Beginers lure guide link.
Googan (gugunn)
The googan is a beginner,some one who has just started,they are at a early part or stage in there learning about all thing’s fishy,you cannot move up from the status of googan,unless other’s around you, tell you that you are no longer a googan.
Translated to real words,he’s the kind of bloke who having just purchased his first spinning rod/reel combo proceeds to use it upside down and think’s his reel double’s as some kind of kitchen utensil.
So if you fit in with this type of guy,here’s a little help.
crankbaits,minnowbaits,jerkbaits,stickbaits....... ...............
christ,no wonder for the beginning lure angler it becomes a complete nightmare as to what's what in the world of plastic and wooden lure’s.
So how you going know which one to choose, when we make the task of picking the right one even harder,by having even more choice’s like
topwater,diving,sinking,lipless,rattling,jointed
once you've run the gauntlet for that you can pick a colour, of which there seem’s to be a a zillion.
now choose what lenght from 2" - 8"+,then if your not out of time you can start fishing.
ok,let's try and make it a little simpler if we can.
Let’s start by trying to clear up a few things first to help with the headache
minnowbaits,jerkbaits and stickbaits
these are basically all from a generic gene pool,they all tend to be rather thin,long bodied lures,the only things that change is obviously lenght,weight,buoyancy,lip shape,angle,how many sets of hooks,all of these thing also effect the way the lure swims.
With these type’s of lure you’ll probably do better in clear/lightly stained water as a basic guide rather than heavy stain,because of a lack of vision from the fishes point of view,there slim profile won’t move much water compared with the larger profile of the crank bait’s,for fish to pick up on there lateral line’s.
lures from top left down
bomber 16a,bomber a salt,hellcat,mega flash,rapala x-rap,rebel,rebel wind cheater,bomber 17a,bomber 16a,lucky craft,duo tide minnow,unknown.
crankbaits
these tend to be the short stubby guy's that you may have seen on the freshwater bass fishing shows.(that's the lures,not the
angler's
these lures come in mainly small sizes,upto 3"-4" in lenght,tend to be round or flat sided,roughly twice as long as they are in height,designed for the ability to fish in and around structure/cover because of the angle the lure works,the body and lip tends to help keep the hooks from snagging up all the time, also good for giving a larger profile bait in dark/stained water condition’s because the size of the body will move more water compared with the thinner profile of the minnow bait’s.
topwater
surface lures to chose from,poppers,sliders,wtd(walk the dog) style and a billion others i've forgotten about.,
these can be good in clear and stained water condition’s,as fish will pick up on the comotion made on the surface and should be looking up to see the bait silhouetted against the sky,which will give the best view in stained water, er on the less is more in clear water condition’s.
luhr jensen peacock bass,yozuri mag slider,rapala?,lucky craft sammy?,rapala x-rap 13.
luhr jensen p.j.pop,storm chug bug,pinto,superstrike little neck popper.
pencil poppers,both gibbs
Lipless
Sinking Lipless lures are great for covering lots of water quickly and all workable depth’s too,they also don’t tie you out like other lures from repeated casts because there’s no lip to build resistance against,good for most condition’s.
unknown,rapala rattle L,rapala rattle L
A few other style’s of lure’s
Needlefish
from left to right
superstrike,superstrike,lifishvt,gibbs,choopy,mike fixter.
Needlefish lures come in a variety of shape’s,length’s ,weight’s and the way there weighted adjusts how they cast/float or sink and at what angle they’ll swim,most true needlefish cast like a bullitt,remember just because some lure’s sink,doesn’t mean it can’t be used as a top water lure if you retrieve a little faster and keep your rod top higher while doing so.
Metal lip swimmer’s
left to right.
tattoo 2oz swimmer,tattoo 2oz swimmer,eel punt,choopy,tattoo everlasting eel,tattoo 1oz swimmer,tattoo 1oz swimmer.
Great for making lip adjustment’s quickly for depth and wobble by bending the lip either up or down,you can also adjust by bending the line tie,these lure’s are great at portraying larger than normal bait,s like mackeral,mullet,etc,they tend to have a more relaxed wide wobble and more roll than the faster tight action of the smaller minnow bait’s,in the right condition’s these lures work well, and hang tough in hard current,but most don’t cast well due to there fly like a dead parrot syndrome.
Darter’s and bottleplug’s
choopy darter,super strike bottle plug,superstrike darter,yozuri mag darter,choopy darter.
These are lure’s that work well when fish are hitting bigger baits like squid,they do there best work in current where they have a erratic action,where they’ll move 1-2ft one way then dart the other way when worked right.
Jointed lures
bomber 17a,joe bucher depth raider,rapala j13,rapala j13,bomber 12a?.
Jointed lures,another lure that doesn’t cast well,but can excell at producing that fast moving bait look,but without hardly moving,they also have an in built rattle when the two halves of the lure’s collide,the rapala j range of lure’s are still good fish producer’s today as is the sliver.
How to help choose the right lure:
A basic start point:
very buoyant tail up/nose down lure’s,these are a good choice when fished over weed,because they’ll back them selves out of the cover.
Low buoyancy lures,tail up/nose down, good for fishing over rocks/boulder’s,use a slower retrieve so you can feel the line and lure bumping over the cover so you can release the tension on the lure to allow it to back out if the lure get‘s caught up,also better for fish that aren’t feeding that aggressively either.
Suspending type lure’s,are good to use over clean ground,or with not so much cover because they tend to run through the water more horizontally so are more prone to hanging up,good to use on fish that require slow retrieve’s and plenty of long pauses to get a strike.
Sinking type’s are just that,use over clean ground/deeper water and count them down,if your using over rough cover,then expect to loose a lot of money.
ok,hopefully you now know some of the type's of lure out there,so how to choose which style.
try and divide your fishing area into depth zones and structure/cover to help you with what lure to choose.
zone 1) 0-6ft depth:
zone 2) 6-12ft depth:
zone 3) 12-18ft depth:
zone 4) 18ft +…
How can we tell which lipped lures will dive to what depth’s.
You can get a idea from the shape of the lure and the type of lip/shape for how it’s going to perform.
Very basic diagram of lure lip angle’s
The angle the lip is at “A “ will give the shallowest dive,but a very wide wobble.
The angle the lip is at “ C “ will give the deepest dive angle but the least amount of wiggle.
“ B “ will give good depth and a nice wobble,the best of both world’s,remember that this is only a basic guide line,a lot of other thing’s come into play as well.
looking at the angle the lip is at will give a idea of the depth attainable,buoyancy of lure also play’s a major role.
now don't just rely on what the attainable depth say's on the box that your lure comes in either.
The depth of any lure is governed by
1) the distance it's cast
2) the angle/style of the lip/bib
3) the diameter of the line
4) speed of retrieve
5) angle of rod
6) buoyancy of lure
so just because you have a lure that can do a certain depth,don't be completly locked into the fact it can't do anything else,like swim deeper ,shallower or with a little more roll with a little thought like modifing it's weight, retrieve speed or line diameter.
knowing what depth each of your lures will go to, with what line and retrieve's your using will be a great help in being able to fish close enough around cover to provoke strike’s from fish but without losing every lure in your box.
so having looked at the lures above,you could use all of them mentioned for zones 1,2 & 3,only wind,current,surf,waterclarity,structure /cover dictates,which one’s will work the best for the condition’s.
zone 3,becomes a little differant,if your good,you maybe able to pull fish up from this depth and a little more with top waters and jerk baits but it's going to be hard,
so what do we have left ,deep diving crankbaits or deepdiving minnowbaits,weighted plastics and jigs/metal to get down to those sort of depth's.
Zone 4)
chance's are you won't find a jerkbait that will work well beyond 10-12ft,because if you alter it buoyancy to much you won't get any hang time which is what these were developed for in the first place,so that's out the window,deep divers won’t get to that depth without the assistance of extra weight.
You’d be better off using metal or jigs etc to work this depth of water correctly.
structure and cover
both used by fish and are very differant! here's a quick introduction.
structure
whether hard (rock) or soft (sand) is basically the topography of the seabed,these consist of points,holes,bars,rises(underwater islands)flats,cuts/trenches.
cover,
anything fish can use to hide in for protection or to ambush prey,this includes all type's of weed,mussel poles,loose rocks,boulder’s,white water and coloured water condition’s,etc,etc.
either one on it's own will hold fish at some time,but when you have good cover on good type's of structure,in an area that has current you've got some good fishing.
Colour choices
This comes down to what the fish want on the day,that said this is the last thing that comes to my mind when choosing a lure,for me action and profile comes first,that’s my choice.colour wise I like to have colour’s that come under the guise of light and dark,but for other’s colour choice is high on the list.
A basic list of colour’s for water condition’s
Clear water: white,blue,chrome and natural,most colour’s will work in clear water,because the visibility is good,also the clear see through lure's work well.
Lightly stained: green’s
Heavy Stained water: orange,yellow’s chartreuse,gold’s, work well,but also the dark colour’s like purple’s and black stand out well,lures with these colour’s and a little flash may help.
And even though red is the first colour you loose to depth in clear water,it’s a good colour to use in muddy water condition’s.
Light condition’s
You can also choose by light condition’s,
low light:
darker colour’s will stand out more especially if they have a little flash on them as well. also natural fish colour’s.
Bright light condition’s:
bright colour’s,like orange’s,yellow’s,chartreuse anything with a lot of flash.
At night most if not all colour’s will be just different shade’s anyway.
Rattling lure’s
Again very difficult to put anything down in hard,fast rule’s,because people catch in clear water and very stained water,bright hot sunny day’s and the darkest of night’s,this one is for you to figure out,if you want a starting point,then bright daylight,calm,clear water condition’s then no,dark,murky looking water,dark,pitch black night’s with swell,surf then yes.
Oh buy the way Once you’ve learn’t and memorised all this,do yourself a favour and throw it all out the window,because fish being fish don’t play by the rule’s.