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barehook
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04/22/2019 10:38AM   (Thread Older Than 3 Years)
What is your order of importance with lure selection? Here are some variables, and my ranking in descending order of importance. My thinking goes like, "If I don't have #1, the other four don't matter". I go back and forth between #2 and #3, as far as importance.

Obviously these are inter-related

1) Depth control
2) Action
3) Speed
4) Color
5) Scent

My usual assumption is that BWCA and Quetico fish are relatively un-pressured. So the 'nuance details' which make a lot of difference in pressured waters (especially color) aren't as big a factor when fish haven't really seen that many lures, period.

Thoughts? Other lure variables that factor in your thought process?
 
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mgraber
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04/22/2019 11:50AM  
I would put speed before action, but it would be a close call. Depending on species and visibility, I might sometimes put scent above color.
 
04/22/2019 02:16PM  
-Depth - If you're not where the fish are, or at least within sight, what's the sense?!
-Speed
-Color
-Action
 
thegildedgopher
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04/22/2019 02:50PM  
I have entirely different rankings for different species and different scenarios.

You can be anywhere between 1 - 25 (or more) feet above a lake trout and get bit if you show them something that looks like a cisco. In that scenario, color and action (which is largely determined by speed) are probably 1 and 1a.

Whereas walleye holding tight to the bottom aren't as likely to bite unless you put it precisely in their face.
 
04/22/2019 03:08PM  
thegildedgopher: "I have entirely different rankings for different species and different scenarios.


You can be anywhere between 1 - 25 (or more) feet above a lake trout and get bit if you show them something that looks like a cisco. In that scenario, color and action (which is largely determined by speed) are probably 1 and 1a.


Whereas walleye holding tight to the bottom aren't as likely to bite unless you put it precisely in their face."


Exactly right! The list is way different for Lake Trout and Walleyes.
 
04/22/2019 05:54PM  
Barehook , that's a great question !
right off the get go , time of year and species would change the order of importance ,
#5 unless your working something slower , in the BW scented baits do have there place , but not putting it above the other four
#4 color ,, ask 20 different fisherman and you MAY get 20 different answers , always go with your confidence color.
#3 speed i'm putting this at the top , it's not just your lure speed but also your boat/canoe control which = speed Exp if your out in no mans land and doing vertical jigging in a good wind , maybe put on a spoon and let the wind troll you :) LOL , more EXP
speed with hesitation is a huge triggering application , "S" trolling does produce. slow rolling something across the bottom
surface lures , how fast you going to work it ?? how long you going to let it sit there before you even take a turn on the reel .
many more EXP .
#2 action , hard to argue action , even through i did catch and land a #9 pike on a double float bobber , damndest thing took it right off the surface , loosened the drag and brought her in slow , bobber way down it's throat,,, back to the list ;)
#1 depth control , kind of goes hand in hand with speed and lure selection
 
barehook
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04/23/2019 10:10AM  
bobbernumber3: "
thegildedgopher: "I have entirely different rankings for different species and different scenarios.



You can be anywhere between 1 - 25 (or more) feet above a lake trout and get bit if you show them something that looks like a cisco. In that scenario, color and action (which is largely determined by speed) are probably 1 and 1a.



Whereas walleye holding tight to the bottom aren't as likely to bite unless you put it precisely in their face."



Exactly right! The list is way different for Lake Trout and Walleyes."


And this is kind of a 'duh' moment for me, because I've never fished lakes with lake trout, so had only walleye/smallmouth/pike in mind. The vertical mobility of lake trout didn't even enter my thinking. Thanks for the expanded perspective which comes with lake trout fishing.
 
04/23/2019 12:25PM  
Yeah, I agree that what you are targeting is a big factor. Walleye and trout are two very different fish. Bass and northern are different too, but are pretty easy to catch without targeting them.

Depth is important but not getting caught on the bottom is arguable more important. Like it was said before, walleye you need to be right on target, but trout you want to be at or above them. I would place this at the top of the list, because too shallow or too deep can make it impossible to catch fish. Beyond simply making it possible to catch the targeted fish, depth varies in importance depending on the species and other factors.

Action is difficult to categorize. Are you including something like a rattle? Obviously it is important since some things work and some don't, but is that depth control, size, presentation, or movement? Sometimes jointed rapalas are clearly preferred, but sometimes the traditional straight ones work better.

I can't say that color always is a factor. Sometimes it feels important, others it strikes out. Fish might target more than one color at a time or it might change with the time of day, if it matters all that much at all. I usually try to cover my bases here though in case it is a factor that week.

Speed is a big one that I would probably rank a little higher, but that depends on many factors. Water temp, the type of fishing, how it affects your depth, the fish targeted, water clarity, and how your action reacts to speed changes are all factors that determine if your speed is important. Trout fishing in warmer temps will often mean that we troll slowly to get the Little Cleos deeper. I'm not sure if the speed, action, or depth is the bigger factor here since everything changes at once. Maybe if I played around with weights and speeds then I might be able to figure more out, but as of right now I'm not sure if it one factor or another that gets me fish.

I can't say that scent is all that important unless you are bobber fishing or drifting. In those cases we are talking about the difference between live bait and plastic. We know that leeches work better than plastic (on average). Minnows are wounded with the hook so blood is in the water. Movement (action) is a factor here too though since live leeches and minnows work better than dead ones.

I think that the important thing is not to rank features and sort things out like that. You can always attach weights to get them deeper. You need to balance all the factors to get something similar to your target's food source. Or maybe you use something flashy to attract attention and maybe get a curious nibble, or maybe even a defensive one like with bass. The point is that you could probably get lures that check all the boxes that you are looking at, but don't catch fish.
 
04/23/2019 06:57PM  
barehook: "
bobbernumber3: "
Exactly right! The list is way different for Lake Trout and Walleyes."



And this is kind of a 'duh' moment for me, because I've never fished lakes with lake trout, so had only walleye/smallmouth/pike in mind. The vertical mobility of lake trout didn't even enter my thinking. Thanks for the expanded perspective which comes with lake trout fishing."


My favorite fish to catch are walleyes and lake trout. It's pretty rare to catch one while fishing for the other!
 
04/24/2019 09:23AM  
Depth, color, speed, weather conditions..
 
flynn
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04/24/2019 09:42AM  
In almost every case (except when fish are very aggressive and will eat almost anything), you want to match forage, right? I would say #1 would be color, #2 would be action, to look like the thing your target species usually eats. But, you do need to use the right color at the right depth; if you're matching target forage but it's 10ft too shallow or 10ft too deep then it doesn't really matter. So, I guesssss I'd say #1 is depth, #2 is color, #3 is action, #4 would be speed but action depends on the retrieve/troll speed so action and speed are kind of interdependent, and #5 is scent (irrelevant IMO).

For bass, in the spring/early summer, I'm not concerned with specific depth. I will chuck various baits out based on the weather and time of day and if their specific action isn't working (loud spinners or crankbaits to draw fish in vs twitchy finesse to entice visible fish) then I will switch actions. Most of the baits I would try for bass are going to be 2-8ft depth and my main concern will be keeping treble lures off bottom. Other than that, depth isn't on my mind.

With lakers, though, while matching forage is important, finding the depth they're at in a given part of a lake is even more important, because they move around so much, and water temps vary based on lake topology. Walleye are also depth-dependent, but they seem to be easier to entice than lakers, so I figure you can troll some stuff around 10-15ft deep and hook into wallies without fussing too much with various depths or having special divers made to go 20-30ft deep, even though they might help occasionally.

When vertically jigging after locating fish, depth doesn't much matter, since you can just drop that jig until it hits bottom, then pop it once or twice, reel up, and keeping doing that until you've retrieved the lure. If you know they are 30ft deep in a spot that is 60ft deep, you don't have to let the jig fall all the way down, though you might as well just let that sucker sink for a good 10 seconds and then start your retrieve. So for vertical jigging, depth is no longer that important, and I think color and action are the most important.
 
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