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Posts: 375
Location: Browerville, Minnesota | As I was hanging up my lures for the winter, I started to look at the numbers, makes and models of what baits I had and began to wonder if I was not diverse enough in the different makes of baits that I have. Now I have just shy of 200 baits (which my wife thinks is enough), but they are all pretty similar. My jerkbaits for example, I have Reef Hawgs, Burts, Squirrely Burts, Manta's, HellHounds, Undertakers, Suicks, Bobbies, Sand Cats, and a few other misc baits. Now my question to you is this: does a Muskie fisherman need a greater number of baits from all the different manufactuers, or is he/she better off sticking with a great number of baits from just a few tackle makers. I have over 20 Suicks and 10 Bobbie baits, so do I need to get a bunch of dive & rise jerkbaits from other tackle sources in order to complete my arsenal, or is what I have enough? Any thoughts? | |
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Posts: 8837
| Bret, in my opinion it's FAR more important to have all your bases covered in terms of TYPE and FUNCTION.
You can have 200 lures and only have 25 different manufacturers, or you can have 200 lures and have 100 different manufacturers. You don't need a pile of suicks and bobbie baits, you need a couple. You don't need a pile of side to side gliders, you need a couple.
I've got probably 250 lures, maybe 300... Sounds like more than it is when you start thinking about how many magnum bulldawgs I have, or how many phantoms, or CJ's spinnerbaits, etc.
If I could start over I'd concentrate a lot less on having multiple colors, or dozens of depthraiders, and more on being able to cover all different depths at different speeds with different types of presentations and in different sizes.
Each different lure does a slightly different thing, and that to me is where you need to have your bases convered. You don't need to have a Doc, a Weagle, a Jackpot, and a Viper. You need a walk the dog bait. If you want to go crazy, have a black one and some other color.
This winter I'm going through my entire inventory and thinning the herd, because quite honestly I've got so many of certain lures I will never use them all, and yet there are things I have NONE of that have their place. Like Jigs/creatures.
Look past who makes it, what name is on it, and what color it is and think about exactly what it does and where in the water column it does that. Once I did that I realized that my collection was completely lopsided. | |
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Posts: 5874
| For a few years, I was buying anything that hung on a rack. Trying to catch up to Gregger, I think, was my motivation. When I realized that was a silly, and unobtainable, goal, I pretty muched stopped buying, except for replacing baits that work. Through attrition, I'm down to about 200 baits, from maybe 4-450. I expect that in about 5 years, I'll be down to less than 100.
I think it's more important just to have a bait in front of a fish when it's ready to eat, than to worry if the lure I am using is the right shade of black.
Edited by Shep 12/6/2007 3:33 PM
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| sell most of those stupid gliders!
i find i use less and less different baits each season as you get confident with what you have...a few years ago i switched baits all day...now i don't as much...sure we all go in spurts where we change and change cuz we don't know what feels good that day...but you can probably get away with say 10 in each "category" and catch just as many or more fish ....
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Posts: 8837
| says the guy who has bought and sold more baits over the years than rollie and helens | |
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| I never said you can't have 1000 baits and be happy too! baits are neat...
I will sell more than I buy this winter though..that is for sure....I'm a recovering
baitaholic
one day at a time....
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Posts: 1243
Location: Musky Tackle Online, MN | I would say buy one of everything and find out what works! (of course that might be the biased retailer side of me saying that!)
As an objective musky fisherman, I could probably get by with 15 baits for the entire year and catch just as many fish. That being said, even though I could easily get by with that, I don't want to be limited to that few baits. That's why one Lakewood Monster along with a few small Planos full of lures have a permanent spot in my boat, not to mention the 2 or 3 boxes full of "spares" that stay at home or get switched out on each trip, depending on the game plan for that day. You don't want to be without the "hot" bait. I have baits in my box that didn't get wet this year. But I couldn't take them out of the boat "just in case."
The nice thing about buying unwanted baits these days is that we have places like MuskieFirst where we can unload what we don't want. What one person might not like, another person might make great use of those same lures.
EA gave some very good advice. I would really only add one thing on to what he said. In addition to knowing what each bait does before you buy it, ask yourself how YOU are going to use it. What lake do you see yourself using it on, under what situations, etc. Getting a great bait that has great action and will catch lots of fish is one thing, but if I can't apply it to HOW I fish, what good will it do me?
Aaron | |
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Posts: 1530
| more we need more. lake st clair went to 2 rods for 08. . . just look in your box for the chewed ones, double them up. | |
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Lure diversity and numbers