Most every angler has a tackle box full of lures. Ever wonder why they need all those lures?
A little talked about phenomenon may partially be to blame for your overflowing tackle box – conditioned fish.
Fish become conditioned when many anglers use identical lures to attract a particular species. These fish become trained not to strike the presentation through repetitive denial of the identical offering. This is similar to Pavlov’s dog in reverse.
For example, several years ago, many anglers on the Winnebago System were running Reef Runner lures for walleyes. The lures production started to decline, and many anglers replaced the Reef Runners with the newly developed Berkley Flicker shads. Over the past two seasons, Salmo Hornets have been the top netting lures on the system and is the current king of the hill. All of these lures are still productive on the system, but not to the pinnacle level they one achieved.
Musky fishermen have understood conditioned fish for years. When it comes to musky fishing, often times the weird and outrageous rules the day.
As word gets out about a particular lure’s effectiveness to local anglers, not only does the running style (sound and vibration) of the lure become recognizable to the fish, but so do the most common color schemes.
Tommy Harris Spoon Devilles
One way to overcome conditioned fish is to use custom colors of lures. Custom colors are standard lures which have been refinished with different paint patterns. Many major sporting stores will offer “exclusive” colors, and local lure manufacturers/painters like Tommy Harris Blades out of Kenosha, WI also refinishes products. I much prefer that the custom colors I use to be ones not offered by any retailer (even exclusives), but rather colors that might be one of a kind on a particular lake.
For example, to start this season a repainted Dalmatian Flicker Shad was the most effective lure in my box. The Dalmation pattern has been especially productive on the Salmo lure lines, so the flicker shad variation was an interesting twist. This was a custom paint job by Tommy Harris Blades, and I am pretty sure I was the only guy in the entire region using this lure. Recently, some other funky concoctions in my tackle box have been spectacular. And no, I am not willing to share just yet.
Custom lures tend to be more expensive than their standard color cousins. The additional costs are well worth it to attract fish which otherwise might have been uninterested in a common color presentation.
It just might be time to add another layer to your tackle box. The custom colors will help combat conditioned fish as the season progresses. My suggestion is for anglers to try multiple presentations on each trip on the water. The reward can be substantial for trying something new for a few minutes each trip.
