A Boyd's Eye View: Creating a fishing lure relationship.

I recently made a post on LinkedIn asking "What was the first fishing lure you ever used that really got you hooked on fishing?" and the responses really were eye-opening. Most made simple comments like "The spinnerbait", or "a jitterbug" and I even got a "Good old fashion live night crawlers works fine for me!", and who could argue that one. But a couple of the comments took a different twist, taking the time to share fond memories of their Dad or Grandfather and how their sharing of a particular lure brought back an emotional connection to a particular fishing lure and/or fishing related memory.

I did notice that one particular lure was mentioned more than any other; the Rapala Original Floating Minnow, and the small-but-mighty size 7 seemed to be the one that most everyone started out with. That really shouldn't be all that surprising as the Rapala Minnow has no doubt been responsible for innumerable first catches over the decades. 

For me, it was an old Abu in-line spinner; one with a yellow body covered in black dots, a silver French blade and a tuft of yellow marabou dressing the treble hook. The memory is as vivid today as if it had happened yesterday. I was in the front of a canoe maneuvered by my Uncle Don on the Elk River in the southwest corner of Missouri. At the base of a large bluff rising above the river were two large boulders that created a current break and what I realize now was an ideal ambush position for a predator fish. I was instructed to cast my spinner right between the boulders, which I did, and was instantly hooked up with a three pound channel catfish that, as an eight year old boy, seemed enormous. That memory still gets my heart beating a little quicker. I wish I still had that lure just to look at once in a while.

Unfortunately these days I think that tradition of passing along the pure joy that comes with your first "lure relationship" gets lost in the moment. Too often when we take kids fishing it's all about just keeping them occupied or trying to teach them everything you know about fishing, and not so much about creating an experience for them to cherish. 

I encourage all of you that share my love of fishing to make a point this year, and every year, to help at least one young person create just such a relationship with a lure and with the sport of fishing. I know its not all that easy, we all have busy lives these days. But if we are to keep some of those prized traditions we cherish alive in future generations, it's important that we don't let such opportunities go by the wayside.

If you are not really sure what lure to use to introduce a young person to the sport, it's really not as complicated as it may first appear. Most of the old standards are still good choices in many situations, like the Rapala which can be cast on light tackle and, with a slow retrieve,

entice most any species to bite. Another great choice is the Beetle Spin, a wonderful lure for panfish and bass and even the occasional walleye in sparse, shallow weeds. I have always had a soft-spot for topwater bass fishing, and my son learned early the sheer excitement of catching bass on a popper-style topwater bait. The inline spinners, like a Mepps, Vibrax or Roostertail, will always be fish catchers, especially in small streams (it certainly worked for me). And let's not forget the most basic of all, the bobber and live worm rig. Safe to say most of us started that way after all. And I suggest if you go with lures, you stick with the smaller models. It has long been my experience that a small lure gets more bites, and can still lure in a big one from time to time. 

When it comes right down to it, it doesn't matter what you use to get a kid interested in fishing, as long as they catch fish and have fun. Make that happen, and you will give that child a memory that will be with them the rest of their life. In fact, it's my sincere belief that a good lure will catch as many fishermen as it does fish. That's my Boyd's Eye View anyway. Carry on.