Know your prey: Seduction I

[Raul]

Ok we all know which senses bass have, but knowing which senses are there and how they work and a completely different thing is making the fish bite. But knowing which senses bass have sure makes things a little bit easier, huh ? it 's a little help but not all the help, we have to know how to seduct a fish in biting that lure, which as I said, is nothing more than a chunk of plastic, wood or metal or a combination of them.

Baits have certain characteristics to them built in by the designer, size, shape, weight are some of them; the designer designs the lure to work in a certain way but the rest is all in the hands of the angler, the only will only be as good as the one behind it because the lure may be very attractive and wobble like a strip dancer on steroids but you are the one that gives "life" to the bait.

Attraction is a very easy concept to comprehend, it 's something that draws your attention. Well, so what makes a lure attractive ?

1.- Size: pretty simple to understand bigger baits are easier to spot to fish than smaller offerings. The bigger the bait the more it stands out from the background.

2.- Bright or very dark/ Flashy colors: Hot colors, shiny metallic finishes or very dark ( like black ) immediately stand out from the surrounding background, they are easy to spot.

3.- Mechanical action: baits have a mechanical action, a series of repetitive movements as the bait displaces through the water, this is what we can call "built in design", the disgner through the use of curves, shapes and the selection of materails creates a shaped that when retrived at a constant speed will show this built in design. MOVEMENT, it 's frecuency, it 's variation at different speeds is an ATTENTION GETTER. The more frequency the more attention it will get.

4.- Unnatural sound: baits per se don 't emit sound unless they are bumped onto something, baits are silent, they emit vibration as they move but emit no sound; rattles in a bait are inserted into it with the purpose of emiting sound appart from the vibration, the body of the lure is used as a resonance chamber and each bait has a very distinctive sound depnding upon the shape, the thickness of the walls, the size of the chamber and the materials used as rattles. The soud of rattles is quite unnatural unless you 're a terrestrial creature and hear rattling sounds, if you do hear that rattling sound 3 ft away from your feet when you 're fishing from the bank you can bet it ain 't your bait, so you better step back, I 'm pretty sure that rattling sound sure got your attention right away, to us it means danger; but bass, unless they are constantly under fire do not associate rattles with danger, on the contrary, to them it represents a sound they are not used to something that needs further investigation because fish are curious just as we are, instead of running we go there to investigate.

5.- Short shape: sort usually means something like round to us and to a certain point it is, but to predators like bass a short bait means not only something bulky it also represent something that when it moves through the water has a very high hydrodinamic signature because it displaces more water than something elongated in shape.

6.- Slow motion: a bait moving slow represents an easy target, it can be outrunned and since bass are capable of explosive high speeds in the short run ( like cheetas ) it means to them that they can reach the bait.

Those are the attracting properties of lures however they have some drawbacks:

1.- Size: Big size means bigger fish ? yes and no, why ? bigger baits cull the fish because they are limiting the size of the fish that can swallow the bait, but also, they don 't necessarily mean bigger fish, we have seen dinky dinks attacking baits as big as them, not very smart but they do it, even to those dinks a large bait represent a bigger meal.

2.- Bright or very dark/ Flashy colors: Flashy finish is not as affected as color by this, scales on fish are coated with guanim a light reflecting material so flash is part of nature. Very dark or hot colors look "unnatural" in an enviroment of browns, greens, whites, blues and grays as the world of bass is, perhaps the most brilliantly colored fish in bass habitat are panfish like bluegills, but remember that their color pattern also is the color of cammo, chartreuse or hot pink is anything but cammo.

3.- Mechanical action: as much as attractive it is who wants to see the same strip dancer on steroids perform the same routine wearing the same make-up, the same wardrobe, the same music, the same dances over and over again ? quite boring, isn 't it ? the same thing happens with mechanical action.

4.- Unnatural sound: fish, with time can associate an unnatural sound as a DANGER signal when not used in the proper conditions.

5.- Short shape: Short, round, bulky shape is also unnatural, not even "round" fish are shaped like that, they are compressed laterally so when viewed from the side the look round but when looked from the front or the rear they are thin. Few animals are rounded all over the body.

6.- Slow motion: the biggest drawback of slow motion is that it allows the fish to inspect the bait and realize that it 's not "alive".

So catching fish is not only based on the attracting properties of the lure because it 's lacking of "something else", it may draw the attention but it 's not enough to make them bite.

[Hawkeyes18]

Great post man.  I'm new I can use all the info I can get.

[Nick_Barr]

Great post Raul, i enjoyed reading and learning from it!

[Marty]

6.- Slow motion: the biggest drawback of slow motion is that it allows the fish to inspect the bait and realize that it 's not "alive".

Raul, I've seen this said many times by many people. Just for the sake of argument, why couldn't a fish in an inquisitive mood follow the lure and inspect it?

At any rate, I respect the extent of your knowledge, but I've always had difficulty with this one, wondering if it's fact or if it's fishermen trying to explain a phenomenon they do not understand.

Certainly, countless millions of fish have been caught on slow-moving baits or baits that were suspended, situations where a bass could "inspect" it very thoroughly.

For what's it's worth, I suspect that bass know that a fast-moving bait is not alive, as well as a slow one. I haven't had training in animal behavior as you have, but don't animals that are extant have an extremely keen awareness of everything in their immediate environment?

[Raul]

That 's why Marty slow may look like an easy meal it gives more time to inspect it and realize that 's not alive but what if suddenly you twitch the bait ? uh oh, there comes another part of the ecuation, it 's no longer moving slow, the action changed that 's in the Part II of the thread. It speeds up, the action became erratic, bingo, "well, it didn 't look "quite" alive but oh wow ! it jumped, let 's bite it to take a closer look". One day if you 're in the mood I can tell you a story about how I caught a big momma in ultra clear water with no more water to fish and with me looking at the fish 3 ft away and the fish looking at me. It took me a good couple of hours to convince her but she did what I told, she made the mistake to investigate and take a "closer look".  

[Chris]

One of the best ways to trick bedding fish when I lived in Florida was using a slug-go. I would hook the bait so that it wasn't straight. The bait would be bowed slightly. I would put the bait into the bed and quiver it in place. I would wait until the bass got nose to the bait then I would give the bait a sharp jerk. The bait would shoot up into the bass's face and out of instinct the bass would hit the bait. It didn't matter what size the bass was they hit the bait because they couldn't help themselves. Its in their nature to grab something that is trying to get away.

[Marty]

That 's why Marty slow may look like an easy meal it gives more time to inspect it and realize that 's not alive but what if suddenly you twitch the bait ? uh oh, there comes another part of the ecuation, it 's no longer moving slow, the action changed that 's in the Part II of the thread. It speeds up, the action became erratic, bingo, "well, it didn 't look "quite" alive but oh wow ! it jumped, let 's bite it to take a closer look".

By the way, I'm computerless for awhile and am bumming short sessions on other peoples' machines.

I don't know that anyone knows why bass bite, and I include the top pros in that statement, as well as the average Joe. I believe that some people who are excellent at HOW to catch them don't necessarily know WHY they caught them.

To me, the idea of lures fooling bass because of their imitative qualities is a little too simplistic. I suspect that bass may be attracted to movement, much like other animals. A cat may go after a string being pulled along on the floor. Is it because she thinks it's alive or is she attracted to the movement? It certainly seems to me to be the latter.

At any rate, I don't profess to know anything about this sport, but I have my opinions and theories, none of which can be proved, but I believe what I do based on what seems to make sense to me.

I have no problem with being wrong and am more than willing to change my opinion about anything if presented with a convincing argument.

Cheers.

[BASSMAN1301599783]

Great post Raul!!! Thanks for sharing all the info. ;D

[bass109]

Great post. ;D

[Matt Fly]

Thought I'd let some of our new members know there are great threads to be read posted months ago.   Raul and others alike have created a library of bass fishing wealth that applies to all parts.  

[Guest the_muddy_man]

Hey Raul THANKS FOR ANOTHER GREAT POST this is goin in the notebook! ;D

[bassindude]

 it 's variation at different speeds is an ATTENTION GETTER. The more frequency the more attention it will get.

Great Article, can't wait to read the rest.  I have only one thought on vibration, It was either Doug Hannon or one of the other scientists of bass fishing that I have read that stated that there is a definate range of frequency that bass prefer.   I also know that Rick Clunn has done an extensive amount of study in this area.  According to Clunn bass actually develope a mental image of the vibration pattern.  The signature that a shiner puts out is different than a shad, is different than a bluegill etc.  One thing to keep in mind, more may not always be better.  

Not sure I did the Quote thing correctly.  My first time.

[Matt Fly]

Bassindude, sounds like Biosonix to me.  Can you tell me where to find the info on Rick Clunn?

[Gatorbassman]

One of the best ways to trick bedding fish when I lived in Florida was using a slug-go. I would hook the bait so that it wasn't straight. The bait would be bowed slightly. I would put the bait into the bed and quiver it in place. I would wait until the bass got nose to the bait then I would give the bait a sharp jerk. The bait would shoot up into the bass's face and out of instinct the bass would hit the bait. It didn't matter what size the bass was they hit the bait because they couldn't help themselves. Its in their nature to grab something that is trying to get away.

I do the opposite. I try to get the bass to face me. Then I make a cast well past it and bring it right over it's back. (Bass can't see directly behind them.)

Then I drop the 1/2 oz jig on the bass's nose. It opens it's mouth and the rest is history. I am going to have to try your way Chris. It sounds easier.

[Guest the_muddy_man]

Hey fellas I fish a lot of weightless t rigged worms and some times when the action is slow Il  put it next to some rocks or a tump and snake it across the top letting it fall dead right as its next to the cover then jerk it and speed up the retrieve and I get a lot of fish like this Also in the evening I use Jointed Floating Rapalas and most times a stop and go retrieve gets thier intrest but then you have to rip it for them to hit it I saw a post from Marty once sugessting this speed up it seems to force them to hit a meal that otherwise is gettin away The thing is to figure out how the fish are acting and when you are gettin the hits the fish will tell you what they want You just cant fish the same way day in and day out and be sucessful thats what keepin a log and payin attention to the posts from the more knowledgable fellas taught me this year

[bassindude]

MattFly, wish I could give something definate, unfortuniately I'm not that organized.  I have a lot of video saved that I go through from time to time.  Clunn does have at least 1 video out, and I think a book.  most of what I have read is from magazine articles that he has contributed.  If you want book reading find one from Doug Hannon.  there is another author that I read but the book was from the library back in Indy.  Next time I go back there I try and stop by and get the titles.   Jim

[Needemp]

This is good stuff.

[jax]

Thanks for dragging this back up!!! It is new to me!

It would be nice is someone would make a contents thread that would link to posts like these. It is hard for us new people to know what to search for.

[Certified Public Angler]

wow, nice gravedig.  I enjoyed and would read again.