Which Lure...!!!..???...

I was up at 4 a.m. Saturday, went out to the Cosumnes and hunted ducks till 10 a.m. (got three) and then switched to bass fishing.   Got one early strike & fish-on but he shook the lure.....then nothing the rest of the day.   In late afternoon I saw three guys in a really rigged bass-boat (pedestal-seats, electric troll, 200HP Merc.) and they were flogging the water in a very professional way...catching as much as I was catching.

Anyway....here's the QUESTION:   You are fishing your favorite and very productive floating/diving minnow lure and get nothing.   What do you switch to?   And how long do you fish with what you switched to, to know that you've given it a good trial and should switch TO YET ANOTHER..!!!...of your myriad lures...???...

I mean.....you NEVER try a top-water lure mid-day, isn't that right?
Top-water lures are STRICTLY for first-light and last-light of the day???

And here it is Autumn-to-Winter....so you would NEVER select something green that might be intended to look like a frog.....right...???...

And I've got stuff in my plug-collection that is amazingly attractive (to me) but dammit....has never caught a fish (because, at least, they are the LAST things I would dare turn to....they're kinda too exotic???....purchased in a silly or weak moment???....and frankly they are lures I have zero confidence in....and yet they might....might...might....you know, be the magic thing that turns it all around???

I KNOW that you guys must be conversant with this.....confidence.....issue, of what to select when things are not going, you know, swell.

Have any of you, something cogent to say on the subject??????

Judd

Judd,

     I once walked up on a bait fisherman on the Mad River.  He was bouncing roe down a swift little run of clear water in the full sun of the middle of the day in October (a few years back).  I approached my side of the run slowly and made sure to gain eye contact with this guy who was there first.  He nodded at me and said, quite friendly, "go for it, man, I can't get 'em to hit bait..."  I figured a Little Cleo on 20 pound test wasn't going to have a chance at all in that clear water with the sun overhead.  I tossed to the far side of the run and pulled my lure in across the top of the water - not where I wanted to be, but the current prevented a slow retrieve.  I was going to move on after that one cast, but right then an 8 pound steelie shot out of the slot and hammered my Cleo.  I got a great fight with some jumps before landing the hatchery buck.  The bait fisherman, in a situation where many fisherman would be miffed to say the least, was totally cool, congratulating me and sharing in the fun of the moment.

     Sometimes a change, even to something that doesn't seem right for the conditions and may not be presented in an ideal way, can get you that bite that you've been missing...  Then again, sometimes it's just timing and whatever got in front of a fish's mouth will get a bite...

     Try the frog next time!   

Eric