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

[scaleface]

The Strike King Red Eye Shad . When I learned it shimmied on the drop , I went  out and bought a couple. I used it a time or two with no luck and was hesitant to try them again . I have since caught hundreds of bass . When  fishing deep points the RES has a tendency to get bit by the biggest bass. Its become  a staple . I use all three sizes and all three versions . Noisy , silent and the Two Tap . I fish it just like a worm , lift and drop .

[NavyVet1204]

On 4/22/2021 at 9:16 AM, Bankc said:

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.  

That is my exact experience with the chatterbait! I wanted to love those things from the start because everybody and their brother were slaying bass with them even without a trailer. For me....crickets. Rain or shine, sleet or snow. Nothing until some grass couldn’t fix.

[billmac]

Crankbaits.  I've never been much of a crankbait guy, but I had one rigged most of the time last summer and caught most of my fish on them.  Flicker shads to be specific.  Although as I mentioned in another thread, it seemed like every fish I caught on the Flicker shad somehow managed to embed all 6 hookpoints in itself.

[the reel ess]

I tried SPRO frog when it was new and didn't get a bite on a few tries. So to the bottom of the box it went, then out of the box. Years later, I started fishing smaller waters from the kayak and I bought a Booyah Pad Crasher. I have no idea how many bass I've caught on this lure. I bought a frog-specific rod because I like it so much.

On 4/22/2021 at 9:50 AM, Kev-mo said:

Whopper plopper and spinnerbait

 

Still trying to figure out bladed jigs and the ned 

I was the same way with the WP. My buddy started catching a few big ones on it prespawn a couple years ago. So I bought a 110 in bone color. Nada for the first several times I used it. My sister has a vacation home with a canal behind her house and a neighborhood pond. I dusted off the WP there and caught a few. I decided to devote a day to it in my local reservoir and caught a few there too. They don't usually produce numbers, but the fish tend to be quality. Sometimes the 90 size will get more bites and it's a good gateway drug to the bigger ones. I don't like it as much as the 110 because I fish from the kayak and if you don't get the rod tip up high, the 90 will spin until you get it closer.

[cdlittle]

12 hours ago, the reel ess said:

I tried SPRO frog when it was new and didn't get a bite on a few tries. So to the bottom of the box it went, then out of the box. Years later, I started fishing smaller waters from the kayak and I bought a Booyah Pad Crasher. I have no idea how many bass I've caught on this lure. I bought a frog-specific rod because I like it so much.

I was the same way with the WP. My buddy started catching a few big ones on it prespawn a couple years ago. So I bought a 110 in bone color. Nada for the first several times I used it. My sister has a vacation home with a canal behind her house and a neighborhood pond. I dusted off the WP there and caught a few. I decided to devote a day to it in my local reservoir and caught a few there too. They don't usually produce numbers, but the fish tend to be quality. Sometimes the 90 size will get more bites and it's a good gateway drug to the bigger ones. I don't like it as much as the 110 because I fish from the kayak and if you don't get the rod tip up high, the 90 will spin until you get it closer.

 

I have a 110 in Bone and have had zero luck on it. Got a 60 for my wife and it got crushed on her first outing with it...on Easter.

[MN Fisher]

8 minutes ago, cdlittle said:

 

I have a 110 in Bone and have had zero luck on it. Got a 60 for my wife and it got crushed on her first outing with it...on Easter.

Similar here - my 110-Bone gets ignored while my 90-Bluegill gets hammered.

[Fishingintheweeds]

Jigs and spinner baits. When I was a kid, I was told jigs were the best but all I could do was loose them. Spinner baits seemed cool too and it seemed like that was all that Jimmy Houston owned! But I was pretty sure I would lose those too, so aside from a couple of half-hearted attempts to fish them, they mostly sat in my tackle box. 

 

That stayed with me for years. I finally decided that I was only going to fish jigs and that's all I took out. And sure enough, I started catching fish with them. 

 

I started to do the same with a spinner bait and finally caught a fish on one. And that was it. I used them a while after that and even bought a few more but haven't caught anything else in them. 

 

It sounds like I'm one of the rate ones who immediately had good luck with a chatterbait, and that got a lot of my time. That may also be a reason why I haven't stuck to it very well with the spinner bait. 

 

Swim jigs are one that I still haven't had anything in yet. Now, I HAVE caught a couple of fish while unintentionally "swimming" a jig on the end of a cast but as far as going out with a swim jig head and intentionally trying to catch fish just swimming it, I still got nothing. 

[gim]

Rapala shadow raps. I bought a couple years ago during a bogo and tried them right away. Nothing for almost 2 seasons off and on. Then I tried one in cold spring water for brown bass with a long pause and it worked. I don’t use them much anymore now because I mostly use mega bass jerk baits now but I still have them.

[A-Jay]

The other second chance bait for me is the A-Rig.

Fished it quite a bit for nearly TWO Seasons without as much as a bump.

Tried MANY Different types, brands & models. 

Practically threw my shoulders off in the process.

Kept watching videos of folks just smashing bass with it but I was not. 

It was pretty demoralizing and fairly depressing. 

Stuck with it and finally, late summer a few years back,

I got a clue on how & where to fish it in my area.

#lightswitchflippedon

Although still sort of a niche' bait for me, it's been a big fish deal ever since.

Fish Hard

A-Jay

[NHBull]

On 4/22/2021 at 10:33 AM, A-Jay said:

Strike King KVD 300 Deep Jerkbait ~ 

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

Fish Hard

A-Jay

.....sorry for the hijack, but what colors are you throwing, with this extra time I am filling in some holes in my inventory 

The dark sleeper has risen from the deap for me and now always have one tied on

 

[A-Jay]

6 minutes ago, NHBull said:

.....sorry for the hijack, but what colors are you throwing, with this extra time I am filling in some holes in my inventory 

The dark sleeper has risen from the deap for me and now always have one tied on

 

Here's the two boxes (shallow & deep baits)

They all get bites but the biggest producers are the perch, Ayu & clown. 

Fish Hard

A-Jay

[Boomstick]

I wouldn't say I ever really wrote a bait off because I'm far from a pro, but if I can think of any it might be jerkbaits. I bought a few when I started bass fishing but never had any luck on them and didn't even throw them for years.

[Deleted account]

"giving up" or having "Favorite" lures makes as much sense to me as giving up on a hammer, wrench or screwdriver. I pull out the tool that is required for the job at hand.

[Black Hawk Basser]

4 hours ago, BassWhole! said:

"giving up" or having "Favorite" lures makes as much sense to me as giving up on a hammer, wrench or screwdriver. I pull out the tool that is required for the job at hand.

Except if you need to pound a nail, it's intuitively obvious that you need a hammer.  There are dozens of bass 'tools', and one could fish their whole life and do just fine without some of them. This thread may help to enlighten those that haven't even considered trying some of these bass tools.

[MGF]

4 hours ago, BassWhole! said:

"giving up" or having "Favorite" lures makes as much sense to me as giving up on a hammer, wrench or screwdriver. I pull out the tool that is required for the job at hand.

Sorry but as a long time blacksmith and farrier I can tell you for a fact that it makes sense to have a favorite hammer. Not all hammers, even of the same type, are created equal. Likewise there are hammers that I just don't like...although most can be reworked to be made acceptable. Wrenches and screw drivers...not so much. LOL

 

In fishing lures there is so much overlap. I have a good number of baits that would be used in similar applications. Some of those I don't bother with or maybe never even tried. It's not so much "giving up on them" so much as just reaching for something else.

[RobA]

5 minutes ago, MGF said:

Sorry but as a long time blacksmith and farrier I can tell you for a fact that it makes sense to have a favorite hammer. Not all hammers, even of the same type, are created equal. Likewise there are hammers that I just don't like...although most can be reworked to be made acceptable. Wrenches and screw drivers...not so much. LOL

 

In fishing lures there is so much overlap. I have a good number of baits that would be used in similar applications. Some of those I don't bother with or maybe never even tried. It's not so much "giving up on them" so much as just reaching for something else.

Being a farrier is a tough job.  I enjoy watching ours at work.  You must sleep well at night....

[MGF]

7 minutes ago, RobA said:

Being a farrier is a tough job.  I enjoy watching ours at work.  You must sleep well at night....

I had to give it up several years ago. My lungs went south and I just don't have the wind for it anymore. Most jobs are tough in some way.