benniejordaan
Sealiner
Lure building:
What colour/design works?
I have been trying to work out what makes a fish take a bait fish or in our case our lures. What have you guys experienced or learnt? By sharing info we can all make better lure building/painting decisions. These are my experiences and what I have learnt and come up with after reading any information I can get my hands on, particularly with regards to fish behaviour and experienced when fishing.
Colours:
Fish are generally colour blind, they can however distinguish wave length and frequency. So essentially they can actually tell the difference. Fish have very good eye site (the fish we target anyway) but they are particularly good at distinguishing differences in colour by wave lengths. Colour also changes under water, becoming grey in appearance, but the wave lengths remain unchanged. Certain colours can be seen from further away. White disappears quite quickly.
On a recent outing, we were getting yellow tail but only on a silver body lure, there was no structure just sand. When the lure got taxed, that was the end of the bites. Why? I recon we were close to a reef where the fish were and they picked up on the flash which brought them to the boat. No flash no fish! We should have trolled in a zig zag pattern to pick them up until we found where they were holding.
We all know a white body / red head lure works, but why?
1. Red is known to make fish aggressive, not all species but most. A study of fish showed that when the colour red was brought near Fusilier fish in captivity, they seem to go crazy with aggression.
2. The separation of colour is what they will focus on. Since they are essentially seeing just light and dark shades of colour from a distance.
3. Red wave lengths are flatter so they travel further in water, so the lure is spotted from much further away.
Sight:
Predatory fish feed primarily on sight, then smell, then sound and finally by vibration. Vibration is picked up by the lateral line and then converted into sound. When a fish feels vibration either by the bait or via swirls left in the water by the flicking of the tail, fish can determine whether it is a food source or a predictor. Therefore when designing a lure, we need to consider this, we want to give the impression that our “bait fish†is just that and not a predator. We also catch more fish when the water is clean than when dirty, probably because the fish can see the lure from further away.
Eyes:
The size and position of the eyes plays a crucial part. A predator focuses in front of it and generally focuses on the prey it is chasing. A bait fish’s eyes are positioned so it can see behind it around to directly in front, above it but interestingly not below it or directly behind it’s body. Most predators will try to eat its prey from the head first and will use the eye as a target. I watched the Strike Zone live baiting DVD and noticed this to be evident when Yellow Tail harassed the bait from the side and seem to hit the bait around the eye position. We could consider this when positioning eyes. Some bait species have spots along it’s body or one near the back, by placing dots along the flank or one dot further down it’s body may trick the predator into thinking this is a bait fish trying to fool the predator but is in fact lost and away from the rest of the school. These spots are evident with bait fish like Sardines and in a shoal, they are designed to trick the predator by confusing it so it can’t single out a target. Eyes are very important!
Natures influence:
Nature has a way of dealing with injured, slow or fish that just don’t fit in. These fish should not be left to reproduce and nature takes care of this by enticing predators to pick off any fish that don’t fit in. Red may be one of those colours as in a bleeding or dying fish. If in a school of bait fish, usually the “odd one out†gets taken first. This is evident when trolling. Often we troll a spread of colours that we know have been successful and the odd ball gets hit. Or as in Daisy chains we pull. The lure lagging behind which is different in appearance get hammered. It is just nature’s way of getting rid of the sick and old. If you look at the behaviour of squid, the squids go dark in colour when about to be attacked. The closer to the predator, the darker they seem to be.
Size:
A fish will size up its prey and a decision is made based on how hungry it is. How much effort it will have to put into the attack and will the energy gained from the food be worthwhile to outlay the effort. This is difficult, because a fish who is hungry won’t want to chase something that is not beneficial. So the trick would be large baits for large fish. This only really applies to moving or casting lures. Something lying still may not require a chase and will there for be taken with ease for very little effort. A good example is when plugging. A fast retrieve may work but sometimes a pouse every now and then will entice the strike. I believe it is because the predator will see the pause as either the fish is injured or it may feel it has been unnoticed and may have a chance of an easy meal. We will find 2 scenarios though that defies this. 1 - Reaction strike. Here it is a free meal for no effort. The lure comes past the fish and the fish doesn’t need to think about it, it just eats it before it gets away. It naturally does this because it would rather not put effort into anything if it doesn’t need to. And 2 – The food source is close enough, here a big fish will eat a small bait. The only problem here is we don’t really know what triggers the attack. Throwing a large lure though will attract the attention of larger predators capable of consuming the “bait†with the smaller ones summing it up as an impossible meal. This has been evident in our trolling we have done and quite obvious. When we run smaller lures, we attract majority Bonnies, increase the size of the lure and we get fewer Bonnies but more “quality†fish. But we have had many strikes from decent fish on the smaller lures. The ratios changes. This tells me that for the big fish around the small lure is not worth the effort. However, pull it past its nose and it will eat it.
Shape:
Here we need consider what the target species is but in general it seems as though the body shape and especially the tail shape may give different vibrations or “swirls†in the water. Some fish like GT’s, Barracudas and grouper species have no problem eating other predatory fish though. But generally mimicking a bait fish should be more productive. A Tuna for example wouldn’t attach a Barracuda. On any lure I make, I’m happy getting a GT or a Tunny on the same fishing spot. I have found that Dorado are very interesting and will eat just about anything. When we gut them, we find anything from puffer fish to crabs to crustaceans and snails in their guts. Definitely not fussy eaters but would much rather eat an easy meal.
What works when:
On a fishing trip we were site fishing for Dorado and they refused a live bait. We had Mackerel, Mozzies and pinkies. We filleted small fillets about 10mm wide X 40mm long and that they took. On closer inspection we discovered the water was full of sprats and were easy pickings for them. Therefore little effort was required to fill up and they must have felt that chasing a Mackerel would not be worth the chase. I think the lesson here is to try and mimic the bait in the area.
That’s it for now.
Guys, please feel free to add or correct anything here you may have found or learnt or experienced or discovered.
What colour/design works?
I have been trying to work out what makes a fish take a bait fish or in our case our lures. What have you guys experienced or learnt? By sharing info we can all make better lure building/painting decisions. These are my experiences and what I have learnt and come up with after reading any information I can get my hands on, particularly with regards to fish behaviour and experienced when fishing.
Colours:
Fish are generally colour blind, they can however distinguish wave length and frequency. So essentially they can actually tell the difference. Fish have very good eye site (the fish we target anyway) but they are particularly good at distinguishing differences in colour by wave lengths. Colour also changes under water, becoming grey in appearance, but the wave lengths remain unchanged. Certain colours can be seen from further away. White disappears quite quickly.
On a recent outing, we were getting yellow tail but only on a silver body lure, there was no structure just sand. When the lure got taxed, that was the end of the bites. Why? I recon we were close to a reef where the fish were and they picked up on the flash which brought them to the boat. No flash no fish! We should have trolled in a zig zag pattern to pick them up until we found where they were holding.
We all know a white body / red head lure works, but why?
1. Red is known to make fish aggressive, not all species but most. A study of fish showed that when the colour red was brought near Fusilier fish in captivity, they seem to go crazy with aggression.
2. The separation of colour is what they will focus on. Since they are essentially seeing just light and dark shades of colour from a distance.
3. Red wave lengths are flatter so they travel further in water, so the lure is spotted from much further away.
Sight:
Predatory fish feed primarily on sight, then smell, then sound and finally by vibration. Vibration is picked up by the lateral line and then converted into sound. When a fish feels vibration either by the bait or via swirls left in the water by the flicking of the tail, fish can determine whether it is a food source or a predictor. Therefore when designing a lure, we need to consider this, we want to give the impression that our “bait fish†is just that and not a predator. We also catch more fish when the water is clean than when dirty, probably because the fish can see the lure from further away.
Eyes:
The size and position of the eyes plays a crucial part. A predator focuses in front of it and generally focuses on the prey it is chasing. A bait fish’s eyes are positioned so it can see behind it around to directly in front, above it but interestingly not below it or directly behind it’s body. Most predators will try to eat its prey from the head first and will use the eye as a target. I watched the Strike Zone live baiting DVD and noticed this to be evident when Yellow Tail harassed the bait from the side and seem to hit the bait around the eye position. We could consider this when positioning eyes. Some bait species have spots along it’s body or one near the back, by placing dots along the flank or one dot further down it’s body may trick the predator into thinking this is a bait fish trying to fool the predator but is in fact lost and away from the rest of the school. These spots are evident with bait fish like Sardines and in a shoal, they are designed to trick the predator by confusing it so it can’t single out a target. Eyes are very important!
Natures influence:
Nature has a way of dealing with injured, slow or fish that just don’t fit in. These fish should not be left to reproduce and nature takes care of this by enticing predators to pick off any fish that don’t fit in. Red may be one of those colours as in a bleeding or dying fish. If in a school of bait fish, usually the “odd one out†gets taken first. This is evident when trolling. Often we troll a spread of colours that we know have been successful and the odd ball gets hit. Or as in Daisy chains we pull. The lure lagging behind which is different in appearance get hammered. It is just nature’s way of getting rid of the sick and old. If you look at the behaviour of squid, the squids go dark in colour when about to be attacked. The closer to the predator, the darker they seem to be.
Size:
A fish will size up its prey and a decision is made based on how hungry it is. How much effort it will have to put into the attack and will the energy gained from the food be worthwhile to outlay the effort. This is difficult, because a fish who is hungry won’t want to chase something that is not beneficial. So the trick would be large baits for large fish. This only really applies to moving or casting lures. Something lying still may not require a chase and will there for be taken with ease for very little effort. A good example is when plugging. A fast retrieve may work but sometimes a pouse every now and then will entice the strike. I believe it is because the predator will see the pause as either the fish is injured or it may feel it has been unnoticed and may have a chance of an easy meal. We will find 2 scenarios though that defies this. 1 - Reaction strike. Here it is a free meal for no effort. The lure comes past the fish and the fish doesn’t need to think about it, it just eats it before it gets away. It naturally does this because it would rather not put effort into anything if it doesn’t need to. And 2 – The food source is close enough, here a big fish will eat a small bait. The only problem here is we don’t really know what triggers the attack. Throwing a large lure though will attract the attention of larger predators capable of consuming the “bait†with the smaller ones summing it up as an impossible meal. This has been evident in our trolling we have done and quite obvious. When we run smaller lures, we attract majority Bonnies, increase the size of the lure and we get fewer Bonnies but more “quality†fish. But we have had many strikes from decent fish on the smaller lures. The ratios changes. This tells me that for the big fish around the small lure is not worth the effort. However, pull it past its nose and it will eat it.
Shape:
Here we need consider what the target species is but in general it seems as though the body shape and especially the tail shape may give different vibrations or “swirls†in the water. Some fish like GT’s, Barracudas and grouper species have no problem eating other predatory fish though. But generally mimicking a bait fish should be more productive. A Tuna for example wouldn’t attach a Barracuda. On any lure I make, I’m happy getting a GT or a Tunny on the same fishing spot. I have found that Dorado are very interesting and will eat just about anything. When we gut them, we find anything from puffer fish to crabs to crustaceans and snails in their guts. Definitely not fussy eaters but would much rather eat an easy meal.
What works when:
On a fishing trip we were site fishing for Dorado and they refused a live bait. We had Mackerel, Mozzies and pinkies. We filleted small fillets about 10mm wide X 40mm long and that they took. On closer inspection we discovered the water was full of sprats and were easy pickings for them. Therefore little effort was required to fill up and they must have felt that chasing a Mackerel would not be worth the chase. I think the lesson here is to try and mimic the bait in the area.
That’s it for now.
Guys, please feel free to add or correct anything here you may have found or learnt or experienced or discovered.