my own observations concerning lure 'bite-a-bility'

[Senkosam]

hardness, natural taste, bite sized - affect lure retention

from a post I wrote on www.tacklemaking.com (which is back up)

I would like to add my own observations to the above, stated under soft plastic lure theory, Bite Retention article.

The theory of 'the softer the lure, the more retention', does have a noticable exception. Many manufactured soft baits are loaded with salt, making them harder or at least much less firm than previous soft body lures. I began pouring my own early this year and, and since I usually have enough salted plastic left over from pouring sticks, I pour grubs and trickworms with the surplus. The bait is much harder than using just plastisol, but I've noticed no difference in retention time.

But being "bite sized" has a time and a place, especially when a fish's aggression-level is less than super or drop shotting is used for deep fish; other wise size matters as it relates to action-profile. (Many of us have caught 7" fish on 10" worms, 5lb. bass on 1.5" shads and deep bass on drop shot, 6" straight tails. Their inherent and imparted actions made all the difference!)

Concerning "natural taste", many of us knows from experience that a lure having no taste or scent, can be held onto for just as long as one with scent or built in flavor. Scent, like color and realistic shape, will always be controversial factors, but since many anglers buy lures for those reasons, those of us that produce lures for sale, try to incorporate what is considered semi-copies-of-nature elements.

If I smell a lure and it smells like a crawfish, I will chose it over an unscented bait based on the knowledge that fish can smell and, "it can't hurt". But does it really affect catch ratio? Probably not nearly as much as the all-important factors of faith and confidence. In my experience, size, shape, vibration and color supersede all factors affecting the strike-and-hook set, (plus a few other factors associated with old age. )

If they can see it and feel it (and the moving lure pushes it's buttons), these alone are enough to allow me the two seconds of time I need, once the strike is detected. The fish can munch the bait around in it's mouth all it wants, but my hook will strike home in no uncertain terms! It can savor the flavor on it's own time!

Shape and size may go hand in hand, but how? When we think of size, we think length. But consider the most current proof that length is not the primary factor of size. Girth is! What I mean by girth is the maximum diameter of the body in relation to it's ends (front & back). The Senko proved beyond a doubt that the center of gravity (so well discussed in the article under Soft Plastics), is a key factor of the lure's success. The action is located in both tips or ends, which affects the entire body. The thickest part is distributed towards the center and that part has the highest amount or weighting of salt. The unique horizontal fall has made Gary Y a rich man, and caused many of us to remortgage our homes to be able to afford his baits (before we figured out his secret).

Therefore, a stick built this way will catch any size fish whether the lure is "bite-sized" (4") or 6". Size matters only in how it affects action, the same as in crankbaits, but slim-and-fat are important factors.

Sight factors go hand in hand with size and texture/hardness factors. A muted color will not be as sight-provking as a bright or flashy color unless it's size is larger. I've used a black spinnerbait blade in conjunction with a black skirt and trailer because I wanted the entire action-profile to be black. So, in a sense, a black profile can be as sight-provking as a smaller nickel blade and a white skirt. I have never used a black blade with a light colored skirt because I want profile-uniformity over the entire bait. Both flashy, bright or sight-provoking, are needed for different reasons concerning available light and filtering. Black, muted and *natural colors can work well in any water as long as the action profile gets the fish's attention. *(Natural is just another color scheme, not meant to imitate.)

One final thing, as was mentioned under the bait-action factors, (again well written in the lure-action article), was how tail action affects the entire bait. The tail of a soft bait gives action to a bait just like the bill of a crankbait. The ratio you might want to consider when pouring grubs, can be taken from Kalin and Fat Albert grub designs demonstrating fat is beautiful! But, a big butt is just as important, which causes the body to rock-and-roll and wag.

My curl-tails are wider and poured thicker to move that obese body back and forth. Mr. Twister once held the entire market in it's hands with their segmented slim-bodied grubs and tails, until Kalin blew away the concept that thinner is always better. Fatter along with exaggerted action, stimulates the lateral line as well as being, 'a sight to behold'! LOL

Talk about 'bite-sized', what about a mouthful?! According to the lazy-economical-expenditure-of-energy theory, fish want to gobble the largest food item their appetite will allow. I pulled a 7" half-digested carp out of the throat of a 14" pickerel, who still grabbed my Yozuri! (I have witnesses!) So if it's a choice between a minute-steak and a fat, juicy chunk of prime rib, give me the latter anytime!

Something to mull over in the winter months ahead.

Sam

[kellure]

Interesting, good read and well thought out.

From my angling experiences, thinking back, the largest bass (pl) I've caught have been primarily on low profile lures. I think mr lazy chub is a swift opportunist, if you ring the right doorbell @ the right time, then he will answer whether its a large pizza or a wing. (side note: I primarily structure fish deep, so that may make a difference in what I've experienced) With that said my 3 largest LMs all came on slim 4" c-pedes and 4" needle worms c-rigged (9.6, 9.1 and this yr a 10.4 #) lakes get tons of pressure yr round here (NC btw) minus dec-jan from very solid anglers, it might very well be a good change of pace for a lunker to see an easy, subtle, low profile, small target sliding into their brushpile vs a chunky senko, t-rigged 10" monster worm, or a 1/2 ounce jig bouncing on the limbs everyday. Who knows for sure other than the fish.

Good topic though, thanks for typing it.

Kellure

[Senkosam]

It's strange that the most used deepwater plastics have a slim design and are 6" or less and the shallow water baits (jigs included) can be bulky and fall faster in 4' or less. Being a shallow water officionado, bigger is better but length is less overall. Shallow water fish are there to feed or hang out and the reaction strike comes into play when just hanging out.

Who knows why reaction strikes occur? Could be opportunity-snacking, territorial aggression, meanness, curiousity, irritability or just it's reflexive nature (like a Venus Fly Trap). I could flip a 1/8 oz. bait all day in heavy cover and not catch half as many fish as on a heavier, bulkier lure. This applies to lowland lakes where I fish, that have at least 50% of the shore being wetlands. (The average depth is 10' or less and very unlike your waters and deep Calif. or AZ impoundments.)

I use a large 5" grub (like in the pic) like most people use spinnerbaits over shallow areas, adjacent to weed lines but in open water, and near stumps, rocks, and stickups. Ditto for a jerkworm. Work it fast or faster and cover primary cover areas.

For deep water lakes, I've never heard of dropshotters and finessers using anything but finesse plastics when vertical fishing. I kind of relate it to ice fishing in the n.e. where a small tube, tiny curly tail or pork strip, attached to a small vertically jigged, Swedish pimple, will catch far more than larger artificials. Yet medium to large shiners used under tip-ups will catch more fish than small minnows. Strange.

I've been spoiled on shallow water fishing for too long to prefer deep structure fishing. One of these days I'll be in a boat with a good vertical-technique angler to demonstrate how it's done.

Sam

[kellure]

I'm yet to have much success with the vertical "drip-shit" technique (as the locals call it). I have seen it work though on the back of my boat. I dont stray much from the 1 ounce c-rigs or the large cranks. I'm pretty much the average hacker in water less than 12'. As the saying goes, if youre ever in the area, stop by and we'll wet a line.

Kellure

[Senkosam]

Ditto, Kellure.

[TMI]

GREAT feedback Senko...thanks! Thought I'd add in a few more tidbits of reseach around this that might be helpful...

Many years ago, Berkley / Pure Fishing starting doing a ton of research around the science of fishing lures...mostly focused on Bass, but it included other species as well. They did a bunch of testing on different types of lures, scents, lengths, girth, etc. and built up what is now considered the "holy grail" of lure information......the "Berkley Fish Research Data Bank". The full set of data in that research library is only accessible to a privledged few and is considered a trade secret so not much of it has been publicized...but there are a few pieces that have leaked out over the years. From the stuff I have seen from it and other sources, the most interesting data to me is around how the importance of different lure traits changes based on the size/age of the fish. So the lure traits that are important to small 1 lb bass aren't the same set of traits that appeal to a larger 4 lb bass. For me, this makes lure design much more interesting, as your designs should really change based on the exact size of fish you want to catch!...and I'm surprised none of the lure makers have used this as a marketing edge yet...

For instance, the 4 inch soft plastic is scientifically proven to be the best length for 2 lb largemouth bass. So if you fish in a lake where most of the bass are 2 pounders, you should be using 4 inch soft plastics. A key reason Senkos are so succussful (in my opinion) is that they are perfectly designed to catch bass in the 1 to 3 pound range...which just happens to be the largest population of bass out there. So by virtue of having a bait that appeals to fish in the most common size range, the bait has the appearance of being able to catch more fish...when in reality it just catches more fish in a particular size range, because it is very well matched to that specific fish demographic.

But...if you're going to larger bass, you should really be using longer soft plastics. So I could easily see a marketing scenario where worms are marketed based on the size of the fish instead of the size of the lure...For instance, you would have "2 pound bass" worms instead of "4 inch cut-tail". Because the traits of the worm are customized to catch a certain size bass, the lures would be more successful because anglers would be matching them specifically to the SIZE bass they want to catch.

Anyway...that's my 2 cents...hope I helped

(Awesome post by the way...this the part of lure making that I love learning and talking about!)

[Delw]

Dropshotting on the west coast is very popular with 6-10" fat worms, flukes, 6+ " inch senkos.

I alway have a dropshot rod hooked up with 17-22 test line 1/2-5/8 oz weight and a 3/0-4/0 hook.

in tourny fishing I found you catch more smaller fish with smaller baits then you do with the bigger baits. Still hae caught some pretty small ones but for the amount of time spent its etter to go with really big baits and hit all the spots you can.

it only takes 5 fish to win a tourny and sometimes you can do it with 3 fish if the fish are big.