STRIKES
by Chuck Bailey
INTRODUCTION
Predators chase and eat prey. Every crankbait angler banks on that knowledge by trying to imitate some type of natural food preferred by their favorite species. But not many fishermen know “how” a fish strikes its meal, or “why” it consumes one lure and ignores another. Obtaining these insights is a first step to increasing your success on the water.
HOW A FISH STRIKES
To capture prey, most fresh water sports fish use “suction” to vacuum in their food. Most bass and walleye don’t commit themselves to strike prey until it is within 1½ feet. But when it does strike, it does so by opening its mouth quickly and flaring its gills, a large amount of water flows in to fill the expanding mouth cavity. Anything close by, like a minnow or crawdad, is caught in the stream of rapidly moving water, and is carried inside the mouth cavity. As the mouth is closed, the excess water is released through the gills leaving the meal to be swallowed.
Obviously the suction is greatest near the predator’s head, and lessens the further away an object is from the mouth. Therefore a bass, walleye, pike, etc., must make sure it is close enough to the food source. If not, the natural bait may escape because the suction was not greater than its swimming strength. To reduce the distance between mouth and dinner, the larger species tend to swim towards their prey at the same time they flare their gills. This frontward advance increases the speed of the water flowing into the mouth cavity. Timing is critical, but most species quickly learn how to master this consumption process.
Strike accuracy is proportionate to the speed of the prey or bait. For example, a stationary bass would obviously prefer to have its meal swim slowly towards it, giving the predator plenty of time to study it, decide if it is food, and then, without expending much energy, suction in a delicious meal. However, most natural prey spend their entire life trying to avoid running into the mouths of giant consumers. Generally the only easy meals are the disoriented, wounded, stunned, or dying prey.
Occasionally, hiding near structure or in the shadows helps predators reduce strike zone distance, because creating a reduced sight situation may cause prey to naively stumble close enough to become an easier meal. However, most meals are not easy, as most prey are not blind and survive by running as fast possible when danger is sighted. But the faster that prey is swimming the harder it is to rush forward and strike with precise accuracy. This may explain why more missed strikes occur when a crankbait is retrieved at fast speeds.
For the most part, the striking accuracy of a predator is right on, and most bass and walleye pros believe that an angler cannot physically retrieve a crankbait so fast as to snatch away the fish’s opportunity to strike. If a predator is active and hungry and mistakes your crankbait as food, its dash forward will generally result in a precise strike and an exciting crankbait battle for the angler.
The strike is a complex combination of forward movement by the predator until the proper distance is attained from the prey, a quick opening of the jaws, a flaring of the gills, and a stream of water sucked into the mouth cavity. It everything goes well, from the predator’s perspective, the mouth closes on a nourishing meal. If everything goes well from the angler’s perspective, the mouth closes on a crankbait full of trebles and an exciting underwater contest begins.
WHY A FISH STRIKES
The underwater camera had been lowered with the lens looking backward, and a Rapala Jointed Minnow attached to the cable on a 6 foot leader. Two fishing partners were trolling across a 20 foot deep flat, watching as the crankbait wiggled temptingly in the middle of the screen. Suddenly a huge smallmouth rushed into the picture and began to parallel the path of bait. Only 2 feet away, the fish eyed the bait for a full 200 yards before it turned and drifted away. The anglers were left with the same question every fisherman asks when fish follow but don’t strike: WHY?
It surprises no one to discover that fish will always react to something coming into "their" space or area. They may flee, attack the foreign object, ignore it, taste it and spit it out, or eat it – but they will react to it in some way. Obviously the angler’s goal is to get a strike. But why do fish strike? There are three common theories.
The first, is obvious: HUNGER. Fish learn quickly what natural foods are good to eat. If they are not sure, they may suck it in and taste it, spitting it out if undesirable. Anything that invades its territory is checked out carefully. But fish are not hungry 24 hours a day, and hence many of the fish that see artificial baits are inactive and are content to watch it slip away again without striking.
If most anglers knew just how many inactive fish observed, scrutinized, and ignored their baits during a full day on the water, that awareness could lead to depression and the urge to quit fishing all together. Professionals recognize this fact and therefore cover a lot of water intentionally targeting the active fish. This reasoning is logical, and generally leads to a solid amount of success. Why? Because… if the manmade crankbait imitates the natural forage in a realistic fashion, a hungry fish will react to the invader of its space by trying to devour it. Hunger is the main reason for a fish strike.
The second reason is ANGER. While a fish is not always hungry, it may strike an invader moving into its space just to drive it away. At other times they may be protecting their nest during the spawn, and are aware that other species would like to feast on their eggs or fry. A slow moving tube or jig entering the nest will initially receive intimidating gill flaring, aggressive tail swipes, or other threatening movements. If the threat does not flee, the fish finally becomes angry enough to pick it up, move to a safe distance away, and spit it out.
A crankbait, however, is generally moved fast enough through the water that a nesting fish simply allows it to pass by – seeing it as less of a threat to eggs and fry. Crankbaits have never been recognized as effective bed-fishing baits for the simple reason that some degree of speed is needed to get the plastic or wooden body to imitate live prey, and therefore cannot remain stationary enough to illicit an anger strike.
Occasionally, if a fisherman is patient enough, that angler may repeatedly bounce a square-billed crankbait off a stump or rock pile until an anger strike occurs – but few anglers have the knowledge to know with confidence that a fish is territorially attached to a specific piece of structure, unless the lake is generally lacking in cover to begin with. A lake strewn with rocks, or covered with stump fields makes it hard, if not impossible, to make the number of repeated casts needed to stimulate an anger strike at every piece of available structure. Needless to say, when you throw crankbaits, strikes as a result of anger are rare.
The third reason given for strikes is quite controversial; REFLEX. The idea is that an angler can manipulate a crankbait in such a way as to cause an inactive fish to strike by exploiting some instinctive reflex the fish cannot control. Often the illustration of a cat reacting to a ball of string is used to point out that some animals can’t help but respond to certain stimuli with predetermined reflexes. Move the string, the cat pounces. The idea is that thinking is replaced with reflex. Likewise, the theory is; put an imitation bait in front of an inactive fish in a specific way, and an instinctive strike will occur.
But not all experts agree with this concept. They listen to others declare, “If you can present a crankbait so as to utilize extreme speed and flash to enter the fish’s space quickly enough, so as not to give it a chance to study and think about it, that fish will be forced to react before the bait escapes in the next few seconds.” The idea described in countless fishing magazines is that before the opportunity is lost, the fish will strike out of reflex or instinct. Infisherman authors, Doug Stange and Ralph Manns disagree.
Stange and Manns do not believe that a fish can be “triggered” into striking. In issue #77, they say, “Nothing will force a fish to strike if it doesn’t decide to do so. Fish hit lures because they want to eat, and they mistake the baits for some type of food. The decision to strike can be made leisurely when potential food appears injured and can be easily approached. The decision must be made quickly if a target flashes nearby through the underwater gloom. Targets of this type (those with minimum delay) are responsible for the widespread belief that that bass strike “reflexively” if properly triggered. It’s more likely that the sudden appearance of a lure forces a hasty decision to strike.”
These Infisherman experts claim that most triggering strikes are preceded by a “decision” to strike, a decision that could have been refused had the bass identified the lure as a nonfood or a threat. In other words, if your crankbait doesn’t look like food or a threat, no amount of speed or flash will get the fish to strike. A “decision” is always made, hastily perhaps, but it is not the result of an uncontrollable or instinctive reflex.
Whether it is “decision” or “reflex”, both camps can agree that MOVEMENT is the primary factor that that seems to make most predators decide a crankbait is a food. And don’t forget, (See ABC’s of COLOR – FLASH – MARKINGS), most game fish are ill-equipped to perceive the details of objects clearly, especially faster moving objects like crankbaits. But if the object moves like natural food, then a strike is much more likely.
It boils down to this; if an angler can imitate the “movements” displayed in nature that indicate food and illicit strikes, then their catching ratios will increase. Let’s look at how to do just that.
HOW TO ELICIT STRIKES
Whether a fish is in a “perhaps-a-snack” or “I’m famished” mood, it has learned to recognize food by its movement. And generally, the more sudden or erratic that movement, the better. No doubt, active fish can be caught with a steady retrieve. (And sometimes cranks have been called “idiot baits” because of that fact). But the most effective anglers turn their crankbaits from steady-retrieve “good actors” into “Oscar-winning actors” by teaching them to dance some new steps.
The first alternative retrieve is “stop and go”. After getting the crankbait down to its running depth, the angler takes a couple of cranks and literally stops the retrieve. This does a couple of things; initially it duplicates the movement of live prey that rarely runs at steady pace. Secondly, it leaves the bait in the strike zone longer. It gives a fish further away a chance to come closer and investigate. And thirdly, a fish following a crankbait that suddenly stops is often forced to make its decision quickly, now that the bait is up in its face. (Trollers are well versed in the “drop back” technique to trigger strikes from followers.) And lastly, if the fish doesn’t strike when the bait stops, it often goes nuts when the bait takes off again. It’s natural for prey to recognize a predator and run for its life. And the predator expects it. So a “stop and go” retrieve is a dance step that imitates the movements of Mother Nature herself.
The second unconventional retrieve is “burning” the lure. It means using a high speed reel to wind the crank just as fast as possible through the fish’s strike zone, (especially effective in open water). This rapid speed gives a fish no time to study the bait’s details, requiring an immediate decision. The crankbait appears to be screaming “I’m a food source running for my life!” The fish may even whack the bait simply to stun it. In nature, predators have been seen doing just that, then turning back to study the potential prey, tasting and eating it if it is appealing. Whether the strike is out of hunger or curiosity, a burned crankbait surprises the predator with an arsenal of treble hooks, and the battle is on.
“Burning” is often a favorite of bass fishermen who throw rattlebaits over grassbeds. Many modify the technique and call it “ripping”. This comes from intentionally letting the crankbait encounter the top of the grass. The angler then drops their rod, reels down, and rips the bait loose. The bait exploding from the weeds often elicits strikes that are bone jarring and addictive to the bass angler. It seems active fish just can’t stand seeing a potential meal fleeing the scene. (A few anglers like to shake the bait in the weeds before ripping it loose, claiming strikes will often occur then).
“Bumping the cover” is another way of making a steady retrieve change into life-like movement. Its effectiveness is due to the change in direction and speed that occurs as the bait bounces or deflects off a branch, stump, piling, or rock pile. The more erratic the behavior of the crankbait, the better it resembles the behavior of fleeing food. It resembles a running-back who has been handed the football; the player swerves and changes speed and direction as often as is needed to avoid tacklers. Tacklers expect it, and so do predators underwater. When the change in direction and speed occurs, the movement reinforces the idea that this object invading its space - is food. If eating is on the predator’s agenda, the next step is attack.
Whether you are using a “stop and go” retrieve, “burning” or “ripping” a lure, or “bumping the cover” – changes in the speed and direction of the crankbait can trigger strikes from fish that might otherwise let the crankbait pass by. Obviously an active hungry fish will attack almost anything that moves. But if a predator is less active and is supporting a “It-might-be-food” frame of mind, then any speed or direction variation can convince them to strike.
When it comes to fish, food is primarily recognized by movement. Any angler that imitates the movements of natural prey has an edge over the masses who are content to simply cast and wind.
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