Lure Selection

[AustinHellickson]

How do I pick what lures to use?

Color?

I live in Washington and fish huge Lake. 

No boat so I'm stuck on the shore till I finish building my canoe. 

Lots of waves because of boats.

I have few packs of soft plastics and when I get home from vacation I am going to get some Ned rig supplies. 

Any recommendations for how to learn shaky head and Ned rigs? 

I am confused on what size hooks to use for different soft plastics.  

Any other help would be great.  

Bank Fisher to a canoe angler would be great. 

What to look for in water would be helpful too. (fish what color in murky water or clean water) 

 

-Best wishes 

Austin

[papajoe222]

Wow, that's a lot to ask in one post, but I'll give it a quick shot.

Base your lure selection (type) on the fish's activity level, or what you feel it should be and the type of cover you'll be targeting.  Reaction baits for active fish and slower moving  baits for neutral. Color selection based on light and water clarity, Natural colors in clear water and more visible colors in stained water. Note: these are guidelines as to where to start, not etched in stone rules.

As for hooks size, base it on the thickness of the soft plastic bait you're using. A good starting point would be a gap at the hook's bend that is twice the thickness of the bait.

Look at the shore before looking in the water.  The contour of the land will extend into the water. Points and cuts in the shoreline are indications of structure (changes in bottom contour and water depth) in the surrounding water. Steeper shores mean quicker access to deep water. Shores getting hit by the wave action will have more color to the water, but will be prime areas for active fish.   When looking in the water, attempt to determine whether the bottom is hard or soft and what type of cover, if any, is there. You want to shy away from multiple hook baits, or soft plastic baits with multiple appendages in heavy weeds, exposed hooks in brush or wood and baits that would become easily wedged in rocky or rip-rap areas.

Do a search here on shakey heads and Ned rigs. There is a ton of helpful info to be had. 

Last, but not least, get out there and wet a line as often as possible. It's the second best way to learn.

[AustinHellickson]

5 minutes ago, papajoe222 said:

Wow, that's a lot to ask in one post, but I'll give it a quick shot.

Base your lure selection (type) on the fish's activity level, or what you feel it should be and the type of cover you'll be targeting.  Reaction baits for active fish and slower moving  baits for neutral. Color selection based on light and water clarity, Natural colors in clear water and more visible colors in stained water. Note: these are guidelines as to where to start, not etched in stone rules.

As for hooks size, base it on the thickness of the soft plastic bait you're using. A good starting point would be a gap at the hook's bend that is twice the thickness of the bait.

Look at the shore before looking in the water.  The contour of the land will extend into the water. Points and cuts in the shoreline are indications of structure (changes in bottom contour and water depth) in the surrounding water. Steeper shores mean quicker access to deep water. Shores getting hit by the wave action will have more color to the water, but will be prime areas for active fish.   When looking in the water, attempt to determine whether the bottom is hard or soft and what type of cover, if any, is there. You want to shy away from multiple hook baits, or soft plastic baits with multiple appendages in heavy weeds, exposed hooks in brush or wood and baits that would become easily wedged in rocky or rip-rap areas.

Do a search here on shakey heads and Ned rigs. There is a ton of helpful info to be had. 

Last, but not least, get out there and wet a line as often as possible. It's the second best way to learn.

Sooooooooooooo much help, thanks 

[blckshirt98]

15 hours ago, AustinHellickson said:

How do I pick what lures to use?

It kind of depends on where you're fishing and what the bass are feeding on.  The general room of thumb is "match the hatch" - whatever is swimming around in the water the bass are eating that, so use something that will imitate that in size and action.  If you see a bunch of 3 inch shad swimming in the shallows in the early morning, use a crankbait to imitate a swimming shad or a 3" plastic on a dropshot.  If you see a bunch of crawdads scooting around the shoreline, use a jig or a craw plastic on the bottom.  If you don't see anything, use something that would imitate a small baitfish or whatever you're the most confident in.

Color?

Color is probably the most overrated aspect of lure selection, it's mostly to get fisherman to buy all sorts of different colors.  Just keep it simple and get something in green(green pumpkin or watermelon) with flakes, and something black with flakes.  A green with black or red flake is probably the most popular, I like gold flake because I think it most resembles scales to a fish.  A black with blue or purple flake I think also reflects the best when it's dark or murky.  Contrast and action/movement are probably more important than color.

Any recommendations for how to learn shaky head and Ned rigs? 

Can't help with a Ned Rig but a shaky head basically lets you present any bait on the bottom.  It can be a fluke to look like a nose down minnow feeding off the bottom, a craw plastic to make it look like it's standing up in a defensive position, a worm to look like an invertebrae flailing around on the bottom trying to dig into the mud, etc.  Slow drag it on the bottom, give it a hop, or just give it a little shake and pause.

I am confused on what size hooks to use for different soft plastics.  

There's dozens of different types of hooks in all sizes.  Technically you can use any hook on any bait, it just won't be the most effective one to use and your hookup ratio can plummet.  A lot will depend on the bait you're using.  For hook selection just do some Google searching because there's a ton of articles written on this.

Bank Fisher to a canoe angler would be great. 

I'm a 100% bank guy and you're somewhat limited in what you can use or need.  Don't carry too much it's better to be mobile so you can cover more water/shoreline.  Try to get comfortable with 2-3 techniques before learning new ones, and even then don't feel like you need to bring tackle to be able to fish all of the techniques you know if you're still fishing from shore.  Once you get a canoe and bring more setups/tackle with you, then you can think about bringing more with you.

What to look for in water would be helpful too. (fish what color in murky water or clean water) 

Bass are predators, top of the food chain fish, they like to ambush things they want to eat.  If you were hunting and waiting for something to walk by to kill, where would you hide - you wouldn't stand in the middle of an empty field, you'd hide in a ditch, behind a tree stump/boulder, in a ditch, in a bush or tall grass, etc.  If you were being hunted where you would hide, probably the same places.   Bass act the same way - any place that helps conceal their presence while waiting for food to swim by, or any place where food might hide, is where they'll be.  It doesn't even have to be a really big piece of cover/structure either.  You could have a rock the size of a softball in the middle of a flat featureless mud, and the bass will congregate around that softball sized rock.  Some of this stuff you can see from the shore (tree sticking up out of the water, creek channel flowing into the lake, lily pads or cattails) but a lot of this stuff is underwater and you'll just need time on the water to get a feel for what kind of bottom is there, and what features are in the water.  Each cast you should be feeling for what's on the bottom, and what you're bumping into as you bring your bait back and you should be making a mental notes and forming an image of what's under the water.

 

[Choporoz]

12 hours ago, AustinHellickson said:

Any recommendations for how to learn shaky head ......? 
 

 

[YoTone]

as a bank angler myself if i see a tree thats fallen by the banks i always target them with a jig.  

[frosty]

I've learned a ton about lure presentation from YouTube videos and videos on here.