finesse lures by any name all have things in common

[SPOONMINNOW]

What is a finesse lure? Unlike lures that barge their way into a fish's space such as large, waddling, deep dive crankbaits, throbbing, giant-blade spinnerbaits and 1/2 oz weedless Arkie jigs with fat trailers, finesse lures generally move slower in the strike zone and entice fish to sample the vittles. Do finesse lures mimic anything that ever lived? Would it matter even if they did?


I recently watched a video demonstrating various finesse lures Berkley insisted fish struck because 1. hunger or feeding, 2. they mimicked prey in shape, action and color and 3. each lure model moved differently than the rest. Granted, it makes sense to many anglers and they base their purchase of lures on advertising and word of mouth vs what their or someone else's experience tells them.


A wiggle is a wiggle regardless of the shapes that produce it. I have crafted many shapes small in size that wiggle and many that have unique actions. What do they have in common? Motion at the slowest speed tops the list that hopefully entices strikes. Making up reasons fish srike finesse or any lure, I leave it up to lure companies to pitch their fallacies. I don't sell anything and have no reason to make a sales pitch that is inaccurate and misleading. My catches tell it all and don't allow me the luxury of lying to myself by making up reasons fish bite lures. Simply stated: they do or they don't and the ones that do, make sure they are in my boat.

[Runsome]

That’s really interesting! Thanks for sharing!

[KpDuty]

Nice job. Several new finesse cranks and topwater baits at TW in the 'new items' section.

[Bassjam2000]

Good stuff! Your post reminded me of an old article by the late Rich Zaleski (article link below) in which he defines finesse fishing by the "Four S's"; Subtle, Slow, Simple, and Seductive, very similar characteristics to what you wrote, he didn't use "small" I believe because subtle implies it. It's basically a well written crash course in finesse fishing that all finessers should read.

https://www.richz.com/fishing/articl...87_in-fish.pdf

[white gambler]

Thanks for posting, been a while since I’ve read that. Old school, love it !

[SPOONMINNOW]

Rich Zaleski was one of my favorite writers bar none! That article contained ideas that I've been relaying on many forums for years. Thanks for the link. Now that I've read it again, it occurs to me that much of it was comercial in nature and not factually true.

[Grizzly]

Good read

[SPOONMINNOW]

My opinion so don't shoot the author.

Check out this fat head minnow videos:



Few lures have the action shown by the fish though Mann's Shadow is the closest I've seen. Lure choice suggestions usually include matching a forage animal such as a shad or whatever one guesses fish are feeding on that day. Problem though is the unnatural nature of lures in general. Minnows fit in a fish's environment - lures do not/ can not. One definition of natural: not made or caused by humankind.

Fish and forage fish - like in the video, conserve energy by suspending much of the time at different depths. If a bass decides to snack on one, it breaks out of its slumber and grabs one without premeditation or warning. It doesn't target just one fish species in that scenario though it could when going whole-hog attacking a school of fish.

Many finesse lure actions and presentations that cause them, resemble natural actions but more important, the lure moves very slowly and in-place or within a short distance. On the other hand other fish in the video exhibited a darting action and it seemed they were more nervous. A presentation anglers can use that produces it are slight twitches of the rod tip and/or slight turns of the reel handle. Actions imparted to certain lures can appear natural.

By comparison, action parts (tail) or action bodies (no-action tail) of finesse lures, do not have the same motions or shapes of much larger lures that must move faster to have any action such as spinners and crankbaits. Typically they send out sonic and visual cues that are alien in a fish's world. Both types catch fish depending on a fish's activity/nervousness level.

Think about it: you're sitting on your lawn chair and suddenly a huge spinnerbait flashes across the sky. It's not a bird, it's not a plane and it's definitely not Superman. It's: what-the-f... was that?!! It's no different for a bass that is surprised by any lure that flashes like a neon sign, coming out of nowhere, interrupting its siesta. Bass do not like unwelcome intruders, same as for you or I sitting at home.

Lure types anglers choose?: either slow & subtle or Wham-BAM-Thank You-lures that provoke the bully in fish used to overpower. You surprise any wild animal on land or in the water and expect it to bite!

Can it be that fish may want to eat the creature that has no place in its strike zone much less its world? It doesn't seem credible that a moving object made of metal, wood, hard or soft plastic, with or without rattles or some other foriegn material, fools fish that are not fools usually capable of knowing? Being a fool implies having even a bit of intelligence that fish don't possess.
Example: if I were a bass and saw something with hooks hanging down, it would be the last thing I would want in my mouth! Since fish don't know a hook from a ground hog, how would they know what a lure represents? Assuming what fish know or that they are even capable of knowing assumes a lot about fish IQ which is zero.

To sum up: lure choice never needs to depend on what's on the menu. Having a preference is not part of a fish's DNA. When it comes to what fish might be provoked to attack, choose that that do it best depending on where and activity level.
When it comes to lures, **it happens or it doesn't.

Time to go back to bed at 3 in the morning. (Damn prostate!)

Thanks for reading (or at least not yawning too much)