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Posts: 1451
Location: Kronenwetter, WI | These two prior posts, "Musky Stupid" and "Top 5 or 6" got me thinking about having alot of baits and how many I actually use and how often I switch them on the water. With regard to switching baits on the water, I think some of the guys I fish with would say I'm a 'switcher'.
My mental criteria usually goes something like this after having a bait on for a given amount of time, "Okay....I KNOW from experience that the spot I just fished holds fish. Therefore, either the fish are not on that type of structure or else they are on it but not responding to that bait syle/color. Eliminate one variable--style/color bait--and continue fishing same type of high percentage structure but with a different color/style of bait. Still nothing? Maybe one more switch in the progression, then change structure/holding location...."
Basically, fish where you know fish should be and show 'em something, then feeling confident you literally have shown your bait to some fish and have gotten no reply, make a change of some sort.
Yes---it must be winter----we're blabbing.... | |
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Posts: 32880
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | Great blabbing, though. Excellent points, and allot of what I do. And still, I fail some days when I believe in my deepest being there were fish available that could be caught. Maybe I didn't switch up enough! | |
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Posts: 123
| A couple years ago I was staying in a hotel for a week and could only take one rod and a few baits. I grabbed a Believer, a double 10, a Thunderhead, a Rad Dog, and a Phantom. I figured I pretty much had the entire water column covered with those baits, and I'm one who believes in getting the action right more than the color. Anyway, I was fishing a three hour mini-tournament and caught a 42 incher, the only fish caught that night, and I won $50.00. Sometimes it doesn't matter how many lures you bring that day, but rather if you are getting the ones you did bring in front of the fish. (Of course maybe I was just lucky).  | |
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Posts: 253
Location: On the water | Don't do much switching. I bring three rods with a bucktail, topwater, and some kind of crankbait. I fish the day with that setup, and usually one of those three will raise or catch fish.
Come on Spring! | |
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Posts: 264
| In my opinion you shouldn't have one philosophy to this. I Just Go with my instincts, i once fished the same bait for the whole day without one follow but because i knew for this lake it works well i stuck it out and ended up at the end of the day catching 2 fish in twenty minutes after fishing the same bait all day. Other times it might be best to run and gun and switching baits and techniques as you go. One way is probably just as good as the next since there are so many variables that go into it.
Holy Crap i want it to be musky opener already!
Edited by 619musky 1/27/2010 9:39 PM
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Posts: 536
| this post is reminding me a little of the muskie memorie post too and the muskie stupid one too. It may not be that people are necassarily muskie stupid but some of these lakes get hit hard all the time with the same baits so to try new lures on the market is not stupid but something a little different. I don't care what some people might say to this but some of these fish are seeing these same stuff all the time all the time all the time and you cant tell me it is going to just keep falling for it! | |
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Posts: 1286
Location: WI | This is where having 2-3 people in a boat will shine. One guy will usually figure out what's working.
I tend to put one thing on and stay with it for a while. Either based on the weather (wind) or just trying a new bait or sticking with a favorite one. | |
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Posts: 433
Location: Cedarburg, Wisconsin | I don't buy that stuff about show them the right lure and they will bite. There are too many times the fish are just plain turned off and other than explosives there isn't a way to get them, period. Switching lures sure makes me feel good, but I'd bet more times than I'd care to believe was just being in the right spot at the right time that got the fish.
I surely know that fish have preferences. As stated before, having 3 in the boat is a terrific advantage to find a pattern. But even when you have the lure they want figured out, the when and where trump the what, otherwise when you had the lure figured out you could just catch fish at every good spot you went to any time of day. That might happen in your dreams, but in the real world NOT!
I still switch lures though. I figure if a lure just doesn't feel right, and by that I mean do exactly what I am looking for a lure to do, take it off and put on something else that does. Some days there is a pile of switched out lures in the boat, some days the same lure stays on a rod all day. The problem of getting the right lure figured out is that there isn't much musky feedback on a typical day on the lakes I fish.
If you have fun switching lures, do it. Fishing is about having fun. But, I figure, at least know why you are switching lures, so it will help get to the point where you are catching more fish when you switch. | |
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Posts: 1529
| we troll. when the bites off we always leave out the meat and potato,s baits. we might switch a few.. waiting for the feed windows you gotta have your good stuff out at all times. | |
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Posts: 73
| If you put confidence in ‘pattern fishing’---which I do---then switching baits will be a part of that until you establish what pattern or patterns are going to produce that day---or hour. Not everybody adopts that approach as their own, but you’ll see it being commonplace in tournament fishing.
So, yes, I’ll try a few different lure types in the same place sometimes to see what the fish seem to wanting. There are those rare days when they’re aggressive enough to hit a pine cone with a hook in it, but usually not. Seems to me that they’re most often a bit picky.
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Posts: 1451
Location: Kronenwetter, WI | Yeah, a pile of baits on the carpet is usually not a good sign...LOL....I firmly do believe, though, that sometimes there is just SOMETHING about a certain style/color bait that the fish seem to want over all else. We have even done the ol' "Test-Retest" reliability indicator (statisticians will know this term). Here is how: on a trip, we stumbled onto a hot color pattern combo of blades and flash. Once two fish were boated on that day, we both began throwing that color and both began moving/catching fish. Then, of course, the inevitable happened and both baits were lost (one bait was cut up to remove from fish and the flash skirt fell apart, the other lost on a snag). We both threw something similar for the next day w/o results. Having the same colors on two different baits (one right blade color but wrong skirt color, the other right skirt color but wrong blade color) , I cut them both up and slid the components onto some wire I had brought on the trip and built another of the 'hot' color. You guessed it, we were back in business. Crazy, I know, but true. That was the most extreme experience of single-minded preference I've been around, and it made me a believer.
Edited by Cowboyhannah 1/28/2010 8:37 PM
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Posts: 1425
Location: St. Lawrence River | I have a habit of switching baits of the same style when one isnt working, say from one bucktail to another, instead of switching to a jerk or crank or whatever.. | |
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Switching Up