Have you ever considered that the ineffectiveness of hyperrealism in baits is due to bass’ inability to see beyond a certain level of detail?

[Ohioguy25]

 

I am revisiting this subject because I continue to see the most incredibly lifelike plastics online and they look so good to me, but I know from past experience that not only do they not help me catch more fish even with the confidence boost they give me, but that other far less realistic looking baits are significantly more effective.
 

Consistently, too. Take for instance a tube.  It may vaguely resemble a fleeing craw being dragged along the riverbed, but to us it looks more like a dark green Pac-Man ghost compared to a TRD Craw or some of the more ultra-realistic craw patterns developed by these cottage companies. Yet the tube catches exponentially more fish, which leads me to one of two conclusions:

 

1. Either black bass cannot distinguish these lifelike features and details and see only rough silhouettes and a handful of colors, leaving the action of the bait as the primary stimulus.

 

or 

 

2. As sight feeders they do indeed have a keen sense of vision and for this reason can very easily spot a fake if it tries too hard to mimic nature, and instead reactively strike at odd or irritating presentations with a combination of forage resemblance & alluring action that they can’t immediately dismiss as a fake.
 

 

[roadwarrior]

Very insightful.  Silhouette and motion trump detail.

[PaulVE64]

But I use every conceivable advantage 

I can find. Surely the lure should be as realistic as possible. Maybe it's the realistic motion that is missing?

[Crow Horse]

A good book on the subject is "What Fish See - Understanding optics and color shifts for designing lures and flies"" by Colin Kageyama. It primarily focuses on steelhead, but some of the information can be extrapolated into the the world of bass.

[FishTank]

Actually yes. 

 

Below is the Storm Largo Shad. The first bait will get bit. The one below, for me, does not.  I like to think it's a confidence thing but all the realistic looking baits for me are a struggle. 

 

 

[T-Billy]

7 hours ago, roadwarrior said:

Silhouette and motion trump detail.

Roger that. I learned this lesson long ago when the sluggo hit the scene. I laughed at my buddy when he tied one on, but not for long. He flat out smoked me that day fishing weed flats for post spawn LM. He had one package of them, and wasn't about to share.

 The sluggo looks stupid, until you see it in action. Same deal with tubes and senko's.

[Pat Brown]

Yeah I'm with all the action and profile matter more guys.  I think hues and shades of color can also play but here's another interesting anecdote:

 

I have seen very large bass that can resist live bluegill on hooks dangled on their bed but can't resist a swim jig casually swam into the bed and shaken gently in place.

 

I think bass happily coexist with bluegill and crayfish and shad a lot of the time without violently attacking them.

 

What we do as anglers is elicit a reaction strike from inactive fish a LOT of the time.

 

To make matters even wilder, I believe it was @WRB in another thread who pointed out that on small public ponds, fish mortality impacts bass with the 'aggressive and opportunistic gene' first and over time the 'cautious gene' bass replace every aggressive fish in the pond and you get large ghost like populations of big bass sometimes.

[ironbjorn]

I don't use ultra realistic baits. Like many others, they don't work for me. I've always guessed that it's because it's run of the mill. They see it all the time. Bass don't just munch on each and every living creature they can fit in their mouths at all times, else there would be no food at all. They eat when their clock says to eat, or when they're triggered to eat. I think the less realistic baits with unique actions get bit more because they trigger that trigger instinct. They look funny and act funny, and they eat it up out of either curiosity or irritation, or both. And then when their clock says it's feeding time, I don't think anything really matters - it's feeding time, so eat. The thing about feeding windows though is that they don't last for long and can be hard to track, so triggering reactions always becomes the priority.

[Woody B]

I'm beginning to think that much of the time the best bait color/pattern is one they can hardly, or barely see.  

 

Black top water baits at night, silver or blue top water during the day.  Red lures in muddy water, green pumpkin plastics in stained, but not muddy water ect.   Last year when the water started to get a green tint the bite on my realistic looking shad colored DT6's stopped.  The bite came back when I (accidently) switched to one with a green tint.   

 

 

And, yes,  IF I stumble across the perfect color for a while it's either luck or it's an accident.  

[Pat Brown]

15 minutes ago, Woody B said:

I'm beginning to think that much of the time the best bait color/pattern is one they can hardly, or barely see.  

 

Black top water baits at night, silver or blue top water during the day.  Red lures in muddy water, green pumpkin plastics in stained, but not muddy water ect.   Last year when the water started to get a green tint the bite on my realistic looking shad colored DT6's stopped.  The bite came back when I (accidently) switched to one with a green tint.   

 

 

And, yes,  IF I stumble across the perfect color for a while it's either luck or it's an accident.  

 

 

I completely agree that your goal is to hide your bait and sneak it past big bass back to the bank and sometimes we fail the mission and catch one 😉😉😉in all seriousness, I think bass are hyper aware of their environment and you definitely want to blend in and stand out a little bit.  I think the action we impart - perhaps - is the part that makes the bait stand out to the bass - presentation makes your bait seem distressed or weak or maybe even aggressive and that usually gets them to commit if the bait visually 'blends in' enough.

[MickD]

In-Fisherman did an article on research on why fish bite and sorry, could not find it.  But the bottom line was that fish bite based on their reactions to a number of stimuli which include color, size, shape, movement, "sound," etc.  In other words, a number of stimuli.  The more we can match what stimuli they are somehow "looking" for at the time, the more we will catch.  But exact detail is not necessary.  Once my son and I were fishing smallies in very clear water, so we could see the fish react, and we had caught live crayfish for bait.  We couldn't get a bite on them, but took a few fish on tubes.  I think the problem was that we could not present the live crayfish in a manner that the fish were "looking" for.  

[Catt]

One thing to keep in mind with any scientific research is the researchers are looking at the data through human eyes & interrupting it with a human mind.

 

Most deadliest craw worm I've ever thrown 

 

 

Edited February 25, 2024 by Catt
Fingers faster than the brain

[Pat Brown]

@Catt I always enjoy hearing about some new study where they pit a worm and a crankbait in two different anglers hands against each other and make the claim that bass get conditioned to one lure faster than the other and I think these studies often ignore that angler skill and nuance of presentation is 9/10 of getting bit when a bass is hot on a lure.

 

Who's throwing the worm?  Are they a good worm fisherman?

 

Are we dead sticking both baits?

 

So much of bass fishing is thought of through the eyes of the angler and not the bass and it sells a lot of lures!

[GRiver]

@Ohioguy25has been doing some pondering, but got me thinking. 
I’ve have a real image swim bait, gold fish color, the detail is incredible. The action is a little extreme to be realistic. 
I’ve only caught fish in stained water, not muddy but stained. Used it in crystal clear water no bites, I could see them move outta the way to let my bait pass. Was to action to extreme? Was the detail off? But in stained water they couldn’t see the difference. 
 On the same day I started catching them on a junebug curly tail, I’ve never seen a June bug colored worm.
maybe we’ve been over thinking things

[Catt]

Anglers often respond to failure & frustration by over-complicating theory & technique.

 

As much as it helps our egos to regard a difficult task as complex, this type of thinking is often the biggest obstacle between you & your fishing success.

[Mobasser]

I fish a lot of clear water, and ultra realistic baits are not needed. I've done better without them.                                    Over the years, there's been thousands of fish caught on a jig and #11 Uncle Josh pork frog.                      Not the most realistic crawfish imitation by a long shot. But, the bass like em.

[fin]

The keep-it-simple principle applies. The more details and colors you add, the more likely you are to add something that stands out as wrong to the fish.

 

With some baits, motion/action is sacrificed in the name of getting the details to look the same as the original. When you create a soft plastic that looks exactly like a crawfish, it’s just about guaranteed it’s not going to swim like a crawfish.

[scaleface]

I once bought a striper sized Bagleys realistic shad crankbait to imitate the large shad often seen in the throats of big ones. I threw and threw that thing and never caught a single fish. The lip finally fell out. I still have the bait , hanging on my wall . Its pretty.

[RRocket]

I fished poop baits extensively last year.

 

They neither have the action, profile/silhouette, realism of ANY known forage.

 

And yet....it was easily among my most productive baits last year.

 

So I haven't the slightest clue what bass think they're seeing.

 

 

[Reel]

16 minutes ago, RRocket said:

I fished poop baits extensively last year.

 

They neither have the action, profile/silhouette, realism of ANY known forage.

 

And yet....it was easily among my most productive baits last year.

 

So I haven't the slightest clue what bass think they're seeing.

 

 

Goby

[T-Billy]

4 hours ago, GRiver said:

On the same day I started catching them on a junebug curly tail, I’ve never seen a June bug colored worm.

I came full circle on worm color several years ago. I only throw black now. Junebug would be my second choice. Clear or muddy water, sunny or cloudy skies, doesn't matter, if they'll eat a worm, they'll eat a black one. Seems hit or miss with green, brown, or red hues. Why mess with others when black works all the time? 

[Scott F]

If realism was important, worms and spinnerbaits wouldn’t catch nearly the amount of fish they do. How often do fish really see any worms where they live? We give fish too much credit for being able to think and reason. 

[OmegaDPW]

1 hour ago, T-Billy said:

I came full circle on worm color several years ago. I only throw black now. Junebug would be my second choice. Clear or muddy water, sunny or cloudy skies, doesn't matter, if they'll eat a worm, they'll eat a black one. Seems hit or miss with green, brown, or red hues. Why mess with others when black works all the time? 

 

 I'm basically in the same boat but I'll throw green pumpkin, too. My water is constantly muddy and anything with a dark profile seems to work (except purple). I stick with black 95% of the time. 

2 hours ago, RRocket said:

I fished poop baits extensively last year.

 

They neither have the action, profile/silhouette, realism of ANY known forage.

 

And yet....it was easily among my most productive baits last year.

 

So I haven't the slightest clue what bass think they're seeing.

 

 

 

 I fished the one you sent me a day or two ago. I didn't catch anything but not giving up. To me, they remind me of a tube bait. I don't normally throw them (or have any idea what a tube is supposed to mimic, either) but if they start biting the poop bait, I'll have a few bags of tubes to use up, too. 😄

[12poundbass]

Ultra realistic lures are intended to catch anglers.

 

One of my favorite presentations is the frog. I have ultra realistic ones and some that are just black or white. Look at the bottom of the frog (the part the fish sees) it’s not ultra realistic.

 

Like @MickD said, it’s about getting that reaction out of them whether it be sight, sound, feel, etc. Heck I saw a YouTube video of a guy using a Lego Chubacka with a hook and he caught a smallmouth. 😁

[bowhunter63]

What about the bubble gum color floating worm. I don’t know what they think it is but I catch em on it