Lure size and weight 2024

Pritch13 reply :

May seem a simple question but I'm struggling to find a straightforward answer...

How do i know what size and weight lure to use? Does it vary on where I'm fishing, the weather... I go into fishing stores and know what lure i want to buy, but there is always so many weight and length variations.

Any advice would be awesome, as I'm fairly new to fishing. Maybe I'm just overthinking things?

Lunker Huntin reply :

All depends on the type of lure you are using and the desired depth/speed you want to use it. Also what kind of gear are you using spinning? Baitcaster? Give us some examples of the kinds of baits your looking at and we can better answer your question

EvanT123 reply :

What kind of water are you fishing? Lake, river pond? Do you have any idea of the depth? Knowing these will help answer your questions.

If you are getting your weights snagged a lot you would want to try a lower weight or different type of jig head. There is a lot of good info here and becoming more proficient will come with time on the water.

1/4oz is usually a good start for weight and 3.5-6 inches is good for length. In my opinion.

Pritch13 reply :

I am fishing in ponds and lakes and using a spinning reel. It seems to be pretty clear when i cast out, don't really feel any dragging or snags/knocks, but the closer i get to the bank I'm casting from there is a ton of weed and constantly get snagged, even on a texas rig i seem to not see my lures return sometimes. I am finding it hard to judge the depth though, sorry i can't be more specific.

I have been looking mainly at the rapala xrap lures, and zara spook lures. Especially with the x-rap there seems to be so many options as to sinking or floating, jointed etc...

bigfruits reply :

look on your rod and you should see a lure weight rating. your rod will work best when the lures you use fall within that range. adding plastic to a jig or t-rig adds considerable weight.

EvanT123 reply :

Try a zoom super fluke with a 3/0-4/0 extra wide gap or offset worm hook. Rig it weightless Texas style and twitch it twitch it with your rod tip then pause it. Lures with treble hooks are going to come back with lots of weeds if they are close to the bank.

Cheetahsneverprosper reply :

My local pond sounds similar to that. It's a few feet deep out in the middle, but shallow and very weedy around the edges, out to about 20 feet from shore. Try to use the smallest weight you can get away with, while still keeping in contact with the bottom. I use a 1/16oz bullet weight for texas rigging (and even that is sometimes enough to get weeds all over it).

If you're still getting weeds all over your texas rig, then right it weightless and instead attach a very small (like 1/32oz) round lead sinker a foot or two up the line from your bait. The sinker will bump along the bottom but your lure will naturally stay up higher and out of the weeds.

Other options might be a wacky rigged senko, either weightless or maybe with a small nail weight in one end to get it to slowly sink.

A small, floating squarebill crankbait also works well. If you feel that it's getting down too close to the weeds, just pause the retrieve and it'll pop back up. A lot of times bass will even hit it on that pause.

If all else fails and if the water's warm enough, try some topwater lures. I've had good luck with a chartreuce floating Rapala jerkbait (F-5 or F-7 size) and also a Heddon Baby Torpedo.

Pritch13 reply :

Thanks for the advice Cheetahsneverprosper, again this may sound dumb but am i aiming to fish as deep as the lake allows possible, i.e. letting the lure sink completely after casting or pretty much reeling in straight away, i guess the topwater lures are self explanatory.

Jaheff reply :

Great advise already givin by Cheetah!! Lipless crankbait fished right over the top of the grass. Find the depth of the top of the grass with the weight of the lure. Start with a 1/4 ounce, cast out, start with your rod high, and see if your lure comes back clean. lower your rod tip on next cast. Do this till you find the top of the grass. If your not finding the top, switch to a 1/2 ounce and start over. When you find the depth of the top of the grass, reel the lure over the top. if you feel the grass hit your lure, give the rod a quick rip up (you wanna feel the vibration of the lure on the rip). The quick rip might trigger a strike...

http://www.bassresource.com/fishing/Rat-L-Trap.html

BTW, That's my favorite color lipless crankbait on a sunny day!

3 or 4 inch stick bait (senko) texas rigged,thrown into the grass,or edges/holes if you can see them.

Pritch13 reply :

Awesome, thanks jaheff!

burrows reply :

On 1/12/2016 at 10:42 AM, Pritch13 said:

I am fishing in ponds and lakes and using a spinning reel. It seems to be pretty clear when i cast out, don't really feel any dragging or snags/knocks, but the closer i get to the bank I'm casting from there is a ton of weed and constantly get snagged, even on a texas rig i seem to not see my lures return sometimes. I am finding it hard to judge the depth though, sorry i can't be more specific.

I have been looking mainly at the rapala xrap lures, and zara spook lures. Especially with the x-rap there seems to be so many options as to sinking or floating, jointed etc...

Buy shad raps they work well in cold water and with spinning gear

fishblitzer reply :

I also fish around a lot of weedy banks.

I will let you in on a well kept secret that I found by experimenting with different things. I'm sure it had been done before but I have never seen it.

Take a bobber stopper, what you use to stop your weight sliding up and down, put it on your line.Now put the smallest bullet weight you can, but make sure you can still cast it well.Then a 3/0 EWG hook. Now peg the sinker so that your hook can still freely move but the weight doesn't slide up or down.Stick a grub(my favorite is a Zoom fat albert) or worm with lots of thump in the tail and just swim it like a crankbait or spinnerbait.

The small bullet weight acts as a nose, cuts through and deflects grass, and doesn't snag or pull because it is so light. The tail of the worm gives off thump like a baitfish swimming through the weeds. I've swam this setup through some nasty grass and never had a problem!

Throw it out and reel it in, and hold on because this set up gets SMASHED!

Pritch13 reply :

I'll be sure to try that out, thanks

roadwarrior reply :

I'll recommend a weightless Senko, Fat Ika, weedless Gizit (internal weight), Rage Tail Menace and Craw or Baby Craw.

Midwest Fisherman reply :

On 1/12/2016 at 12:31 PM, Jaheff said:

Great advise already givin by Cheetah!! Lipless crankbait fished right over the top of the grass. Find the depth of the top of the grass with the weight of the lure. Start with a 1/4 ounce, cast out, start with your rod high, and see if your lure comes back clean. lower your rod tip on next cast. Do this till you find the top of the grass. If your not finding the top, switch to a 1/2 ounce and start over. When you find the depth of the top of the grass, reel the lure over the top. if you feel the grass hit your lure, give the rod a quick rip up (you wanna feel the vibration of the lure on the rip). The quick rip might trigger a strike...

http://www.bassresource.com/fishing/Rat-L-Trap.html

BTW, That's my favorite color lipless crankbait on a sunny day!

3 or 4 inch stick bait (senko) texas rigged,thrown into the grass,or edges/holes if you can see them.

Great advise here as this is what I have done simply by trial and error not knowing what I was doing and 75% of the strikes come at the grass line when you rip it but be careful and consider safety glasses, lol.

Pritch13 reply :

On 1/13/2016 at 12:14 AM, Midwest Fisherman said:

Great advise here as this is what I have done simply by trial and error not knowing what I was doing and 75% of the strikes come at the grass line when you rip it but be careful and consider safety glasses, lol.

I have had a few close calls where the crank bait has almost ended up as an earing

Midwest Fisherman reply :

On 1/13/2016 at 12:16 AM, Pritch13 said:

I have had a few close calls where the crank bait has almost ended up as an earing

Yep, same here. After the frst couple close calls I found that once I felt the grass or knew when I was coming in contact with it, depending on the bait, I would stop and let the lure rise a little or on lipless I would tug gently so I could tell if it was a strike or popping through the grass. As mentioned above the rod angle was a big help for me.

Midwest Fisherman reply :

On 1/12/2016 at 10:42 AM, Pritch13 said:

I am fishing in ponds and lakes and using a spinning reel. It seems to be pretty clear when i cast out, don't really feel any dragging or snags/knocks, but the closer i get to the bank I'm casting from there is a ton of weed and constantly get snagged, even on a texas rig i seem to not see my lures return sometimes. I am finding it hard to judge the depth though, sorry i can't be more specific.

I have been looking mainly at the rapala xrap lures, and zara spook lures. Especially with the x-rap there seems to be so many options as to sinking or floating, jointed etc...

I've been using the scatter rap shad series, 05 for the fall and into early January with great success along with the BX Jointed Shad

Paul Roberts reply :

On 1/12/2016 at 9:46 AM, Pritch13 said:

May seem a simple question but I'm struggling to find a straightforward answer...

How do i know what size and weight lure to use? Does it vary on where I'm fishing, the weather... I go into fishing stores and know what lure i want to buy, but there is always so many weight and length variations.

Any advice would be awesome, as I'm fairly new to fishing. Maybe I'm just overthinking things?

Well... one part is knowing where your lure is in the water column -how deep it is. Other stuff is how fast it should move to trigger strikes, and the density and type of cover you might need to fish through.

The very basics are depth and, related, speed. You control these by:

-line diameter (not rated break strength) and to a lesser extent line buoyancy (braid, mono, FC)

-lure weight/buoyancy (with sinking lures) or diving lip configuration with floater-divers.

Knowing where your lure is in the water column (how deep) is a matter of experience. One way is to guess. But a way to accelerate the learning curve is to cast a jig (a simple sinking lure) and count it down to known depths. For known depths you can use a plumb-line (off a slip-bobber if from shore), or via sonar (cast-able model if from shore). Another way is to count down with a lure of known sink rate. The Rapala Countdown is known to fall at 1fps. You can also measure sink rates on favorite lures using known depths. Eventually you won't have to count down -at least audibly- you'll develop a feel for depth.

Here's some rough ballpark (off the top of my head) "data" for jigs:

-Weight, (in open water, with .011 diam line), to fish near the bottom:

3-6ft 1/8oz (1.5fps)
4-8ft (1/4oz) (2fps)
6-12ft (3/8oz) (2.4fps)
10-15ft (1/2oz) (2.8fps)
12-20ft (5/8oz) (3fps)
Ball park sink rates dec with depth bc line buoys like a parachute.

What's appropriate will change with the given conditions, usually changing most greatly with season (water density, cover density), meaning you'll be changing rods, line, and lures.

Other considerations of course are rod power and hook size (wire diameter and sharpness), but I'll assume you understand these as this isn't specifically what you asked.

Mike L reply :

Excellent reply!

Mike

Pritch13 reply :

wow, Thank you Paul roberts. Ill be sure to refer back to that post!

I just went out and got a heddon torpedo along with a ratt - l -trap. Wanted to get a x rap rapala, but i was overwhelmed by the amount i saw and didn't have enough time to look through them all. Any advice on a particular size, i have a 6,6 med rod.

Paul Roberts reply :

I use 'Traps in 1/4 and 1/2oz sizes, most, with the smaller in very clear water -often with natural or reflective finishes (chrome). Otherwise the 1/2 is standard. I use 8 or 10lb lines (.010, .011) for the 1/4oz and 10 to 15lb (.011 to .014) for the 1/2oz size depending on clarity and cover.

Similarly, with the X-Rap I use the smaller 8cm for high vis conditions along sometimes with more subdued color (I like "Mossback") and with 8lb line -perfect for this size lure. Otherwise I tend to use the 10cm size with 8 to 12lb lines (.010 to .013).

Line diameter matters in terms of how well many lures fish, not only in how deep they'll run or how fast they'll sink. Sure you can play 18 holes of golf with 2 or 3 clubs, but not very well. Fishing is much worse.

BTW: A "medium" spinning rod is a fine "light" largemouth rod. I use them (with 6 to 10lb lines) in open water and early season before vegetation grows in. They are ideal for X-Raps. By late spring/early summer I'm using MH tackle both cast and spin. Unless you are in open water (sans cover) you'll find yourself undergunned with a med spinning rod. There's a place for H tackle too. But a MH I would consider the standard power largemouth rod.

Pritch13 reply :

Yeah the trap i have is 1/2. Ive counted 10-13 seconds before i can feel it hit the bottom.

Paul Roberts reply :

Wow... unless you've got it tethered to rope, that's pretty deep, and probably cover free.

Pritch13 reply :

I seem to be able to bring it back snag free with no weeds on it now. Just have to wait for bites, as I'm yet to have any

Paul Roberts reply :

Where are you, what state?

Do you know what season you're in, in terms of the fish?

What's the water visibility like?

Shore or boat?

Pritch13 reply :

I'm in south Florida, perfect visibility, fishing from shore and I'm not sure what season as I've just moved here

deep reply :

On 1/14/2016 at 2:34 AM, Pritch13 said:

I'm in south Florida, perfect visibility, fishing from shore and I'm not sure what season as I've just moved here

Put a thermometer probe in the gullet of the next fish you catch.

Paul Roberts reply :

You should be in prespawn. Your water temps are probably mid to upper 60's to 70.

High clarity often means that fish can go deeper than in more turbid lakes. But... that doesn't mean they do -esp in in S FL where winter isn't all that challenging for the fish.

Is your water a natural lake, river, pit, or a residential pond? Is there much cover -vegetation- or is it more swimming pool like?

Pritch13 reply :

There is quite a lot of vegetation, and a natural lake. I will shove a thermometer down a fish when i finally catch one!

Paul Roberts reply :

Although I wouldn't pass up checking out some deeper dredging I'd certainly be spending more of my time in that shallower vegetation -esp if you aren't catching.

Good luck with it. Let us know how you do.

Pritch13 reply :

Will do, and excuse my ignorance but what do you mean by dredging?

Paul Roberts reply :

"Dredging" -fishing deep.

Pritch13 reply :

Well i feel stupid haha, okay thanks

Paul Roberts reply :

No worries. No stupid questions.

7427

Lure size and weight 2024

related Fishing Tackle topic

previous topic

next topic

most viewed Fishing Tackle topic