Whats up with the new bleeder baits???

[1911crazy]

Ok no one wants to talk about it or what?? Now there are new bleeding baits like spinnerbaits and buzzbaits with red hooks and red color bleeder skirts too now?  I see on TV shows they change the rear treble hook on the crankbaits and they even have red trailer hooks now too.   Have you used this yet??                                                BigBill

I bought some red hooks for plastics, red treble hooks and bleeder spinnerbaits too.  And some i may use red nail polish on to try too. I even bought some red cajun line to use for leaders on topwater fluke type baits too.  The RED HOOK COLOR/BLEEDING BAITS sure looks successful with the guys on TV.    Any thoughts on this?

[The deerslayer]

I got a bleeder crankbait and never had any luck at all with it.

[rockbilly]

I think they are just another one of those products to catch fishermen......I have never bought them, I recently fished with a guy who bought several items with red hooks, and he had gone through his tackle box and colored almost everything he owned red..........he didn't catch any more fish than I did.

I know color plays an important part in the fish's ability to see the lure, but at different depths and with different water colors most colors change as they sink.  The red hook may appear to be black under some conditions.  This is true with lots of colors.

Another thing, when I cranking a spinnerbait across a brush pile it's moving so fast nothing can tell the color.  I also think this is true when slow rolling a bait.  The fish may be able to see the mass color, (skirt) and detect a vibration from blade, but I'll never be convinced somethin as small as a red hook will make a major difference in the fishes ability to see a bait, nor will it encourage a strike.

Save your bucks, if you think you must try it, grab a bottle of the old lady's red fingernail polish, slap it on a few hooks,  and see what results you get.  I'll bet you won't see any difference.

[Skipper]

I never did know why, but I have always liked a streak of red on my baits somewhere.  I'm not so sure about the hooks, but a few strands of red in a white spinnerbait skirt has never seemed to hurt anything.

Skipper

[rockbilly]

Skipper, you know all of us fishermen have those little things we think give us the edge over the fish.  You like the a few strands of red in your skirt, Joe won't fish with out his favorite fishing cap, and I won't go with out two-three different types of scent.  I know RED works, one of my most productive lures is the red rattletrap.  Thats my first choice in stained or muddy water, and it produces in shallow water under these conditions.  Rod high, ripping it.  So I'm not saying red doesn't work, what I'm questioning is a red hook/trailer hook?

I know you have a lot of "gin clear" lakes up your way, and you may be able to see color clearer in those lakes.  In these cases, the red may give a little different appearance but I still think the fish only sees the basic color of the skirt/bait.  I've fished with people that would get on a pattern with a particular color of bait and catch fish when I couldn't but a bite.  I remember one such trip where my partner was throwing a white Model A with blue eyes, he was catching a fish almost every pitch.  I went through my boxes, didn't have a white model A.  Finally, I pulled out a silver/black back and tied it on.  I still couldn't buy a bite.  I pulled out my pocket knife, sit down and scraped all the silver/black off the lure, it was kinda a white cream color under the finish.  I started throwing it, and started catching fish.  The next day I bought two-three white model As, ain't caught a fish on em since.

My point is, once you have established a productive pattern, in most cases, the majority of the fish will be caught on one particular color.  If they shut down, then change color and/or change lures and start over until you start getting the bite again.

I don't knock anyone for what they use and how they use it.  I started bass fishing back in the mid-fifties, and over the past 50 plus years I have witnessed all kinds of new tackle introduced to the fisherman, some of the ideas sounded great at the time, but looking back, for every one that is still around today, there are probably 15-20 lures that were just a flash in the pan.  Will that be the route of the red hooks?

[Skipper]

I've said many times, I don't think specific color patterns are as important as lure manufacturers want us to believe.  A few years ago when they started coming out with these "lifelike" finishes, I thought it was pure bunk.  I think there are times on some slow moving baits that color is a major factor.  However, with crankbaits, I think that the A-1 Most important factors are the depth and action of the bait.  

I don't think it makes much difference the color if you get that bait at the right depth with an action that the fish want.  Look at a Senko for instance.  It's got the action, no doubt, but if the fish are suspended, you won't do much working it along the top like a jerk bait.  However if you let it fall and spend some time in the strike zone, you'll get bit every time.

I too have been in situations where my partner is catching fish and I seemingly can't on a slightly different bait.  I've seen it change dramatically with the same bait even in a different color.

One thing about crankbait.  They are one of the most non-uniform mass produced products on the earth.  If Pradco were a bullet manufacturer, nobody would buy their product because they wouldn't come close to shooting the same bullet to bullet.  I've got a collection of baits that I have proven they work when others of the same make, same color pattern, etc aren't worth a fiddlers darn.

Years ago, I had a Rebel Double Deep that was absolutely the sorriest running crank bait I've ever seen.  It wouldn't run straight.  On long casts it was very likely to roll over and past the surface.  It would always run heavily to the right.  Guess what?  That bait caught literally hundreds of fish before I broke it off one day on a rock.  I had one trip in Alabama where I fished the bait most of the 3 days down there.  We averaged about 50 bass a day on it.  My partner didn't understand why I spent 30 minutes trying to retrieve it when I had 6 others just like it in my box.  The other 6 mostly ran better, but have never had the fish appeal that that one bait did.  I don't know if it was the sorry way it ran, if it had 2 extra bb's in it than normal, if it ran a little deeper or shallower, if it sounded different coming through the water.  I do know this, it was a dependable workhorse of a bait.

Skipper