You may be surprised why fish react to one lure while another can swim by them all day long...

by Tom Vassallo

There always seems to be that one lure in the box that is your "go-to" lure. The one you put on after you've tried your newest, flashiest, "looks like the real thing" lure. Yeah...the one you dropped a little more money on than you should have at the last flea market? Well, nine times out of ten, the "old faithful" is just a black or white swimmer or plug that really doesn't look like much, but seems to get the job done. In my case, I like a black Bomber...salt or freshwater...just a smaller one when I'm in freshwater.
So what might that Bomber have that another lure doesn't? Well, it really comes down to the science of "fish attraction". That widely studied, but still somewhat misunderstood, area of fishing science. What studies have discovered, you might find pretty interesting...especially if you are into making or painting your own plugs and lures. This article focuses on possibly the two most important characteristics in fish attraction...visual attraction and motion attraction.

"Fish attraction" relates to the characteristics of a lure that appeal to one or a few senses of the fish. A successful lure will attract a fish due to a combination of its color, shape , movement, sound or possibly even the taste of the lure. Usually a lure will possess a few of these characteristics that will attract a certain species and (hopefully) cause it to strike. But if we don't know what we need to know about our quarry, we won't be able to understand how to attract it.

Not to disparage the gamefish we all hold in such high regard, but fish are dumb. That's right...the fish's brain just does not allow for rational thought. Even the dumbest mammal is an Einstein when it comes to the fish's brain. But what the fish may lack in brain power, it strongly compensates with keen physical senses. Although most would think this means they have incredible eyesight, it is not that simple. You see, the lens in a fish's eye is rounded and not flat like the eye of a mammal or a human. Also, the eye of a fish has a "fixed focus" and is therefore unable to adjust its retina to focus on things farther or closer to them. So, based on its habitat, most fish in smaller bodies of water like creeks and rivers, are more apt to have better short-range vision. Whereas, fish species found in large bodies of water are better able to focus at much greater distances.

But, hold on...fish have something the "smarter" mammal does not, since its lens is rounded. Believe it or not, most studies have shown that a fish has the unique capability to see a much wider field of vision. Studies have shown that fish also use the reflective undersurface of the water like a mirror, to actually see all the way around a shallow swimming bait or lure. That's right...when your lure is swimming just under the surface, the fish is actually seeing  the top of your lure as well!

A fish's perspective of a floating lure. Due to reflection and the fish's rounded lens, the fish seems to be able to see both the top and the bottom of your lure.

So what are the most important aspects related to visual attraction? That would basically center around size and color. Some days a smaller plug seems to be hot and the next day, a bigger plug is working. That is why you do need to have your plugs and lures in different sizes. If you've done any fly fishing, you know that just switching to a smaller fly or larger fly seems to start putting fish on the line every time. Well that can happen with any lure. So if you are casting or building lures of just one size, that size could be the wrong size, depending on the depth of the school. It isn't too difficult to figure out, that the deeper the school is, the farther away it will be from a surface plug or one swimming just under the surface. The deeper the fish are that day...you may want to try a lure a little larger in size.

Additionally, most studies have shown that fish actually have reduced color recognition as opposed to a mammal or human. However, this is not so much related to whether they can see color, but more to how much color they can see related to the type of water they are in (salt and other chemicals effect light absorption) or the depth they are at. Color is reliant upon the reflection or absorption of light, so it would stand to reason that as the depth of the water changes, so will a fish's ability to perceive subtle (and not so subtle) changes in color. However, a fish can see or perceive contrast (or changes in contrast) quite well. So in reality, if you are going to make lures in different colors, you may want to take photos of those colors and convert your photo to black and white or view the colors under less light before selecting your final lure colors. In "grayscale", without color, you will quickly see how important those spots, stripes and lines will become!

Without light, color cannot exist. Reflection and absorption of light creates color. As water depth increases and/or sunlight decreases, so does color. Compare the color images of the lures with the grayscale images and it illustrates how important shapes and contrast become!

Now besides color, the most appealing lures to me are the ones that look just like the "real thing". However, I think more anglers are attracted to the look of the lure than many fish may be! Here's why...if a striped bass has the capability to see its prey from long distances, it will see that detail only at long distances. What happens when the fish gets closer to the prey? The lure or prey is now decidedly out of focus! So the spectacular paintwork and detail is now reduced to a few blurry lines and spots! Now what does this mean to the angler or lure maker? You can create lures with what are called "representative" or "impressionistic" paint. Representative or impressionistic images consist of softer shapes or more geometric shapes on your lure's surface. Why? Because even if there is spectacular, realistic detail on the lure, the fish is unable to see that detail clearly as it moves into the strike range. Due to the "fixed focus" of the fish's retina, the lure will more than likely blurry or fuzzy to the fish!

But the second and one of the most important ways to get that fish to strike will be related to the motion of the lure. If you look at a bunker spoon, you're probably thinking what would ever make the striped bass eat that thing. Well, that is related to another scientific fact. Fish have the ability to actually "feel" the lure. That's right...fish have an extremely sensitive lateral line that contains nerve "sensors". This allows the fish to actually feel short pressure waves in the water. These pressure waves are created by the movement of their prey or the movement of your lure. Many of you surf anglers know that a black or dark purple lure can be very effective once the sun has gone down. Since a striped bass cannot see too well as it closes in on the lure, its critical nerve endings in the lateral line help to guide it to your lure in the darkness. I can remember fishing in my favorite largemouth spot after a torrential thunderstorm by a feeder pipe. The sun had gone down and the water was really muddy but I caught bass after bass (eight in less than 20 minutes) throwing a black spinnerbait with a Colorado blade into the turbulence near the mouth of the pipe. I am 99.9% certain that those fish were "feeling" the vibration of that Colorado blade more than relying on their sight to see the lure in that muddy, dark water.

Well, I'm running out of space here so let's get to the point. If you are going to use this knowledge in your lure making, you should probably keep your detailed paint jobs on those small swimmers and crankbaits you use in the bass pond. But if you are going to make plugs for use in the ocean, (and you are not the greatest with your airbrushing details) you can concentrate more on creating softer shapes or more contrasting shapes on your lures in those paint jobs. But even more important, you may want to experiment with metal lips, different body shapes or any other manufacturing tactic to get that attractive wave pulsation going...that will more than likely make a big difference if you are fishing for stripers...especially after dark.

Just one last comment...what about the "smell" of the lure. Aren't fish attracted by scent as well? It is true that fish can sense the tiniest of changes in the chemical composition of the water. Although fish attractants may seem to "attract" fish...studies have shown that they probably are actually better at masking the other smells we happen to get on our lures. I personally use a scent when fresh water bass  fishing for that very same reason...and I swear by it! So, keep those lures off the floor of the boat where gas or oil can contact them. That will certainly doom the attraction of any lure to a gamefish. Now get out there and fish!