A Comprehensive Guide to Choosing the Best Fishing Lures

• Research the species you’re fishing for to find out what they like to eat and where in the water they like to be.
• Use dark lures in dark water; light lures in clear water; use vibrating lures in murky water; large, heavy lures in cold water; and light, flashy lures in warm water.
• Use weighted lures for bottom feeding fish, and light or floating lures while fishing at the surface (or when there’s dense vegetation).

Using Your Environment to Choose a Lure

Use lures to target a specific species of fish. You’re more likely to catch a fish if you tailor your lure to it. Research the kind of fish you’re looking for to find out what they eat (minnows? frogs? flies?), where their mouth is located (is it above them or under them), and where they like to hang out (are they on the bottom or floating at the surface?). For example, if you’re fishing for a bottom feeder, look for lures with weights on them, like jigs. If your fish is going to be near the surface, look for lightweight lures that mimic bugs on the water, like flies. In general, use flies to catch trout, use soft plastic worm for largemouth bass, use spoons and spinner for pike, jigs for crappie and bluegill, and a beetle spinner or minnow lure for perch. Websites that sell lures will often let you search by species, as well.

Choose lure colors according to weather and water conditions. The general rule for lure color is "bright day, light colors; dark day, dark colors." On bright days and in clear water conditions, choose lures that are light in color and mimic natural patterns. On cloudy days and in dirty water conditions, choose darker lures, preferably types that make noise or vibrate in the water. Time of day also plays into what colors you choose. At night, everything in the water gets dark, so light colored lures will blend into the background. Darker lures, however, make clearer silhouettes and are more likely to catch fish. Inversely, bright colors are easier for fish to see in the daytime. A notable exception to this rule is the use of 2-toned plastic worms that feature a darker head color and a fluorescent pink or yellow tail color. Many anglers use plastic worms colored like this when fishing in cloudy water conditions. Choose lure colors based on the bait living in the area. If the pond you’re fishing in is filled with minnows, use a flashy lure. If the water is covered in bugs, use a topwater lure or a fly to mimic your fish’s prey

Get weighted lures for deeper water, and light lures for more shallow water. The 3D flow of water is called the water “column,” and is divided into top, middle, and bottom. Different fish species like to hang out in different places, so if your fish’s feeding zone is near the bottom, for example, find lures that match the prey in that part of the column, like nymphs. The bottom of the water column has a slower current and lots of bugs in the dirt—that’s where your bottom feeders are. The middle has the fastest current, while the top is slightly slower due to its contact with the air.

Use heavier lures in colder water. When the water gets cold, fish get sluggish. They try to conserve their energy, so they’re not going to chase after just anything that catches their eye, like they might in warm weather. From a fish’s perspective, it’s much smarter to go after a big, slow moving prey when it’s cold than a small fast one. If it’s cold, get a larger, heavier lure (like crankbait) and try to cast it right up in front of the fish. In warm water, get a lighter surface lure to mimic the spawning bait fish flashing at the top of the column.

Choose lures based on season. Fish cycle through different feeding tendencies as the seasons change. In the winter when the water’s cold, fish congregate near the bottom of the water column. In the summer and spring, they get closer to the topwaters and the shore. Research your specific fish’s feeding patterns to find where in the water they’ll be. In general, use heavy crankbaits in the winter, lipless and shallow crankbaits in the spring, topwater lures in the summer, and jigs with soft plastic creature baits in the fall. Spring is when fish’s activities are most variable. In early spring, fish are still near the bottom of the water column as they wait for things to heat up. As spring goes on, they move closer to the shore.

Choose a lure that won’t get stuck in vegetation. If you’re fishing in a totally clear area, great! You don’t have to worry about any plant matter. If you’re in a reedy, weedy area, however, steer clear of baits that easily get caught, like anything with a treble hook (three pronged hook) or heavy weights. In dense vegetation, use a bait that floats near the surface. Soft plastic baits that float, like worms, frogs, and toads, are great for thick plant mats, like reeds and lily pads. If there’s less vegetation, opt for a bladed jig (weighted hook with a small metal blade attached to it) or a lipless crankbait.

When in doubt, choose a spinnerbait or crankbait. If you’re not looking to do extra research, try one of these two versatile baits. Both are relatively easy to use, and can be fished in all kinds of conditions. If the water is murky, use a crankbait, and if the water is clear, use a spinnerbait.

Types of Lures

Soft plastic lures Soft plastic lures are most commonly fished in timber, brush, weeds, and along rocky drop-offs, as well as occasionally on the surface. They’re usually rigged by threading the hook through the worm so that its body covers the point. These lures are popular with large mouth bass fishermen. Soft plastic lures can look like worms, crawfish, toads, grubs, fish, or bugs. Soft plastics are a lot more natural looking and feeling to fish (most of their prey have soft bodies), so spooked fish and slow moving fellows are more likely to attack them than hard lures. A general guideline is to use soft plastics when you know where the fish are in the water and when they’re hiding near the bottom, in the weeds, or by the sides of docks.

Crankbaits Also known as plugs, crankbaits are artificial lures made of hard plastic with one or more treble—3 pronged—hooks. They’re called “crank” bait because they’re designed to be cast out and reeled back in, mimicking swimming fish. They’re usually shaped like prey animals, and come in a few common varieties. Topwater crankbaits include poppers, which feature a vertical concave surface that makes a popping noise when jerked with the rod tip; wobblers, which have plates that cause the lure to move from side to side when retrieved; and stick baits, which are thin lures without any special attachments. Thin minnow lures are shaped and colored like minnows. They feature a small piece of metal or plastic (a “lip”) at the front, which differentiates them from stick baits. They’re fished on the surface or underwater, usually with a twitching motion. Swimming crankbaits, or swim baits, are artificial lures designed to move from side to side as they are pulled through the water. Diving lures feature a larger lip than thin minnows, enabling them to dive deeper when retrieved or trolled; the larger the lip, the deeper it dives. These lures can have either long, thin bodies, or short, stocky bodies. Trolling is a method of fishing where lines are pulled through the water behind a boat. Crankbaits are good lures for a wide variety of situations. If you don’t know where the fish are in the water, or if it’s not especially hot or cold, crankbaits are a good choice of lure.

Spinnerbaits Spinnerbaits are incredibly versatile lures—they can be fished in almost any condition. They’re sometimes called safety-pin spinners due to their resemblance to an open safety pin and have a weighted end with a hook and a skirt and an end with blades or “spinners.” The blades vibrate and attract fish as they’re pulled through the water. There are three common types of spinner blades: the willow, the Colorado, and the Indiana. The willow blade is long and thin, the Colorado is small and rounded, and the Indiana is somewhere halfway between the two. Colorado blades cause the most vibration, so they’re the best in murky water. The Indiana can be fished faster than the Colorado, so they’re better in warm conditions when the fish are actively feeding. Willow blades are thin enough to not get caught in the weeds, so they’re good for high vegetation. Use multiple blades in warmer waters and in heavy vegetation, and use a single blade in colder water. If you’re fishing somewhere especially murky, use one, heavy blade. There are a few kinds of spinnerbait, like inline lures (where the blades rotate around a central axis), beetle spinners (effectively a smaller version of the classic spinner), and live bait spinners.

Jigs Jigs are single hooks with weighted ends. They can be dressed up with a skirt or a plastic grub, or fished bare. Like all lures, they come in a variety of shapes and sizes, and can be fished in most conditions. Jigging is best, however, for fishing near cover, so cast them out near drop offs, logs, and weeds. Jigs are best used when covering a lot of water (like while trolling), fishing close to objects in the water (like the dock or in vegetation), or fishing deep at the bottom of the water column. Some jigs are rigged with removable safety-pin spinners, usually with a small grub body. Common types of jigs are swim jigs, which are pulled horizontally through the water; grass jigs, which are heavy and cone shaped to cut through grass; and football jigs, which can bounce off rocks without getting caught. Use swim jigs when hunting for schools of fish and covering a large area. Use football jigs when fishing for species that eat crawfish, either in deep or shallow water. They get caught up in vegetation easily, so opt for a grass jig when it’s weedy. “Crawl” the jig by dropping it in the water near rocky outcrops, then slowly reel it back up. Jigs are some of the cheapest lures on the market.

Spoons The resemblance to the bowl of a spoon causes these lures to wobble from side to side as they are retrieved, which draws fish to them. Anglers use smaller spoons to fish for trout and panfish and larger spoons for bass, pike, walleye, and other bigger fish. The wobbling spoon looks like injured prey to other fish. Most spoons are designed to fish below the surface; they feature a treble hook attached with a split ring. Thicker versions of these spoons may be cast or trolled, with the thickest designed to be fished like jigs, while the thinnest versions are designed exclusively for trolling. Another type features a single wire-weedless hook attached to the back of the spoon. These lures are designed to be rapidly retrieved across the surface.

Flies Flies are made of a single hook and either a hair or feather skirt. They’re small, light lures used for fly fishing, and usually target trout. They’re tied to mimic different fly species that trout feed on, and so many anglers will tie them stream side to match the “hatch,” or the environment they’re fishing in. Flies come in five main types: Dry flies float on the surface and are usually dressed with a waterproofing compound. Use dry flies when insects are hatching, on windy days (when bugs fall on the water), and when you see fish feeding at the surface. Wet flies are designed to sink and simulate swimming or drowning insects, as well as insects either laying eggs or hatching from them. In calm water, cast a wet fly beyond the fish's position and let it sink to the proper depth before retrieving it in as naturally as you can. In moving water, cast upstream from the fish and let the water move the fly to it. Nymphs are a form of wet fly that simulates young insects or other small aquatic life. They can be cast below a dry fly to get the attention of fish feeding deeper below the surface. Streamers can be fished the same way as dry or wet flies. They mimic minnows or other small fish. Bugs are dry flies modeled after large insects, amphibians, mice, or injured minnows. Some are designed with popper heads, like the topwater plug previously mentioned. They can be fished with either a floating or sinking-tip line. Some anglers fish multiple flies to determine which type of fly the fish are biting. It’s possible to combine several fly types on a line when doing this, but only as many as the fishing regulations for your state allow. Fly fishing is a little more difficult than other techniques, so it might take awhile to get used to using these lures.