Validating the importance of matching the lure color and the scent of the lure to the bait fish found in area for maximum success!
We tested how important it is to match what the predatory fish are feeding on in the area in terms of effectiveness of catching fish. We wanted to determine if there was relationship to the predatory fish taking a particular lure with a particular scent in relation to the available and abundance of bait fish species found in the area.
Quite often you can see fish feeding but it is near impossible to catch those fish because they are feeding exclusively on a particular type of bait and will not feed anything else, so unless you can match that bait exactly it is unlikely you will get those fish to bite your lure or bait.
For example if a school of Tuna are feeding on large amounts of small squid in a particular area then it is unlikely those tuna will take any other type of bait or lure other than small squid.
To try and prove this theory we can conducted the following experiment:
First of all we needed to determine what the predatory fish in the area where feeding on. To find this out whenever we caught a fish like a tuna or dolphin fish that was of a legal size we would immediately cut it open and inspect its stomach contents to find out what bait species it had inside it stomach.
More often than not the predatory fish’s stomach contents are full of one particular type of bait. Generally that one type of bait is the majority of its stomach content and more typically the predatory fish’s stomach content is just full off one type bait and not contaminated with any other types of bait. For example the predatory fish would be full off: just pilchards, just white bait, just squid or just garfish.
This suggests the area that these predatory fish are feeding in has an abundance of one type of bait and that is the only bait that these predatory fish are focused on. This is also the likely reason why they won’t take lures or baits because they not matching that bio mass of bait in the area. Even if the predatory fish are visibility feeding on the surface of the water they will not take a lure or bait that is not matching what they feeding on. Fisherman often experience this type of event where there is no lure or bait they can use that will catch fish, however they can see plenty of fish feeding but catch them.
Once we have taken out the stomach contents of the predatory fish that we caught we put those stomach contents inside our Scent Blazer lures using a lure color that matches the bait we found inside the predatory fish’s stomach.
Example 1:
If the predatory fish’s stomach contents were full of pilchards, then we use the pilchards from its stomach and put it inside a Scent Blazer lure that is black/blue lure on top with silver underneath. Basically a black/blue lure on top with silver underneath is the color of a pilchard and additionally the lure now contains real pilchards so the lure not only matches color of the bait fish in the area and has the scent of that bait fish as well.
Example 2:
If the predatory fish’s stomach contents were full of squid, then we use the squid from its stomach and put it inside a Scent Blazer lure that is black/red or a pink lure. Basically a black/red or a pink lure is a the color of a squid and additionally the lure now contains real squid so the lure not only matches color of the bait fish in the area and has the scent of that bait as well.
Now we have identified what the fish in the area are feeding on we continue to fish around the same area. We use following lure configuration that is trolled behind the boat:
1 matching lure that matches that color of the bait found in stomach content of the predatory fish we caught, additionally we place the actual bait from the predatory fish’s stomach and put it inside the lure. So the lure matches the color of bait found in the predator’s fish stomach with the actual bait inside the lure, so this lure matches the color and real scent of bait fish that is in the area.
2 control lures that do match the color bait fish found in the predatory fish’s stomach. Additionally we load those lures with different baits than the bait found the predatory fish. These 3 lures mismatch the bait found in the predatory’s fish stomachs content. These lures represent bait types not found in the stomach of the fish we caught.
The results
We tried testing in this manner on 6 separate occasions. Basically when we caught a tuna or a dolphin fish we cut that fish open put the bait we found inside the stomach into as Scent Blazer lure into a lure the color matched the bait found inside the stomach of the tuna or dolphin fish. So the lure matched both color and scent of the bait found inside the fish’s stomach.
The result was 5 of 6 times when this test was conducted the lure that contained actual stomach contents using a matching color lure out fished by at least 2 to 1 and in one occasion 4 to 1. 2 of the occasions the lure that matched the bait was only lure that caught fish and the other lures were completely ignored which suggests that the predatory fish in the area only had focus on one type of bait fish because the other lures were ignored.
Additionally when fish were caught on the lure that matched the bait fish found in the predatory fish’s stomach content the position of lure in relation to the boat was irrelevant. For example the lure could have been closest the boat when trolled or it was a long way back or on port or starboard side the boat. This suggests the predatory fish are seeking out and targeting the lure that matched the bait fish found predatory fish’s stomach content. It would also suggest that the predators were actually ignoring the other lures which did not match the bait in the area because they would have more than likely seen them.
Another observation was when we cut open and looked the stomach contents of the fish caught on matching lures, the fish had the same bait in the stomach that matched the lures.
Conclusion
Although the test was only limited to 6 instances. 5 times the of 6 the lures that matched the bait in the area for color and scent out fished the lures which did not match the bait found in the stomach content of the predators that we caught initially. This strongly suggests that predatory fish when there an abundance or off or big schools of a particular bait available they will mainly focus on that type of bait and largely ignore other baits that are less abundant at the time.
In testing there were 2 occasions when these results suggested only the matching lures caught fish and all other 3 lures were ignored.
Further testing is required, but from our initial findings matching the bait that the predatory fish are feeding on is extremely important and could be the difference between catching a fish and catching nothing at all.