So many lures - so little time

[padavid]

I fish a lot - like almost every day right now. I have piles of lures (not even lclose to what the members here have however ) and I fish with a few guys who have even more lures.

I find that I rarely use all but four or five different lures in any given day and usually fish either my own handmade soft plastics (4" stick, fluke or tube) a few poppers, one buzz bait, and about three different crank baits.

Those baits consistently produce fish - lots of fish! Yesterday I forced myself to change it up a little. I counted the smallies I was catching and decided that after I caught ten fish I woudl try a new bait - well they were on so after about 45 minutes I had ten and switched to a new topwater that I just purchased. Caught a few on that but found myself switching back to stay on the red hot bite!


Why do we carry all this other stuff?

How often do you change?

[Nitroman77]

I use to carry 3 bags full of crap and now Ive narrowed it down to one...my hardbait bag with a few bags of plastics put it that I know Ill use or need. Ive pretty much figured out the lakes around here to where I know what Im going to be using that day. It may also be that I carry 8 or more rods all rigged with different lures so I dont need to change as much.

[padavid]

I guess I need a few more rods, LOL

I have been doing a lot of wading so the multi rod thing is not an option

[Nitroman77]

Yea thats a bit more tough. Ive seen guys carry 3 rods though wadding.

[dragon1]

Wow, three rods wading is either going to provide great radio reception or a lightnin' rod waiting to happen on a stormy day!

BTW, I very rarely use more than half a dozen diff type lures per outting. I do however try to fine tune size, color, blades, depth, speed, presentation...that to me is more important generally than having a sh!tl@%d of lures.

[bruce S]

I'm guilty of that too, i take too much tackle with me to the lake,lately,
i've been cutting down , though. I feel naked with less than 11 rods with me , and raped if i must go with less than 7 rods.

[padavid]

I usually wade with one rod - a 6' St. Croix Legend Elite and Shimano Sedona (2500FB) reel (spinning). Yeah I know, the rod far outclasses the reel, but out of all the reels I tried this one balances best with the rod.


It will be time to upgrade my reel for this rod as I have pretty much worn the reel out in two years of almost daily fishing. I just replaced the drag unit so that has helped, but it is getting loose.

Still catches pleanty of fish and I have not missed one becuase of the reel - so I will maybe just get another Sedona?

[overdose]

taking too much to the lake? nonesense!!! lol... what's the quote? better to have and not need than to need and not have

[ec1]

On an average day, I think I'll use about 3 different techniques, but in my bag, I"ll have about 10-15 different techniques worth of terminal tackle/baits. I don't think I've brought too much because it all fits in one backpack, and you never know what might be the technique that's slaying the fish for the day!

I feel like your really can't have too much, because retying when you're fishing sucks! But at the same time, If anything goes wrong, (Your stuff falls overboard, someone steals your stuff) it will sting quite a bit more.

[damian_megabass]

Agreed, my crapalas are collecting dust like no tomorrow......I guess the fact that they've caught nothing but seaweed so far for almost 2 seasons doesn't help either

[Bronzeye]

An angler fishing alone is less likely to have regrets about bringing too few lures than one fishing with a partner. If the other guy is slaying them on his blue-and chartreuse Whassat and you don't even have a Whassat along, you wish you did.

[Locked]

There is no such thing as too many lures. My opinion is that there is always that one lure that will produce the best for certain conditions(i.e. - water clarity, water temp, the depth I want to target, weather, time of year, time of day). I also want to get a feel for the fishes mood. I try to find if they want me to downsize, move faster or slower, or change colors. I don't think you need to carry an extreme amount with you while shore fishing though. I usually carry my assault pack with 3 3700 boxes, 2 1098 worm binders, scale, scissors, gerber, and camera. I'll also bring 2 baitcasters and 1 spinning outfit. I bring a MHF baitcaster for jigs, spinners, t-rigs, and 6" senkos. I will use a MF baitcaster for rip baits, senkos, super flukes, lipless cranks, and lighter t-rigs. Finally, I bring a MF spinning setup for finesse applications like drop shotting or shakey head. I don't change my lures that often, especially if I'm catching fish.

[fishingandfords]

I wade alot and always have 2 rods on me usually a rod with a crank and the dominant rod with something for flipping either a 5/16 jig or some form of t-rig usually a tube or fat ika a,d ususlly only carry a small plano case under my waders stuffed with what I need and rarely do I need anymore other then burning thru ikas when there the hot ticket for the day

[l2yan]

I'd have to say I'm pretty minimalistic in my tackle now. There are times when I load the kayak full of crap, but most of the time I usually have no more than to rods, and 2 small tackleboxes. I almost always have my crankbait box and my jig box with assorted trailers, and sometimes a few bags of plastics. After carrying SO much tackle on me for so long, I've realized that I usually use a small handful of lures the entire time. I now try to carry specific tackle per the occasion.