A LURE FOR ALL REASONS!

Originally Published the Week of Feb. 18, 2016 in Western Outdoor News

For whatever reason, I got 3 e-mails this week that resonated with a similar theme. Basically, given the erratic weather, fishing conditions and fish species that have come up with El Nino, what would be my number one choice in lures?

 

Essentially, the fishing this past year was all over the place and unpredictable. It remains so. Anything can happen. Anything can bite.

 

Does the Baja fisherman go turbo “boy scout” and prepare for anything and bring everything in his man-cave? Highly difficult in these days of high priced airline luggage rates.

 

Or does one go Spartan minimalist and gnash one’s teeth in anxiety trying to figure out which blue lure stays home and which red feather lure gets to visit Mexico? Oh the agony!

 

I’ll tell you that my man caves…yes plural…I have several “caves” and several storage units in two countries and three cities…and they are stuffed to the gills with fishing tackle.

 

I can bring pretty much any weapon of mass destruction on the fish population that I can think of!   But, I can’t bring it all. I can’t physically load the whole arsenal everytime I go fishing or need to travel.

 

So, I have one all-purpose lure that I never leave home without if I’m fishing the Baja. It’s the most versatile fish-catching device in my tackle box.

 

It might not always come out to play once I’m on the water. But, I know that if I had nothing else, this lure would almost always catch fish.

 

It’s the lure that bass fisherman refer to as a crankbait and historically, it might just be the most effective fishing lure every conceived.

If you’re not familiar with it, it’s often and usually in the shape of a fish, but is characterized by a metal or plastic “lip” protruding from the front of it. They come in all sizes from an inch-or-two up to giant ones as big as a foot long. The are wooden, plastic, metal or fiberglass and painted in more colors than a rainbow, but all have a “lip” of varying sizes and angles.

 

When pulled through the water, the “lip” causes the lure to dive. The length of the lip and the angle determines how deep it dives and what kind of “action” (wiggle…shimmy…side-to-side) motion it makes underwater.

 

Like tissue paper such as Kleenex, many are simply known by the company that makes them such as Rapala, Rebel, Mirrolure, Yo-zuri and others.

 

Some of these companies have been around for generations and older version of these lures can be as simple as a piece of elongated wood with some hooks attached and a lip stuck on it and a couple of eyeballs painted on the front.

 

The newer versions have elaborate paint jobs and finishes. Lips tend to be the more durable plastic or acrylic. Hooks are generally treble and can have 1, 2 or 3 sets attached.

 

The bottom line with these lures is that they catch fish!

 

You can cast them. You can jig them. You can troll them. The faster you retrieve them or troll them, the deeper they dive depending on the size of their lip.

 

No bait. No problem. Use a crank bait.

 

Rough surface water. No problem. Troll a crank bait.

 

You have a lot of water to cover. No problem. Drag it behind the boat.

 

Author and my predecessor at Western Outdoor News, Gene Kira, wrote in is book “The Baja Catch” that the most effective way to troll one of these lures was to go in a big lazy “S” shape. This caused the lure to dive, then stall and rise then dive again as the boat moved through the water. There wasn’t a place in Baja that this didn’t work.

 

He’s right. I can’t think of any Baja fish that won’t bite them.

 

I’ve seen them attacked by marlin, sailfish, sharks, dorado, tuna and especially by wahoo.

 

Inshore, you can cast them from rocks or the beach; fishing a kayak or paddle board; float tube; or panga, the list of fish are endless. Huge dog snapper, yellowtail, grouper, seabass, sierra, amberjack, barracuda, roosterfish and others have found crankbaits to be irresistible.

 

Just be careful. If the rocks aren’t very deep, you want to be sure your lure isn’t diving deep enough to get snagged in the rocks. This is controlled by the size of the lure lip and your manner of retrieval or trolling speed.

 

If nothing else is working or I’m just looking for some dinner fish, I whip out my crankbaits. Chances are I’ll never go hungry. I will always catch something.

 

Bring along a few on your next Baja trip. Like having a Swiss army knife. You’ll find them handy to have when you need them!

That’s my story!

Jonathan

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Jonathan Roldan has been writing the Baja Column in Western Outdoor News since 2004.  Along with his wife and fishing buddy, Jilly, they own and run the Tailhunter International Fishing Fleet in La Paz, Baja, Mexico  www.tailhunter-international.com.  They also run their Tailhunter Restaurant Bar on the famous La Paz malecon waterfront.  If you’d like to contact him directly, his e-mail is riplipboy@tailhunter-international.com  or drop by the restaurant to say hi!

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