Super Lures

[ArdentAngler]

All this talk of Wiggle Warts and Bagleys has got me thinking. I read an article by Gene Kira on  jointed Rebel lures and in it was a neologism called "Super Lures", basically these were standard factory lures that had something extra special about them. Everyone has had one in his or her tacklebox at some time, a lure that outperforms the rest. Just curious on this and your experiences with "super lures".

 

I owned a couple of these, mine were Rebel Craws and they would slay trout. I thought it was the colors, after throwing the exact same pattern and model and turning up nothing it seemed that it was those lures themselves. Know I have ruminated on this, could it be a frequency or action? Possibly a combination of both?

 

The manufacturing process have tight tolerances, so the change is so minute that it makes you aware of the grand possibilities  when building. I mean how much can a factory lure vary?

[woodieb8]

hand builds can and do vary. in the musky world theres always the magic one. even chewed up they still catch. its funny but true

[ArdentAngler]

It would have to be a magic bait for musky....fish of a thousand casts!

 

Just looking at some lures, not much can be changed essentially. Maybe the walls of the lure are thicker or uneven, extra weight from paint? I mean the line ties are stable figure eights for most baits so they do not protrude enough to vastly alter the action. I don't know how, but certain lures are a cut above the rest. Wish I still had those two craws to study, darn underwater trees took em.

[BobP]

I think that with improved manufacturing technology, crankbaits have been getting more uniform in terms of performance than they ever were in the past.  But there is still variability in every model produced anywhere. Pro tournament fishermen who specialize in crankbaits used to get 100 crankbaits of one model from a sponsor and test them to winnow the baits down to maybe 10-15 crankbaits that had just the right action.  I bet they still do.  As far as custom wood crankbaits go, the possibility of variation is even greater.  It's a curse because it proves to me that tiny tiny, virtually unnoticeable differences between crankbaits can make one a hero and another a zero.  The only bright spot is that if you fish lots of crankbaits, you will eventually begin to form an impression of what a good crankbait feels like at the end of your line. 

[Anglinarcher]

LOL, I love this post.  It is soooooo true, and for reasons we will never know.

 

It is also true of fishing flies.  I remember a fly my dad was using back in the 60's one day for trout, a whet fly, called cow dung.  Now he had a dozen in his fly box and they all looked just the same to me.  Dad was catching the heck out of fish one day on it, so I tied one on my rod.

 

Nothing, not a fish, and yet dad continued catching fish until there was almost nothing left of his fly.  Finally he removed and changed the fly and NOTHING.  He changed back to that fly that had only a few fibers left on it and the catch was on.

 

So, why was THAT fly so good?  Factor whatever answer you have into the above questions and maybe you will have an answer.  Then tell me, cause I am sooooo confused.  LOL

[RayburnGuy]

I can't tell you how much manufactured lures vary, or why, but I have no doubt whatsoever they do. A few years back I had one particular Norman DD22 out of several that were purchased at the same time and that one bait would out catch the others 10 to 1. I compared that bait to a bunch of others and could tell no difference in size or sound. Never could figure out what made that one so special. I hung it up one day and worked for an hour or more with a plug knocker trying to get it back. The wind blowing 10 to 15 mph didn't help matters any and I ended up losing it. Baits like that one don't come around every day, but when they do you know you've got something special.

 

Ben

[ArdentAngler]

Bobp

 

I have always wondered that about Professional fisherman. That must be a pain to go through all those lures for one or two that catch fish. Although for those guys the difference matters and is worth the effort in the end.

 

I read a bit and it seems the one way to tell would be through frequency, although its not practical in monetary terms. Russ Mohney touched a bit on this in his book "Lurecraft" and there is a bit on the net if you dig around a bit. Someone also made a post about this and I cannot remember what it was called or whom did it, for which I apologize to them.

 

Anglinarcher

 

Very interesting, never thought about that with flies! I remember a fly tier gave me some words of advice a while back he said "tie every fly as if it were crippled, because that's the one fish go for in nature". Now the reason he said this was because he could tie very well and needed something clever to fall back on, haha. Still good advice, it can be transferred easily to lure making.

 

I know how it feels to lose great lures, had a nephew take one of my lures and lose it. I had it hung up for sentimental reasons, only lure that caught me two bass at the same time given to me by a late friend.

[TorqueConverter]

I had a Reble Shallw Wee R that would do something I have never sceen in a crank.  It would have these hickups in it's wobble where it would wobble with a wider or tighter wobble from normal at random intervals.  It was not a hunting action and bait could not be made to blowout.  Unfortunately I lost it within the 15 min of throwing it for the 1st time.  That bait would have been a super lure for me. 

[pat28]

In the musky industry, several lures are made out of wood. A minor variation in the density of one piece of wood, or else a small, hidden knot somewhere and it can make or break the lure's success. The terrible thing is that at 20-25 dollars each, you would want them all to work, but only a very small fraction of them have the je-ne-sais-quoi that makes them great.

Pat

[woodieb8]

every lure we do build gets a actual water test 2 times. first for balance. then once completed they are swam at the marina for final testing. yes when folks spend hard dollars I want them to have a good piece. as pat28 stated we all want a magic bullet.. at 5mph we want the walk.

[wchilton]

Back when I was in college I had a 1/8 panther martin.  Red dots on yellow body and silver spinner.  It was a rainbow trout magnet to the point my brother and I had to take turns to avoid getting into a fight.  I had 2 or 3 others exactly the same and they didn't catch.  The trouble is when you get a good bait like that you tend to use it a lot and it gets lost!  Mine got hung up on an underwater log.

 

Had a second experience where a fishing buddy picked up an inexpensive Renegade jerk bait at Walmart that slayed fish like nothing else we've ever seen.  We ended up buying all of those we could get our hands on.  About 1/4 of them were "good" like that first one and the rest were duds.  That first one of his got all the paint eaten off it and still caught fish just like when it was new.  It finally got destroyed by a barracuda that shook his head a smashed it into a rock.  I managed to save a few of those (after they were broken) and tried a few "autopsies" to figure out what was different but never uncovered the secret.  A while later Walmart got a new batch of those baits and none of them were anything special.  They had been changed slightly internally and that's all it took to eliminate whatever slight variation made some of that first batch so good.

[flbasspond]

I had to read all these posts with a large grin on my face...how true! I have long said this about Rat;L;Traps. Just about one in 10 or 15 is a virtual fish magnet and seems to have just a tiny bit more shake in its caboose.  When I was guiding on the Kissimmee Chain in Florida full time we would often go through 30 or 40 of the Chrome/Blue Back 1/4 ounce models in a season.  Most were eventually lost to grass or pickeral. The "magic" ones just seemed to have an extra shake or two for every foot of retrieve. When you found one of the special ones you could virtually wear the chrome off of the bait catching bass and continue to catch fish whereas a "normal" one stopped catching many fish when almost any chrome was gone. I remember telling a client about this and and he wanted to see if he could tell the difference- so we ran the baits side by sde next to the boat and you could just barely make out the difference...then on the second or third try a 4 pound bass came from ubder the boat and ate mine! Talk about a convincing demo!!