Buying tackle that turned out to be a failure for you…

[Cbump]

Anyone else get excited to try something, go over board, then end up with bunch of duds that you have zero confidence in? 
 

off the top of my head- 

 

8” smashtech with 10/0 beast hook

yamatanukis 

tubes

5” bellow gills

dark sleepers

Centipede (French fry) plastics

10” bull worms (HUGE!)

 

fyi, make someone a heck of a trade for dark sleepers and coffee tubes. 

[A-Jay]

Yup ~ Glide Baits.

Just don't get it.

Sold each & every one.

Thank you very much.

A-Ja

 

[Cbump]

Jury still out on those for me lol. 

Ohhh

A-rigs for sure. Probably great baits, hated casting them. That lasted one trip. 
 

Maybe It was the Fury 795sb rod I was using. Heavy beast. 

[Captain Phil]

Every generation of lures has it's duds.  Marketing takes over and before you know it, you're caught up in the hype.  The Roland Martin Helicopter lure was one example.  A spinning worm works, the helicopter was so dumb looking that most just ignored it.  Years ago there was a famous lure called a Helin Flatfish.  Evidently, they are great trout lures.  Anyway, the marketing of these lures was relentless.  Their ads were everywhere.  You couldn't open an outdoor magazine without seeing one of their ads. I tried and tried to catch a bass on one, but always failed.   Others have told me they have caught fish on them, but it must have been during a solar eclipse.  I have a couple of them in my collection along with another one of Helin's inventions, the Fish Cake.  True to form, it's doesn't catch fish either. ?

 

 

[scaleface]

Bagleys balsa shad crankbait for stripers . I noticed a lot of the larger bass  caught had giant shad in their gullets. If thats what they are eating thats what I'll give them .  If I catch one its going to be big . Nope. Finally the fishing Gods felt sorry for me and caused the lip to fall out so I never had to make another cast with it . 

 

 Musky jitterbug, same results . The big lure big fish strategy didnt work for me.

[FrnkNsteen]

9 hours ago, Cbump said:

Anyone else get excited to try something, go over board, then end up with bunch of duds that you have zero confidence in? 
 

off the top of my head- 

 

8” smashtech with 10/0 beast hook

yamatanukis 

tubes

5” bellow gills

dark sleepers

Centipede (French fry) plastics

10” bull worms (HUGE!)

 

fyi, make someone a heck of a trade for dark sleepers and coffee tubes. 

I don't recognize most of those, but I have caught TONS of fish off tubes and Zoom Centipedes!!!

 

My favorites are Powerbait or Mizmo tubes and the Green Pumpkin (brown) Centipedes.

 

I rig the centipedes on a small 1/16oz texas rig with a small baitkeeper hook. I think it similates those thick brown millipedes that curl up when you touch them. They also work as a really flimsy wacky rig.

[Spy]

40 minutes ago, Captain Phil said:

Every generation of lures has it's duds.  Marketing takes over and before you know it, you're caught up in the hype.  The Roland Martin Helicopter lure was one example.  A spinning worm works, the helicopter was so dumb looking that most just ignored it.  Years ago there was a famous lure called a Helin Flatfish.  Evidently, they are great trout lures.  Anyway, the marketing of these lures was relentless.  Their ads were everywhere.  You couldn't open an outdoor magazine without seeing one of their ads. I tried and tried to catch a bass on one, but always failed.   Others have told me they have caught fish on them, but it must have been during a solar eclipse.  I have a couple of them in my collection along with another one of Helin's inventions, the Fish Cake.  True to form, it's doesn't catch fish either. ?

 

 

The miraculuos Helin Flatfish.  A quick glance at eBay on any given day will show you are just a minnow in the vast school netted by that advertising campaign! 

[Mobasser]

41 minutes ago, scaleface said:

Bagleys balsa shad crankbait for stripers . I noticed a lot of the larger bass  caught had giant shad in their gullets. If thats what they are eating thats what I'll give them .  If I catch one its going to be big . Nope. Finally the fishing Gods felt sorry for me and caused the lip to fall out so I never had to make another cast with it . 

 

 Musky jitterbug, same results . The big lure big fish strategy didnt work for me.

Black musky Jitterbug is my ultimate dud also. It probably scared the fish away.

[MickD]

Interesting that some persons' duds are others fav's.  My dud is the Whopper Plopper, and I know many have done well with them.  When I was young the F7 silver Flatfish took smallmouth bass and rock bass by the hundreds on float trips down a good river in MI.  Larger ones took walleyes trolled through deep water, and I had a U20 knocked right out of the water on a steelhead strike once.  I'll have to check my old tackle and see if I still have one. 

 

Centipedes (french fry) really catch smallies and largemouth bass when you can find them shallow in the spring.  Mostly wacky rigged.

[Captain Phil]

1 hour ago, scaleface said:

 Musky jitterbug, same results . The big lure big fish strategy didnt work for me.

 

Years ago, a Musky Jitterbug was all we used when night fishing in the Everglades.  You have to fish it where big bass are common enough to eat food that large.  It's a mouthful.  Alligators like it too!

 

 

[LrgmouthShad]

Chatterbaits. I snagged and lost every one of those jokers. All jackhammers too

[LonnieP]

1 hour ago, LrgmouthShad said:

Chatterbaits. I snagged and lost every one of those jokers. All jackhammers too

Me too

[J._Bricker]

I’ve still got a Color-C-Lector and every color of associated plastic. Just SMH and chuckle to myself as I type this ?….

[Jar11591]

The whopper plopper. Bought several

when the hype went through the roof a few years back. But all it does is shut the bite down every time. I could catch more fish with a Texas rigged baseball bat casting into a corn field than I could throwing a whopper plopper to fish that haven’t eaten in a month. 

[king fisher]

   Back in the late 70's Fred Arbogast came out with a lure called the Bug-Eye.  It was a medium diving crankbait with giant bug eyes, and a hula skirt.  One of my favorite lures was an Arbogaster, which was a metal billed deep diving crankbait with a hula skirt.  I was sure the Bug-Eye would be better because it had a modern plastic lip, and of course those giant eyes.  Big add promotions in all the outdoor magazines.  I removed the card that came in one of the adds, sent it in along with a couple dollars for my two Bugeyes, and a free sticker, or patch, can't remember which.  My friend did the same and we waited a few weeks for the new great lure.  One day I went to the post office to pick up the mail, and there was a slip in the box.  I was sure it was my lure.  The postmaster had the door locked to the room where people went to buy stamps and pick up packages.  It was then I realized I was a few minuets late, and the post office was closed.  It was a Friday, and I couldn't imagine waiting until Monday to get my new magic lure.

       I heard some noise in the back room of the post office and realized the post master was still there.  I called out hoping she would hear me, and with a little luck give me my package.  It worked, she came out of the back room with my package, and I asked her if she could also bring the one for my friend.  She laughed and went back in and got his too.

       We couldn't talk either of our parents in to driving us to the lake, so we took our rods, and new lures to the little kids pool to give them a try and check out the action.  The adult pool wasn't open for evening session until 7:00 PM, and I don't know if I could have lived down the ridicule from the older kids if I would have cast my lure in to the adult pool,  The little kids pool was small only a foot or so deep, always open and most important ,no one was around.

         The action on the lures was horrible, basically zero wiggle.  I still held out hope that the reason for the poor performance was the short cast and shallow water.

         When I went to the lake the next day I had to give up all hope.  Both baits simply dove a couple feet, with zero side to side action.  Because I had very few lures, and when I would loose one was forced to fish with what I had, I did continue to fish with the Bugeye from time to time. I did manage to catch a couple small bass on the lure , but I also caught a couple of bass on my Jitterbug with an egg sinker slid on the line ahead of the lure to make it run under the surface. 

        Since that time I have bought many lures that didn't work out for me, but none have been as big of a disappointment as The Arbogast Bugeye. It is the only Arbogast lure I have ever owned that didn't become one of my favorite lures.  I don't think my friend even took his second one out of the package.  I wonder if he still has it.  

[Susky River Rat]

Chatter baits never seem to work for me.

[webertime]

Anything Rage (except the shrimp which is no longer made)

 

Whopper Poppers

 

 

[Bird]

Chatterbait for sure.

I can follow that up with casting a Spinnerbait and bass are waiting in line to hit it...... nothing on a chatterbait.

[JediAmoeba]

Failures:

 

Wobblehead.

Jika Rig.

Those weedless soft walking baits. 

The Walking worm.Christ on a stick was it bad for the amount of effort that went into getting it...

Some electronic frog thing that took batteries. 

Some stickbait that emitted an ultrasonic frequency. 

Johnsons weedless spoons with a pig on the back for top water. I caught a few but there are better options.

Mini Swim Whizz.

 

There are many others that I purged from memory. Hopefully.

1 hour ago, webertime said:

Anything Rage (except the shrimp which is no longer made)

 

Whopper Poppers

 

 

Rage is my jam...

[king fisher]

11 hours ago, Captain Phil said:

lure called a Helin Flatfish.

The Flatfish did not work well for bass, because it was made to fish slowly,( if you retrieve them normal crankbait speeds, they will simply roll on the surface) did not dive very deep, and were to light to cast with bait casting  gear.  Most people slowly troll Flat Fish, and most bass anglers don't troll very often.  I caught many bass using one as a kid by putting split shot ahead of the lure, to aid in casting and to get the lure to run deeper.

       As far as other fish species, go, the Flatfish was and is one of the best lures ever made.  It was even copied by a company called Quickfish, using the exact same size and color schemes with different names.  Quickfish was then sold to Luhr Jensen, and Helen Flatfish was bought out by  Wardens lures, now Yakima Bait the two have been fierce competitors for the Trout and Salmon market.  Flatfish more popular trolling for trout, and Luhr Jensen Quickfish dominates the King Salmon market.  They both have loyal followers, and many arguments over which is best, have gotten out of hand in Northwest bars.  The Flatfish, has never been popular with bass fisherman, but neither has similar lures, like the original Lazy Ike, or Heddon Tadpolly.

       The Flatfish, is easily one of the top 10 lures of all time ,and they didn't sell that many because of an aggressive add campaign.  They definitely will catch many species of sport fish, they simply don't work well chucking and winding with traditional bass tackle.

 

[ironbjorn]

The most egregious are Jackhammer and Mini Max chatterbaits. The Jackhammer was once good for me on a particular body of water in my home state, but since moving a few years ago I cannot buy a bite ANYWHERE with a chatterbait. I thought the Mini Max would solve this problem, but it has blanked. Dead bait for me.

 

Similar story with the Whopper Popper. It was once a great bait for me like 4-5 years ago but now it is totally dead. Can't buy a bite. 

 

However, spooks and spinnerbaits were dead for me in my home state, but are now some of my best baits. Very weird how this works depending on region.

[Pat Brown]

One pond I go to, there's always someone plopping.  Always folks buzzing.  Always people chattering.

 

Yeah, I don't throw those baits because I like catching fish.

 

Night fishing at the big lake, all of these presentations work decently but still very situational.

 

I think anything with intensely predictable and consistent sonic or vibrational signatures get learned fast.

 

As far as dud lures, I am not a big fan of throwing the buzzbait.

 

I want to love it but I'm 99% sure it just scares everything that swims a half a mile away every time I cast one.

[Bird]

6 minutes ago, Pat Brown said:

One pond I go to, there's always someone plopping.  Always folks buzzing.  Always people chattering.

 

Yeah, I don't throw those baits because I like catching fish.

 

Night fishing at the big lake, all of these presentations work decently but still very situational.

 

I think anything with intensely predictable and consistent sonic or vibrational signatures get learned fast.

 

As far as dud lures, I am not a big fan of throwing the buzzbait.

 

I want to love it but I'm 99% sure it just scares everything that swims a half a mile away every time I cast one.

Lol, not sure why the bass around here hit a bait that sounds like a trolling motor adjusted way to high......the buzzbait.

[Pat Brown]

3 minutes ago, Bird said:

Lol, not sure why the bass around here hit a bait that sounds like a trolling motor adjusted way to high......the buzzbait.

 

 

I see people on the internet catch giants on them all the time and I'm like this is so cool and then I throw it and then the bite completely turns off for the rest of the day in the area where it was like a hot bite and you can catch a fish on every cast.

 

I don't know if I just don't understand the timing or the areas to throw it or like if the fish here have just all been caught by a buzz bait and refuse to be anywhere near one, but it's definitely a thing that I've noticed when I try to catch fish on a buzzbait.

 

I even have more confidence throwing a plopper because I can pause it and the fish will often hit it when it's just sitting there even with the sun still up.

 

The buzz bait just seems like one of those things were they really probably would hit a spinner bait or a swim jig a lot more readily most of the time and I think when they hit it it's usually just cuz something splashes next to their face. I've never gotten one to hit it on the retrieve.

[gim]

Another vote here for the whopper plopper. That lure got so hyped up and marketed I not only had to buy one, I bought three. What a waste of friggin money.