Rediscovering a forgotten fishing lure

Sometimes, I get bored fishing a Z-Man Finesse TRD on a 1/10th-ounce NedLockZ jig.

 

However, it is hard to stop using the lure because it consistently catches fish. So, the other day, I looked through my tackle box to find another lure to try.

 

The only other soft plastic lure in my tackle box was a Z-Man StreakZ 3.75. Before the Finesse TRD, a StreakZ 3.75 on a 1/8th-ounce Trout Eye jig was my favorite lure.

 

It was a bit like running into an old friend in a restaurant. You are genuinely happy to see them and wonder why it has been so long since you last got together. I laughed and tied a StreakZ onto my finesse spinning outfit.

 

The additional weight of the 1/8th-ounce Trout Eye jig felt a little odd. Then I cast it and remembered why I liked it so much. The extra weight makes it really easy to cast.

 

On the first few casts, I did not get a bite. Then I remembered the retrieve cadence that gets fish to react to the lure: a quick sweep of the rod and a long pause. This makes the lure erratically rise in the water column and then glide back to the bottom. The strike usually occurs as the lure descends. It can be a little hard to detect because there is a bit of slack in the line.

 

After a few minutes, the old retrieval cadence came back to me, and I began to catch trout. They were not particularly large, but they were plentiful. Good practice for dialing in an old technique.

 

With every trout that I caught and released, I wondered why I stopped fishing the StreakZ 3.75.

 

Probably because I got bored fishing it. Sometimes, I wonder if I fish too much.