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Written By - Mark Strand - 06/15/2007 |
Link to Original Article
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I've seen it make all the difference in the world. Not every time, but
fish definitely show a preference for certain shapes on a lot of days.
explains Hank Steele, longtime Rapala Club Administrator
All of us at least pretend to know something about the business of
getting a fish to bite. We plug our past experiences into the computer,
look at the water conditions, thrust a wet index finger into the air
and grab a lure. Then we cast it out there, or put it at the end of a
trolling setup, and see if it works.
There are countless variables in fishing, so anything you can do to put
the odds in your favor has to help. Dick Sternberg, a Rapala pro
staffer and former fisheries biologist, has an interesting theory that
guides his lure
selection depending on what species he's targeting.
"It's not anything scientific," he warns, sounding like the biologist
he was. "It's more common sense than anything else."
Here it is:
By paying attention to the feeding tendencies of the fish you want to
catch, you might be able to choose a bait "tailor made" for catching
it. It works something like this: Short, compact predators such as
largemouth
bass tend to favor prey such as sunfish... short, fat items. Predators
like walleyes, northern pike and muskies tend to favor relatively
longer, slimmer prey items such as smelt, perch, shad, smaller walleyes
and the like.
"Fish will eat what they have to eat," says Sternberg. "If a hungry
northern has nothing but bluegills in front of him, he's going to eat
bluegills. But in waters where they have a choice, they definitely will
select for certain
types of food over others. Food preference studies show this."
Okay, you say, what does this have to do with my fishing? It has to do
with putting the odds in your favor. Assuming certain types of fish
tend to select certain shaped prey, you can select lures of those
shapes to represent them. After all, the science of catching fish is
all about putting something natural looking in front of the fish,
something the fish is used to looking for.
In other words, it's no coincidence that short, flat lures like the Fat
Rap and Rapala DT crankbaits have a reputation for taking largemouth
bass. And that longer, slimmer minnow plugs like the original floating
Rapala, Husky Jerk and Tail Dancer are known walleye killers. Their
general shapes tend to appeal to the predatory instincts of different
fish.
"That doesn't rule out the chance of catching walleyes on fat
crankbaits," says Sternberg, "or of catching bass on a Husky Jerk. We
all know it happens all the time. You can¹t make any rules about it,
but there does seem to be this general pattern."
This tendency has developed in these fish. It no doubt has something to
do with different shaped prey giving off different sets of vibrations.
A predator learns to key in on the vibrations of its favored prey. A
lure shaped like that prey probably gives off a similar set of vibes,
triggering an uninhibited feeding reaction. In situations where the
fish can use its eyesight, the shape likely looks "right" if it's like
that fish's "normal" prey.
It's also possible that "like-shaped" fishes are ideally suited for
tracking each other down. In other words, perhaps a bass, with its
football-shaped body of similar physique to a small sunfish, is able to
more easily match
the sharp turning movements of a sunfish, making the bass a more
efficient predator of sunfish-shaped prey than, say, a pike, with its
elongated body.
The longer-bodied fishes may be better suited for tracking down
like-bodied prey, with lightning-fast bursts of speed, minus the need
for hairpin turns during the pursuit.
It's not a law, but how many immutable fishing laws do you know? A lot
of times, it pays to listen to the experiences of top fishermen like
Sternberg
Sometimes, by doing something as simple as selecting a certain shaped
lure, you can actually influence the odds of catching the fish you
want.
Note: This article was crafted by the Rapala Pro Staff. For more
fishing insights, go to www.rapala.com
.
