If you walk into any tackle shop, you’ll see at least one wall is full of soft plastic baits. There’s a very good reason for that: Soft plastic baits catch fish. But when you find yourself standing in front of that wall of baits, you’ll face a conundrum — which ones do you buy? The shad tails with gold glitter? The scented pink curlytails? The glow-in-the-dark shrimp?

There are literally thousands of possibilities. DOA CALs alone are made in five body styles, most of which are available in 50 different colors. Other manufacturers have similarly overflowing catalogs. Many of the offerings are remarkably similar, but somewhere out there is a fisherman who swears Brand A’s curlytail swims way better than Brand B’s version. Don’t worry, though — I guarantee there’s someone else who says Brand B is the bomb diggity and Brand A is junk.