Go into any well-stocked fishing store and the array of fishing lures can be taunting. Many lures are designed to catch fishermen rather than fish. Each lure comes with a fish story. Often the simplest lure is the best. What makes a lure work? That depends on what species of fish you are fishing for. Some lures work on a wide variety of fish. Others work on just one species or one type of terrain. Your tackle box is only so big and decisions have to be made.
A lure can work in five ways imitation, action, noise, color and flash. Some lures work in a combination of these five facets others work using all. Take the simple looking Kastmaster lures. These small lures imitate a swimming minnow, the spoon-like action is very close to a darting minnow, the rotation of the lure creates noise, their color is the equivalent of a shiner and the bright metal offers the flash. Many large trout and bass have been caught by these simple lures.
Far and away the majority of lures seek imitation to the detriment of the other four facets. If a spot-on imitation is presented to a bass but does not have the proper action, the bass sees it as another piece of wood passing by. Granted you can give the lure some action by the way you retrieve the lure but in tight corners like tree stumps you will catch more stumps than bass. Now take two imitators that do work. Rapala and Yo-Zuri. The Rapala with its jointed body gives action plus imitation. A Rapala on a slow retrieve gives off the appearance of a minnow just waiting to be swallowed. The Yo-Zuri Painted Shad crankbait imitates shad better than any lure on the market. It has that one thing that I have found gets more bass strikes than anything else, a touch of red. In my experience in bass fishing little red to bass is just like a red flag is to a bull. They seem to take it on instinct that here is wounded bait. Yo-Zuri depth options made it possible to fish any kind of cover. Their shallow lure gives of a wide wake attracting even the deepest bass to come up and strike the lure.
As for trout lures the same traits for a good lure apply, imitation, action, noise, color and flash. Two similar lures, Panther Martin and Mepps, fill these criteria. They have been around for a long time and that should tell you something. I personally like the Mepps over the Panther Martin because the generally have more flash. On a quick retrieve they give off the appearance of a minnow getting away that triggers the trout’s instinct to strike. Slow the retrieve down the last third of the cast in what is often the case a trout has followed the lure in. Give it an opportunity to strike. For trout and bass use a fluorocarbon leader to give line-shy fish a chance to take the lure.
Size is important depending on what you are fishing for. Smaller lures work better with rainbows, where medium-large lures work better with browns and bass. Kastmasters work well in streams for rainbow and on lakes for crappie. Rapalas seem to work better on lakes than on streams. Yo-Zuri works well on lakes and rivers for salmon. Both Rapalas and Yo-Zuri make excellent trolling lures. If I was going out today to fish for browns and maybe a summer-run steelhead in the Trinity River and I could pick only one of my many fishing lures, I would chose a 3/8 oz. Mepps in white or yellow body with a gold spinner and I am sure I would have a good time. As a matter of fact, I am going to slip into the waders right now and create new <a href="http://fishing-tales.com" target="_blank">fishing tales</a>.
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