CHAPTER 7

Artificial Lures

In This Chapter

The ten variables in lures

The five types of lures

The characteristics of each lure type

How to fish each type of lure

In this chapter you’ll learn about the variables that exist in artificial lures and what those variables mean to fish. Also, you’ll learn about the five basic lure types (spinners, plugs, soft plastics, jigs, and spoons) and their intended uses.

Shopping Tips for Artificial Lures

The number of artificial lures currently available to anglers is truly overwhelming. When you consider that a company may produce a single lure in six different sizes and twelve different colors, that one lure alone translates to seventy-two options for an angler. Then consider that one company may produce dozens of different lures and that there are hundreds if not thousands of lure makers across North America. How does an angler deal with all of these options?

The best way to start is by selecting lures that are designed for your targeted species. Catalogs and store aisles commonly organize lures in this manner. Also, select lures for different depths. If you are targeting largemouth bass in a reservoir, you might try three lures: a surface plug for fishing over weed beds and in shallow water, a spinner bait for reaching mid-depths of 5 to 10 feet, and a tube jig so you can fish in deeper water, say 15 to 20 feet. Instead of purchasing dozens of lures, anglers are better off having a few for each species and learning how to fish those lures well.

When purchasing lures, the advice of fishing friends and knowledgeable salespeople can be extremely helpful. Tell them the species you are after and the water conditions you’ll be fishing, and ask what works for them. No matter what artificial lure you use, two keys to good catches are to work the lure properly and to have confidence in the lure. Angler confidence in a lure is critical to successful fishing, and catching fish is the easiest way to gain such confidence.

And the easiest way to catch fish is to understand how the ten variables in artificial lures appeal to a fish’s senses, and how the five different types of lures are designed to be fished.

The Ten Variables in Artificial Lures

Some people say that manufacturers make lures to catch fishermen, but that is not the case. In reality, lure makers invest a lot of money and time in creating and testing lures so that they catch fish. After all, if a lure catches fish, that lure will definitely catch fishermen, too. While artificial lures may not have the natural appeal of live baits, lure makers go to great lengths to make their products appealing to fish. To better understand how lures actually appeal to fish, here’s a look at ten common variables in artificial lures.

Depth, Action, and Speed

Primary factors in lure effectiveness are depth, action, and speed. Depth may be the most important variable because a lure won’t catch fish unless it gets to where the fish are. Individual lures are designed to work at particular depths from the surface to the lake bottom. Lures such as surface plugs, shallow-running minnow baits, and deep-diving crankbaits have a built-in depth range depending on line diameter. Lures such as spinners, spoons, jigs, and plastics allow the angler to work them at varying depths to 35 feet and more. Of course, adding weights increases depth possibilities for all lures.

Real Fishing

Novice anglers are better off using lures with built-in action such as spinners and diving plugs. As your skills improve, you can turn to lures such as plastic worms and jigs that require angler-imparted action.

Lure action and speed are somewhat interrelated, and both variables play vital roles in lure effectiveness. A lure with the proper action will entice fish with its visual and vibration appeal, and speed plays a part in good action. For example, a spinner retrieved too slowly will not exude the flash to imitate a baitfish, nor will it emit the vibrations of a properly thumping blade. Likewise, poor action occurs when a minnow imitator is retrieved too rapidly and thus swims sideways resulting in the loss of its natural minnow-imitating swimming action and vibrations.

Lures such as spinners, spoons, and plugs have a built-in action while lures such as jigs require the angler to impart proper action. Plastic baits such as grubs commonly have a built-in twister-tail action, whereas others like plastic worms and tube baits demand angler control to impart good action. In truth, the best anglers use a combination of both a lure’s built-in action and angler manipulation for peak lure action.

Most lures function best in a narrow range of designed speeds. By observing how a lure works at dockside or boat side under varying speeds, you can see what speed and what movements impart the best lure action. A general speed-related rule is to employ slower speeds in cold water and clouded water and faster speeds in warm water and clear water. Also, varying lure speed during a retrieve often proves irresistible to fish under any conditions.

Size, Vibration, and Color

Additional lure variables include size, vibration, and color. The size factor is pretty obvious: use small lures for panfish and stream trout, use medium-size lures for bass and walleyes, and use large lures for striped bass and muskellunge. Of course, there are no absolutes in fishing, so a large northern pike might hit a tiny panfish jig. Imitating the size and color of native baitfish also pays off as evidenced by the success of striped bass anglers.

Remember that fish are vibration-sensitive creatures, so lures that emit vibrations often attract fish particularly in stained and darker waters. Spinners and plugs emit vibrations while jigs, spoons, and plastic baits rely more on visual than vibrational attraction.

Anglers probably place too much importance on color, although it is a lure variable that plays a role in attracting a fish’s attention. Since water filters out colors as a lure descends in the water column, color is a less important factor in deep-water fishing than when fishing in shallow water. Although there are no hard-and-fast rules in color selection, standard guidelines are to use natural colors in clear water, brighter colors in stained waters, and dark colors at night. Another guideline is to select colors that imitate natural prey in the water system. Some anglers are fond of saying things like “Give me any color in your box as long as it’s black.”

Flash is an offshoot of color, and plugs, spoons, and spinners with silver or gold coloring do emit a flash. Silver seems to work better in clear water while gold works better in stained water.

Sound, Texture, Scent, and Shape

Additional but less important lure variables are sound, texture, scent, and shape. Two types of lures that emit fish-attracting sounds are surface plugs and vibrating crankbaits. Surface plugs work in all shallow waters, crankbaits with built-in rattles work well in most waters, and vibrating crankbaits produce better catches in stained waters than in clear ones. Most lures are made of metal, wood, or hard plastic, evidence that texture is not a fish attractant. Such is not the case with soft plastics and the ever-growing number of swim baits whose softness presents a natural feel in a fish’s mouth. Scented soft plastics can also be a fish attractant. Some companies impregnate plastics with scents, some store their plastics in liquid scents, and others offer spray-on and rub-on scents. Regarding shape, some lures like minnow baits strongly resemble minnows while lures like spinner baits have no resemblance whatsoever to a minnow. Shape is likely a more important factor in clear water than in stained water.

Types of Artificial Lures

The five common types of artificial lures are spinners, plugs, soft plastics, jigs, and spoons, and a number of different styles exist within each category. Let’s take a closer look at how to use these various styles and why they catch fish.

Spinners

A spinner consists of a wire shaft with a metal blade that spins around the shaft when the lure is retrieved. As the blade spins, it reflects light and emits vibration, actions that are designed to resemble a baitfish in distress. Since most freshwater species feed on baitfish in distress, spinners are effective fish catchers. Spinners are easy to use because an angler simply has to cast them out and then retrieve them. A more experienced angler will want to include some variations in his retrieve, but a novice can catch plenty of fish by simply casting and reeling.

The standard and most common spinner is the in-line spinner. Such spinners have a built-in weight on the shaft behind the blade and a treble hook at shaft’s end. The hook may be bare, but hooks are commonly dressed in hair, feathers, or synthetic material intended to give the spinner a longer appearance and a wiggling, tail-like action. Small in-line spinners are a mainstay on trout streams, and the large tandem (two dressed treble hooks) spinners are a favorite of muskellunge anglers. No matter what size in-line spinner you use, be sure to use a quality swivel. Otherwise, serious line twist will occur.

Bad Cast

Most in-line spinners cause line twist if the spinner is attached directly to the line. To prevent line twist, always use a quality swivel when casting or trolling a spinner.

The spinner bait ranks as the second most popular spinner. Spinner baits have a shape that resembles an open safety pin. The top wire holds one or more blades while the bottom wire has a painted weight, hook, and rubber skirt. Spinner baits rank high on the largemouth bass angler’s list of must-have lures, but spinner baits are also popular among pike and muskellunge anglers.

The buzzbait and weight-forward spinner are less popular than their in-line and spinner bait counterparts. The buzzbait has a plastic or metal propeller that rotates at the head of the spinner, and the noise-making propeller moving across the water’s surface attempts to imitate a swimming, struggling creature. The buzzbait is basically a largemouth bass lure designed for fishing over heavy cover, but buzzbaits also have a place in the tackle boxes of anglers who cast for pike and muskies. The weight-forward spinner resembles the in-line spinner except that the weight is ahead of the spinner and it has a single bare hook on which anglers place bait. Weight-forward spinners are most commonly used by walleye anglers, who place a night crawler on the hook.

Because of the built-in weights, spinners are easy to cast and they can be fished at a variety of depths and speeds. To achieve greater depths, simply allow the spinner to sink prior to engaging the reel. Faster retrieves produce well in clear-water and warm-water conditions; slower retrieves catch fish in stained or cold water. Thin blades spin faster and closer to the shaft than heavier round blades that turn slower and farther from the shaft. Spinner blades come in a variety of painted colors, but silver and gold are the most common. A fast-action rod makes for easier retrieving of large-bladed spinners.

Plugs

Made of wood or plastic, most plugs have a minnow shape and are designed to imitate minnows and small fish. The exceptions are surface plugs, which simulate various creatures swimming on the water’s surface. Some plugs are stubby and others are slender but all have multiple sets of treble hooks. Plugs offer a number of positive features. For one, they can be fished from the surface to depths of 20 feet or more. Additional depths can be achieved by adding in-line weights or employing other fishing aids. The size of the lip determines depth for most lures, and packaging usually contains information on depth range.

Anglers use plugs for both casting and trolling. Plugs perform well at various speeds and are available in numerous color patterns. Those colors along with shape and action provide strong visual attraction for fish. Plugs come in different sizes and appeal to game fish from small trout to monster muskellunge. If you find a plug you like, you can get different sizes and use them for several species. The multiple sets of treble hooks provide excellent hook-setting, but they also take more time to remove from a fish’s mouth and may cause injury, important considerations when you plan on releasing your catch.

Employing a steady retrieve or constant trolling speed when using plugs will catch plenty of fish, but to improve your catches, use erratic and varied speeds, actions, which better simulate the behaviors of live minnows and small fish.

Plugs can be classed by two categories: surface plugs and diving plugs. As their names suggest, surface plugs work on top of the water while diving plugs work below the surface. Also called top-water lures, surface plugs perform effectively in shallow water, around weeds, at night, and under calm conditions. They are essentially a bass lure, although larger models work for pike and muskellunge. Top-water lures attract fish by creating a disturbance on the water’s surface. Diving plugs consist of floating, sinking, and neutrally buoyant models, but all of them dive to designed depths upon retrieve and simulate the swimming action of minnows and small fish.

Surface Plugs

The four types of surface plugs are propbaits; chuggers, or poppers; crawlers; and stickbaits. Propbaits have a metal propeller at the front end or propellers at both ends, so propbaits resemble buzzbaits in that they both create a whirling sound to attract fish, particularly largemouth bass. Chuggers, or poppers, have an indented face and when the lure is jerked, it emits a popping or chugging sound. Anglers use tiny poppers for panfish, medium-size ones for bass, and large chuggers for striped bass. Crawlers, sometimes called gurglers, have a metal faceplate or pair of wings in the front portion of the lure. Crawlers create a plopping sound when retrieved steadily across the surface, and the lures appeal to both largemouth bass and northern pike. Stickbaits are usually long and slender, but they rely on angler control for action because the lures have no lips or other features to create a swimming action. Anglers commonly work stickbaits in a side-to-side action known as walking the dog.

Bad Cast

When fishing surface plugs, anglers often set the hook when they see a fish strike the lure. This is a big no-no and will result in a lot of missed fish. Instead of setting the hook when you see the strike, set the hook only when you feel the weight of the fish at line’s end.

Diving Plugs

The common types of diving plugs, sometimes called swimming plugs, are minnow plugs, crankbaits, vibrating crankbaits, and jerkbaits. Minnow plugs have a long body shape and a small lip so that upon retrieve they dive and have a side-to-side wobbling action. Crankbaits are similar to minnow plugs except crankbaits are thicker bodied and have larger lips so they dive to greater depths and emit a tighter side-to-side action. Minnow plugs and crankbaits can be either cast or trolled, and both methods will take a wide variety of game fish species. Vibrating crankbaits, also called lipless crankbaits or rattle baits, do not have lips, but they do have built-in rattling sounds and a tight wiggling action. Lipless crankbaits are sinking lures, so they can be fished at a variety of depths depending on how long an angler lets the lure descend before beginning the retrieve. Rattle baits work well for bass and pike particularly in stained waters. Jerkbaits, also called glidebaits, are large plugs that do not have lips, float at rest, and dive below the surface when given a sturdy jerk. These plugs give the appearance of an injured, struggling fish and are most often used by anglers in pursuit of muskellunge.

Soft Plastics

The plastic worm has been around for well over a hundred years, but the modern fishing world has seen an explosion in the soft plastic arena. Available soft plastics include imitations of worms, grubs, minnows, crayfish, frogs, leeches, salamanders, lizards, mice, eels, salmon eggs, insects, and more. Soft plastics are popular for many reasons, most noteworthy is that they catch all species of fish. Still, most soft plastics are primarily bass lures.

Soft plastics are relatively inexpensive, and they can be fished at a variety of depths with the addition of weights. The natural appearance and movement of soft plastics attract fish, and the texture appeal surpasses that of spinners, plugs, jigs, and spoons. In addition, many soft plastics are impregnated with scent. Soft plastics can be fished in a weedless fashion, so they work well in weedy areas, a favorite haunt of largemouth bass. Soft plastics also allow for soft and subtle presentations, and such presentations are often necessary in clear water or in areas where fish experience angling pressure.

The drawbacks of using soft plastics are fairly limited. For one, most soft plastics are not prerigged with hooks as are the other lure types. Also, soft plastics are designed to be fished slowly so an angler cannot cover water as quickly as with spinners, plugs, and spoons. Even though anglers sometimes insert rattles in soft plastics, the lures don’t offer the flash and vibration emitted by other lure types. In essence, using soft plastics effectively is a skill since the angler must impart lure action and develop a feel for bites. Unlike faster-moving lures that fish strike, plastic lures are taken more lightly, so the angler has to develop a feel for fish takes that often feel more like taps or ticks than actual strikes.

Worms, Grubs, Minnows, and Tubes

Four popular styles of soft plastics are the worm, grub, minnow, and tube. Plastic worms vary in length from a few inches to over a foot, but bass anglers favor the 4- to 8-inch lengths. The three basic hooking styles are Texas rigged, Carolina rigged, and wacky rigged. The Texas style is a weedless one with the hook point imbedded in the body at the head of the worm and a bullet weight placed on the line ahead of the hook. The Carolina style has an exposed or imbedded hook point and a barrel sinker 2 or 3 feet up the line above a swivel. The Carolina rig allows for heavier weights, so it is used in deep water and in areas with significant current. The wacky style simply involves inserting a hook through the middle of the worm so the hook point is exposed, and since no weight is added, the wacky style is a shallow-water presentation.

Grubs, commonly called twister tails, come in a variety of lengths and have a cylindrical body in the front portion and a thin tail in the rear portion. When retrieved, the tail wiggles with a fish-enticing action. Grubs are most commonly fished on jigheads to provide weight for casting and for achieving desired lure depth. Some anglers use grubs as trailers on spinners and spoons. Tiny grubs work well for panfish and trout while 3- to 4-inch grubs take bass and walleyes.

Soft-plastic minnows, better known as swimbaits, are fast growing in popularity. These minnows have a lifelike appearance and are available in a variety of sizes for a variety of species. Most swimbaits have a large single hook protruding out the top of the minnow, although some models allow for the hook to fit in a slot to give the lure a weedless feature. Many models have a weight on the hook shank that is prerigged in the minnow’s body, a feature that allows the lure to be fished in deep water. Although not as enticing as the tail action on grubs, swimbaits do have tail action.

Tube baits were originally designed as a bass lure in 3- to 4-inch lengths, but now they come in lengths less than an inch for panfish and in lengths up to 10 inches for muskellunge. These soft plastics consist of a hollow tube into which a specially designed jighead, called a tube jig, is inserted. Tube baits have a tentacle tail, which has some movement but for the most part action must be angler induced. When an angler lets the tube bait fall, it does so with a spiraling action; when an angler twitches the lure, it resembles an injured minnow; and when an angler hops the lure along the bottom, it resembles a feeding minnow. Although the tube bait may not look enticing to anglers, its erratic action makes it a fish-catching lure, one overlooked by many anglers.

Jigs

The jig is a simple lure comprised of a hook with a lead head molded near the hook’s eye, and the heads are available in various shapes, sizes, and colors. Jighead shapes include round, oval, cylindrical, cone, and flat-sided, and their sizes range from 1/64 of an ounce to several ounces. Jigs catch all species of fish, with tiny jigs taking panfish and stream trout and medium-size jigs appealing to smallmouth bass, walleyes, lake trout, and striped bass. Using large jigs is a fast-growing strategy among muskellunge anglers.

Fishing Vocab

An eye buster is a small tool that pokes the paint out of the eye on a jighead. Since jigheads are dipped in paint during the manufacturing process, their eyes are coated in paint, and the paint must be removed before the jig can be attached to the line or snap. Some anglers poke the paint out by pushing a hook through the eye, but this practice should be avoided because it dulls hook points.

Fishing with a jig requires angler skill since the jig itself has minimal built-in attraction. Also, detecting bites requires good feel because fish do not strike a jig as they might a spinner or plug. Instead, fish usually inhale the jig, and the angler will feel only a tick at line’s end. Slow reaction by the angler may give the fish enough time to eject the lure without getting hooked. Any angler who develops the skill of jig fishing will catch a lot of fish.

Jigs are extremely versatile lures that cast well and can be fished at a variety of speeds and at a variety of depths in the water column. A fast retrieve works when casting to striped bass feeding on a school of shad, whereas a slow retrieve works for bottom-hugging walleyes feeding on crayfish. Light jigs allow for fishing in shallow water, whereas heavier jigs sink quickly for fishing deep-water species such as lake trout. Because of a jig’s fast-sinking characteristic, the lure works well in current.

Real Fishing

If I were limited to a single fishing lure, I would pick the jig because of its versatility and effectiveness.

Some anglers cast jigs and retrieve them in a jerking fashion, but a lift-and-drop technique is the standard retrieve whether casting the jig or fishing it vertically. Experienced anglers will tell you that 90 percent of the hits occur while the lure is falling, as fish have difficulty resisting prey that darts away and then swims downward, an action that imitates a struggling baitfish. Jigs may also be hopped along the bottom to imitate feeding baitfish or crayfish. Anglers should avoid retrieving jigs in a steady fashion since it is the irregular, angler-imparted action that makes the jig such an effective fish-catching lure.

Jigs offer the versatility of either soft or aggressive presentations. Soft, slow presentations work under cold-water conditions and at times when fish are inactive; more aggressive presentations work in warm water and when fish are feeding actively or in schools. Anglers commonly give jigs added fish appeal by tipping them with soft plastics, minnows, leeches, or night crawlers. The standard, lead-head jig may have a bare or dressed hook. Deer hair is a common dressing on jigs so such jigs are often called bucktails. Other hook dressings include rubber skirts, marabou, feathers, and synthetics.

Because of their relatively inexpensive cost, versatility, and fish-catching ability, lead-head jigs should find a place in every angler’s tackle box. When questioned about what lure an angler would choose if he or she were limited to a single one, the most common response is the lead-head jig.

Jigging Spoons and Blade Baits

In addition to the lead-head jig are two other jigging lures: the jigging spoon and the blade bait. The jigging spoon is a long, slender lure made of heavy metal. The lure has a single or treble hook at the bottom and a hole or split ring at the top for attachment to the line. Jigging spoons are designed to be fished vertically in a lift-and-drop fashion, and their heavy weight translates to fast sinking. The flash and minnow-like motion of jigging spoons imitates injured baitfish. While these lures are sometimes cast into surface-feeding striped bass, jigging spoons are more commonly used at the 50- to 100-foot depths for lake trout.

Blade baits are made of thin metal with molded lead near the front, and they have the profile of a minnow. Blade baits have one or two treble hooks on the bottom and are attached to the line via a hole or split ring on the top. Even though these lures are shaped like a minnow and emit flash, their main attraction is vibration. Blade baits may be fished in a cast-and-retrieve fashion, but they are primarily designed for a vertical lift-and-drop presentation. Blade baits are most widely used by walleye anglers.

Spoons

The first fishing spoons were supposedly made of actual spoons with a hook attached, and modern spoons resemble those first ones because they, too, are essentially concave pieces of metal with a hook at the rear and a hole or ring at the top for line attachment. Although a few models have shapes other than concave, most spoons are the standard concave, a shape that creates a wobbling action and emits a flash to simulate injured or fleeing prey. Thus, spoons catch all species of fish that feed on baitfish.

Some spoons are polished on both sides while others are polished on the back and colored on the front. Common metallic colors include silver, gold, and copper; the painted possibilities include the entire color spectrum. Some spoons are made of hammered metal, a design that reflects light much like the scaled pattern of actual baitfish, and some spoons have a plated surface, a design that better reflects light than a painted surface. Because of the flash they emit, spoons are more effective in clear water than they are in stained and dark waters.

Unlike spinners that are designed to spin, spoons are designed to wobble or move from side to side. To achieve the desired action and flash, spoons must be worked at the proper speed. Too slow or too fast a presentation will result in poor catches, so always verify at what speed a spoon performs best. Speed may be more critical when using spoons than when using any other type of lure.

Bad Cast

Some anglers leave their lures attached to the line at day’s end. A better practice is to remove the lures and store them in your tackle box. Drying lures prior to storage helps prevent mildew and rust.

The two basic types of spoons are casting and trolling. Casting spoons are made of heavy metal, and most models have a treble hook, although some have a single hook. These spoons are easy to cast and easy to use because they may be retrieved in either a steady or erratic manner. Also, they can be fished throughout the water column by letting them sink to the desired depth prior to retrieving. Casting spoons catch a variety of species, and an angler simply has to select a size to match the targeted species. Spoons are especially popular among trout, salmon, and pike anglers. Even though casting spoons are designed for casting, the spoons are also used for trolling, particularly for lake trout and northern pike. Some casting spoons have a weed guard, and this weedless feature allows anglers to use the lure to target largemouth bass and pike holding in weeds.

Trolling spoons, also called flutter spoons, are light and have a thin design so they move in a side-to-side manner. Single hooks are more common than treble ones on trolling spoons, whose light weight requires the use of weights or downriggers to get the lures to desired depths. Trolling spoons are especially popular among big-water anglers working the open water for various trout and salmon species.