Fishing Baits - Types of Fishing Lures

Fishing bait is anything fishermen use to attract fish so they can catch it. Bait can be natural (anything the fish eats) or artificial (made to look like something the fish is interested in).

Anglers that use natural bait, use for bait a natural prey of a fish they try to catch and they may use it dead or alive. They use small fish, worms (common earthworms, grubs and maggots), leeches, minnows, frogs, salamanders, and insects. Fish is attracted to the texture, odor, and color of bait and will try to eat it. Problem with live baits is that they can transfer diseases and parasites from one ecosystem to another and use of live bait is regulated.

Artificial baits are usually lures or artificial flies. Lures use movement, vibration, flash and color to attract the fish and get her to bite a hook that is part of a lure. Ancient peoples made fishing lures from bone or bronze but modern, commercially made lures became popular at the beginning of 20th century. Lure is connected to a line with knot or with a tiny safety pin-like device called a "swivel". When thrown in water, lure has a task to attract the fish so a fisherman tries to make the lure behaving like a potential fish pray. He winds line back on to the reel to make it move, and moves the rod to make it look alive. Lures can be also pulled behind a moving boat (so called trolling.)

Lure are made in different shapes and with different ideas in mind. Some of them are made to look like a prey, while other are made to look like intruders which try to take a territory of a fish. Some are made to look and move like dying, injured, or fast moving fish (scarred).

Lure Types

Here are some types of lures:

Spoon lure is a metal lure in a shape of a spoon. It reflects light and moves randomly when the lines are pulled which attracts the fish.
Surface lures (top water lures, poppers and stick-baits) Float on the surface of the water because they are hollow and move on the surface with hopping because of their shape. To the predator fish, this looks like a hurt fish or a small animal that fell into water.

Swimbaits are soft, plastic lures shaped and painted like baitfish. They even have flexible tails that move when the lure is pulled through the water.
Artificial flies are special kind of lures used in fly fishing. They are imitation of insects and other fish prey, tied to a fishhook and made of furs, feathers, threads and other materials. They are usually made by fisherman themselves and also have different types:
Dry flies are made to look like aquatic or terrestrial insects and to float on water.
Wet flies look like larvae, nymphs, pupa, drowned insects, or baitfish and they sink.
Nymph flies are made in for of early stages of life of insects or small crustaceans.

Streamer flies are larger and look like small baitfish.