It's a niche thing...

[CrappieJohn]

When fishing we tend to use baits that appeal to the fish so they hit. Bait has the benefit of being alive(usually) and carries with it natural scent and movement. So where do we begin in our selection of plastic baits when they will have to compete with the real McCoy?
First, and more than anything, we need to consider the time of year and what we are persuing for fish. Plastics for crappies thru the ice can be microscopically small. Chasing the same fish in open water with those baits would be folly under most conditions, but in a post-frontal period we may have to scale down to these if we want to catch fish and bump them right on the crappie's noses. In a situation such as this, we are doing nothing more than filling a niche in the crappie's world that wasn't filled the day before the front because there was no need for it. Conditions dictate what we need to present to catch fish. Just as the tiny plastic has it's place in the tackle bag, so do plastics of a more substantial size. In the fall when the turnover is near or has just occurred, larger baits will fill the niche because the crappies are much more aggressive in thier feeding. Whether large or small, look at the plastic's size as a profile thing. The colder the water, the closer to a major front having just passed, the smaller the profile you will want to use.When they are actively feeding, regardless of water temp, do not be afraid to up-size to plastics that you think might even scare them...the rewards can be great by doing this. Filling a size niche is number one on the list.
The walleye/sauger brotherhood will find many, many plastics to use. Long ones, skinny ones, some with broad tails that spin like crazy, some that do nothing but get dragged behing the boat. Every one of these baits have proven themselves and fill a niche in the world of murk. Using the Mississippi as an example, the fall/winter fishing below some of the dams is simply stellar. During stretches of consistant weather without any fronts one can fish a fairly aggressive, thick profiled plastic in the deep-water runs and scour holes with great success, but try doing that up on shallow sand-flats and you will go fishless. The key there will be to use a narrower profiled bait and almost drag it along while tossing other baits on jigs into the real shallow stuff- again barely moving it. In all honesty, you can have two, maybe three, different water types within a hundred feet of water. Three different niches to fill. And again here, as with the crappies, post-frontal conditions can play havok with these niches and where yesterday you may have been using a three in twister, today you need to scale down to two inch.
People will say, now,"O.K., you talk about profile, what about color?" Indeed, color is a primary factor and indeed creates its own niche in the scheme of things. Color is only color to us. What the fish see is entirely different. They see degrees of white ,gray, and black. As a lure, say a red one, drops thru the water column, the thing will go from red to brown to a heavy shade of dark gray. Instead of looking at how gray the lure gets, look at how much CONTRAST the color change provides. There will always be some ambient light available, even at the deepest depth during the darkest night with the filthiest of waters! The niche of color is a tough nut to crack and will depend on how aggreable you are to trying different colors and combination. There is nothing in nature as black as the black paint on a jig and that is why they are so effective at night. The fish can see the contrast. So too are the glow paint lures. Instead of being blacker than thier surroundings, the glow products produce a positive contrast of light on dark. Now consider the wide color selection available and how untold hundreds of contrast senarios can be met and try to image how many niches are being filled.
Matching the hatch, filling a niche....they are one and the same. How well we do it is determined by our success ratio. When to look at filling niches can be governed by the time of day, the time of year, water temp, and even the weather. Is it no wonder then that I have a total of three tackle bags and three tackle satchels FULL of plastic? I don't carry the stuff that doesn't work. Everything I take fishing has proven to fill a niche on a consistant basis. Twenty years of trial and error have blessed me with some short-cut wisdom at sorting this puzzle out, but there are still times when attempting to master the match for a single day can be taxing.It always becomes a matter of filling a niche.

Good fishing guys...CrappieTom

[This message has been edited by CrappieTom (edited 08-22-2003).]

[Jim W]

Good stuff to think about Tom...Thanks!!!!!

Jim W