Plastic lizards

[fin]

9 minutes ago, WRB said:

Water dogs (Tiger salamders) are illegal to use in California the past decade or so...

 

You made me curious, so I had to look up why:

 

Quote

Although immune themselves, tiger salamanders transmit Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, which is a major worldwide threat to most frog species by causing the disease chytridiomycosis.^[2] Tiger salamanders also carry ranaviruses, which infect reptiles, amphibians, and fish. Using tiger salamander larvae as fishing bait appears to be a major source of exposure and transport to wild populations.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiger_salamander#Diseases

 

[WRB]

Carl Lowrance of Lowrance Electrinics had a business selling water dogs until they band in several states.

Tom

[jeffo21]

I use Zoom 6 inch black lizards and recently found some solid black Zoom magnum lizards bass in my area love'em

[CaptPete]

OK guys, riddle me this; I have a local pond (it's 47 Acres). It's absolutely loaded with salamanders. Trolling across the pond I can count hundreds of them easily visible, they sit up near the top of the water column a lot and they hang out around the lillys a lot. 

 

I haven't used lizards all the much in the past, but decided last spring to "match the hatch" and picked up some lizards that almost perfectly mimicked what was in this pond. Not a single bite.... craw bait in a distinctly different color and bam, fish every cast. They love white or black frogs and toads in there too. But anything that resembles a lizard (brush hogs ) just don't get bit. I find worms to be lackluster at best in this pond too. 

 

To make things weirder, the bass population is too large in there and rather stunted. lots and lots of 1.5lb largemouth, few 2lbers in key locations. It's a numbers place for sure.

 

Any ideas what would cause this? it's like they purposely don't eat the salamanders.... 

[scaleface]

1 minute ago, CaptPete said:

OK guys, riddle me this; I have a local pond (it's 47 Acres). It's absolutely loaded with salamanders. Trolling across the pond I can count hundreds of them easily visible, they sit up near the top of the water column a lot and they hang out around the lillys a lot. 

 

I haven't used lizards all the much in the past, but decided last spring to "match the hatch" and picked up some lizards that almost perfectly mimicked what was in this pond. Not a single bite.... craw bait in a distinctly different color and bam, fish every cast. They love white or black frogs and toads in there too. But anything that resembles a lizard (brush hogs ) just don't get bit. I find worms to be lackluster at best in this pond too. 

 

To make things weirder, the bass population is too large in there and rather stunted. lots and lots of 1.5lb largemouth, few 2lbers in key locations. It's a numbers place for sure.

 

Any ideas what would cause this? it's like they purposely don't eat the salamanders.... 

Maybe the lizards in the pond are not edible .

[CaptPete]

1 minute ago, scaleface said:

Maybe the lizards in the pond are not edible .

ok... thats whats confusing.... why??? and why do these lizards not exist in the other very nearby lakes? (fed by this very pond) Ive seen maybe one of these lizards in the downstream lake. 

 

[Paul Roberts]

21 hours ago, reason said:

1). I'm pretty sure you can put a lizard on a spinnerbait as a trailer or pull a school of them on an A-rig and catch fish. As a matter of fact I used them as cod teasers one time and they worked as well as the grubs normally used.

...

2). Fish don't reason. 

1). Completely agree with you. 

 

2). Here you are wading into a mighty big topic. And I think you are assuming a lot of me from my comment.

 

I understand that this is a touchy subject for a lot of people. Me too -from multiple "sides" of the topic, since I've read a ton of "the literature" as well as had experiences with a lot of critters. 

 

I do not think that fish and humans share the same levels of cognition. That said, if you think you are prepared to define reason, cognition, sentience, and consciousness, in a comparative sense, there are an awful lot of people -who have spent careers on such things- who would love to know what you've uncovered.

 

I'm not one of those experts, but since we're trading quips... I do know that there are lots of critters out there that will fall for shiny baubles, and repeatedly. I'm one of them! Why they do, is where things get interesting.

[roadwarrior]

It's all about profile and action. We have lizards in Tennessee, but I have NEVER seen one on the river.

 

 

[Mobasser]

The only lizards I've seen in my area are blue tail skinkBut, I've only seen them in hot weather on dry pavement. In fishing 30+ yrs I've never seen 1 lizard in or near any waters I've fished. But bass will strike lizards for sure. Only the bass know why. I guess we could say the same for many "creature" type baits too

[fin]

4 hours ago, CaptPete said:

ok... thats whats confusing.... why??? and why do these lizards not exist in the other very nearby lakes? (fed by this very pond) Ive seen maybe one of these lizards in the downstream lake. 

 

Some salamanders excrete foul tasting substances through their tail, some even excrete toxic substances. There may be something in particular about your pond that is different than the others nearby.

http://nyfalls.com/wildlife/reptiles-amphibians/salamanders-newts/

[WVU-SCPA]

19 hours ago, CaptPete said:

OK guys, riddle me this; I have a local pond (it's 47 Acres). It's absolutely loaded with salamanders. Trolling across the pond I can count hundreds of them easily visible, they sit up near the top of the water column a lot and they hang out around the lillys a lot. 

 

I haven't used lizards all the much in the past, but decided last spring to "match the hatch" and picked up some lizards that almost perfectly mimicked what was in this pond. Not a single bite.... craw bait in a distinctly different color and bam, fish every cast. They love white or black frogs and toads in there too. But anything that resembles a lizard (brush hogs ) just don't get bit. I find worms to be lackluster at best in this pond too. 

 

To make things weirder, the bass population is too large in there and rather stunted. lots and lots of 1.5lb largemouth, few 2lbers in key locations. It's a numbers place for sure.

 

Any ideas what would cause this? it's like they purposely don't eat the salamanders.... 

Most likely the pond has a population of red spotted newts.  Bass will not target them as they are toxic.

 

 A pond with a newt hatch is a neat thing to see,  there can be 1000's of them cruising around. 

[CaptPete]

6 hours ago, WVU-SCPA said:

Most likely the pond has a population of red spotted newts.  Bass will not target them as they are toxic.

 

 A pond with a newt hatch is a neat thing to see,  there can be 1000's of them cruising around. 

Thanks! been reading up on them, curious what will eat them (and hopefully the bass could in turn eat). We've been culling this pond for a while, but it still needs help. 

 

Good read on these newts: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3229496/

it's a study on their predation, to sum it up, bass and bluegill won't eat them. Bullfrogs and turtles essentially will. 

[Spankey]

On 1/14/2019 at 9:31 PM, Mobasser said:

I used to like fishing plastic lizards. A Zoom 6" plastic lizard in brn pumpkin/ chart tail was one of my favorite soft plastics. I havnt used any in a few seasons. Going through some older bags of plastics I tucked away, I found 2 bags. 1 brn, 1brn/ pumpkin chart tail. I used them a lot years ago, and always liked them. As with other baits, I stopped using them and moved on to other things. They offer a different profile and look than most creature baits, craws, and plastic worms. Sometimes, going through older baits, you wonder why you ever stopped using them? Are you still using plastic lizards? What sizes or brands do you like? I'm putting them back in my box this season. Another thing that I remember was that most guys thought of them as a spring time bait- especially around spawning bass.I caught most of my lizard fish after this- in hot weather. Are you still fishing with them, or have they been replaced? A great bass lure for sure

Mo, got to thinking about your thread you started awhile ago and organized my lizard binder. I do love fishing 4”-5” lizards on the finesse side. Light T Rig or Split Shotting them. 

 

I’m no biologist by a long shot. But I found some color pics of various Pennsylvania salamanders. Cool stuff.  I didn’t realize there were that many variations of salamanders and lizards here. 

 

I’m probably a guy that would say color doesn’t mean everything. Probably a small part. Not sure if bass see color and shape as we do?

 

But anyway I pulled up the color chart of all Zoom lizards. I could find almost an exact color match of all PA Salamanders. Never thought Zoom had 1,000,000 color patterns of lizards. 

 

My color selection is not huge but they work. Thinking about expanding on some colors and doing a sort of match the hatch thing so to speak. 

 

Sorry for rambling and rehashing your old thread. But I thought it was a good post.