Sure, part of the explanation is probably that bass, and other predator fish as well, are just mean, nasty, territorial creatures. They don't always strike something because they think it looks like food; sometimes they strike out of just pure aggression or territoriality.

Even flyfishermen -- who, I believe, first dreamed up the "match-the-hatch" theory of trying to make your artificial lure look as much as possible like whatever the fish are feeding on at the moment -- don't always follow their own advice. They often resort to throwing such contraptions as fluorescent-pink woolly boogers or, one of my favorites, the "dead chicken," which looks like something you pulled out of your household broom. Those odd-looking baits get thrown not because they're precise imitations of some aquatic insect or small prey fish, but because they catch trout.

I've often heard the tale -- I don't know whether its true or not -- of the two fishing guides who were arguing about what were the best lures and baits. One took the position that you could catch a fish on just about anything if you put it in front of a fish at the right time.

He grabbed a salt shaker off of the table and said, "I'll bet you 100 bucks I can catch fish on this!" His buddy took the bet.

The first guide purloined the salt shaker, took it home and drilled a hole through the bottom and lid, passed a wire through it, and threading a treble hook on the end. Sure enough, he caught fish by trolling the shaker -- and won his bet.

That's not any more offbeat than another lure in favor called simply a tube lure. It's a treble hook on a short length of leader wire. The wire is threaded through a few inches of surgical rubber tubing, and an egg sinker and a swivel are fastened at the upper end. I've caught dozens of fish on that contraption, and my guide told me that some of the local anglers make their own tube lures using soft drink straws instead of rubber tubing.

"I heard a couple of guys arguing about which work better: the straws from McDonalds or the straws from Burger King," the guide said, "I thought they were joking, but they were having a serious argument about the colors in the straws."

Now, I could ramble on for the entire length of this article about some of the strange baits that anglers use for various techniques, but bass lures alone provide plenty of fodder for discussion.

And I'm not even talking about some of those really weird baits that hit the market now and then -- the ones with blinking lights or glowing inserts or electronic buzzers and chimes. I'm talking about your plain ol' ordinary, everyday bass baits. It's often true that the ones resembling nothing that lives are the baits that catch fish most effectively.

Spinnerbaits are the most obvious example. I've heard and read a handful of theories about why spinnerbaits work. Some say that it resembles a small baitfish (the hook and skirt) chasing an even smaller baitfish (the spinner blades). I've got a few spinnerbaits with twin or triple upper arms. One has two or three small blades on each arm. The sales pitch that came with that lure said that the nine small blades spinning resembled a small school of baitfish being chased by the lower portion of the lure.

Yep. And I've got a bridge to sell you in Brooklyn.