I'd love to know more about Lures

[Asher]

So I'm dumb. After progressing through the story and making my first big BOAT upgrade, I realized that this whole time I've been able to design Lures by going to "manage lures." I tried my hand at designing a few and have learned a bit about how filling out the edges of the lure or adding pieces to the top or bottom influence the design. But just for general fishing I'd love to know if you all have any thoughts or suggestions for what I can use.

I was thinking of running some kind of middle of the road all 50s lure to start out with, or to have one like that which is a floater and the other that sinks. But another alternative in my mind was looking at some of the more valuable fish I've gotten and making a lure specifically for them. Granted, that would be more for farming fish that I already know about.

My bigger question is for exploring new waters and fishing. Any Lure thoughts?

[Fishy]

For discovery, I always carry two 50s lure, one floating, one sinking. That's good enough to get bites from everything, and it will be enough to fully identify many species so unless a fish a proving really elusive, I don't bother tailoring doing random lure testing. Then, if a given species is difficult to catch, I'll just make a custom lure for it with whatever info I already have, and tailor it further for every bit of information I get until the knowledge bar is full.

Obviously, if you're after money, a record or in a quest/tournament, you likely have all the info you need so custom lure is the way to go straight away.

[Parsnip]

Hey, why have one that floats and one that sinks? Can't you catch any fish with either a floating or a sinking one for identification purposes?

[Fishy]

I presume so, as I got some catches well out of normal environment, but it's more rare, so I vary depth locations. For deep water species, it's far faster (as far as I've seen so far) to use a sinking lure in deep waters. So the sinking lure is the one I use the most since it gets near every depth sweet spot depending on where you are.

The floating one I only try here and there to see if an elusive species isn't a "near surface" one. It feels to me like I get a better ratio there, compared to a sinking lure which will get more vegetation/shallow/deep species. Since it's something I do a bit in every lake, I like having it available, it's just a second lure slot, BOATs tend to have a lot more than two.

[Parsnip]

It makes sense. I tend to only use a sinking one as you can always pull it fast enough so it stays on the surface. I guess that the harder fish to get in this configuration are the near the surface, no moving lure ones but I do not know if the catch chance is lower than using a 50/50/50/50 lure on a 15/15/75/75 fish for example.

[Asher]

I'm getting more and more frustrated with using my own lures -- like, I'm just having trouble getting any fish to bite at all even with a lure close to all 50s. I go from lake to lake to lake and I've never hit this kind of drought before trying to get a fish to bite. Any further guidance would be appreciated. I'm close to my wits end and just about to pack up this game and call it a loss since i'm past the point of refunding.

It was fun at first, but now I feel like I'm getting held back by my own lack of knowledge. Sure, there's something to be said about experimentation etc. but when you're only feedback is "nope, no fish are biting now," that's not much to go on.

[Fishy]

Not sure how to help I'm afraid, far from an expert here... But just in case, do you test all usual environments?

My general pattern on a new lake is to start fishing near-shore into vegetation (sinking lure, maybe test the floating a bit), then near-shore outside of vegetation, then into deep waters (sinking). If nothing bites, I try a good few times, testing slow/mid/fast reeling speeds. Then as a last resort, I try floating/sinking in blue/green shallow waters.

Note that random lakes have 2 to 8 species, so sometimes, 2 species is all you'll ever find. I'm not sure if there's a way to see in advance how many species there are to find.

Oh, another possible thing: what's your rod's sensitivity? If it's low, you'll only notice anything when the bigger fishes bite (handy if you don't want to waste time on small fry). If you're after identifying, you'll want a high sensitivity so that even tiny fishes show up as a bit of red on the green bar.

[Parsnip]

Basically what Fishy explained. I was feeling frustrated too but I started playing IF while listening to something on twitch or a podcast. I throw my lure and let my mind drift, and over time I catch some fish and get to know them. At that point you can adapt your lure reeling speed etc. I never fished in real life but I feel like it must be closer to the real life experience.

[Asher]

Thanks, i'll give those ideas a shot the next time I give the game a go.