Pete Kaye's
'Selecta-Lure Table'

Introduction by Dep. Editor, Brian Barwell
I Pete's Species and Lure Selection Table seems to have helped his local budding lure anglers a lot, so we're sure it'll help y'all too ....

Selecta-Lure Table
I thought you might like to see this little Ready-Reckoner Selecta-Lure Table that I did after my lure fishing services were auctioned to raise money at our recent School Summer Fête! Three tickets were raffled and the deal was that I would take the lucky winners, 3 pairs of parents, on a lure fishing trip to one of our local lakes, but first I had to give them and their kids (that's if they had any and were interested, which they all did and all were!) a brief intro to lure fishing. Incidentally the raffle for the 3 tickets for my "Day's Lure-fishing" were £1 for a strip of 5 and it raised £35!

Of course, everyone wanted to know what you could catch on lures and what lures to use. As this is a question that always seems to keep coming up, I thought I would jot down some of my ideas and make them into some sort of Quick Ready-Reckoner as good guide how to start-out and improve lure fishing results with the sorts of species that I fish for and know a little about. Not surprisingly all the raffle ticket winners had some interest in fishing and one set of parents in particular were very good fly-anglers, so that put me a bit on the back foot, so to speak.

First of all I must emphasise that my little Table is far from being a Be-All & End-All, it's just some thoughts and ideas that I've jotted down which seemed to help the lucky raffle ticket winners who were about to use my tackle! Yep, on the day, I had to supply all the tackle and lures but they had to get their day-tickets and day-licences for those who didn't already have an EA fishing licence.

Anyway here's what I put-together for them and I now know that it not only helped them on the day (they all caught more than me!!) but it has also helped them and their kids at lot since because I've had quite a few "Thank-You" emails from them since the Event, with reports of some very good catches of most of the species. I only wish they'd all told me where they were fishing at the time!

I should also say that the lures I've suggested in my Table are based on my own personal experiences with the various species and where I haven't got much or any experience of a particular type of lure for a particular species, I've said so!

Anyway, what I've tried to do in my little Selecta-Lure Table is to answer those frequently asked questions about what lures are worth trying for which species.

As I've already said, this is far from being a complete listing, it's quite the opposite in fact; it's also far from being the ultimate master-work on lures. It's just meant to be a quick & easy guide to help novices or lure anglers facing new venues to get rapid results if possible.

Also of course, everyone wants to know where to buy lures at the "best" prices .....

As for the practical aspects of successful lure fishing, apart from the very obvious problems of finding out (a) whether there are actually any predatory species in a particular venue and (b) roughly where they might be, the one major factor that I emphaised to my "pupils" on the day, was depth. To get the best results, you have to fish your lures very roughly in the depth zones that suit particular species.

Now of course I know that while pike spend a lot of their time hiding in the depths ready to ambush prey or scavenging and generally skulking about, they will also take prey and lures off the surface at certain times of the year, so time and water temperature are also important factors and this applies to all species not just pike. But I still reckon that depth is very important and you have to consider this when choosing lures. So that's what I've tried to incorporate in my modest little Table. (Abu Toby - left)

Chub and trout take flies, nymphs and other lures from the surface, and at other times just as readily from near the bottom; so you need a selection of lures that will cover all these likely eventualities. Fortunately, some lures are almost equally effective for the whole spectrum of predatory species. (Bagley Monster Shads - right, Bomber Bushwhacker - below)

And of course, you need a different tackle setup for some of the different types of lures, so I've chosen ones that can just about all be fished with a 'standard' medium/lightweight setup, with the exception of flies at one end of the scale which require fly rods of course, and jerkbaits at the other end which need proper jerkbait tackle ... and there are plenty of other better articles, hints and tackle tips elsewhere on Matt's website here to help you out with all those things!

Anyway, I hope my quick little Selecta-Lure Table helps a little...Have fun with your lure fishing!!

Pete Kaye

It's very useful to see species and some of the best lures for catching them, listed in tabular form for easy reading and reference, so thanks, Pete, very much for allowing your selection to go 'live' on the net ... it'll point many of us in the right direction and hopefully help us catch more fish!!!
Brian Barwell
Deputy Editor

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please contact me Brian Barwell (Dep. Ed.)
or Nick Caine, (Editor)
email us at: NickCaine @ Talk21.com