Smallmouth bass in cold muddy water (10 °C): which lure gets eaten
The smallmouth bass model is shown 11 generic lure archetypes, each tried in all eight colours, under one fixed set of conditions. None of them get eaten. The furthest any gets is the square-bill: "Refused at close range." The lipless rattle is outside what the Tank models and is listed unranked.
- Species
- Smallmouth bass
- Water temp
- 10 °C · cold water
- Water
- Muddy water
- Mood
- Neutral fish
- Depth · light
- 2 m · noon
- Retrieve
- 0.6 m/s
- Metabolism
- 26%
- Eaten
- 0 / 11
The ranking
Ordered by how far through detect → approach → track → commit each lure got, then by how strongly. Each lure is shown in its best-scoring colour. The verdict, reason and fix are the model's own words; the same text you get in The Fish.
- 01Square-bill80 mm · wobble 5.4
Refused at close range.
RefusedClose inspection, no commitment. Nothing is badly wrong; nothing is quite right either.
Loosen the action slightly, or present it where the fish has less time to look — cover, low light, dirtier water.
- 02Medium diver80 mm · wobble 3.8
Refused at close range.
RefusedClose inspection, no commitment. Nothing is badly wrong; nothing is quite right either.
Loosen the action slightly, or present it where the fish has less time to look — cover, low light, dirtier water.
- 03Deep diver110 mm · wobble 9.0
Followed, then refused.
FollowedToo much action. A smallmouth bass expects something in the 3–7 range; this is thrashing at 9.0.
Tighten it up: less lip area, or more low ballast to raise the righting moment.
- 04Wakebait120 mm · wobble 8.7
Followed, then refused.
FollowedToo much action. A smallmouth bass expects something in the 3–7 range; this is thrashing at 8.7.
Tighten it up: less lip area, or more low ballast to raise the righting moment.
- 05Flat-side80 mm · wobble 1.0
Saw it. Did not care.
IgnoredDetected but not compelling. Wrong size against the forage base, and not enough drive to investigate.
Match the forage: local bait is around 80mm, this is 80mm.
- 06Trout minnow60 mm · wobble 1.0
Saw it. Did not care.
IgnoredDetected but not compelling. Wrong size against the forage base, and not enough drive to investigate.
Match the forage: local bait is around 80mm, this is 60mm.
- 07Jerkbait120 mm · wobble 0.8
Saw it. Did not care.
IgnoredDetected but not compelling. Wrong size against the forage base, and not enough drive to investigate.
Match the forage: local bait is around 80mm, this is 120mm.
- 08Pike bait150 mm · wobble 6.2
Saw it. Did not care.
IgnoredAt 150mm this is larger than anything a smallmouth bass is built to eat (40–120mm).
Shorten the bait, or fish for something with a bigger mouth.
- 09Micro crank30 mm · wobble 0.1
Saw it. Did not care.
IgnoredAt 30mm this is smaller than anything a smallmouth bass is built to eat (40–120mm).
Go bigger — this reads as not worth the swim.
- 10Top-heavy fail80 mm · wobble 0.0
It never got a look.
Rolled overThe bait is lying on its side and skating. Fish ignore it because nothing in the water moves like that.
Move ballast below the centreline until the Tank says it swims.
- 11No-lip control80 mm · wobble 0.0
No driven action.
—This lure has no working lip and line tie pair to make it swim on a steady retrieve.
Add a lip below the line tie, then check the swim test in the Tank.
- —Lipless rattle100 mm
Not ranked
Outside the modelIts action comes from body shape, which the Tank does not model: it only scores wobble from lip drag, so it reads this bait as having no action. The fish model is never shown a fair version of it, so it is listed here and not ranked.
Why it came out this way
At 10 °C the model runs a smallmouth bass at 26% of peak metabolism (optimum 21 °C, feeds between 5 and 29 °C), which caps its chase at 0.6 m/s. Every lure here is retrieved at 1.0 m/s, or just under the fish's top chase speed if that is lower: 0.6 m/s in this scenario. The page tests the lure rather than the reel.
- 3 of 11 were seen and not worth the swim: at 26% metabolism and neutral hunger, the fish's drive to approach is too low for anything but a near-perfect size match.
Why temperature is the master variable → - 2 of 11 were seen and ignored because they sit outside the 40–120 mm prey window the model gives a smallmouth bass.
The approach stage and prey size → - 2 of 11 were followed and refused on action: outside the 3–7 wobble range the model gives this species, or too stiff to read as alive.
What decides a lure’s action → - 2 of 11 got all the way to the fish and were refused on inspection: close enough to look, not compelling enough to eat.
The commit stage → - 1 of 11 never swam properly, so the fish model never got a look at them. That is a Tank verdict, the same in every scenario.
How the Tank decides a bait swims →
Change one thing
The same smallmouth bass, with a single condition changed.
This page is model output, not field data. The species values behind it, including temperatures, prey sizes, preferred action and reaction distance, are working assumptions that have not been calibrated against observations. The lures are generic archetypes, not products. Read where this model is wrong before trusting a ranking, and treat it as a hypothesis to test on the water.