Can bass distinguish between softplastics???

[Guest bigtex]

I just have a hard time believing that fish can distinguish between the different types of plastics that are thrown at them.  I believe that if presented correctly to the bass it will bite a particular soft plastic bait at any time.  

[Nick_Barr]

Mainly they see the overall Profile of the lure and also the slowness of the fall. Sometimes action too, mainly Profile and Fall.

[RoLo]

I seriously doubt that any bass feels obligated to identify his food.

If the food menu of a bass consists of 357 items, it's important to realize that all 357 items

had to be siezed and eaten for the first time, without any history or recognition. The proof is in the pudding,

most of the stuff we throw at bass doesn't look like anything from planet Earth...doesn't have to.

Roger

[Low_Budget_Hooker]

Think about when someone offers you a taste of somthing you've never had before.  You assess the meal.  How's it look?  smell?  any appealing characteristics?  Just because you never had it before doesn't mean you won't try it if it meets your assessment criteria.

[justtrying]

the last time i was fishing, i had a white senko tied on that i was tossing into real shallow spots.

when i came to one of my "hot spots" (9-11 ft), i decided to throw the senko in & see what happened. ..answer, Nothing!, not even a bite.  i was blown away, i Knew there were fish in that area.

i had caught one of  my largest fish from that lake right there on a black/red flake senko.  but they would not hit that white one.

rather than leave the area, i circled back, put on a black jig w/brown sweet beaver & immediately caught  a fish!  in a 30 yd stretch, i caught 2 fish & missed 2 or 3 that came  unbuttoned on the way to the boat (bad choice of jigs).

i think if i had put on a dark senko, they may have hit it, ..i don't know, but i do know that they could/did tell a difference between a white senko & a dark colored beaver tipped jig.

[Guest avid]

We have all encountered times where one plastic bait would be a killer and another a dud.  then the next day come and it's the same thing, only with different baits.  The bass may not be saying things like "Hmmm, looks like a T-rigged zoom super fluke in baby bass, I think I'll eat it".  But they definitly have preferences for one bait over another on any given day.

[zam]

I pretty much agree with everyone. I think a bass only looks at its prey for a split second before it attacks, if it wasted to much time examining it, it wouldn,t eat much. but you still will do better with a lure that looks more like what it is primarily feeding on at the time. match the hatch

[j-bass]

I think creature baits prove that bass will strike even the wierdest looking of baits; which brings us back to an older question of whether or not it is critical to match the local forage.  I don't care where you fish, there is nothing in the water that resembles a spinnerbait or a brush hog, but they work, don't they.

[RoLo]

I don't care where you fish, there is nothing in the water that resembles a spinnerbait or a brush hog, but they work, don't they.

I'm in the camp that believes it's better if your lure resembles 'nothing' (like 90% of our lures).

If there's no imposter, then a bass doesn't have the opportunity to reject the lure for lack of authenticity.

That may explain why the best bass lures resemble nothing: e.g. plastic worms, senkos and skirted jigs,

not to mention spinnerbaits and brush hogs.

Roger

[Guest avid]

I totally agree that this "match the hatch" stuff is nonesense for 90% of all bass fishing.  there is some validity to it when the shad are balled up and the bass are attacking, and I guess there are similar situations when bluegills are attacking the bass beds and/or the crayfish are starting to get active in a warming cove.  But there are just too many really good baits that look like nothing in particular to get carried away with a "match the hatch" mandate.

Now when brown trout are feeding on a #10 caddis hatch, you better have a few.

[redboat]

I read about somebody - Berkeley? - testing a new plastic bait, was supposed to resemble a crawfish. They found it worked best with no claws or tail, resembling nothing but a plastic blob.

They put the claws and tail back on when they marketed it, though - they said nobody'd buy a crawfish lure that didn't have claws and a tail like a real crawfish.

Baits are designed to catch fishemen.

[rocknfish9001]

It probably goes like this. A fish does not strike because of a lures appearence so much, i mean look at how spinnerbaits and stuff are shaped. They really act on the motion or other things that remind them of food. Sure your jig might be twice the size of any crawdad they have seen before, but they nail it because it moves and behaves like what a crawdad would. There are lots of triggering factors that are imprinted into a fish's memory. Mainly movement, but color, not so much as they prefer colors they have seen, just so much as they can see it, and what it looks like in the water. In algea stained water, your lure will look much different in the water. Same with yellow, red, or whatever tint your water has. THey may not hit your lure, although it looks like exactly 100% like a live bluegill cruising around, and you put it right on its face. That fish may not feel like chasing a healthy fish down. Have you ever seen a bass cruise through a group of bluegill. How often doesnt he eat them. Make a realistic impression of your lure being an easy meal, or an annoying little thing. That should put fish in the boat.

[Peter E.]

I agree with Rocknfish9001 when he says that the majority of fish take lures that are either annoying or appear wounded. Another important reason is a reaction to having the lure kind of buzz by the fish. The important thing that that lure has to have is the right lure qualities. They are the lures ability to attract the fish and then to trigger that fish into striking.

Attractant qualities:

Large size-

       The bigger the lure is the more visible it is

Bright Color-

        Attracts the fishs' attention especailly on a sunny day

Unnatural Sound-

        Sounds like a rattle or a set of clackers

Mechanical Action-

        The action a lure has as it is retreived steadily through the water

All of these qualities taken to the extreme can actually turn fish off. Like when a lure is too big or the colors too austentacious. The rattles too loud or the action to steady during the the retreive.

The next thing a lure has to have is triggering capabilities:

Small Size-

  Because a lure is not living the easier a lure is the easier it is to detect the flaws of the bait. Also it makes the lure seem like an easier meal.

Fast Retreive-

  When a lure is preceived by the fish to be fleeing a strike almost emminet. this gives the fish less time to inspect the lure.

Random Action-

  The movement from side to side and as it reacts to the enviroment. This will make the lure seem to be a living thing.

When you can get a lure with the right attractive qualities and the right triggering capablities it will catch fish no matter what the lure is suppossed to look like. The trick is to pick the lure needed to fish an area that has the right fish catching qualities. You can use the FLP formula to get all of that together, F+L+P=success, when you don't have all of the info to put into the formula do a little fishy algebra. F+L+x=Success

         Solve for x to find the P

Peter                              

[Peter E.]

Some times how ever in extreme high pressure lakes, I think that the fish can name the lure, brand, size, and even give the bar code from the box! Also they seem to be able to kinda work that lure  in their mouths so that there is no way to get a good hook set. Can these fish recognize soft plastics, maybe but only as far as when they have already been caught by it before. They simply learn that it hurts and they get a free boat trip if they eat the tequila shad lizard or the blue and black jig. Thus said the bite slows down on those lures. I really think how ever if the bait has the right attractant and triggering qualities, then they will eat it no matter what it is supposed to be or if they have already had the free boat ride. These qualities are so ingrained that they feed on those principles, weak wounded prey goes first, Random action with pauses. and so on.

Peter

[Matt Fly]

Think about when someone offers you a taste of somthing you've never had before. You assess the meal. How's it look? smell? any appealing characteristics? Just because you never had it before doesn't mean you won't try it if it meets your assessment criteria.

OKAY, are we talking about the white gravy again?   Cause they wasn't giving it a try, didn't meet the assessment criteria I guess.

[rocknfish9001]

Another thing, downsize lures. Youll ALWAYS get fish on small lures. not always big fish, but it gives you an idea of where they are and what they are doing.

[Chris]

I just have a hard time believing that fish can distinguish between the different types of plastics that are thrown at them. I believe that if presented correctly to the bass it will bite a particular soft plastic bait at any time.

True if a soft plastic appears alive and has fluid movement a bass will hit it. This style lure if presented correctly looks like something alive and for a bass it is hard to distiguish it from a fake. The key to this deal is how soft is the lure? The softer the lure the less the bass will drop the bait or spit it. You add scent of flavor to the bait and they will not think twice about swallowing it.  Salt adds weight to the bait and as the salt disolves the bait becomes even more soft. Some feel that salt helps a bass determine if the lure is real or not. Can bass figure out between one style of lure over another yes, because each lure has a signature or different pressure waves as it enters the water or moves through the water. Many lures have different tails or shapes that give off a different vibration. The idea that a worm is a worm regardless of what style it is not accurate because each style has different vibration. For example you throw a Culprit worm in a hydrilla bed, pitching in the holes and I pull up behind you doing the same thing with a paddletail worm I would bet that I would catch more. Why? My paddletail is giving off more vibration than you Culprit (eye contact low vibration) worm. Because of this the bass can find my worm easier and it produces a vibration that is easy to find in the grass. When you are dealing with visual obstructions be it dirty or stained water or cover obstructions like weeds sound is what helps a bass find the lure if they can not see it. That is why each soft plastic has a time or place where it will out proform over another aside from color selection.