Two things discovered yesterday - and fighting a 25 mph wind all day long to boot in a small boat!
1. Remember the phrase line shy? It was the reason so many have advocated using fluorocarbon leaders so fish wouldn't be turned off by line visibility.
Guess what? If fish want a lure bad enough, it don't matter in the least! Case in point:
Yesterday I lost two lures to pickerel and wished I had a wire leader. I did have this thick coated wire that i used to pull line through my floats, so I figured - why not cut a piece and attach it to my small jig heads?

Bass, crappie, yellow perch and sunfish:


This pickerel couldn't bite through it nor 4 others, so no more bit off lures!! YEAH! Also, no reason to use fluorocarbon.


2. Lure visibility is a fact of life underwater when it comes to lure detection (other than the lateral line). You could surmise that fish bite thicker lures because of the detection of more-meat-on-the-hook, Whatever the reason, I started dipping my soft plastic lure bodies in hot plastic to thicken them and the lure pictured above is one. I also wanted to cast many shapes in clear plastic along with the chubby body idea. Man did the fish go nuts in 2.5 - 5' of water all day yesterday!


I just happened to have an old Slugo-type lure in the box and figured it can't hurt to cast it a few times. Even small fish smacked it!!


So now I have to make my plastic bodies chubby and continue using Slugo-type lures because the chubby body has gotten the most aggressive hits as well as multiple hits on the same retrieve.

Thanks for reading.

Glad you had the wire and caught lots of fish. Sometimes we do what we have to do for success. Good job.