Has anyone else ever noticed that a particular lure (or type of lure) works very well at one lake but if you take that same lure and go to another lake you get skunked. But in that lake a different lure will work great and if you take that same lure to that first lake and you get skunked.

Same thing for colors or retrieve styles, etc.

Color usually depends on water clarity and type of bait usually on the forage. But sometime you just

Type of cover is a big factor also--what can you fish efficiently with the structure/cover of the lake

A lake with a lot of timber--I tend to do well with jigs and crankbaits.
A lake with a lot of grass without any timber--braided line pitching, heavy drop shot, light crig, rage rig.

Yes I have noticed exactly everything you described.

On lake Aquilla anything in blue worked well for me.. It didn't matter if it was hard baits or soft plastics.

Lakes change over time also. I used to do well on Fork with a jig but it has gotten tough for me to get a bite on a jig out there.

Every time I fish a different lake I change up and retie all the wrong stuff. Very successful at it.

Never been to a lake that a senko won't catch a fish!

Water clarity and quality from stained to clear is a big factor in color, size and bait choices. In a large lake you can usually find the water conditions that you are use to throwing your confidence baits in. Once I have found those water conditions I have not had that problem.

I go with my Spook on the heaviest cover as close to deep water as possible for my top water.


I go with my spinner bait as far away as I can get.

I have 14 hand poured plastics that are mostly laminates for fishing the Edge of Light; from the shade to the sun and from the sun to the shade. I present them on any structure or cover that has shade.

If you are fishing baits that are as real as possible with the right laminate standard colors and flake, with the right vibration, sound, taste and smell; they will work on every lake.

The problem is fish on one lake do not take up residence, feed on the same pray and become active at the same water level as the next lake. I have found that your most consistent fish on every lake are the deep water fish. They all seem to relate to the same Irregular Features at the magic depth of 15 to 20 ft. when they start to feed. The same colors, scent, presentations, right water conditions and right weather conditions have produced fish on every lake that I have been to.

I am not going to run to the store and buy 5 packages of Blue plastics or a couple of RED rattle traps just because that is what the guy in the boat next to me was catching fish on. Tomorrow they will be biting on something else. This is an Old School saying: Somewhere on every lake you can have a nice stringer of fish on any bait that you have confidence in. Just find the area.

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