Imitate or Attract? Help!

[JoeW]

OK- I’ve been thinking about this post for awhile. here goes! I hope you take the time to reply to this- it’ll just take a minute. I don’t know my own response yet, so you may have to think until you get a headache! Sorry.

Since the beginnings of sport fishing, there have been thousands of artificial lures and flies created. But when you think about it, they all fall into two categories. All those artificials are either : “imitators” or “attractors”

IMITATORS, by their shape, action, color, size, etc, are made to exactly imitate some fish food form- minnow, insect, worm, or whatever. They are designed to get fish by mimicking some form of food with which the fish are familiar.

ATTRACTORS, by their shape, action, color, size, etc, are made to entice a fish to strike from reflex, excitement, impulse, curiosity, etc. Something other than the stimulus of hunger.

Every lure in your tackle box fits one of those two categories! And there’s NO “little bit of both” artificial- A plastic worm in natural worm color is an IMITATOR. A plastic worm with a curly tail, or in chartreuse is an ATTRACTOR. A Rapala in Perch finish is an imitator, while a Rapala in Firetiger in an attractor. A spinner is an ATTRACTOR. A plastic grub that’s detailed even down to the number of legs it has is an ATTRACTOR! Get the idea? Think about it.

We get around this dilema by lugging tackleboxes or fly boxes which carry examples of both kinds of artificials, right?

But which type of lure is MOST important to you?

Scenario:

You are about to embark on the fly-in fishing trip of a lifetime! No live bait allowed! Once you leave- you will have NO contact with the outside world for a week! (BTW- been there, done that!). You’re going to a system of lakes and rivers that contain ALL species of fish. You can expect ALL kinds of weather, water conditions, depths, etc. You are well organized, and you have one tacklebox filled with just IMITATOR lures, and another box with just ATTRACTOR lures. Both boxes contain a full assortment of all style of lures- but one box is all IMITATORS, the other is all ATTRACTORS.

Yep- you guessed it! After you’re dropped off (no return now!) you find out you left one box at the plane dock, and brought only ONE! No hedging or fudging here:

WHICH BOX WOULD YOU HOPE YOU BROUGHT?

The IMITATOR or the ATTRACTOR box?

You have only two options here!

Comments are certainly welcome and appreciated, and your vote in the poll is important! Post here! I am really interested in the results, and so are probably a lot of others! Best---- JoeW

PS- You might want to keep in mind that plastic molded lures can be made to look exactly like some form of food for a fish, but they have never been popular. The Royal Coachman fly does not imitate any known insect- the Light Cahill does! Both are probably the all-time best selling flies! And ask yourself a question: are "attractor" lures just meant to attract just the fisherman? Sorry again about the headache!

[dugger]

Most of my fishing is jigging and I do love me some curly tail grub action and bucktail jigs for fatty lakers and Im sure they are reaction bites to the action of jigging the baits, though there is nothing in the water they imitate. Good thread makes you think am I missing out in my style of fishing on some fish that I should use life like baits!

[bass or bass?]

I think I use both equally! I do a lot of lure/fly changing on my fishing trips! I went with immitators. shrug

[PaJNS]

I voted for immitators because I mostly fish live bait. And to me it seems I catch more fish on things that look like bait versus things that attract fish. I have both in my tackle box but my go to lures are ones that look like bait. But depends on what fish I am targeting. Caught Bass on spinner baits that attract but have caught more on the Ole Silver and Black Rapala too. Being its a Fly in trip and doesn't get alot of pressure I voted immitator. I like threads like this that make you think.

[big roe]

I would hope I had the attractors ,I think that is half the battle cause a fake lure is a fake lure and I think fish are really just curious and eat for the attraction of the bait. Maybe alittle different with fast moving lure ,just my thought.:D

[JoeW]

OK, after much consideration (that question was tougher than I thought!), I took the theory that the fish most inclined to strike at an attractor are the "easy" ones, or less wary ones, most driven by their reflex response. But I think these are in the minority. I think most gaemfish, most of the time, have to be fooled into striking something that looks like "food". I think the pursuit of "food" is the over riding instinct- heck fish are always hungry! That's why you catch Crappie on a live minnow and find the tails of other minnows still hanging out their mouths!

Yep- I would hope the box I remembered was the "imitator" one- and that it contained crayfish or leech colored jigs or bottom bouncing crankbaits, dark colored plastic worms, minnow colored lures with different actions that would cover shallow to med depths, and a few frog, mouse, or wounded minnow colored surface baits.

Gave myself a headache with that one, but so voted by me!

Thanks for the participation! Best---- JoeW

[dugger]

I guess I have used some latly, immitators that is ,being that bait, gulp alive ,great walleye and smallmouth bait, hook thru the nose on a drop shot!

[JoeW]

Yea! I bot some of those Gulp Alives last spring- unfortunately too late for the steelhead. But I'm ready to give them a try this Fall. Sometimes those steelies DO want a close "imitation" of a little shiner. I won't drop shot them, but will fish them cross current with a little float indicator-- look like they ought to be killers.

That question I posed is a toughie! I got myself thinking on that! It'd be tough to be fishing without some of both! Thanks for the replies! Best---- JoeW

[toadfrog]

I will take the attractors . Why unless I put extensive planing into the trip I may not have the imitator lures needed for the time of year. I stand a fifty/fifty chance of hooking one up with attractors . But then my luck as it is I lost both boxes . Looks like live bait or dynamite .

[JoeW]

Boy, that's interesting! A dead even heat so far! Need some tie breakers to jump in! Best---- JoeW

[JoeW]

Everyone done with this poll? Close! Thanks for the participation! Best---- JoeW

[sharps4590]

I didn't pay any attention to it until you prompted me so here I am, better late than never I suppose. I didn't know the entire question when I replied in "vintage tackle" so I see I'll have to revamp that response.

I chose imitators. I'm a 99.9% fly fisherman and that had an influence. I'll chalk my choice up to the fact that I'm most familiar with them, have had the most success with them and if I have a case of imitators on a trip I'll have whatever could possibly show up during the year. Mayflys of most varieties, terrestrials, streamer imitations, whatever. Knowing me I would have researched what lived in the water and what time of year it was the food of choice and something representative of all or nearly so.

To be succinct, except for certain times of the year, I have more confidence in imitators. Consequently I probably fish them better than attractors.

[dbarnett1]

I too use both probably on an equal basis. If I was limited though I would go for the imitator. My logic for this is simply that imitators are what I have caught the most bigger fish on. To be for sure, this is a hard decision. Attractors such as stink bait, liver, cut bait, live bait ie, worms, crawdads, have always produced fish for me but seem to work better on the bigguns after dark. Imitators such as crank baits, jigs etc. have put more in the boat for me in the day time. Yep hard call to make. Ooops day late and a dollar short. Oh well.