Changing lures

[Justoutfishing]

How long do you give a lure till you change it if its getting no attention off pike?

Frustration play a big part in my quick changes

[Stewlaws]

Was out a few weeks back and first swim I ran 3 lures around for 25 min ..... A surface lure, then a grub tail and finally a 4play, clarity was ok, cloud cover but a bright day..... Swapped to lure number 4 a mark berrisford Leon in black and that pulled me 2 fish in that swim within 3 throws, then I fished my partner's swim and hooked another.

On the day the black Leon done the business... I think the solid silhouette was the trigger.

Say Hi to Anthony when you see him.....btw.

[Oldskoolfool]

I used to change lures loads but honestly just confused myself as in some cases I doubt there were fish in front of me. I now take a small selection of known successful favourites I have faith in and use these until I can see some form of pattern if any. I fished this weekend and moved around - I had two follows and one fish in one corner but clearly the fish were there. In the end the winning pattern was a silver Rapala minnow in very clear but shallow water.

[Justoutfishing]

I used to change lures loads but honestly just confused myself as in some cases I doubt there were fish in front of me. I now take a small selection of known successful favourites I have faith in and use these until I can see some form of pattern if any. I fished this weekend and moved around - I had two follows and one fish in one corner but clearly the fish were there. In the end the winning pattern was a silver Rapala minnow in very clear but shallow water.

I'm guilty of this. Once I get a bit frustrated I'm changing every 5 minutes going in circles haha

[Justoutfishing]

Was out a few weeks back and first swim I ran 3 lures around for 25 min ..... A surface lure, then a grub tail and finally a 4play, clarity was ok, cloud cover but a bright day..... Swapped to lure number 4 a mark berrisford Leon in black and that pulled me 2 fish in that swim within 3 throws, then I fished my partner's swim and hooked another.

On the day the black Leon done the business... I think the solid silhouette was the trigger.

Say Hi to Anthony when you see him.....btw.

I often forget to try different lures in same section and wander off down the river.

Hahaha this is gonna stick with me for a while ain't it

[peteren]

How long do you give a lure till you change it if its getting no attention off pike?

Frustration play a big part in my quick changes

Read Dave Pugh's book; you'll find you change lures less and catch more!

[zodiac]

Was out a few weeks back and first swim I ran 3 lures around for 25 min ..... A surface lure, then a grub tail and finally a 4play, clarity was ok, cloud cover but a bright day..... Swapped to lure number 4 a mark berrisford Leon in black and that pulled me 2 fish in that swim within 3 throws, then I fished my partner's swim and hooked another.

On the day the black Leon done the business... I think the solid silhouette was the trigger.

Say Hi to Anthony when you see him.....btw.

I often forget to try different lures in same section and wander off down the river.

Hahaha this is gonna stick with me for a while ain't it

I'm surprised Ant hasn't invited you along to his ugly competition. Might get joint winners for a change!

[Justoutfishing]

Was out a few weeks back and first swim I ran 3 lures around for 25 min ..... A surface lure, then a grub tail and finally a 4play, clarity was ok, cloud cover but a bright day..... Swapped to lure number 4 a mark berrisford Leon in black and that pulled me 2 fish in that swim within 3 throws, then I fished my partner's swim and hooked another.

On the day the black Leon done the business... I think the solid silhouette was the trigger.

Say Hi to Anthony when you see him.....btw.

I often forget to try different lures in same section and wander off down the river.

Hahaha this is gonna stick with me for a while ain't it

I'm surprised Ant hasn't invited you along to his ugly competition. Might get joint winners for a change!

brutal! Think he would win it again

[KEEP]

I just have a small lure box with about 5-6 lures max and will usually stick to one lure for a whole session, this gives me a good diagnosis of how successful each lure is, if you are constantly mixing it around you don't get to form a relationship with that lure: You don't really know if you put on a good lure or you simply have just moved into a new swim with more pike than before.

[Tony McTaggart]

Couple of casts....No follows i change.

[fossil-fish]

Sometimes I just want to play with all my toys. See how they swim and look in the water, especially new ones. Lure collecting, I mean fishing, can be extremely engaging.

[alan behenna]

Pointless wandering around with the proverbial "bucket of lures", quite literally in some instances. Your possibly carrying too much of other gear as well, if you recognize the above.

Take a half dozen or so lures that you "know" have worked well work for you and perhaps add an odd one or two (out of the normal), say a "large blade" or two, if your main bankers are soft plastic variations. More than that isn't really needed if your first bankers were carefully selected. Use your knowledge gained to fish them well, search the water, vary the retrieves perhaps, be alert to look for fish you might move that may half follow you.

If your choices are carefully chosen for your chosen venue, you might just not need to change your choice at all during your session!

Sometimes it ain't the lure that's letting you down, it's you!

[Oldskoolfool]

Alan sound words of advice. I deliberately only take lures I know will suit a specific type of venue and I know work and also have a wide range of use. Occasionally add in something new if it takes my fancy or looks like it has potential. I have noted that certain lures have a fairly narrow retrieve speed/range to get the best out of them so when I do swap lures and tend to try to recalibrate myself to optimum speed.

[MANO]

Pointless wandering around with the proverbial "bucket of lures", quite literally in some instances. Your possibly carrying too much of other gear as well, if you recognize the above.

Take a half dozen or so lures that you "know" have worked well work for you and perhaps add an odd one or two (out of the normal), say a "large blade" or two, if your main bankers are soft plastic variations. More than that isn't really needed if your first bankers were carefully selected. Use your knowledge gained to fish them well, search the water, vary the retrieves perhaps, be alert to look for fish you might move that may half follow you.

If your choices are carefully chosen for your chosen venue, you might just not need to change your choice at all during your session!

Sometimes it ain't the lure that's letting you down, it's you!

Totally agree with this.

I tend to take only a few lures to a session nowdays in the interests of travelling light. It usually consists of a few proven bankers and the odd wildcard to mix it up a bit.

I've spent many hours working lures purely to master the most effective retrieve, with no thoughts of catching.

[peteren]

Pointless wandering around with the proverbial "bucket of lures", quite literally in some instances. Your possibly carrying too much of other gear as well, if you recognize the above.

Take a half dozen or so lures that you "know" have worked well work for you and perhaps add an odd one or two (out of the normal), say a "large blade" or two, if your main bankers are soft plastic variations. More than that isn't really needed if your first bankers were carefully selected. Use your knowledge gained to fish them well, search the water, vary the retrieves perhaps, be alert to look for fish you might move that may half follow you.

If your choices are carefully chosen for your chosen venue, you might just not need to change your choice at all during your session!

Sometimes it ain't the lure that's letting you down, it's you!

Totally agree with this.

I tend to take only a few lures to a session nowdays in the interests of travelling light. It usually consists of a few proven bankers and the odd wildcard to mix it up a bit.

I've spent many hours working lures purely to master the most effective retrieve, with no thoughts of catching.

I've spent many hours working lures purely to master the most effective retrieve, with no thoughts of catching.

Sod that!
How do you know it's effective if you're not catching?

[Will Smith]

I find that I usually get bored with using the same lure so change quite often TBH, I fish with guys who are polar opposites to me and keep the same lure on nearly all day, at the end of the day there is usually very little difference in our catch rate.

I like to try new lures out and experimenting with the odd vintage lure as well, variety is the spice of lure fishing as far as I am concerned, in saying that I remember one time keeping the same lure on all day and had 48 pike to the boat that day . So there may be something in sticking to the same one .

Will.

[zodiac]

Pointless wandering around with the proverbial "bucket of lures", quite literally in some instances. Your possibly carrying too much of other gear as well, if you recognize the above.

Take a half dozen or so lures that you "know" have worked well work for you and perhaps add an odd one or two (out of the normal), say a "large blade" or two, if your main bankers are soft plastic variations. More than that isn't really needed if your first bankers were carefully selected. Use your knowledge gained to fish them well, search the water, vary the retrieves perhaps, be alert to look for fish you might move that may half follow you.

If your choices are carefully chosen for your chosen venue, you might just not need to change your choice at all during your session!

Sometimes it ain't the lure that's letting you down, it's you!

Totally agree with this.

I tend to take only a few lures to a session nowdays in the interests of travelling light. It usually consists of a few proven bankers and the odd wildcard to mix it up a bit.

I've spent many hours working lures purely to master the most effective retrieve, with no thoughts of catching.

I've spent many hours working lures purely to master the most effective retrieve, with no thoughts of catching.

Sod that!
How do you know it's effective if you're not catching?

That's a good point. How 'effective' can it be if you spend many hours retrieving it with no fish.

[andrew_nagel]

I change when the situation changes. Usually carry 100+ lures in the boat, and use maybe 10 in a day.

[Monts]

It depends, I think Peters rivers colour up badly as mine do in the Autumn and Winter and if it does stay damp they can stay like that for months on end. I've had days out on the boat on a ressie with clear water conditions, going through a selection of lures and being able to see how they work is helpful even with no fish. Little taps on the rod tip, little sweeps or pulls etc. You may not catch, but you have an understanding of what you can and can't do with them.

When you are fishing in non-ideal conditions, you have an idea of how your lure is working. It may seem boring to some, but for me making a lure work is part of the fun when you get back on the river. I'm talking hard baits here, sorry I was replying to Zodiac.

[Oldskoolfool]

That is a good point in my early lure fishing days the number of fish I caught was low mainly as I was using the wrong lures in the wrong way on poor waters. Had loads of fun play with lures but go so few takes I usually missed them through shock!

You need to catch so you get feedback and build confidence. Honest i probably learn more about lures using them for chub as at least got a couple a day. I think this is why people struggle as you fish the lure so effort = return whereas bait fishing is different. I find lure fishing requires a lot of focus and is tiring whereas I find bait fishing a lot more relaxing.

[Steve Le maitre]

Pointless wandering around with the proverbial "bucket of lures", quite literally in some instances. Your possibly carrying too much of other gear as well, if you recognize the above.

Take a half dozen or so lures that you "know" have worked well work for you and perhaps add an odd one or two (out of the normal), say a "large blade" or two, if your main bankers are soft plastic variations. More than that isn't really needed if your first bankers were carefully selected. Use your knowledge gained to fish them well, search the water, vary the retrieves perhaps, be alert to look for fish you might move that may half follow you.

If your choices are carefully chosen for your chosen venue, you might just not need to change your choice at all during your session!

Sometimes it ain't the lure that's letting you down, it's you!

Totally agree with this.

I tend to take only a few lures to a session nowdays in the interests of travelling light. It usually consists of a few proven bankers and the odd wildcard to mix it up a bit.

I've spent many hours working lures purely to master the most effective retrieve, with no thoughts of catching.

I've spent many hours working lures purely to master the most effective retrieve, with no thoughts of catching.

Sod that!
How do you know it's effective if you're not catching?

He said with no thoughts of catching, he didn’t say that he didn’t catch.

[Steve Dennington]

Sometimes I just want to play with all my toys. See how they swim and look in the water, especially new ones. Lure collecting, I mean fishing, can be extremely engaging.

That sums up the joy of lure fishing for me

If I restricted my lure selection to nothing but spoons, I'd probably do pretty well, but it would get tedious. A variety of lures keeps things fresh for us and the fish

[MANO]

Pointless wandering around with the proverbial "bucket of lures", quite literally in some instances. Your possibly carrying too much of other gear as well, if you recognize the above.

Take a half dozen or so lures that you "know" have worked well work for you and perhaps add an odd one or two (out of the normal), say a "large blade" or two, if your main bankers are soft plastic variations. More than that isn't really needed if your first bankers were carefully selected. Use your knowledge gained to fish them well, search the water, vary the retrieves perhaps, be alert to look for fish you might move that may half follow you.

If your choices are carefully chosen for your chosen venue, you might just not need to change your choice at all during your session!

Sometimes it ain't the lure that's letting you down, it's you!

Totally agree with this.

I tend to take only a few lures to a session nowdays in the interests of travelling light. It usually consists of a few proven bankers and the odd wildcard to mix it up a bit.

I've spent many hours working lures purely to master the most effective retrieve, with no thoughts of catching.

I've spent many hours working lures purely to master the most effective retrieve, with no thoughts of catching.

Sod that!
How do you know it's effective if you're not catching?

He said with no thoughts of catching, he didn’t say that he didn’t catch.

Correct Steve

[Team Trassel]

usally when i fish i give a lure like 1 hour before change or sometimes even longer, and always try to change depending on depth. If i fish close to shore i always go for jerkbait which can be really efficent if you can make a good presentation while reeling it in. If i fish in deeper parts i like to go for tail baits with sink and depending on how deep i can go, I either go for slow sink or faster sink. But this is just what works for me and my lake. I have also realised that color can make a difference but you will have to find out what work for just your lake.

[CraigG]

Couple of casts....No follows i change.

Agreed! Being methodical by covering different depths of a drift with various action lures until you find out what they want works for me. #taughtbythebest

[Iain Gillies]

I tend to find a methodical approach of no more than 5 or 6 casts per lure per swim works best. I would probably use 3 or 4 different lures in that swim to cover different depths/presentations. Typically start with a spinnerbait as they are very versatile and less likely to snag when building a mental picture of the bottom. If you fan your casts to cover more water and dont ignore margins or features you should have given yourself the best chance of covering/raising a fish. This typically would take 10-15mins per swim so you can cover some ground roving around. From experience there is little point sitting in one place thrashing the water to foam for hours. If you miss a fish and dont get a follow up or loose one but it hasn't felt the hooks it can be worth resting it 10-15mins before going back to see if the fish is still active.

[Pikerd74]

I take the lures with the most teeth marks in them!
Keeps the rest of my collection in good condition ready for an eBay sale

[Mike J]

Unfished stillwaters, predator serveying from the bank, two rods, one a large lure, the other a spinner, no lure changes.
The spinner always found the first fish and caught more, the large lure usually caught the biggest but there were exceptions.
Fish were usually ganged up in a couple of places, nothing difficult about the catching, anybody could have caught them, and sometimes did.

These days I still carry two rods, the spinner is still the same, the large lure is bigger, much!

.

[alan behenna]

the large lure is bigger, much!