Category: Top lures

García Sola lake is characterized by really clear waters, which added to the enormous fishing pressure makes it a very difficult reservoir. It is very important to take this into account when choosing lures for Garcia Sola. Only at certain times we will find turbid waters, coinciding with large floods due to high rainfall, usually in spring.

Once again I remember that the choice of the right lure will depend on many factors: time of year, luminosity, presence or not of wind, attitude and depth of the fish… Even so, I share with you the lures that have worked best for me the times I have visited it.

Vinyl craws, lures for Garcia Sola

Whether mounted on a jig, or with a Texas rig, with either a lead or a tungsten, the vinyl craw will give us bites at any time of the year. Being a reservoir with a lot of loose stone and where the bait fish is a bit scarce in recent years, the craw is one of the main sources of food. A slow and methodical fishing, always in contact with the bottom, will generally give us the best results.

Although theoretically it is a lure designed for deep fishing, we must keep an open mind, as we can catch fish even really close to the shore. The large forests of underwater vegetation that populate the reservoir are an excellent place for predators. The small holes and corridors formed among this vegetation should be our target when we fish with this lure. Of course, the steps formed in the rock or the rip rap areas are good places, it depends on where the fish are. Whether it’s mounted on a jig or Texan rig, natural colours have worked especially well for me: brown, PB&J, pumpkin… and their variants.

Jerkbait

The jerkbait is one of the most versatile lures, and although theoretically it is a cold water lure, it is another lure with which we can catch fish all year round. Without forgetting that our line will have to be compensated with the size of the hooks, we will try to lower the diameter as much as possible here. I like to fish with fluorocarbon since most of the year I fish with suspended jerks but we can also use braided or monofilament.

In winter and early spring I prefer to use larger sizes (11 to 13cm for black bass and pike, 13 to 17 for pike) and as spring progresses reducing the size. Any colour that imitates a minnow is a good option, although we cannot forget about white, especially in cold waters. Although I prefer to fish with suspending jerks, if we want to fish in areas of algae, the floating models also work very well.

Vinyl tubes, lures for Garcia Sola

Few lures are more effective than an unleaded vinyl tube through the gaps that form between the underwater vegetation. However, we will have to be very patient since it is a slow fishing and we will not be able to cover large extensions… However, if we are sure that there is an area with fish, we should invest time in “combing” it with vinyl tubes, as we are sure that we will have bites.

Personally I like models that have a lot of salt incorporated in the vinyl, as they are thrown further and fall faster. Sometimes we can be fishing in weeds several meters high, with fish suspended in different layers… And I assure you that waiting for a vinyl tube to drop to 5 or 6 meters can make us desperate if we fish for a long time with them. Here we can use a wide range of colors, from bleak colours  to crawfish or sunfish. We can even opt for more striking colors if we want to arouse the aggression of apathetic fish.

Vinyl shad

Just like in the  Orellana’s top lures post, the vinyl shad should also be one of our headliner lures in Sola lake. Although the banks of bleaks are not as plentiful as they used to be, the movement of a pikie among the weeds is often irresistible. Of course we can also use it for deep fishing, either looking for fishes suspended or stuck to the bottom. Black bass, pike or zander, any of them can bite a vinyl shad, we just have to make some adjustments depending on the species.

Once again, like all clear water reservoirs, I usually go for natural colours and white. Translucent colours work very well too and the more striking chartreuse or pink colours can give us very good catches in low light conditions. The shape and size will depend a lot on the species we are looking for, the depth and the time of year. Generally speaking, we will increase the size of the shad in late winter / early spring and decrease it in early summer.

Orellana lake is one of the reservoirs with the most transparent waters in the region, and this is something that is usually maintained throughout the year. I will now tell you about the Orellana’s top lures according to my experience.

Due to this, fish are very suspicious and we must choose very carefully our presentations, both lines and lures. Here are my best Orellana’s top lures.

While the choice of lures will depend on the time of year, water temperature, weather conditions… Here are the lures I would never leave at home when I visit Orellana, always in my humble opinion.

Vinyl shad, Orellana’s top lures

In this reservoir there is a very high density of bleak and fry of other species: black bass, zander, perch… The vinyl shad, therefore, is always going to be one of the best lures for Orellana. In very different sizes, depending on the time of year, the natural colors are the ones that have worked best for me. The baby bass color, bleak color, grey, white and their variants are my favorites.

Slow or fast retrieves? This will depend on the condition of the fish. Leaded or unleaded? If we want to fish for black bass generally will not need lead, as the waters are very clear and they rise from below. If we want to fish for pike or zander we will have to go to 8, 10, 12 meters or even more… For this we will have to use leaded heads of between 15 and 45 grams, depending on the size of the vinyl and the depth at which we want to fish.

We should also vary the shape of the shad, depending on the layer of water we are going to fish. Here there are multiple opinions and different tastes… For me, shads with “slim body” and a lot of mobility work well in deep layers for fishing vertically, and in more superficial layers I would prefer more “stubby” models.

Walkers, Orellana’s top lures

Focused mainly on black bass, (although pikes also love) the walker is a lure that we can use practically any time of the year in these waters, since they do not usually cool down below 10ºC. I usually go for natural colors, but in low light conditions white colors and chartreuses work very well too.

In summer the twilight hours will be the best, but in spring, autumn and winter we can use it practically at any time of day, always with better results on cloudy and windy days.

Big swimbaits

Due to the large size of the fish in this reservoir, the choice of large swimbaits can help us to select the catches. We can also use them at any time of the year, although probably the prespawn time is when they are most effective with all species.

I’m back to natural colors as my favorites, but in this case as it’s a lure that can awaken the aggressiveness of the fish, different colors can also work. For my taste the “slalom” bait take the lead, although the “wake” bait also works, of course.

Big spoons

We can’t forget the big waving spoons, very important as lures for Orellana. With a very interesting population of pike and zander situated at great depths, and of course also black bass at certain times, the big spoons are always going to be an option to take into account.

As with the other lures, using oversized models can help us select the catches or awaken the aggressiveness of apathetic fish. Once again, cloudy and windy days are usually the ideal ones, although both in winter and summer we can also touch fish with these lures on “plate” days.

The world of fishing lures is very subjective… although there are always some top lures in certain circumstances. In this series of posts, I will include the best fishing lures for Extremadura, adapted to each reservoir. Besides there are so many factors on which our choice should depend: time of the year, weather conditions, water conditions, lake where we are, the area of the reservoir where we are… Even in the same day there can be a suitable lure for each time of the day, we can catch fish with 5 or 6 totally different lures in the same day. And here is the charm of fishing, if there were good or bad lures, and of course there are, we would all buy the best ones and that’s it.

In this section I’m going to talk about types of lures: jerkbaits, crankbaits, vinyl worms… then each one who decides which model or brand he likes the most. I hope you have the best possible results for sport fishing in Extremadura.

We often get carried away with “brandism” and forget that the choice of the type of lure is often the key…

Top 10 lures

In each post in this section I will talk about the 4 lures that have worked best for me in each reservoir. However, here I am going to mention the 10 lures that have worked best for me when fishing for predators in general Extremadura.

1. Walker

Essential lure always, but even more since the arrival of the bleak. We have 2 types of walkers (also called stickbaits), some noisier and others more discreet that we can use in different circumstances. The bigger models will serve us to provoke the pike and big black bass bites. The smaller sizes are especially interesting for barbels and medium sized black bass.

2. Jerkbait

Fundamental lure in prespawn for black bass, pike and zander. There are 3 types: floating, sinking and suspending and we will alternate them according to the attitude of the fish. We can use it all year round, in bigger sizes in prespawn and more measured sizes in postspawn with black bass, pike and zander. When the barbels are aggressive, the small sizes between 7 and 10 cm work really well.

3. Crankbait

Off-road lure that can be used all year round with all predators. It is a very versatile lure and depending on the length of the blade it can go down from the most superficial layers up to 6 or 7 meters. Very useful when we want to “sweep” the shore and we don’t have very clear where the fish are. Besides, its versatility allows us to catch several species with it in the same day.

4. Swimbait

Selective lure that we will use mainly to look for record size black bass or for pike when they are near the shore. We can use moderate sizes (between 13 and 18 cm) but also really big swimbaits (between 20 and 30 cm). It all depends on the attitude of the fish and it is never too much to try them out, as they may have some surprises in store for us.

5. Spinner bait, fishing lures for Extremadura

Another all-terrain lure that we can use at any time of the year, especially on windy days to locate fish. When the fish are active, we can retrieve it halfway through, but when they are not very busy, a slow rolling retrieve close to the bottom can give bites when other lures do not. It will work mainly with black bass, pike and zander.

6. Chatter bait

Lure similar to the spinnerbait that will allow us to cover a lot of water and very fast and that can be deadly when the fish are active. Like the spinner we can use it with all the predators, including the barbel. It has a different action from the spinner, emitting very strong vibrations and going deeper faster than the spinner bait.

7. Hollow frogs, fishing lures for Extremadura

This lure is also usually selective and will allow us to move large fish, or cast where others could not work in tangled areas. We will mainly use them with black bass, although in areas of algae or vegetation we can also use them with pike. Its great strength is that we can introduce it in areas with a lot of coverage avoiding to a great extent the hooks.

8. Jig

Fundamental lure in reservoirs with abundance of crawfish, very versatile and that we will be able to use at very different depths. There are lead and tungsten ones, the latter being denser, going deeper earlier and offering a more discreet profile. We can use it to “sweep” the bottom with football type heads or to penetrate the cover with sharper “pitching type” heads.

9. Shad or pikie

In large sizes a main lure for fishing pike and large black bass. We can use it with multiple rigs, from an unleaded rig to fish practically on the surface to with 30 or 40 gram leaded heads. In more moderate sizes it will work very well with barbels and zander, and we can also use it all year round.

10. Vinyls, fishing lures for Extremadura

Crawfish, tubes, worms, creatures… There is an infinity of vinyl, each one of them adapted to different situations. Nowadays it is essential to take vinyls in our outings, to be able to deal with apathetic or very pressed fish. There are countless montages: unleaded texas, leaded texas, split shot, drop shot, shakey head, neko rig… And almost all of them are necessary under certain conditions.

Fishing lures for Extremadura… Miracles doesn’t exist!

The reality is that there are no better or worse lures, but there are lures better or worse adapted to each moment, time, place… In this menu I will talk about the lures that work best, in very general lines for each reservoir, writing posts periodically. Of course, always based on personal experiences, both mine and my fishing partners, of which we can consider top lures. I hope you don’t blame me when you do “zero”… It happens to me very often!😂😂😂

And I repeat again, not because I put in a post that in Alcántara they bite with “pikie” or in Orellana with “walker” are always going to be the best options, far from it… I simply want to give some basic notions of where to start to those who have not had the opportunity to fish in a particular lake. And perhaps also encourage you to try lures that you would not have tried in any reservoir… I hope you find it interesting!

Good fishing!