How Many casts per lure?

[greenie.77]

You head out casting lures for the day, the action is quiet, how much do you persist in casting the same lure? How long before you change it, and then subsequent lures.

Me myself, I always have two rods rigged up, cast with one for about 10 mins, then swap to the other for about 10. I usually try to keep my no.1 choice lure on one of the rods for the day and then proceed to drive myself insane swapping the lure on the other rod about every 15mins.


Like I said, I annoy the cr@p out of myself sometimes, but, you know when the action is slow you are always wondering in the back of your head if you have the right lure on or not!!!:'(

[Little grey men]

About twenty minutes each lure. you have to be a little persistant.

[tailorboi99]

15Minutes for me, I like to change so I know what the fish are hitting. But if they are hitting the lure consistantly I keep it on until they stop.

Tom

[flairj]

I usually have some sort of good reason for using the lure I have on and therefore I will give it at least an hour. If nothing then I will usually switch to a smaller or more finesse approach.

I'm not a big believer in colour........ If I'm using a spinnerbait and putting it in the right spot I really think fish will hit it or won't hit it. They may go better on certain colours on a day but I truly believe I have never fished a session where fish would hit a "green" spinnerbait but would absolutly not hit a "red" spinnerbait. They may however not hit spinnerbaits at all.

That being the case, I am more likely to change styles of lure all together than go through every colour of one style.

So, like LGM, I usually have multiple rods rigged with different lures.

Josh

[tunaticer]

If I am being very species specific whilst fishing for a day in a known habitat for them I will persist for the whole day with something I know they will attack rather than try 20 different lures in hope that one will produce the goods.

Many times i have fished alongside a swapper and watched them change every 10-20 minutes and throw out a different lure in hope whilst I persist with my known lure and alter retrieves and depths. They might catch a few more fish that I am not targetting but in the end of the day I usually come up with a decent trump on the trusty. Discerning the "trusty" for the day will take a bit of decision making taking a lot of things into account from water clarity to temp to current runs and fresh content. What works in drought might not be worth a cracker in a fresh.

[NAGG]

I usually have 3 or 4 rods rigged with different offerings ........... If a location looks fishy or there is bait activity / ideal conditions - I'll alternate my presentations ....... maybe 10 casts & change ....... repeating the process several times. ( particularly with barra)

On the otherhand ........ during bream fishing sessions - I could fish an entire creek , mangrove area & throw the same plastic ( confidence in the lure)

Chris

[tasreeling]

It depends on the area I am trying to cover. Sometimes I will cover the area with casts. If I dont have a hit I will change the lure and cast over the same area. Sometimes fish wont take a particular lure, cast out a different lure in the same spot and whack you can be on!

[reidy]

I carry a least two pre rigged rods on board.Will run a lure/plastic for around 30 min. if no takers or fish are following but not striking i will change to a different pattern,size or colour (esp. on trout). match the hatch.
Cheers
Reidy

[Jeremy87]

Maybe every hour or so. It really depends. To give you an idea of my attitude towards lure casting then I'd say keep the same lure on until you lose confidence in it. I'll use the example of small water bass. I know from experience that in the rivers that i fish that there are 3 major food sources. 1. insects falling from the trees above 2. small fish like mullet or rainbow fish and 3. long arm shrimp or yabbies. I have experienced days were the fish will hit lures impersonating all of these food sources and days where they are only hitting one. The bite may not be any better on either day just more specific.

The fish do have favourite offerings and habitats but every day is different, and for that matter every hour of every day might be different too. So instead of swapping lures i find it best make sure your fishing partner is fishing a different presentation to you. We normally start off with one of us fishing a hidden weight atomic prong or gulp craw and the other fishing a hardbody like an sx48. Initially we cover not just the obvious snags but shallow runs, rock edges etc because they might be there too and until we know for sure of where they are sitting its best to cover everything. We normally fish more slowly and make sure that each offering makes it into a likely spot, if one lure gets slammed after another lure has allready been pulled through that same spot its a pretty good indicator for that lure. Once we identify the pattern we both make the switch and fine tune our offerings.

For example i divide my hardbodies into shallow, medium and deep (not into colour or brand, aslong as they cast well and swim well bass will eat them), the fish may be sitting or responding better to different depths so i adjust accordingly. Similarly i'll adjust my retrieve style and speed. Plastics again i adjust the jig head weight, if fish are sitting down deep in the middle then i'll pop on a heavier head but prefer to go weightless when fishing the edges.

Some lures may not be your first pick but are required to fish structure effectively. I hate gulps, they swim shit and are made from a crappy soft compound that gets ripped or fall off your jig head too easily. Unforetunately the fish love them, and they are really good for skip casting so sometimes despite pattern of preference i have no choice but to fish them.

So thats my logic behind lure selection, it normally has nothing to do with how long I've been fishing it rather the factors on the day. There are other reasons I'll make a swap but they mostly come down to instinct and can't really be explained properly. Finally I'll say that the fish can be chewing hard and on anything but if you can't make the cast and get it into the strike zone then it doesn't matter what you've got tied on. So first off make sure that your good at casting and then worry about which lure to tie on.

[shrunken pojie]

Well I am just starting out in the lure game so I change lures regularly and stay in the same spot till I have exhausted my small supply. If I get a hit or follow I will keep with the same lure for a bit longer. Once I get a bit more experience and find out what works where and when for me, I am sure that I will start using the one lure for a lot longer.

Phill

[GAD]

I said about every hour but it depends. Well I have usually got two rods set up one with my favorite softy and one with my favorite hard body , I persist until I feel it requires a change , lack of hits, different structure ,water colour , bait or just because .

[Keechie]

i normally have 3 or 4 rods rigged with different lure (topwater, switchblade, light flickbait, and a 3" atomic prong) if nothign after like an hour i will change colours and lure styles.

nic

[Mossy247]

I am similar to keechie with trying different styles from a small hb / blade to plastic on the other.... But also will go into areas I know what colours/styles have worked for me before, but as Jeremy87 has put it you really need to fish with what you are confident in or maybe that is why I always come back to sp's... LoL If you can't put it near the fish you haven't got a chance :)

[.:::stotty:::.]

I would also take into consideration of tide changes, the water color changes, the time of day ect. You dont really want to be swapping lures at prime times.

Chose your lure before the prime time then persist(sp) with that lure.


I have also found if i am using 2-3rods i will catch less fish than if i was to stick to one rod.

IMO one rod is easier to walk around with, carry, focus on ect, before i go out i always decide which style of fishing i want to do, bream gear or heavy bc gear ect.


Seems to work for me anyways.

[MyEscape]

I voted for swapping a lure each hour, but having said that I'd probably be shifting spots a lot more than that. Particularly when fishing around rocky headleands, creeks etc.

Thinking about it I probably constantly shift (love these minn kotas!!)

Steve

[stessco]

I voted for maybe once or twice, if my favourite lure dosnt work nothing will!

[greenie.77]

I was about to change a lure today, my brother said, just finish this section first. 2nd cast, bass 36cm, one of 4 for the day.

[OISTA]

Depends on what lure i'm using. If we're fishing with spinners or slugs I tend to leave them on all day. When flicking soft plastics i'll swap every 20 minutes or so unless i'm catching

[tunaticer]

Fished last weekend with my trusty for about 3 hours, about a dozen yaks about throwing all assortments of colours brands and styles in every sq inch of water for zero result, I came away with a 12lb snap and threw back 3 smaller versions. Same water, same time, only thing that was different was my choice of lure that i selected before starting for the day.

I believe that most people miss fish they are either not detecting or are not ready for and blame the lure for nil results. 7/8ths of the battle is keeping mentally alert and timing a strike on a shy fish.

[PNG1M]

Similar to what Nagg said earlier...

In PNG when after barra & bass I generally had three set-ups on standby, pre rigged with a hand picked "can't miss" lure variety.

Once we started fishing I'd generally cast solidly for 15mins or so and if there were no strikes or hits (or boils) I'd pick up a different rod & continue flicking.

While transiting from one section of water to another I'd usually change at least one or more of the lures. Or I'd swap a few on location.

I used a quick lure-change system involving split rings so there was no need to mess around cutting leader & re-tieing knots. If the lure change is quick then you can change them more often & with less hassle.

Its handy to try both deep & shallow lures, rattling & non-rattly lures. I used HBs 98% of the time.

I had (and still do) a large selection of lures to choose from so it could be a bit tricky sometimes deciding what ones to use. If I had a kind of 'sixth sense' about a certain lure, I'd leave it on.

Some lures stayed on most weekend - especially if they got results - while others'd be lucky to last 5 minutes. Some I'd change before they even got wet..!?
On one trip my 'Tilsan Big Barra' in the Green Mackerel pattern stayed on for four days straight while the lures on my other rods were changed heaps.

Generally, on promising water it'd be an average of 15mins a lure.
But it does vary according to circumstances...

[snagking]

I'm like most people, I have a range of lures that I really like, and will swap between them quite quickly until I find the one that is working that day.