factors for selecting lures
JSM wrote "This may be repetitive, but I would not mind hearing your thoughts on factors that influence your lure selection (e.g., location/structure, weather, season, etc)."
Lure choices are one thing that can get frustrating to many. You know it's a tough day when you see fifty baits laying in the back of my boat at lunch. the main thing is to try a good variety but give each one a fair shot before retiring it to the bottom of the boat or tackle box.
There are a few rules though that I kind of go by. First, I use a lot of gliders in June and October. I use a lot of bucktails and topwater throughout the summer months. And last, I use Suicks all the time. I just like Suicks. Crankbaits have their time and place throughout the year. We use more crankbaits in the fall than any other time of year. On calm nights I'll twitch crankbaits near the surface to get lazy fish to hit in the summer. Bulldawgs are more of a fall thing for me anyway. We do, however, use them on some cold front days. I'll use some spinnerbaits if the area I want to fish is full of weeds. With the influx of invasive species some of the areas I used to fish are unfishable with anything else, including topwater.
As for weather effecting what I throw, I throw good hooking baits like Pacemakers and Ghosttails when a strong front comes in. usually the bucktail in the front of the boat. I usually have the guy that's a better hookset on topwater fish in the middle of the boat. Not always though.
One thing you see is trends in what lures the fish are into. For a while we get really strong topwater action for weeks straight and then it will just shut down totally. Same with any bait for that matter. You just have to keep experimenting all year to see what the hot lure is.
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Originally Posted by jkahler
