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| Thought this would an original idea to discuss.... |
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Posts: 2089
| Conditions, location and .......experience."Leaving the Dance with who brought me". Steve |
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Posts: 462
Location: Madison Wi. Chain | I like the conditions idea, but I tend to work from shallow to deep and my lures tend to reflect what depth of the water column I am trying to target. If that doesn't work I go back to the shallow and start over with somthing much slower or erractic to trigger strikes. good luck BG |
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| Experience of past similar situations, and general consideration of weather and other environmental conditions |
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| Mainly it's determined by what structure I'm fishing. Say I'm in a timbered cove. My inclination would be to stay away from jerks and gliders (baits I have less control over) and move toward a spinnerbait (single, upriding hooks) or a shallow to medium depth crankbait. If I'm fishing deep wood, than I'm banging a deep diving crank.
Steep breaklines or other deep structure (rock piles, cribs, baitfish schools, cabbage beds) I'll throw a Bulldawg. Other scenarios include: weed beds topping out at anywhere from the surface to 1' beneath I will throw a bucktail, spinnerbait, or topwater; sand or mudflats I'll throw a Shallow Invader or rattletrap. Size of lure depends on fish mood, time of year, weather conditions, and forage base. Color? Usually I try to match the hatch, but on some waters brighter is better.
Now how do I further deduce what I will throw in a given situation? First, experience. Experience tells me that shallow mud or sand flats in 6' of water or less = great time to throw a Shallow Invader. Burning bucktails over weedbeds that top out has been another proven tactic. Safety-pin spinnerbaits have produced many times when working wood or structure adjacent to deep water.
I get confidence from the experience aspect but also from how the bait looks in the water. Sometimes a bucktail looks killer in the right sunlight and wave action. If the flare is there, I'm gonna stick with it. Other times you can't beat the sound of a topwater first thing in the morning, breaking up the quiet dawn. Other times the wobble will be what attracts me to a certain bait (SS Shad is perfect example). Then the "duh" answer is whatever the fish react to. |
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| I watch the graph's input (surface temp, depth, bottom clues, forage clues), the weather and I fish baits that I've caught/moved fish on in the past. I own few muskie baits by most standards and consistently catch fish on fewer still. |
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