Which 5-7 lures should I spend this upcoming season 'dialing in'??

[Big Rick]

5 hours ago, Smalls said:

It'd be be smarter to learn when and where and why a bait might work in a certain scenario, and then focus on “dialing in” your technique. 

While this is a very important part of fishing education, an incorrect presentation of the lure will destroy all the "when, where, and why" with one cast. It's much better to BE accurate FIRST.  THEN you can began to understand WHY you need to be accurate as you learn the "when, where and why".  Take one step at a time. Jam your mind with too much info and you'll never catch a fish, get disgusted and walk away permanently. 

[Hook2Jaw]

I stepped into jigs this summer and caught a bass I may never best, but my experience with Texas rigged plastics really transferred well to that realm.

 

What taught me the most was the brief time I spend fishing a squarebill this fall.  It taught be the subtle differences in what my lure is doing during both slack line and taut line contact, and I believe it's going to transfer wonderfully to other presentations.

[Tennessee Boy]

6 minutes ago, Big Rick said:

While this is a very important part of fishing education, an incorrect presentation of the lure will destroy all the "when, where, and why" with one cast. It's much better to BE accurate FIRST.  THEN you can began to understand WHY you need to be accurate as you learn the "when, where and why".  Take one step at a time. Jam your mind with too much info and you'll never catch a fish, get disgusted and walk away permanently. 

Interesting thread and an interesting perspective.  I would argue that the best presentation in the world is worthless if used in the wrong place at the wrong time.  It's difficult to  judge the quality of a presentation unless it catches fish and it's hard to catch fish if there aren't any there.  There are exceptions of course.  You can learn to "walk the dog" in a swimming pool and you can practice casting in your backyard. 

 

To some extent,  this is a chicken and egg problem.  My approach is always start with location.  That starts with a map,  then an on the water evaluation of a location,  then I start thinking about presentation and lures.  For example,  my goal for the upcoming season it to improve my fishing in deeper water.  I can find these fish on my graph but my confidence starts to drop at 25 ft and I usually don't even try to catch fish I find at 35+ ft.   Catching these deeper fish will require improving my technique,  presentation,  and probably "dailing in" new lures.  I don't think it's possible for me to make these improvements unless I spend more time fishing this deeper water.

[Big Rick]

The OP stated he wanted to "dial in" some lures.... Your goal is improving deeper water fishing. Until you learn HOW to fish deeper your catch ratio WHEN and WHERE you are fishing will be greatly diminished. And, yes, you can learn to walk the dog in a pool. I test nearly every new lure in my pool. Extensively. I also honed my skipping and pitching in my pool. Then, when I went to where the fish actually are I didn't spend the day spooking them with awkward casts and frustrating myself to the point of quitting. 

 

You don't go hunting to set your rifle sights.... 

[deadadrift89]

Texas Rig worms/craws

Jigs

Topwater walking baits ex: spook, KVD sexy dawg, sammy

Crankbaits

Drop Shot if you have good water clarity 

[Tennessee Boy]

3 hours ago, Big Rick said:

The OP stated he wanted to "dial in" some lures.... Your goal is improving deeper water fishing. Until you learn HOW to fish deeper your catch ratio WHEN and WHERE you are fishing will be greatly diminished. And, yes, you can learn to walk the dog in a pool. I test nearly every new lure in my pool. Extensively. I also honed my skipping and pitching in my pool. Then, when I went to where the fish actually are I didn't spend the day spooking them with awkward casts and frustrating myself to the point of quitting. 

 

You don't go hunting to set your rifle sights.... 

I get what you're saying and I agree that anything we can do off the water to improve our fishing can make a big difference.   I bet when you were working on your pitching and skipping in your pool,  you were trying to improve your dock fishing.  That tells me you were focused specifically on fish on docks.  The key word is "focused".  I've been there myself.  I''ve been on the water catching fish on docks but having trouble fishing way back under some docks where I knew there were probably quality fish.  That revealed a specific weakness in a specific situation that needed to be improved. 

 

The OP ask for generic lure suggestions without mentioning any specific goals.  Are you fishing from a boat or the bank?  fishing a swamp or a deep mountain lake?  I see lures as tools that I can use in specific situations to catch fish.  I've been fishing 40 years and I fish a lot of different lures but I would say I've "dialed in"  3 lures.   Would I be a better fisherman if that number was 4?  Sure,  but I'm focused on the situtations where I'm weak not on the lures where I'm weak.  

[Smalls]

12 hours ago, Big Rick said:

 

You don't go hunting to set your rifle sights.... 

I agree, but in your analogy you can see your progress. With the exception to walking topwaters, skipping, and maybe a few more, how do you measure accuracy?

 

I measure my success with baits based on fish caught. If I know fish are there, and they should be biting a particular bait, then I know I’ve “dialed in” that bait or pattern when I start catching em. If I don’t, then I adjust. 

[frogflogger]

Want to catch fish and learn a technique - ned rig

ned rig works most anywhere

[FishTank]

When I want to learn a particular technique, the first thing I do is find the fish (in the general sense) and use my go to bait, a black and blue flake 5in Senko.  Once I catch one, I try to keep the boat still and set up something I want to work on depending on the depth and water conditions.  I think my point is that I don't try and search for fish using a new technique or one that I do not have confidence in. 

[soflabasser]

On 12/21/2018 at 1:05 PM, frogflogger said:

Want to catch fish and learn a technique - ned rig

ned rig works most anywhere

The ned rig is a very good lure that is for sure. I caught the most smallmouth bass in 1 day with the neg rig when the smallmouth where barely biting the other lures I was using. Now I carry a bunch of ned rigs whenever I travel up north for river smallmouth bass fishing.