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Artificial fishing bait From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A fishing lure is any one of a broad category of artificial angling baits that are inedible replicas designed to mimic prey animals (e.g. baitfish, crustaceans, insects, worms, etc.) that attract the attention of predatory fish, typically via appearances, flashy colors, bright reflections, movements, vibrations and/or loud noises which appeal to the fish's predation instinct and entice it into gulping the lure. Angling activities using lures are known as lure fishing.
As a terminal tackle, lures are attached to the end of a fishing line and most are equipped with one or more hooks that come in various styles (most commonly treble hooks). They are designed to be fake foods that fool carnivorous fish into an aggressive strike, the force of which will alert the fisherman to yank the line and secure a hookset inside the fish mouth. However some hookless lures are also used merely to bait the fish nearer, so it can be hooked by another lure or be captured via other means such as netting, trapping, impaling with a spear or pole hook, snagging, shooting or even catching by hand.
Most lures are commercially made, but some are hand-made by the angler (such as hand-tied fly lures, which is considered a hobbyist challenge by many amateur entomologists). Modern lures are typically cast and manipulated with a fishing rod and retrieved with a reel, but there are some who use a technique where the line is directly held with hands (known as handlining) rather than manipulated through a rod. Longlining and trolling, commonly used for commercial fishing, also can employ lures to catch fish. When used for recreational fishing, the lure is repeatedly cast out far and then reeled back towards the angler, and during retrieval it interacts with the water current and drag, creating vibrations, turbulent splashes and/or a popping action. A skilled angler can explore many possible hiding places for fish through lure casting under logs, grass and on flats.
In early time, angling used predominantly edible baits impaled on hooks made from animal bones or bronze. The ancient Chinese and Egyptians practised angling with fishing rods, hooks and lines as early as 2,000 B.C., though most of the first fishermen used handlines. The Roman scholar Claudius Aelianus first described the practice of "fasten red wool... round a hook, and fit on to the wool two feathers which grow under a cock's wattles" by Macedonian anglers on the Astraeus River,[1] an early form of fly fishing, near the end of the 2nd century.[2] The Chinese were the first to make modern-looking fishing line, spun from fine silk, and the use of "wooden fish", likely an early type of surface lure, to catch larger fish had been wide spread at least since the Song dynasty (960–1279).
Nordic people have been making spoon lures from the 8th-13th century AD. Most of the lures are made from iron, bronze, copper, and in one case an iron hook soldered to a copper spoon. Many lures had varying shapes and sizes fitting different scenarios like ice fishing and summer fishing.[3] Modern spoon lures appear to have originated in Scandinavia in the late 1700s.
English tackle shops are recorded as selling tin minnows in the middle of the 18th century, and realistic imitations of bugs and grubs made from painted rubber appeared as early as 1800. Early English minnow baits were largely designed to spin as their attracting action, as exemplified by the “Devon”-style lure first produced in quantity by F. Angel of Exeter. The number and variety of artificial baits increased dramatically in the mid- to late 19th century.
The first production lures made in the United States, mostly metal spoons and spinnerbaits, came on the market in the last half of the 19th century. The makers included Julio T. Buel, Riley Haskell, W. D. Chapman and Enterprise Manufacturing Company.[4] Modern fishing plugs were first made commercially in the United States in the early 1900s by firms including Heddon in Michigan and Enterprise Mfg. (Pflueger) in Ohio. Before this time most fishing lures were made by individual craftsman. Commercial-made lures were based on the same ideas that the individual craftsmen were making but on a larger scale.[5]
The fishing lure is either directly tied to a fishing line (usually a leader) by a knot such as the improved clinch knot or the Palomar knot, or linked to the line via a small split ring (which allows more freedom of motion) and/or a tiny safety pin-like fastener called a "snap", which is usually also connected to a swivel. The fishing line is in turn connected to a fishing reel which cranks in and releases out the line, and is manipulated by the fishing rod via a series of ring guides that impart lateral displacement on the line.
The in-water motion of the lure is generated by winding the line back towards the angler, by sweeping the fishing rod sideways, jigging movements with the rod tip, or by being towed behind a moving boat (trolling). These movements mimic the behaviors of small preys, which draw the attention of larger aquatic predators and fool them into identifying the lure as an easy meal. Exceptions include artificial flies, commonly just called flies by fly fishers, which either float on the water surface, slowly sink or float underwater, and represent some form of drowning insect.
There are many types of fishing lures. Today's modern definition for lures are that they be made of wood, plastic, rubber, metal, cork, and materials like feathers, animal hair, string, tinsel and others. They could also have any number of moving parts or no moving parts. They can be retrieved fast or slow. Some of the lures can be used alone, or with another lure. In most cases they are manufactured to resemble prey for the fish, but they are sometimes engineered to appeal to a fishes' sense of territory, curiosity or aggression. Most lures are made to look like dying, injured, or fast moving fish. They include the following types:
One advantage of use of lure in general is the reduction in the use of live bait. This contributes to resolving one of the marine environment's more pressing problems; the undermining of marine food webs by overharvesting bait species which tend to occur lower in the food chain.[9] Another advantage of lures is that their use promotes improved survival of fish during catch and release fishing. This is because lures reduce the incidence of deep hooking which has been correlated to fish mortality in many studies.
A rig is an established terminal tackle setup that combines at least one hooked lure with one or more line sections, sinkers, bobbers, swivels, decorative beads, and sometimes other lures. A rig might be held by a rod, by hand, or attached to a boat or pier. Some rigs are designed to float near the surface of the water, others are designed to sink to the bottom. Some rigs are designed for trolling. Many rigs are designed especially for catching a single species of fish, but will work well for many different species.
A daisy chain is a teaser rig consisting of a "chain" or cluster of plastic lures run without hooks, which mimics a school of forage fish that presents abundant food for predators. The purpose of a daisy chain is to attract pelagic fish to the stern of a boat into the lure "spread", which consists of a number of lures rigged with hooks.
Typically, a daisy chain's mainline is clear monofilament line with crimped-on droppers that connect the lure to the mainline. The last lure can be rigged with a hook or unrigged. The unrigged versions are used as teasers while the hooked versions are connected to a rod and reel. The lures used on a daisy chain are made from cedar plugs, plastic squids, jets, and other soft and/or hard plastic lures.
In some countries (e.g. New Zealand), daisy chains can sometimes refer to a rig which is used to catch baitfish in a similar arrangement to a "flasher rig" or a "sabiki rig"; a series of hooks with a small piece of colourful material/feather/plastic attached to each hook.
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