How much is the average cost of lures in your box? Meaning, if you added them all up, and divided by the number of baits, what is that number?
Most people probably don’t know (and I’m pretty sure I don’t!), but an educated guess after looking at one of my more average boxes is around $7.00. The industry has changed dramatically over the last 20 years, and while there are certainly companies just looking to boost profit margins, there are good reasons for spending a bit more.
First though, let’s jump in the time machine…
Back in the good ole days, when you found a plug that worked, typically you would buy several of the same lures in the same pattern and fish them all till you found those that produced. The reasoning was that while they were all identical in theory, they had subtle differences in reality that would affect how well they fished.
You might buy a dozen, and find that two or three triggered bites while the rest didn’t. From there, you would try to make adjustments to the ones that weren’t working and make them run the way the good ones ran. Often, this was more an exercise in futility than actually being productive, but when the bite was slow, it was at least something to keep you busy.
This is no longer the rule but more the exception even in the value priced category. However, there are some pretty substantial differences even with the newer, more precise manufacturing methods employed by modern lures companies.
If you have yet to take the plunge and put down the money for a “premium” lure, you might want to re-think that for the following reasons.
Three Good Reasons To Drop Some Coin
1. R And D
First and foremost is the research and development that goes into producing lures. Generally speaking, a premium lure will have spent many more hours in this phase. The action will have been adjusted to meet very specific requirements that are set out during the testing period. From there, prototypes will be used in real world situations for long periods of time and designs tweaked to obtain the optimal action.
Once the action is determined to be what the company is after, the manufacturing tolerances are very tight which results in excellent consistency in the baits. Additionally, because these actions have been so refined, they do tend to generate more strikes than their value priced counterparts.
This tends to be the most demonstrable difference between value priced lures and “premium” lures. The action from one bait to the next is for largely identical. So if you’re catching them on one color, another pattern of the same lure will perform just like the first, all the way through the line of baits.
2. Premium Lures, Premium Finishes
Another step in that lure reaching store shelves is the color schemes. If you’ve ever done any automotive painting you’ll know that paint can vary widely in cost. Premium lures tend to use more expensive paints to produce their finishes.
3. Premium Components
Likewise, there are considerable differences in cost for components. Think in terms of how many times you have used a value priced lure, or any other lure, that got damaged or failed within the first few casts. You may have gotten a bad one but again, this tends to occur less when you step up to the premium class baits.
You may think twice about plopping down $15 for a shallow running crank when you absolutely can get one that appears to be similar for about $5 but until you take the plunge and try the more expensive one, you very well could be missing out on a bait that will out produce you’re current go-to by more than two or three to one.
The reality is that there are baits out there that will set you back around three figures. Throwing these and losing them will almost certainly cause some unpleasant words or actions so we’re not advocating everyone run out and get some.
Sometimes though, things are cheap for a reason…they don’t work, and they don’t last. This isn’t a hard and fast rule, but you do get what you pay for.
See ya’ on the water …