Different Lures For Different Situations...

[Al Agnew]

In my post about my trip yesterday on Big River, I mentioned using several different lures and why I carry several rods rigged with different lures. I thought I'd go more in depth about my thoughts behind the lures I fish in different water types.

As I said in the other thread, many river smallmouth anglers use various soft plastics, usually fished fairly slowly and near or on the bottom. You can fish such lures in most of the different types of fish-holding water you come to. They can be fished in fast current, letting the current move them downstream, they can be fished in slower water and manipulated more by the angler, they can be fished shallow or deep. It's an effective way of fishing, and the anglers who do it that way could probably do just fine with one or two rods in the boat.

But I've always loved covering lots of water and fishing a lot faster. One reason is that I love seeing the fish hit. In the warm weather months on these small rivers and creeks, the fish are often active, and almost always in water that is shallow enough that they can detect and rise to fast moving lures high in the water column. So I fish lures that I can see during the retrieve and thus see the fish take them. Nothing turns me on about angling more than seeing a bass attack a surface or shallow running, fast moving lure.

And, if like me you float from 7 to (in the case of yesterday) 14 miles a day, you don't have the time to stop and pound a small area with slow moving, bottom bumping lures. Fishing from a moving canoe (or kayak or other floating watercraft), it's a whole lot easier to use lures that you can retrieve quickly enough that you have time to make a cast to the next good looking spot.

So I carry five rods. Three are rigged with hard baits, one usually with a Superfluke that can be fished fairly quickly, and only one with a slower, deeper type of lure--soft plastic like a tube, otherwise a jig and chunk. Most days 95% or more of the casts I make are with the three rods rigged with hard baits.

Here is my usual selection...most days these are the only lures I use. On one rod will always be a surface lure, either a walk the dog lure or a popper type that I can also make walk the dog. Very rarely I'll switch to a prop bait like a Tiny Torpedo on this rod. My second rod with usually have my shallow running crankbait, especially if the water is stained. In very clear water this rod will usually have a buzzbait tied on. My third rod is my spinnerbait rod, and I use two spinnerbaits, my homemade twin spin, and a willow leaf tandem spinnerbait.

I have a few other lures that I try from time to time, but these few are my go to baits. I most often add my homemade Subwalk, a walk the dog lure that sinks slowly. I might occasionally try a jerkbait, and if I'm not getting action on the shallow running stuff and the water has some color I'll go with a deep diving crankbait. But for the most part, if you see me on Big River, Huzzah Creek, upper Meramec, Bourbeuse, St. Francis, Big Piney, Jacks Fork, etc. the same lures will be on my rods.

So why do I need all these types of lures every day? Because an Ozark stream is not a concrete ditch. Picture the different types of places that hold good bass. There is fast water. It may be fast moving current over and around big rocks, or fast water lined with logs, or even just fast water with little eddies along water willow weedbeds. There is medium current water along a rocky, water willow lined bank with underwater rocks sloping off into deeper water, or medium current water flowing past root wads and logs, or medium current water along a cut bank, perhaps with chunks of the clay bank that have sloughed off and now lie under water. And there is slow current areas, either along a rocky bank or an alluvial bank with logs, in water that may be deep or fairly shallow. In the summer, bass will be found in nearly every one of these places. And some lures work much better in some of these places than others.

Let's start with the WTD topwater and the popper. To properly work these lures, you need to have a bit of slack line at the end of each twitch of the rod tip. You can work them straight downstream in fast water, but if you are retrieving at any sort of angle, the current continually takes the slack out of the line and bows the line if you try to keep slack. So the WTD topwaters are difficult to work properly in fast water. In medium current they are easier to work, but the slower the current the easier it is. So even if the fish are climbing all over them, when I come to faster current areas, I put down the topwater rod. Otherwise, the places that really shout out to use the WTD lures are fairly shallow areas over rocks or along water willow beds, or the slow pools in very clear streams where you know the fish can see these lures easily even if they are holding pretty deep. If the fish are really on the topwaters, I'll force feed them in places where they aren't really suited, like over deep water and along steep banks and in heavy woody cover, just because I love seeing the fish whack them. But much of the time those types of places call for different lures.

My homemade crankbait is a shallow runner, running from one to three feet deep. It comes through logs well, and for some reason it works very well along steep cut banks, especially if I can get in close, fish ahead of the boat, and retrieve it almost parallel to the bank. It works in fast current or slow. So it's a very versatile lure, but sometimes the fish aren't hitting it. Otherwise I could use it almost exclusively. But even on days when it isn't producing well, I still pick it up to fish slower current areas with slick logs or rocks in medium depth to deeper water, because it runs a little deeper than most of my other lures.

But for those fast water areas, I'll usually be throwing my homemade twin spin. I fish it fast and just under the surface, and I can bring it over logs and rocks, so it's my heavy cover lure as well. If the fish seem to be holding deeper, I'll opt for the willow leaf tandem spin instead, letting it sink and running it three or four feet deep in deeper areas, or burning it in shallow areas.

If the fish are whacking buzzbaits, I'll be fishing the buzzer in most water types, except for steep-dropping deep banks. I love it in rocky flats in shallow to medium depth water, and it's deadly when the fish are hanging in the tail of the pools right above where the riffle begins. It largely replaces my crankbait in very clear water.

The deep diving cranks are for sloping banks dropping off into deep water, especially with rocky bottoms. I seldom "force" fish them in shallow water or heavy woody cover. although they'll work there at times.

So, as I come to each type of water, I pick up the rod with the lure that I think will work best for that spot. Yesterday was the perfect example. I caught fish on WTD topwaters, my crankbait, a deep diving crankbait, my twin spin, and a tandem spinnerbait. Not only that, but every one of those lures produced some very good fish. I didn't key into just one lure, I continually threw what the spot I was fishing seemed to call for, and it usually worked.

[Gavin]

What are soft plastics? I hear folks do well on them. LOL! Summer is hear and the time is right for ripping and topwater...Think I'll rig my 7wt with a popper this weekend...probably wont get changed till its wore out...rest of the rods have been rigged for a month or so....Think I'll a re-tie with same same.

[Stoneroller]

i can never slow down enough to fish with soft plastics for long. I use them more frequently when I'm not catching the fish I want to catch by other means. That being said, just about every hardbait presentation has an equal or better soft plastic presentation with a few exceptions. and there are definately a whole slew of things that soft plastics can do that hard baits can't.

I love topwater presentations and one thing I've honed in on, if the water clarity is 5 feet or more, big fish will come up from deep, sometimes over 15 feet deep to slam a top water bait. Two keys here, one is water clarity, not really an issue on most ozark streams. The other is the speed of the topwater bait. sometimes you have to give a popper a deep chug and let it sit for 20 seconds or longer, but they will come up from the deep if the water is clear.

[Jack Jones]

Al, thanks for all of that wonderful information. I'm primarily a plastics guy. They produce and Mr. McGuire told me there was a great future in it. (IF YOU GET IT, YOU'RE OLD!!!!)

However, I think I should probably expand my repetoire to top water and crank baits. Postings like yours really help.

[KCRIVERRAT]

Al, that 14 mile float could've been a 20 mile trip (minus the WTD presentations).......

[Mitch f]

Al, thanks for all of that wonderful information. I'm primarily a plastics guy. They produce and Mr. McGuire told me there was a great future in it. (IF YOU GET IT, YOU'RE OLD!!!!)

However, I think I should probably expand my repetoire to top water and crank baits. Postings like yours really help.

The Graduate! and I'm 51

[Mitch f]

Al,I think your approach has been crafted by a couple of things; One, you have honed and focused your skills to a point that you know what will and will not work and you have the ability to know when to stop fishing a non productive pattern, and 2, as you said you enjoy seeing the fish take the lure in the upper 1/3 of the water column. If your goal is to catch more fish and mainly aggressive fish (who wouldn't) this is definately the best approach. Sometimes you have to slow down to catch non aggressive fish though, and I know you can slow down as good or better than the next guy.

I guess it all depends on what you're after. I prefer to fish half way in between your speed and the average guy chunking jigs. With the jet boat, your options are greatly increased. Especially if you are familiar with a certain stretch of river. I end up running and gunning more than not, looking for a big fish. This approach allows me to fish out a hole a little longer than a guy with a canoe. And if you have a big blow up on a buzzbait, you can go back later and try again. I will admit that I'm primarily a jig and crankbait fisherman, but have expanded my horizons in the last few years, thanks to guys like you and others who are more than willing to give up your techniques.

As far as my favorite way to catch a big fish, topwater of course is number one. But to me a very close second is setting the hook on a jig fish that makes you feel like you are hung on a log, then in 2 seconds feeling a big slow head shake! Wow, I get crazy just thinking about it. Then, the fish stays down for 10 seconds and feeling the anticipation of how big it really is!! Then my only concern is deciding whether or not to get the net!

[Al Agnew]

Good points, Mitch...Yes, I can slow down and fish deep if necessary (and of course, it's necessary in the winter, and sometimes in heavily pressured waters). And I certainly don't mind the feel of setting the hook into a big fish you can't see.

If you are fishing the bigger rivers, jetboat or not, inactive fish may be holding in deeper water and won't be susceptible to a surface or near surface lure. That's why I more often use a tandem willow leaf spinnerbait and/or a deeper running crankbait on the bigger rivers. I can still fish it fast, but get it down closer to the fish. It's not only the very active fish that will chase down a fast moving lure. Fast lures are reaction lures, and can often trigger a neutral or somewhat inactive fish to take when it passes close by. In the smaller rivers where deep water may be no more than five or six feet, even the inactive fish are "within reach" of shallower running lures.

Stoneroller, you're probably right in saying that nearly every hard bait presentation has an equal or better soft bait presentation. But there are certain triggering characteristics of hard baits that are seldom duplicated with soft baits. The flash of spinners, for one thing. The splashy surface action of walk the dog lures--rigged properly, you can make a soft jerkbait like a Superfluke walk the dog pretty well, but it sinks on the pause and even at best, isn't a real consistent walker. The wide wobble of my homemade crankbait, and the waving skirt reacting to that wobble, are not reproducible in soft baits. On the other hand, as you say, the soft baits have advantages that hard baits can't match, as well.