03/01/2000
- Article
When
Bass Get Conditioned
By Dan Galbincea
Through
research it has been found that bass get conditioned to a particular
lure, scent, or color. It
makes sense. If a bass
hits a chartreuse spinnerbait that’s tipped with a
salt-impregnated trailer a couple times and gets hauled into a boat
after a solid fight, this creature may think twice the next time
that lure rolls by.
But
it actually goes farther than that.
The next time the bass smells a salt-impregnated plastic
worm, it might balk at trying to eat it.
The next time the bass sees a chartreuse jig it might swim
away without touching it.
The
conditioning factor is why new lures become hot and old lures cool
off. Luckily a new
generation of bass comes along rather quickly and the old lures can
get hot again.
I’ve
been experimenting lately and have discovered some old lures as well
as brand new ones that fall into the “hot” lure category. Two crankbaits, one old and one new are really going to be
productive in the year 2000. One
is the Frenzy by Berkley and the other is the Lazy Ike. The Frenzy has all the right characteristics.
The colors are awesome, the action is well designed and the
rattling sound chamber is a big plus.
These lures run good right out of the box and really catch
fish. Fish have yet to
be conditioned to the body design and sound of this lure
The
Lazy Ike is a crankbait with an old design that creates a wide
wobble in the water. Few,
if any lures are capable of duplicating this action.
Bass became conditioned to the action and the lure “cooled
off,” for awhile. From
indications resulting in my research the bass are still very fond of
the action of the lure and will hit it with reckless abandon.
It’s a prefect time to incorporate one of these finesse
crankbaits into your program.
Bass
become conditioned to spinnerbaits easily.
They see the flashing blade, feel the vibrations, key on the
live-rubber skirt. Even
changing colors doesn’t always spawn a more productive pattern.
Yet, many anglers love to present a spinnerbait into cabbage,
coontail, grass, milfoil, and other heavy vegetation.
It’s can be a productive lure in thick cover. While it’s difficult to modify a spinnerbait there is one
you have to try in 2000. The
AmBASSaDear. This
little twin-spin really catches bass.
Lots of them and big fish as well.
I
was bass fishing with some good anglers on a 600-acre lake in the
upper midwest. The
temperature dropped that morning by about 25 degrees and no one
thought we were going to catch any bass, even on a lake that is
typically very productive.
The
lake is rimmed with bulrush and mats of cabbage and coontail.
My friends used crankbaits and spinnerbaits.
I used the AmBASSaDear.
The first hour I caught six fish, my partners had none.
The second hour I caught four fish, my buddies had one
between them. The third
hour we were all using AmBASSaDears and catching fish.
A
week later on a small reservoir in Iowa and one of my angling
friends was using a jig/worm and working shallow rock and stumps. I was using an AmBASSaDear.
After I caught a dozen bass and he caught two he was asking
me for a lure like the one I was using.
I had one more and he borrowed it.
After
he caught up to me in numbers I realized I’d never see that lure
again. The lure has
small spinners, a jointed head setup, and bass are not even close to
conditioned by this spinnerbait yet.
As
anglers we get into a groove where we use the same stuff over and
over because we have built up confidence in the bait.
Even after the lure’s production capacity wears thin, we
still have a tendency to stick with them.
This year make it a resolution to discover some new
“confidence baits,” and improve your success ratio.
The
way to do this is look for something new that is similar to what
you’re comfortable with, yet modified enough to take the
conditioning factor out of the equation.
It just takes a little exploring and some effort on the
water.
|
