Lure Patterns

[terry m]

Chartreuse, Brown Trout, Fire Tiger, Red Head. All well known lure patterns, but does their design catch more anglers than fish?

What is your favourite lure pattern, I have many lures in Fire Tiger but it is far from the most successful.

Red Head (white body) and pike pattern are my most successful, how about you?

 

[Derek Gibson]

Although in recent I tend not to place too much importance in realistic lure patterns. I have to confess to having a ''weakness'' for Perch pattern lures, Fire Tiger has also served me well in the past. But generally speaking I find contrast on lures the most consistant fish catchers on most of my lures.

 

[binka]

Despite regular forays (usually with the ultra lights) i'm probably the world's worst lure angler, especially in terms of confidence but the names given to various patterns always intrigue me.

I think it is Savage Gear that has a colour pattern called "Golden Ambulance"

 

[chrissh]

I find that natural colours work well with soft lures and coloured for hard or top water lures
my favourite are savage eels

 

[neil1970]

Redhead, even in very clear water seems to work well for me.

 

[Derek Gibson]

Redhead, even in very clear water seems to work well for me.

Strange you should say that Neil, the received wisdom from many of the early lure anglers usually followed the maxim, ''dull day, bright lure, bright day, dark lure''. Where they came up with such a fixed notion I haven't got a clue. But as far as I'm concerned it's a load of tosh.

The one exception being, surface lure fishing. If I could only have one lure it would be black, I have had great success with black surface lures, including some big lunkers. I became a convert to black over thirty five years ago, and used them extensively at the appropriate time from Yorkshire to Dorset.

 

[nicepix]

The first pike I caught on a plug was on a home made black plug; whittled the wood, attached the hook rings, sealed it and painted it using Humbrol modeller's paints. Black with red gills. Since then I have used black plugs with some success especially on sunny days.

In genera I think I'm more confident with plugs or lures that have red, yellow and / or green in their colouration.

---------- Post added at 19:30 ---------- Previous post was at 19:29 ----------

I think it is Savage Gear that has a colour pattern called "Golden Ambulance"

Couldn't that be Golden Ambiance? mg:

 

[binka]

Couldn't that be Golden Ambiance? mg:

Lmao...

You had me worried though and I thought I better check, it's definitely Golden Ambulance

SAVAGE GEAR REAL EEL PIKE LURES READY TO FISH 20CM-38G 30CM-80G | eBay

 

[john step]

Despite regular forays (usually with the ultra lights) i'm probably the world's worst lure angler, especially in terms of confidence but the names given to various patterns always intrigue me.

I think it is Savage Gear that has a colour pattern called "Golden Ambulance"

Sorry binka you are wrong....I am the worlds worst lure angler. They follow and won't take or they hit and come offmg:

 

[pointngo]

I used to use "natural" colours pretty much exclusively, thinking that if a pike can see a real fish it would see my lure, but that has all changed in recent years.

It all started when a mate and myself were out for a social days fishing on his local lake.. a shallow, clear, weedy water. We were both fishing abu hairy killers, mine black and yellow and his bright orange, and he was catching way more than I was on the day. At one point we were stood right next to each other and retrieving them back right next to each other, matching the action, and we watched a pike swim past mine to hit his! This happened again just after.

That got me thinking that I might be wrong about lure colour and I changed my approach after that. For me personally, lure colour has proven itself to be almost as important as action but it doesn't always apply. A lot depends on the water conditions imho. It can be hard to catch anything on lures in a dirty river but certain colours stand out and can make the difference between catching and not. I test this very often; if i'm fishing a stretch of river I know well I'll fish it down with a natural colour and if I catch nothing fish the same swims moving upstream with a different colour... most times the colour change catches a fish that I've already covered.

Confidence plays a major part here. I've given up on redhead patterns but know plenty of people who's favourite colour is redhead... and I've watched them catch on it!

We all perceive things differently though so only a bit of experimentation will prove (not beyong doubt!) the point either way.

This is worth a read to get you thinking...

Colours under water

 

[mick b]

Worth noting that a fishes eyes see colours differently to the human eye.

More research has been done on the eyes of Marlin and Tuna than any other and still a lure of the preferred size catches better than some fancy colour

Certainly black is a killer, especially for Bass at dusk, and a Roach will catch better than a Goldfish or atleast it did in the '60's!

I haven't caught enough Pike on lures to make a sound judgement but a Shiner pattern did get me my first 20 (but never another) Crawdad caught down deep on the AWA ressies and Wasp pattern murdered the big brownies everywhere.

.

 

[Derek Gibson]

Mick it might be worth checking out the book ' Wat fish see' by Dr Colin J Kageyama, theres a wealth of info for anyone interested in this subject.

 

[pointngo]

You're right that fishes eyes see differently to humans but a lot of fish, including pike, have rods and cones so they are able to see colours. It may also be that their eyes are attuned to things we can't see, such as UV, but the fact that they can differentiate between colours says to me that it must have some sort of influence on predators using sight as their primary hunting technique.

How much of an influence is purely personal speculation, as are most things in fishing, and has to be considered alongside other things such as vibration, size, smell etc. Lure size is also very important for me, as is action. I doubt there is any one thing that makes a certain lure successful.

All these variables on any given day and in any given conditions are what makes lure fishing such an interesting method for me as it allows a certain amount of realtime experimentation which you can't do with bait fishing.

At the end of the day though, we all have colours and patterns that catch more for us than others and it's just as likely to be down to confidence after catching on something, then using it more than everything else, which builds confidence in it even further. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy.

---------- Post added at 12:26 ---------- Previous post was at 12:20 ----------

Thanks for pointing out that book Derek, just ordered a copy.

 

[Derek Gibson]

The thing is Marc, until I'd read Kagayama's book, all my own conclusions with regard to lure colours, and weather and water conditions were based on empirical experience garnered over many years. At that time had you asked me why this or that lure worked in those particular conditions, my answer would have been speculative at best. But after reading his book it's comforting to know that there is a scientific answer. So, like the Irishman, I took his advice before he gave it.

 

[pointngo]

I think every angler is the same Derek. We base our thoughts on what we experience and try and make sense of it... at best, it is circumstantial evidence as there's no way to scientifically prove anything in a real world fishing situation.

Fishing is all about how we perceive and interpret things.. sometimes we're wrong and sometimes we're right but most of the time we're somewhere in the middle. A deeper level of (perceived) understanding can only be gained after many years of experience, which is why I dislike "instant experts" so much.

I tend not to read much/any angling literature anymore as I prefer to just do my own thing but I'm looking forward to reading that book. Any scientific evidence relating to fish senses and behaviour is worth a hundred "how-to" books imho, which tend to all regurgitate the same things over and over. I nearly bought it a few years back but didn't for some reason so thanks for bringing it to my attention again mate. :thumbs:

 

[nicepix]

Sound / vibration and action could be regarded as more important than colours.

 

[neil1970]

When you watch the SG Waterwolf camera on youtube getting hit by pike, you begin to wonder if pattern, action, shape or size etc matter at all.

Then again, the camera is black & the lure is their 'orange ambulance' pattern

edit - There are some comparison vids in amongst loads of other brilliant underwater lure stuff here

https://www.youtube.com/user/underwaterireland/search?query=lure

 

[Derek Gibson]

Sound / vibration and action could be regarded as more important than colours.

As could working depth Clive, all factors combine and are considered by the successful lure angler.

 

[pointngo]

Sound / vibration and action could be regarded as more important than colours.

most lure anglers think so but not me. I know several waters where one particular colour will outfish others, no matter what the action is. I've seen evidence of it too many times to ignore. Trolling the same lures around ressies, right next to each other, and one colour repeatedly getting hit, or changing the colour of a topwater frog and getting immediate action where you've just fished.. the list goes on.

Derek has hit the nail on the head... all things combine and have to be considered but ignore colour at your own peril imho. Ask yourself; why wouldn't colour/contrast be important for a sight feeding fish?

 

[Gnasher]

I've always found that the design of lure makes the difference rather than the colour. Given a chance I'll go for a natural or silver pattern. A better action catches rather than the paint job.

I worked in the trade and a fox rep produced a purple lure from his samples. Purple? I questioned. "Yeah" he said "apparantly pike see red as purple". So it stands to reason you paint the lure red and let the pike's sense of sight sort it out. What's it going to see purple as? Black? Blue? Certainly something else other than red.