, not the fish's actual eyesight.

 

....and when all else fails, the ole' senko stumps me the most. Even if it were painted like a real worm and didn't have squared off ends.....how many bass actually see, know, and eat worms? But yet they produce like crazy.

[cyclops2]

Pike are great followers to a boat.  I have tested with live perch & had them trail 4 times right to the boat. Same sized pike. Not all fish are hungry & stupid.  He expended plenty of energy with the follows.

 

We have had fishing contests with just beer can rings & a hook.  Not too bad of a body count.

[rboat]

We all agree fish strike objects for many reasons, hunger, curiosity, just to kill  something annoying or in the wrong territory, competition for food (eat it before some other fish gets it) etc. Not to add to the fire, but the worlds top ichthyologists really don't agree on what a fish sees whether it be, clarity, color, acuity, luminosity, or anything else and I doubt they ever will. I do believe in clear water something that moves and looks natural would have a better shot at a hunger induced strike. In off color water, I believe the fish use their other senses more in finding their food. I have seen guys who have an old lure that just always works. The paint is gone, eyes are gone, and it just looks like a piece of plastic with hooks. It is not realistic or natural, but it works. This is one of those one in a million lures that gives off the right sound or hydrodynamic wave or some type of movement that is perfect. 

P.S. If you have one of those lures keep it protected, and don't try to improve it, or better yet,send to me for safe keeping! 

[scaleface]

^^ I like looking through others tackle boxes for chewed up lures. Someone gave me a used Sammy top water , that lure's been through heck. I still dont know why he gave it away . I guess he had a new shiny one .

[roadwarrior]

I'm a collector. I doubt that I have actually fished any more than 5% of my hard lures.

I love Megabass, especially the Ito Vision 110.

 

 

 

[Matthew2000]

^^ what!!

[roadwarrior]

My obsession is jerkbaits. I collect several brands, but the Vision is my favorite. I probably have more LC

than any other brand and they are the most productive for me. Still, I'm drawn to the Vision 110, original and

FX series.

[Matthew2000]

You only use 5% of them! You either don't use jerk baits or you have a ton of em.

[RoLo]

My experience dovetails with Heron's experience.

 

Back in the 50s a rash of plastic replicas flooded the market which were highly detailed 'dead-ringers'

of crayfish, shiners, crickets, salamanders, hellgrammites and more. Like a kid in a candy shop,

I fell hook, line & sinker, but truthfully I don't remember catching much of anything on them.

Yeah they had the look, but were made of tough plastic and lacked realistic action.

Sure enough, they all disappeared one-by-one. 

 

The Yum Crawbug has been the most lifelike crayfish replication for the past 20 years, but is it popular? 

The Zoom Pro Chunk, looks like a flat, steamrollered banner, but it far outsells the Yum Crawbug,

which I believe TW no longer carries.

 

All that said, I'd be the first sucker to pay more for any lure that boosted my confidence.

But based on past experience, superficial realism doesn't have much influence on my confidence.

If your lure enters the strike window of an active bass and it moves like a living creature, it's going down the hatch.

 

PS:

On the other hand, if your lake is teeming with those chartreuse & white creatures,

you know, the ones with the silver flappers and the tentacles in the rear:

then by all means 'match the hatch and tie on a spinnerbait  

 

 Roger

[cyclops2]

What lures work in AUGUST HOT SUNNY days ?  Now we separate the wanna bees.

 

Anything works on fish protecting a  nest in a spawning area.  That is not fishing. No skill required

[iabass8]

 

 

Anything works on fish protecting a  nest in a spawning area.  

Factually, that is incorrect.

 

  That is not fishing. No skill required

throwing a worm on a hook and tossing it under a bobber doesn't require skill either. It's still fishing.

[cyclops2]

O K

 

You catch more fish in August than fishing a spawning bed area ?  I will give you 15 minutes in each place. 

 

You are the MAN.

[MassBass]

There is a phenomenon that I believe is relevant here. The more realistic something is, the more likely the fish will look at it and see its flaws. Storm used to make a craw tube that was precisely realistic, however they did not work good and are out of my tacklebag. The more closely an imposter tries to mimic something, the more its' flaws are obvious. If you follow me.   

[iabass8]

O K

 

You catch more fish in August than fishing a spawning bed area ?

I didn't say I catch more fish in August than a spawning area. I simply pointed out how your statements that "spawning bass will bite anything, they are easy to catch, and it is not fishing" are factually incorrect. 

 

 

 

  I will give you 15 minutes in each place. 

 

 

I appreciate the invitation. Unfortunately, I have no desire to visit New Jersey. 

 

You are the MAN.

Thanks bro!