How little things have changed over the last 30 years when it comes to lures for winter walleyes. On the other hand, even modest changes have been mightily significant in the production of more fish.

Sturdy spoon-style lures like the classic Bay De Noc Swedish Pimple and the Acme Kastmaster have been with us for more than 30 years and are catching fish as well today as when they were first introduced. The Jigging Rapala, meanwhile, remains one of the most revolutionary ice lures of all time. Yet the "shape" of fishing with swimming lures changed when Nils Master offered the option to jig with a panfish-shad profile bait called the Jigging Shad. More recently, Salmo offered the Chubby Darter, another swimming lure with a unique profile and swimming characteristics. And this season, Rapala offers yet another probable classic in their Jigging Shad Rap.

For the most part, most introductions have been more mundane -- sometimes-important improvements on overall themes. Glow lures, first introduced in the early 1980s, were more recently going to change the way we fish. Then it was new glo or super glow and, the last few years, the whisper was about lighted lures, which mostly haven't caught on. Glow lures have, however, become tools in a larger arsenal.

The ability to fine-tune through the presentation process separates great anglers from the good ones. Most good anglers can find some fish. Great anglers catch way more of the fish that come in to check what's going on. This is even more obvious in ice fishing, because you're sitting stationary on ice -- you should have perfect control of lure movements. Presentation details ultimately determine how successful you are.

One aspect of the process I rarely see discussed except in quick passing is that of lure color and patterning, fundamental elements of the presentation package. The presentation package can be thought of as a blank canvas upon which we paint a picture that will or will not be good enough for the fish to buy. Because ice fishing is such a stationary affair, fish really get to scrutinize your painting.

Granted, lure choice and lure movements are overall more important elements of the presentation package than color and color pattern. Color and pattern, though, are the foundation upon which our painting is built. Get the basic color right, in conjunction with reasonable color patterning, and you go far in making fish feel comfortable enough to take another step toward purchase -- and, finally, given a variety of other factors, to make the final big step. The right color and painting pattern, I'm saying, helps to predispose fish to the idea that everything else you add to the painting is right, not wrong.

FORAGE COLOR & PATTERN

I take several factors into consideration in working through the color puzzle. On one hand, I like to know what fish are feeding on. Particular baitfish project prominent general color patterns. Shad are silver with a modestly darker back. Then, though, look beyond such a general pattern to consider subtle holographic hues that also play a role. In the case of shad, subtle greens, blues, purples, and golds play forth in the right light.

Contiued - click on page link below.