Baits you a gave a second chance (and glad you did)

[DitchPanda]

   So I've found in life sometimes a second chance is just the thing to find the redeeming qualities in something you missed the first time. Some of my favorite music and movies are ones that maybe I didn't really "get it" the first time but after another try or two I've grown to love. Baits are no different in my opinion. Two stand out for me.

   First is the Ned rig. I had some success when I first got it but that tapered off...my fault not the baits...and I wrote it off. Then last summer after extensive research I broke it back out and now its a staple for me when bites are tough to cone by.

  Second for me is the swim jig. I bought some, threw them a little and put them in a box for a while. My thinking was I already have spinnerbaits and chatterbaits so these are pointless. Man was I wrong. One day came when I was in clear cold water and I wanted a moving bait but felt the spinner and chatter were both to intrusive for the conditions. So I tied on a swimjig with a big grub for a trailer and went to smashing em. I've been throwing them in all kinds of conditions since and I'm amazed by the reliability and versatility I get with a swim jig. Simply put they just get bit. Now days I use them more then bladed jigs and honestly maybe even more then my beloved spinnerbaits.

   So what baits have you changed your mind on that you initially wrote off?

[Bluebasser86]

Chatterbaits/bladed jigs.

 

When they first came out and started winning tournaments down in Florida, I bought into the craze and couldn't catch a cold with them. Gave up on them completely and got rid of them. One day I couldn't get bit and happened to find one hanging in a tree. Tied that thing on and tore them up the rest of the day. The lightbulb turned on and now they're one of my favorite baits to fish. 

[NavyVet1204]

I’ll second what bluebasser said on the chatterbait because that’s the most recent example I can give. Last week as a matter of fact. Didn’t catch the fish, but I did get a couple good bites when I previously had never gotten anything. Just that little bit has restored my faith in the chatterbait.

[Spankey]

I have to jump on that Chatterbait band wagon also. I thought I was giving them a fair chance. I thought I was fishing it correctly. Built up a lot of frustration and was about to give the few I have away at the ramp. 
 

I have to admit I still do not know how to fish them properly. I’ve only had success hopping and dragging them on the bottom. My colors are dark ones and have only used craw type trailers on them. 
 

I believe my shortcomings are because I should be fishing lighter color one and mimic a baitfish and have a baitfish trailer. I believe it it because I’ve caught a few fish. That boost the confidence level. But I don’t thing I’m fishing it to it’s potential. 

[Finessegenics]

X4 on the Chatterbait. I bought some two years ago and did not catch a thing on them all season. Similar situation last season up until September. I threw them a few times at my honey holes and actually had a smallie follow but didn’t get a commitment. Put them down for a while until I was having a tough day fishing for largemouth. I said why the heck not and tied one on. Within a few casts I got one, which turned out being my biggest lmb of the year. I was just using a straight retrieve along grass edges. I bought quite a few this off-season in different colors.

[TheBasslayer]

I have not given up on really any lures yet except for topwater lures. But if I try the topwater and catch a big fish, then that will be my 2nd-chance bait.

[ErieCan]

Being more of a smallmouth bass fisherman in the past, I would say that what I overlooked were baits typically geared towards largemouth. Everyone uses drop shot, tubes, and jerkbaits up here. I wanted to get down into the deep weed beds so I started using finesse swimjigs with paddle tail trailers.  I went as brown as I could to mimic gobies and would slay the smallies with them. The down side was those weed beds also hold a lot of small pike. So it gets a bit expensive. Lol

[Dens228]

I'm going with spinnerbaits.  Not that I had given up on them but I just gravitated more towards chatterbaits the last couple of years.   Although I also use a swim jig a lot instead of a spinnerbait. 

This year I've gone back to having a spinnerbait tied on and used for no other reason than I wanted to.   I'd say over half my bass so far have been caught on a spinnerbait. 

But tomorrow I have an online tourney and I'm fishing a gin clear quarry.  If there's none or light wind only it will be back to either a swim jig or a chatter with a black blade. 

[Black Hawk Basser]

Deep cranks.  I bought a good bunch of them when I was younger and never really gave them a fair shake, probably since I was always on the bank.  Now that I spend most of my time fishing out of a kayak or boat, they have proven to be really effective for me, especially right now with fish staying pretty deep with this unseasonably cold spring.

[Kev-mo]

Whopper plopper and spinnerbait

 

Still trying to figure out bladed jigs and the ned 

[Bankc]

Darn near everything.  Rarely do I buy some new (to me) kind of bait and have success with it for the first 10-20 times I try it.  Then, one day, something changes and they finally start working for me.  My last one was, surprise, surprise, the chatterbait!  I had to fish them for about a year before I got my first bite.  I tried fishing them like a jig, like a crankbait, like a swim jig, etc.  Nothing worked until I discovered something.   The presence of grass.  Most lakes I fish don't have any grass, and for whatever reason, the bass won't hit a chatterbait without grass nearby (at least in my experience).  But I hit up a different lake that actually had grass and suddenly the chatterbait started working.  

[A-Jay]

Strike King KVD 300 Deep Jerkbait ~ 

https://youtu.be/YlXF8zI6X1g?t=2268

Fish Hard

A-Jay

[J Francho]

I guess chatterbaits are one.  I didn't do well with them until I went out with a friend and tore them up.  I probably wouldn't have tied one on ever again if not for that day.  

 

Umbrella rigs are another.  Seemed like fish were supposed to jump into the boat when you set one up.  There's pretty specific times for it, so I've learned.

 

Jigs.  Who hasn't tied one on early in their fishing and thought, "what the heck am I supposed to do with it?"  Glad I stuck with them.

[BrianMDTX]

Jerkbaits and spinnerbaits. 
 

Never caught a darned thing on a jerkbait until this month. Then I caught one bass on an outing. Next time I caught three. 
 

Only caught one bass on a spinnerbait until last Monday. Then I caught two (one was 12” off the bank). 

[Fishes in trees]

A long time ago I came across many bags of YUM Zellemanders.   Then I found out them were discontinued.   Then I fished them and came to the conclusion that I knew why they were discontinued.   They sat in a plastic shoe box for several years and then when I got into jika rigs I threw a few bags into a gallon zip lock as baits to try.  They are now a solid choice #2.   When I catch 3 or 4 fish off a point and the action slows using a brush hog, on several occasions I've switched to the Zellemander and caught another fish.   And that's my current record, i.e. 5 keepers off the same point within 15 minutes or so.

[DitchPanda]

8 minutes ago, J Francho said:

I guess chatterbaits are one.  I didn't do well with them until I went out with a friend and tore them up.  I probably wouldn't have tied one on ever again if not for that day.  

 

Umbrella rigs are another.  Seemed like fish were supposed to jump into the boat when you set one up.  There's pretty specific times for it, so I've learned.

 

Jigs.  Who hasn't tied one on early in their fishing and thought, "what the heck am I supposed to do with it?"  Glad I stuck with them.

Yeah jigs are a good one to. I got some early on never got a bite and lost most of them so never really tried it again. Then several years ago after reading over and over about there ability to get bites in tough conditions picked one up again. Caught an 8lb largemouth that day and since then they have become one of my favorites.

[EWREX]

jerkbait 100%. never had much confidence and gave them the time. now they are one of my favorite presentations 

[fishingtx]

carolina rig, now one of my favorite  baits for sand flats

[RDB]

4 hours ago, bass4life.... said:

carolina rig, now one of my favorite  baits for sand flats

x2

Never really enjoyed fishing them but several years ago I had a new partner in a tournament and he drug one around most of the day.  I think he caught 4 of the 5 fish we ultimately weighed including an 8+ kicker.  I have since caught a lot of bass on a Carolina...though it’s still not my favorite thing to do.

[Bankbeater]

I never caught anything on a chatterbait when they first came out.  Around 6 or 7 years ago I started catching with them, and have used them ever since.

[TriStateBassin106]

Ned rig hands down, never thought a literal trd and a hook would catch many fish including big ones, glad it's apart of my arsenal, hopefully soon the drop shot will be on this list. 

[craww]

Tail weighted topwaters that sit almost 90 degrees at rest. First time I threw a sammy 15 years ago I was expecting a fluke type posture & traditional walk the dog uniformity when retrieved...

 

Thankfully, one epic early fall afternoon while wading I happened upon what seemed like every big smallmouth in the river in a shallow boulder patch.

 

Turns out that erratic retrieve that zigs/Zags, rolls under the surface, spits, jumps out the water, etc has been rather effective over the years. 

[islandbass]

Spinnerbaits, buzzbaits and senkos. 
 

Started fishing  in 2004. I bought these thinking these were magic and bass killers 24/7, because Shaw G, Roland M, and Jimmy H and Bill D and Italo and those guys from infisherman made it look so easy. Keep in mind that when I take on something new, I go the extra mile to learn everything about it. And it was so humbling and frustrating that my self acclaimed powers of analysis and trouble shooting, attacking problems from every angle, could not even conjure let alone buy a charitable strike from a bass. 
 

The senkos let me down first. Back then I could practically recite from memory all of Bass Dozers articles, lol. Not one ding dang strike from a 5” senko. I wrote them off, but still kept a few.

 

Then the spinnerbaits and buzzbaits. Didn’t matter where I threw them or the depth for the SBs. Zero, zip, nada. 
 

They all stayed in my mental back burner for 14 years. On a periodic basis, I mentally revisit them. 

Then in 2018, I finally unlocked the spinnerbait  and buzzbait. I couldn’t keep the bass off of them. It was awesome. These two accounted for most of my bass caught. 
 

This gave me the confidence to revisit senkos in 2019. I used a two-pronged attack on both spinning gear and casting gear. I was unusually successful with both. This was incredible. 
 

I was looking forward to trying the tried and true jig and trailer in 2020 but the pandemic shot that down cold turkey. 
 

In retrospect, it seems to me that although it took awhile, everything I did on the water and off the water, the investment of time and thought eventually paid dividends. 

And I’ll take that to the bank since I fish soley from the bank, lol. 
 

So for those who have written off certain  baits, may you find the inspiration to revisit and re-examine those lures and get that monkey ? off your back. ?

 

I’m coming for you jigs (npigs specifically) next, lol. 
 

 

[ATA]

It is not what I did, But I am going to do Jig, I don't know why I never had any chance with jig, maybe because I didn't get to situation to use it. So this year I am going to have one rod combo only jig on it, and try it everyday. I aim sure ill get results and ill be glad to give it second chance.

[Aaron_H]

On 4/23/2021 at 12:19 AM, islandbass said:

senkos.

 

x2

 

Bought a few packs of senkos when I was first starting out bass fishing, couldn't buy a bite on them. Let them languish in my tackle bag for another year while I stuck with curly tail worms and creature baits until I gave them another shot. Many big fish later and I almost always have one tied on.