Technique you used to hate but now grown to love

[Robinhood21]

I used to hate throwing ned rigs & didn't care for watching ned rig fishing...  just couldn't get excited about it at all.  Finally made myself do it a lot this year.  Now it's one of my confidence baits.  Close to half of my big fish this year has come off the Deadly Nedly.  I think part of the new found love is using BFS gear. 

 

[casts_by_fly]

I wouldn't say 'love' but throwing a texas rig to cover water (as opposed to pitching targets) has been fruitful for me this year.  I never used to do it because it was too slow for me, but actually its not slow if you don't want it to be.  It is methodical though so you're not covering as much distance/water which I think was my mindset.

[Zcoker]

I didn't particularly like throwing the bigger swimbaits (especially in the everglades) until I started getting some consistent results. 

 

[Mike L]

I’m more to the point where I want to hone my existing skill set than to experiment with baits, techniques and equipment to see if I like something better. 
 

For me, experience is the greatest teacher. There is so much to this that taking the time to experiment and go through the pits and fall and inconsistencies of starting over with something I hate to do or use is of no value. 
 

 

 

 

 

Mike
 

[Aaron_H]

Jerkbait! Couldn't get consistent results with them for years. Finally dedicated last year to grinding the technique out to learn it and it quickly became one of my top confidence baits, and was responsible for my 4 biggest bass of the year (including a PB).

[king fisher]

Texas rigged worms.  I was very late to the party with this one.  I tried them when I was young, and had zero success.  The sinker would get snagged in the rocks at the lake I fished, and I never would catch anything.  I would read an article about how the T rigged was the best over all bait for bass, then give them another try with the same results.  After a couple years, I finally gave up. 

      Thirty years later, on a lake thousands of miles away I gave them another try and now I have one tied on all of the time.  When I was young, after reading numerous articles on worm fishing, I was convinced that I just wasn't skilled enough to detect the bites.  Now, I realize I just wasn't getting bit.  The bass in that lake preferred other baits, and the type of rocks in the lake made it impossible not to snag the weight.  I now realize most of the time detecting bites isn't that difficult with T rigged worm's, and when they are biting light, it is no more difficult than many other techniques I have used to catch other species of fish.

     I still prefer hard baits, but I am getting a large collection of worms in my box.

      

[Mobasser]

When I first started bass fishing, I struck out on Texas rigs. I kept reading things, and hearing about how good it was, but it didn't work for me. At one point, I quit fishing them. That was a long time ago.                                 Now, a Texas rig plastic worm is my #1 bait, and I love them. I wouldn't consider bass fishing without the Texas rig.

[A-Jay]

There is no technique that I used to hate but now have grown to love.

There's a reason it fell out out favor,

and once it's out, it's out.

There's no 'going back' for me.

A-Jay

 

[gim]

2 hours ago, Aaron_H said:

Jerkbait! Couldn't get consistent results with them for years. Finally dedicated last year to grinding the technique out to learn it and it quickly became one of my top confidence baits, and was responsible for my 4 biggest bass of the year (including a PB).

Jerkbait for this guy too.  It hasn't been a top producer for this particular season though.  I had some and for almost 3 seasons I couldn't get a sniff on one.  Then one early June day one spring they caught a lot of suspended smallmouth for me when nothing else was working.  So then I started fishing them more for largemouth, even into the summer months, and caught fish.

 

I will say that they are not great around thicker weeds because of the treble hooks though.

[MickD]

Took me a long time to be effective at drop shot, but I'm getting it now.  At times, very effective.

 

[Robinhood21]

1 hour ago, MickD said:

Took me a long time to be effective at drop shot, but I'm getting it now.  At times, very effective.

 

That's one I haven't spent a lot of time doing and need to give it more attention.  Next year is a new year

[MickD]

10 minutes ago, Robinhood21 said:

That's one I haven't spent a lot of time doing and need to give it more attention.  Next year is a new year

Your Fav fish = smallmouth, if you fish them in a lake then drifting with a drop shot is quite effective.  

[JackstrawIII]

Dropshot for sure. It’s a boring way to fish, but when they bite it… it’s not boring. 
 

Like others, I’ve struck out on Jerkbaits and t-rig worms. Someday maybe I’ll figure them out. 

[LrgmouthShad]

I did not "hate" shaky heads, just kinda didn't understand the technique and never tried it. Once I did, I realized it is so unbelievably essential that I wondered why I ever did without it.

 

Make no mistake, small worms on shaky heads can catch quality and some giants

[papajoe222]

Fishing tube baits on casting gear.

I fished a one day tournament back in '89 and placed second. My non boater only scored one dink that day fishing a tube, I was using an original Culprit worm behind a 1/8oz sinker.  He picked my brain afterword and I mentioned that he was likely using too heavy of a jig for the shallower water we were fishing.  We got together the following week-end and fished the same body of water, both using 1/8oz. tube jigs.  We slayed 'em and I'm sure that I would have finished in first a week earlier if I'd  been using a tube.

 I never liked tubes until then and now, they're right up there with jig/trailer and worms as my confidence baits.

[waymont]

Surprised to see so many people saying t-rigged worms. Maybe you were using too heavy of a bullet weight?

[VTFan]

Not sure there is a particular technique that I once hated but now love.  There are some techniques that I need to become proficient at for sure, drop shots and jigs to name two.  I will add that I used to not be very good with a spinning outfit until I made a New Years resolution to master a spinning reel this year, casting right handed and retrieving with my left.  The majority of my fish this year have been caught on spinning tackle.

[you]

Deadsticking, usually with an unweighted worm.

 

It's not like I ever hated this technique, more like it wouldn't have occurred to me because it's so boring. The lightbulb moment was realizing how often I had a fish on after I spent a minute pulling a loop out or adjusting something in my kayak while my line was in the water. Combined with precision casting, deadsticking is, well, deadly.

[flyfisher]

Nothing for me really.  If it doesn't produce it gets moved into the maybe one day I will try it again box.  I am all about keeping things simple.  

[Captain Phil]

I believe I fished my first traditional style spinnerbait in the early 70s?   They were a complete bust for me.  It was so bad my son and I called them "Christmas Trees". Later I learned I was fishing them all wrong.  I was throwing them out in the open and pulling them too fast.  Even when I did get a bite, I often missed the fish.  Today, I fish one about 70% of the time.  The bass I catch on a spinnerbait average bigger than on T-rigged worms.  Since I started using a trailer hook, I can't remember when I lost a fish.  

[J Francho]

Carolina Rig. 
 

Haha! Just kidding, it's still dumb!

 

In all seriousness, it's got to be the shallow square bill deal. Never got it until I started throwing them where I'd normally throw jigs. You'll lose a few but it's pretty fun to fish a moving bait in brush.  

[WVU-SCPA]

Spinnerbait.  Coming from the world of natural presentation fly fishing I couldn't grasp why a fish would look at a spinnerbait and say I want to eat that.  Took me a few years and hitting the perfect windy day to change my thinking on them. 

[the reel ess]

Pitching 

[Pat Brown]

I have been learning the more I bass fish, it's more about where and when you throw it than what you're throwing, IMHO.

 

I wouldn't say I 'hate' throwing any lures because it's a fun challenge and the rewards are even more fun!

 

But for the sake of this thread, I'll play along and my answers would have to be:

 

Jerkbait

Buzzbait

Jig

 

Jig, just really took me a while to get bit and have the fish hold on to it.  I didn't throw it enough.  I threw it in the wrong places.  I didn't understand the nuance of presentation etc.  It seemed like soft plastics were much easier to mindlessly throw and get bites on.  I still feel this way.  But what happened is I kept throwing the jig and learned where and when to throw it and started to catch my biggest fish consistently on it and then I started to catch numbers too.  Now it's always tied on.

 

Buzzbait, I just couldn't fathom a fish biting one of these things in any of the waters I fish.  The fish are heavily pressured and learn quickly, so I was always reluctant to get the buzzbait out and scare a school off of a spot.  Well, turns out, it's not nearly as noisy or predictable sounding as I figured and really it's pretty natural looking moving through the water.  And bass of all sizes from all different levels of fishing pressure seem to absolutely hate them.

 

Jerkbait, another one of those baits that didn't seem to make sense to throw for me for a long time.  It seemed too slow to cover water and I figured my muddy Carolina water, it'd be a waste of time.  Jerkbait was my best producer in the spring this year!  I had days I caught 20 + fish in NC on one from the bank!!!

 

Point is, most techniques will work really well if we put the time in and use our creativity to figure out how to make fish bite them.

[MIbassyaker]

I can't get my head around what it means to "hate" a technique.  There are techniques at which I'm not very successful, and techniques that I don't use. And some I have never tried because I have no interest in them.  Do I hate them? Not really.

 

The only thing I can think of is fishing with live leeches (yuck) but I only did that for walleye.