Black Lure Testing 2008

[Reef Runner]

Hello everyone. I haven't fished at all this fall; law school applications and tests have eaten up most of my time. Hung up the gear - with the exception of a possible ice trip to Calandar Bay- for another season. One report left for the year, a promise I've yet to make good on toward board member Barnie's Band of Gold for providing me with the opportunity. If you need a refresher on the task, search Black Lure Experiment and look for Ryan Landry's post.

 

Arising from a dispute concerning lure colour and their affects on raising fish, Landry and Hammerhead Lures produced a handful of flat black hard baits and distributed them amongst board members to test against similar baits of different paint. The majority of my test were run in late June and into July, in different waters, varying structures and weed patterns. Night/day - stained/clear - console/tiller, you name it and I chucked these baits in it. Very good quality hooks, action on some of the stick baits could have been tweaked, but overall, not shabby lures by any stretch. My favourites of the bunch were the popper and shallow runner, just because they scored me some fish.

 

 

 

I found that the black baits were most affective on clear water bluebird days when ran against similar baits of different paint. However, if the water was stained or it was a bit overcast, coloured baits out-fished the black. I'm no biologist, but I figured under strong light conditions the fish were reacting to what they assumed was a shadow of a bait fish. That being said, I would still prefer to use coloured baits than black just from the experience I've had doing the comparison. I wonder how others did in this regard.

 

A big thanks to Ryan Landry for making some good baits, Barnie's Band of Gold for forgoing his shot at the experiment and passing them onto me and, of course, OFC for providing the arena to make it all possible.

 

Happy Holidays to you and your loved ones! Looking forward to the fishing for Tyler auction and opener 2009!

 

Reefrunner

[Ramble]

Fishing Pike in Kesagami ove the last few years i have played with colours as well. But not hard body baits. It's a heavily stained lake with 4 feet of visibility on a good day afer some calm weather. Rough water or winds and it can get thick quick.

 

Orange, pink, and white are standards for pike and walleye on the lake. But the other colour is black. Black twister tails and black jig heads can out fish any other colours some days and I found that a bit surprising when i was 1st up their. Black buzz baits with black props are another killer combo for northerns, i'm sure water clairity has a lot to do with their success. I brought up 2 black skirted spinner baits with black blades and lost both after about a month, but they saw a lot of action. Adding a pink twister tail was icing on the cake. SO many big pike followed it right to the boat, and often were picked up on follow up casts with the black spinner bait, or on a silver spoon. I've some nice fish come on the black/gold huskey jerks as well. Black bucktail spinners have also done quite well on that lake. Out fishing red/white combo's a lot of the time. Black/orange colour schemes also seem to be on par with black bucktails.

 

Fishing down around here, i have found black is good on clear days with clear water as well. I've seen some of the biggest smallies attack black jitter bugs, while smaller fish were chasing colours more. Did you find bigger fish were more common on the black? or just higher numbers under certain conditions?

 

 

Anyway there is some more observations for you.

 

-R-

Edited December 16, 2008 by Ramble On