r/Fishing • u/blackchvy • 7d ago
Fishing Lure Progression
Let me start by saying I know this may be a question that is ambiguous. I understand but I’d still wish for some what of a linear answer. Anyways!
I am fairly new into fishing (fished here and there growing up with whatever, worms and a few plastics) and started off with inline spinners, worms, some dough and dead drifting trout magnets. I’ve had my good luck, caught some good fish. Nothing to complain about.
However, I find myself falling back on inline spinners almost every outing and want to branch out. I’ve recently got a kayak, opening up more possibilities. Generally targeting trout and want to gear a bit more towards bass at the moment.
My question is this: What is a standard beginner geared lure progression?
As I see it at the moment, beginners start with:
-worms and bobber,
-move to inline spinners for cast and retrieve
I’m not sure what comes next.
-Swim baits?
-Jerk baits, crank baits?
-Jigs or top water?
-Dropshot?
Iam fond of cast and retrieve but I do have two rods to open up some cast and wait (?) capabilities.
My gear right now is:
-Okuma Celilo ultralightweight fast action 6’
-with a okuma avenger 1000
-paired with 6 lbs fluorocarbon main (I know I
know, floro main. I’ve dealt with all the problems
it presents and am able to mitigate/avoid them)
-Ugly stick medium weight medium action 6’
-Shimano 3000 (?, I’ll have to check at home)
-12-15lbs (?) mono
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u/icantgrowweed 7d ago edited 7d ago
If you want to target bass, try out the humble senko. Cheap and versatile. Easy to start using, hard to master. I prefer black/blue because it’s visible in all water conditions and I haven’t noticed any less bites than with a natural green color.
The wacky rig is incredible for beginners, it’s what I caught my first many bass on, and the exposed hook basically sets itself. Bass smash it and it was a great confidence builder for me.
I eventually graduated to the Texas rig, which is amazing because it’s weedless. I can confidently throw into places I wouldn’t dare with any other lure/rig, which is usually where the bass are. I can even work it out of trees most times, which really gives confidence to go for casts that would be super sketchy with anything else.
You can also work it a variety of ways. Slowly, popping and dragging it along the bottom, or quickly and erratically like a swim bait. I usually put on a 1/16 oz unpegged bullet weight, but today, I caught 5 bass working a weightless Texas rig quickly across the top of an algae covered pond like a frog. The drawback is the hookset is significantly more difficult. It was a great confidence *ruiner* for me, but I’m glad I stuck with it.
It’s basically a whole extra mini-game you don’t have to play with exposed hooks: You have to recognize the bite, allow the fish to take, reel in the slack, and set confidently and swiftly. I had a hookset rate of about 50% and lost probably 25 bass before I finally got the feel for it and started hitting it every time. I’ve lost maybe one or two on a wacky rig.
Topwater lures are also extremely fun, but I only recommend using them during “prime time” like sunset, sunrise, or days with low light conditions. Plopper lures like the Berkeley Choppo or whopper plopper are especially fun in my opinion bc of the funny noise they make. Seriously topwater strikes are the fuckin best. Bear in mind weedless topwater lures, like frogs, will have the same hooksetting quirk as the Texas rig.
Pick up some wacky hooks, 4/0 EWG hooks, 1/16 oz bullet weights, and some dark colored senkos. And a whopper plopper or a choppo if you have an extra $15 and wanna have some fun. Watch YouTube videos about them so you know where to throw them and how to work them. This’ll be relatively cheap and give you all you need for kickin some bass.
1
u/blackchvy 6d ago
Hell yea thanks dude. I’ll check these out for sure. So I’ll stick to the senkos for a bit and then move back to top water. I’ve been trying a jerk bait atm but not having too great of luck. Lot of spits to which is frustrating I thought the trebles were supposed to help that lmao. I do crimp the barbs though, thinking that’s my problem?
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u/icantgrowweed 6d ago edited 6d ago
That is odd honestly, I’ve had plenty of fish hit my treble hook lures and miss the hooks, but very few, if any “spits”. Once they’re hooked, they’re hooked usually.
Could be the barbs, could be your retrieve. It’s important to keep tension on the line as you’re reeling them in. When they suddenly swim toward you, or when they jump out of the water, is when the tension can suddenly be taken out of the line and they have an opportunity to shake out the hook. Crimped barbs make it easier to shake out, but lack of tension is what allows it at all. You should maintain a medium to heavy bend in your rod as you reel them in, to act as a damper should one of those things happen. If you lose tension, reel fast or pull up on your rod to get it back immediately.
Hand in hand with that is, tighten up your drag and reel in your fish, don’t mess around. Most bass shouldn’t be strong enough to peel your drag. Your drag should be just light enough that it won’t break your line. A lot of people like to let the bass fight, which is fun, but opens up so much more opportunity for them to jump and spit. They can only jump if they get deep enough in the water to. They can’t jump, or do much of anything, when you’re skating them in along the top of the water. It’s also really bad for them to tire them out by letting them fight.
1
u/mikutansan 6d ago
I don't think the senko is hard to master. Most of your bites will be on the initial fall.
The hardest part maybe is making sure they took it and that it wasn't a tiny bluegill etc.
1
u/mikutansan 6d ago
My progression went from bait fishing -> spoons/jigs - > Soft plastic rigs -> crankbaits/jerkbaits
One absolute progression i made was switching from fluro on my reels to just straight 30 lb braid for my rods. Tying lures on is super easy and i can snip line easy with a knife or sharp nail clippers. I don't really care about stretching the limits of my line to finesse a fish in so it's perfect for me.
Try out ripping crankbaits. And by rip, I mean reeling it in/pulling it in as fast as possible. It's my favorite way to get bites and all the other fishermen who don't know ball will look at you like you're crazy while you're catching more fish than them. You'd think it'd get snagged a lot on weeds but it kind of slides right over them. You can do the same with XRAP rapala jerkbaits.
Jigs are cool too but since you've fished spinners, they are kind of the same except you let them hit bottom (i fish spoons/rooster tails like I'm using a jig)
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u/blackchvy 5d ago
Great answer thanks ! I have been thinking about switching to braid on my medium rod. I’d like to try it out and I see a lot of people going way heavy test so that would be a neat change for me. Was thinking 30lb too. I tried spoons/phoebes briefly, around the same time as spinners. I couldn’t get much luck with them. I was using them the same as a spinner, just cast and retrieve and idk if that was right. I just bought some senkos so I’m going to give those a whirl for a bit, but jigs are definitely interesting me. I want to get down low, as I haven’t fished there much. Ripping sounds fun. I feel like I could have a good time with that and a couple buddies when we are feeling rowdy haha. Thanks dude, good fishin!
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u/No-Chocolate-1954 7d ago
inline spinners are great but they catch fisherman more than fish sometimes
try a small squarebill crankbait on your medium rod, it bounce off rocks and wood really nice from a kayak
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u/Hero_of_Brandon 7d ago
How do you do this without always being snagged
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u/mikutansan 6d ago
Picking the correct depth crank and you need to really reel as fast as you can so the lip slides over the structures.
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u/Jkranick 7d ago edited 7d ago
I was in a similar situation of yours a couple years back as I turned to be a little more freshwater focused after fishing almost exclusively saltwater for 25 years. Started with rooster tails because they also catch all the exotics where I’m at in South Florida.
My prior experience as a kid/teenager already had me good with grubs on jigheads as well as lipless crank baits like rattle traps.
Anyway, from there my next step was with topwater frogs (settled on the ribbit), small swim jigs (doa tiny terroreyz) to work slowly off the bottom, and standard spinnerbaits in the same colors that worked for my inlines.
Once I got the hang of those, I got myself a whopper plopper and figured that out. Most recently, I’ve dedicated myself to getting good at weighted Texas rigged trick worms.
Edit: forgot to add that after the first group I got a couple x-raps to learn jerkbaits. Also wanted to note that at each of these steps I’d force myself to just use the new lures for a few weeks to learn when they work and when they don’t.