Can always teach an ol' dog new tricks including this one!

[senkosam]

As many of you know, lure design is my passion. If I had to use the same lures year after year, I'd stop fishing. You can only read the same book over and over again no matter how good the book before it gets old. (Though with my memory starting to decline, reading the same book two years from now would be almost like reading it for the first time; watching movies again included.

Keeping a photo journal and tagging certain photos with titles indicates what lures caught fish and helps me remember when and when I caught fish on them. It helps when I want to post examples on my favorite forums like on bassfishn. Photos help one see the huge variety of shapes, sizes and action combinations that trigger fish to strike. Note I didn't say convince or fool a fish, but simply trigger a strike response.

Poor fish. They don't have a clue even of what a hook is or the treble hooks dangling from a surface lure. At least a dog will sniff something before eating it - trigger-happy fish, not so much.

Exactly what it is about a lure that produces the strike trigger I can only speculate. But hey, lure action speaks for itself when it comes to consistent catches! Every lure sold or made has an action typical to its design. A Floating Rapala and other floating minnows with short bills, have the same action when twitched or swam a few inches only to pop back to the surface. (...kind of like a dying minnow -NOT!

A shortarm spinnerbait can be used like a long arm on a steady retrieve, but the shortarm excels when bottom hopping. Talk'n about blade baits, someone mentioned the Beetle Spin and I did a search to see when I used it last. 2019. Man did it catch fish!

Before that, I used only curl tail grubs with the B.Spin like Mr Twister. But in 2019 I found different lures that did as well if not better. I've posted some examples of eifferent tail designs that include no action tail, split tail (Crappie Magnet) and 4" plastic worm. Recently I came up with more that did just as good which include carrot shaped, thin taper tails, tail removed from a Mr Twister and a straight thin tail (handpoured).
Note: every lure mentioned can catch fish without the spinner attached to the jig and in more than one size.

But for some reason the strikes were vicious! No mess'n around!
The retrieve is nothing special. Basically, just a steady one over open flats in 5' or less; flipping under overhanging branches near shore; dropping the lure between submerged tree branches and swimming it away; and running the lure over bottom vegetation in water 9' or less.

Of course I got about 20 laying around after all these years, but for the H of it decided to make my own. It did just as good as the original by Johnson at 1/10 the cost! Anyone interested in making their own, just ask.

So simple, a child could instantly catch fish on one.