I was just wondering…. how many times do you throw a lure before you decide that they aren’t hitting that lure today and move on?

Often, I'll just change up the color combos and try three or four variations before I change the actual lure type. I'll keep on a spot that looks promising for several different lure types before changing spots.

Approximately 69 casts. 

On the home lake I start the day with these lures tied on: 

• Casting rod with black buzz-bait
• Casting rod with 3/8 oz. bluegill colored, double willow spinner bait
• Casting rod with 3/16 oz. t-rigged, 7" blue fleck power worm
• Spinning rod with either a square-bill, or DT-6
• Casting rod with 3/8 oz. black-blue jig
• Spinning rod with 1/16 oz. lead-head, 2.5" Gulp minnow
• Spinning rod with green pumpkin SENKO, t-rigged weightless
• Spinning rod with 1/10 oz. green pumpkin NED
• (do have room in the locker for two additional rods...those are the wildcards for the day...sometimes a drop-shot, sometimes a lure/technique I'm no good at...gotta try new stuff)

I generally start with the buzz-bait and spinner-bait, then to the crankbaits...then to more finesse presentations. 

 

I probably throw each set up for 15-20 minutes before switching things up. I do have some spots that demand certain lures...thick standing timber doesn't love the cranks...that's more t-rigs and jigs. 

15 to 30 minutes. I'm restless.

From shore, I normally rotate between 2 or 3 lures, sticking with each about 10-15 minutes. I normally change all the lures on the rods after about 45-60 minutes.

I usually go about 20-30 minutes with crank baits then switch color. When finesse type, Texas rigged, I pick a spot form A-B and work it. No matter how long it takes, then change color.

if I have a gut feeling, sometimes even back track the area.

I go out with anywhere from 4 to 8 rods with what I suspect will work already tied on. I switch rods throughout the day unless one is really producing. I'm pretty impatient if something's not working.

In the dim morning light I fish an “area” with one rig for twenty/thirty minutes or so, switch to an opposite rig (say a buzz bait to a t-rig worm) for another 15/20 minutes then move on to another “area”. The area move may be just a 50 yard move from a cove ditch to a laydown on a bank. Same process until it’s bright out.

 

After daylight I fish the conditions, sunny is slower baits in the grass, rocks and wood and cloudy is more moving stuff.

Seldom do I fish the same bait in a different color, once again relying on my initial selections for the conditions. My set ups and procedures are very similar to @DaubsNU1, starting with moving lures then slower then on to dragging.

 

If I’m really skunked I will switch colors on my confidence baits until I hit on something that works. Sometimes it doesn’t.

 

17 minutes ago, the reel ess said:

I go out with anywhere from 4 to 8 rods with what I suspect will work already tied on. I switch rods throughout the day unless one is really producing. I'm pretty impatient if something's not working.

Bingo

When the bite is slow, I am changing lures more often.

 

When the bite is going, I beat that presentation into a pulp.

I fish rivers, and carry 4 rigged rods in my kayak.   I always start with a topwater before moving down the water column with a shallow crank, and then a deeper crank including those I’ll bounce off submerged rocks or plow the bottom.  Spinnerbaits are always a choice and then there is jigs/tubes/flukes.  If the river’s flow rate is slow,  I’ll throw a lure at least 15 minutes, and no more than 30.  Swipes or hits might extend this period during which I’ll play with different retrieves.  Sometimes, depending on conditions,  I’ll change colors before changing type of lure.  If I start with a lighter color, I’ll change to a darker version or vice-versa.  Second colors never get thrown more than 15 minutes without a bite.  

When the flow rate is brisk, rather than time I’ll fish a particular stretch, usually around 100yds or so, before making a change in color or lure.  
Often, after either my time ‘limit’ or completing a stretch, I’ll paddle back upriver and fish the same stretch with a new lure.  Only when a color change has produced will I go through the effort of paddling against current to fish a change in color.  
I feel like within the first hour I usually have an idea of what mood the fish are in; I always have a good idea of mine.

Faster than I should, but slower than I want to.

3 hours ago, Bazoo said:

From shore, I normally rotate between 2 or 3 lures, sticking with each about 10-15 minutes. I normally change all the lures on the rods after about 45-60 minutes.

Jig fishing from shore isn’t your best choice. Jig also take more patients and focus on strike detection than any other lure. 
My advice don’t fish jigs unless you plan to:dedicate yourself fishing them.

A 1/4 oz Football plain football head with Yamamoto 4” twin tail Huls Grub #221 will catch bass anywhere.

Tom

Now that I think about it, the times I have done good on jigs, I was fishing them exclusively.

Considering my time allotment, usually two maybe three hours for fishing at the most every so often, I’m using 3 to 4 lures with two poles. I’m fishing towards the shore on the left, middle of the pond off the middle and towards the shore on the right off a fishing dock. I’m fan fishing for 15 minutes on each lure. I love an all black hollow body frog first one of the day.

 

By using this method, I rarely see a skunking. I appreciate the process much more than I used to. 
 

Now if I slide over to the local river for a small chance at catching anything, then skunk is my middle name. Never seem to even get a bite.  🤪 

I mostly go by how the fish react or how I’m feeling throwing a bait. If I’m not getting bit at all or just not feeling a choice, I move on. Some days I just wanna catch fish on this or that, and will fish as such.
 

A skirted casting jig is my all around favorite bait for bass, and one I feel very comfortable and confident using 

Sometimes it's a matter of minutes, sometimes it's months. I can catch bass on a beaver from ice out till ice over. 

If you are fishing an area that has a concentration of adult bass (which is what you are looking for) you will catch 1 or 2 even if your speed and depth isn't quite right.  At that point you can start fine tuning your speed and depth until you get it right.  If at that point you are not catching fish then the school is either spooked, or they have moved, or that first fish or two you caught has fooled you into thinking there was a concentration of fish in that area but there wasn't.  Now that is an area that is worth re-checking because sometimes you can fool yourself.

It just depends. Sometimes I'll make a couple of cast and just not feeling it then change. Other times I may stick with a lure for hours. If I get an idea I usually go with it.

Im going out with a few rods that have lures I know how to fish confidently and I expect will work. If I start hitting them good on one type of lure I'll rig a few rods up in the same lure but different colors and see if I can improve it. 

 

Once I'm out on the water I take my best guess of the top 2 or 3 based on actual conditions and I'll hit an area with all 2-3 before I move on. I do move somewhat quick though, I havent seen a benefit for working painstakingly slow if no bites are coming. I will potentially re-hit a spot with no bites later in the day. Sometimes it just the right place at the wrong time. 

I usually change spots first. If I'm in an area and feel I've cover the whole water column then I usually move. If I've seen evidence of fish in the area then I'll try and switch lures. Maybe they swiped at a topwater and I switch to a spinnerbait, or I was fishing a spinnerbait and they swiped at that next to some cover but didn't want to commit to leaving that cover, I'll switch to a worm or jig I can go in after them. 

I switch as fast as seeing the next guy catching them on something I'm not.

I usually start with 8-12 rods on the deck with everything from a buzzbait to a drop shot. I'm picking up a different rod every 1-20 casts until I start to get it dialed. Once I have them figured out I may throw one bait the rest of the day with an occasional cast with something else to keep em honest.