Pausing your lure.....

So how important is pausing your lure and how many of you actually do this regularly while lure fishing? I have watched a lot of anglers simply casting and retrieving straight to their feet and pulling the lure out of the water.

At times I am guilty of just casting out and cranking the lure straight back in and not really thinking about what I am trying to achieve with the lure I am hoping a bass will hit. When I started lure fishing many moons ago I was retrieving a lure quite quickly when someone called me to say they had a fish on I stopped looked around (stopped winding) and I was hit straight away by a fish that was obviously following my lure. This of course got me thinking...how many fish did I miss, would I have caught more if I paused my lure for a few seconds mid retrieve and so on....

From that point on I started to pause my lure while retrieving a lot more and it slowly started to result in a lot more hits from fish. It makes sense when you think about it, an injured baitfish is not going to just fly past a bass it will move erratically and fast at times but inevitably if it is injured it will slow down and stop maybe only for a split second but this is most likely the best opportunity for a bass to hit its prey.

On most casts I make I do pause my lure at least twice the first occasion maybe half way through my retrieve for 5 seconds letting it move slowly back to the surface, I then pause it again about 5 to 10 yards from me at the end of the retrieve. Even if you dont see a fish following your lure it doesnt mean a fish cant see your lure and a very high percentage of the bass I hooked last season came at this point close in towards the end of the retrieve. Nothing really beats the rush you get from seeing a bass flare its gills and hit your lure under the the water right at your feet.

Below is a picture of bass I hooked on the IMA Sasuke 140 a fish I am sure I would not have hooked unless I paused my lure at the very last second, this fish hit the lure a couple of feet from the shore, I didnt have any idea this fish was following my lure.

                                            

There will of course be times when the simple but very effective cast and crank will catch you fish but if you think about what you are trying to achieve (injured baitfish) when you are retrieving a pause does make a lot of sense.

If you dont pause your lure on the retrieve give it a go in the coming season, try to get in the habit of incorporating it into every cast as I have no doubt it will result in more hook ups.

Tight lines.

James.