Wow.  Quite the list.  Everything I was going to say I found on there. 

I buy 40 packs of worms each year, all the same style and color and usually use them all.

Imagine how many fish you could have caught if you used the time counting and documenting all those baits to fish instead. I have a lot of baits but I started giving all my oddities away. I don't need 12 different creature baits.

Its awesome that you give some away

 

Wanna really make a young angler's day? Hit'em with like 5-10 packs of absolutely anything and he'll be talking about it for weeks, send 15 packs of all the stuff you know you won't bother throwing and he might start to think you're secretly a summertime Santa Claus.

 

I have a fraction of what you have and I'm feeling like its already too much. I also just buy when things are on sale thinking "I'll eventually use/need/feel like why the heck did I buy this" 

 

*Here is the real question, have you noticed any actual difference in performance (ability to attract and catch fish) between any of these in a similar form (craw vs craw etc)?

 

*The next question: How often do you actually swap out and try any combination of these while fishing vs just switching to a different lure or location? 

 

Those are very genuine questions, because I am noting that I bring 10 pounds of tackle with me to the bank, fish with the 3 or 4 things that I have already tied on my rods and almost never try a different shape/color of the same lure I'm using. I usually have something that moves, something for bottom, something with either more or less action than those 2 things, and then something finesse. I'll throw each lure in a spot either starting with finesse to limit spooking fish or starting with something I think might trigger a bigger bite and then rotate. No bites... I move on. I don't switch colors or try a different craw or slightly different worm or anything, because I already just spent 10-15 minutes making sure I covered this area with an appropriate array of techniques.

 

Should I be switching up more?

 

Because as it stands I'm thinking I need to just lighten my load. Its obviously a little different from a boat than from a bank, and the amount of time you have to fish, but seriously I think we all know better and still go against our own better judgement. I see all over this forum its more about finding the fish and placement than anything else, and honestly this probably rings more true than having a craw with flappier appendages or a GP with blue fleck or a GP with gold fleck or if your spinnerbait had chartreuse where it should've had a little blue. 

 

Sometimes I look at all my tackle I don't use and won't get to for a couple years because of all the stuff I need to burn through to get to it and think of the other things I could've spent my money on like gas or something fun with the fam. We are being marketed to after all

I say keep on collecting them.  You've gotta buy to try, and getting them in the mail is exciting, too.  These are cheap thrills, which are hard to come by these days.  Monkey on...monkey on I say ??

Time to figure out what works for you. I say stop buying.  Unless you run out of something you find that you love.  You will spend years giving that many different lures an honest chance

ROoKie

 

WOW!!!  just wow.  how sick were you?

 

and i kinda need quantities of each..and color.  come on!!