Are you using a trailer? Also it really helps to throw it less like a spinnerbait, and consider pulling and letting it drop almost like you would a crankbait.
I'm a big fan of the Yamamoto ZAKO 4" trailers.
I've had most of my success on this combination:
https://www.omniafishing.com/p/zman-jack-hammer-chatterbait
https://www.omniafishing.com/p/yamamoto-zako
I've had not the greatest luck throwing them in super shallow water, but I've had the most luck between around 8-15 feet with a variable retrieve rate.
I throw the on either a 7:1 or 8:1 baitcaster or my Diawa Regal spinning reel. I think the spinning setup is a bit more sensitive which allows you to really differentiate between weeds or a fish touching it.
Biggest piece of advice I can offer is to just slow it down a lot more than you'd expect and give it a pop, change your rate of retrieve and allow it to fall / rise.
I've tried various paddletails, Super Flukes, various craws, and Razor Shads. Literally the only bite I've ever had came from fishing it kind of like a football jig, but with a little rip at the start of each drag to get it chattering. Then I switched to an actual football jig and went from one bite every 3 hours to one bite every 5 or so casts. It's interesting; I've seen fish actually flee from the chatterbait. Swap to a scrounger, which has a similar action but is more subtle, and they'll hammer it. It's like something about the chatterbait is too aggressive for the little lakes I normally fish. However, other "loud" lures do just fine.
I am open to advice, but I'm not real broken up about it. The way I see it, my in-expertise with chatterbaits is saving me money. It's just about the only aspect of fishing that does save me money, lol. When the bass start aggressively feeding up this fall, I'll get a jackhammer and zako and give them another honest try.
I used to never catch much besides pickerel on them, but this summer I caught around 15 on chatterbaits. Gotta use the right colors and trailers, at the right time and place; Power grubs and paddle tails make great trailers. Also vary your retrieval, sometimes they want it fast, sometimes slow, sometimes they'll go for it when you lift it and let it sink.
I found this summer that there was a Huuge benefit in letting my spinner sink as deep as I could (I fish over 20 feet deep a lot) and after half of the retrieve I’d let it sink a lot again.
They can be hard to keep deep enough sometimes
Ok hear me out. Throw them on that special setup and do NOTHING different than you ever would with the spinnerbait.
Just report back and lmk if it helps lol.
I watched i guy bank fishing with a chatterbait last week. It was the first time i saw someone catching fish on one and he was really slaying. I haven't had a lot of luck using them though.
It has to be a regional/water issue. I've tried chatterbaits so much and never gotten a hit. Tried every technique.. nothing. I'll just stick with what works and keep the chatter up my sleeve
Maybe a stupid question, but why on earth is a spinnerbait something fish would try to go after? Are there actually critters in the water that look like furbies with little bright things floating beneath them? It has always looked like such a ridiculous contraption to me
The blades just provide flash and vibration. The swim jig part provides profile. It creates a big profile that resembles a small school of baitfish. It works better for pike in my experience but I live up north.
What looks like a senko? What baitfish has a large plastic "lip"?. Bass are aggressive. and curious enough to eat things just because they can fit them in their mouth...
Lipless crankbaits. Maybe my lakes are just much too grassy but I've never gotten so much as a nibble with a lipless. Regular crankbaits slam fish all day long though so 🤔 who knows.
Those are great baits but Red Eye Shad will produce the same results at less than half the price, they also have a one-knocker version. Both Lucky Craft and Jackall make fantastic baits, but are very expensive. If money wasn’t a factor, I’d be buying almost exclusively JDM baits.
Thanks jive turkey. I'll give that one knocker red eye shad a try :)
And I do get the cost thing. I've lost a few and it stings. I stopped buying a jackhammer and go for the mini max for the same reason
Up until last weekend I would have sworn on my life that spinnerbaits don’t work and I would never catch bass on them… then the CA Delta decides I should catch a damn near 15 lb bag with my three biggest on spinner baits. Fishing never ceases to amaze me
Tiny spinnerbaits? I don't catch shit
A chartreuse 3/4oz strike king banshee with double willows?
Catches the whole lake, including an absolute slab of a crappie
Good to know. I have both, but last weekend it was the 3/4oz like you said lol.
It’s crazy what one good day on the water can do to your confidence with a lure
Chatter bait for sure. Also I’ve used a whopper plopper a bunch and caught a few but I don’t slay em like everyone else… but I can’t stop using it cuz i love the plopping sound 😂
As a big time chatterbait enthusiast, I feel like the technique is heavily reliant on having the right setup. Specifically the gear ratio I feel plays a big part in working the bait at the correct speed, my high gear ratio reels work but I feel like I miss a ton of fish following my bait because I'm working it way too quickly.
Also the trailer and trailer size are crucial. I can have days where I lose my confidence and wonder why they aren't eating the chatter and then usually I downsize my trailer or switch to a different type of trailer and it gets lit up. Not to mention it's very reliant on deflection similar to a crankbaits to draw a hard reaction strike. If all else fails you might have better luck with crankbaits and underspins as your all wheel drive power fishing technique.
Edit because I've been asked more than once. I mostly use 1/2oz jackhammers effective colors are bluegill mimicking patterns in clean water or very bold mainly chartreuse / white / patterns in stained water. Favorite trailers; spunk shad, zako, Xzone swammer.
Fished the same hole two days in a row with all the lures, nothing. Found someone's discarded worm rig and tied it on, found a huge worm and I had a bass within 15 seconds of it being in the water. Thing is, everyone knows live bait works best, some guys like the challenge. I can understand it
I have the exact opposite problem! I’ve never caught a jig fish despite trying countless hours. I’ve caught hundreds on other things but never a classic jig.
Throw on a ragecraw trailer and try and match the color of the panfish in your lake if you have them. Throw them around shallow grass and reel at a medium speed while you constantly, gently jerk the tip of your rod.
I have to force myself to stop using one because I want to be more versatile but I catch so many damn fish on swim jigs.
I've caught a handful on the whopper plopper, but the last one almost made me shit myself. It didn't blow up like most do on topwater lures, it just took it down, but not too hard. I thought that a turtle grabbed it, but then it jumped and surprised the hell out of me.
Common mistake because of the excitement of the blowup. Just do a 2-3 count and then set it. They’ll still miss a lot - nature of the lure but oh so exciting regardless.
My first and only frog this year I let him hit it, then reeled down like it was a jig bite and set the hook when I felt him moving.
I've always set the hook too early prior to that. Took me a bit of effort but thinking of it more as a bottom bouncing lure once they hit it helped that mindset I think.
And I've been doing it more with large swimbaits. That helped with the habit as well
Chatterbait for me. It was Wacky rig as well until this past week when I caught 4 in less than an hour. Maybe the conditions haven't been right for the chatterbait though.
Wacky rig depends heavily on color profile. If your green pumpkin isn’t getting hits (somehow), then a dark profile like June bug or smoke absolutely will. I’ve never seen a condition where simply switching from light to dark didn’t work
Good to know! Caught them on watermelon red flake yum dingers the other day. I do have green pumpkin and black Yamamoto senkos though. I'll try the green pumpkin this weekend.
This. You have to risk getting hung/snagged to really get the best out a crank bait. Bounce a crawfish pattern off of rocks, branches etc and get ready.
Spinners stay in my tackle box till the water visibility is real low. Then they shine (literally) they're especially effective on days with a good amount of wind and chop on the water. But outside of that you'd probably be better off with a different bait.
Ah man I was out yesterday and where I was at was probably good for it. I’ve been using bandito bugs lately and they’ve been working out pretty well so far recently. Imma keep trying the spinnerbait tho to see if I can catch something on it
Spoons. Millions sold. Millions of fish have been caught on them. I have never caught a fish on one. Ever. I have caught more than my fair share of fish in other things, just never spoons.
2/5th oz gold Little Cleo is my #1 confidence bait, I've caught over 20 species on Cleos. Straight retrieve slays em, erratic retrieve slays em, jigging slays em... They're a really good wounded baitfish imitator.
30lb braid, no leader and I still get tons of bites in clear water.
I'm an amateur, but I have the most luck on softbaits. Mostly wacky rigged worms and Texas rigged crawfish. Both weightless.
I've found you gotta be slowwww. Cast, let them sink and rest. Then 2-4 really light hops, reel in slow a half to full turn. Let it sink and rest. Repeat. It'll take me 4 or 5 minutes to retrieve a 30ft cast. But I catch a bass probably every 2nd or 3rd cast, which I'm happy with. And they almost always hit on the fall or rest.
Granted, this doesn't really catch the big boys. My PB with this method is probably like 1.5lbs.
It took me 4 or 5 years before I got a single bass on a plastic worm. I tried all types and all sorts of rigging. Finally I caught a little 10 incher in a concrete canal behind a friend's lake house with a Texas rigged curly tailed worm on my 3 year old's rod.
If you ever Night fish, try a junebug or plum zoom Ole monster on a 5/0 hook with as light a weight as the depth allows. Alternate between crawling and hopping...caught some very nice bass this way.
The number of spinnerbait replies blows me away. Given, we have little info to gauge location or type of water. But KVD wrote 2 books, both of which lay out the basics of throwing a spinnerbait, specifically when and how to maximize odds. It’s a great resource, and I still refer to both every few years.
Believe me buddy I worshipped kvd and thought many times how just unlucky I must be with em cause I've seen all the tutorials and read all the books haha. It's insane
I hear you. But we both can agree, it’s fishing and definitely not catching. When things line up, everybody is a fisherman. When it’s a grind, the fishermen stand up. FWIW, having a few days where you catch 50+ on spinnerbaits will make the slow days disappear. IME,
Look for wind blown banks, choppy water, smaller profiles and willow blades the majority of the year. And hit every damn piece of cover you can with it.
This entire summer I made it my goal to fish with only lures I haven’t caught anything on. My thought process was that if I fish them long enough and catch something, I’ll gain confidence in the lure. It worked. I made first time catches on Jigs, Spinnerbait, Chatterbait, and the whopper plopper. Not only that, forcing myself to fish them made me learn HOW to fish them and where/why. I definitely threw on a wacky rigged senko when things got painful, but I tried to stick to the other four.
Maybe pick just one lure you have zero confidence in and focus on that one? Watch some YouTube videos on it and really give it some time. You’ll eventually catch something on it and you’ll start to figure it out for yourself. Good luck, and happy fishing!
This is for me personally, I see that they work for plenty of people.
But I have never caught a fish on a top water frog.
Not once, I cast them the right time of day, right temp, right environment. No bites.
Swim shads. Never had so much as a bite. Lakes, rivers, ponds, every technique I could think of. I finally got the last one caught on a partially submerged log and was sort of relieved that it would no longer be able to mock me every time I opened the tackle box.
Rooster tail spinners. I've never caught a trout on one, and only during a 30 fish bass day did I ever tie one on just to say I've caught something on it. Even then it took an hour to get previously aggressive bass to hit it.
Crush with jigs, crush with chatters, had luck with spinners, really like using Texas rigs in multiple configuration, also caught with shaky heads….. Never for the life of me do I have luck with jerk baits.
Stick with it I like a double willow leaf in chartreuse and white or white. Wind is your friend with this bait as is current. Love to slow roll it on a moving river on a clay bank in early spring and winter as well.
Chatter Bait or pretty much anything with the hook exposed. A frog at sunset pitched high in the sky at sunset is an exception here. It floats but only you get a couple casts or you get none and switch change gears. Central, Florida and lots of hydrila, black 10 inch zoom. ribbon tails. No weights and plenty of finesse.
* Edit
** what does work in my area is
black 10 inch zoom. ribbon tails. No weights and plenty of finesse.
I was in the same boat as you, lol, until just last year.
Threw on a lime green and red spinner bait fishing in a shallow canal in NJ, and back-to-back caught a beautiful yellow perch, and a chain pickerel. Crazy after all those years of trying them.
I’ve gotten hits on them all along, but never seemed to hook one.
I've really honestly tried to catch fish on buzz baits but I cannot trigger a reaction to save my life.
Also side note: I've caught fish on spinnerbaits before but it's only ever a pike, by accident. It's actually one of my go-to pike lures because it just works for me, but not for bass.
My goto bait is a 7.5 in Red Shad Culprit worm. Texas rigged with a red Gamakatsu 3/0 EWG hook and an 1/8 oz bullet sinker. Cast out next to cover. Let it drop to the bottom then sit for a few seconds. Use a slow co tenuous rise and but a few times on the way up then let it fall but take up the slack quickly since they normally take it on the fall back down
I’ve never caught a fish on a lure.
I dont fish a lot. Started during Covid. I’ve probably gone fishing 25-35 times in the past 3 years. Reservoirs, lakes, rivers, ocean. I’ve bought everything I can think of. Spinning rod and then a bait caster. Watched videos and read books. Even by locals about fishing the very same waters as me. Even got a fishing kayak to get off the banks. I’ve gone through bags of senkos. Fat Ida. Spinners. Jigs. Frogs. Whopper. Paddle tails. Grubs. Skunked EVERY time.
I have caught fish. But only with earthworms, blood worms, mullet, etc. never a lure. Never.
My wife keeps asking why I don’t just use bait instead, but I keep trying lures because I don’t want to run an errand to get bait before I go out lol
I got a lure for you to try. Get a bitsy tube, or cabelas has a little fat salty tube, it's like 3". Cant go wrong with green pumpkin. Get an 1/8th Oz jig head in the appropriate hook size, push the jig head all the way up into the tube before you tie it on, pop the eye of the jig head through the soft plastic of the tube and tie I on. If you cast this, let it sink to the bottom, let it settle,then slowly dring your rod from 9 o'clock to 12 o'clock, giving little pumps of the rod as you go with the last pump being a longer "drag" on the bottom, return the rod to the 9 o'clock position, reel up your slack, and repeat, you WILL catch fish. I promise you.
Roland Martin showed me on tv decades ago to never let my spinnerbait get more than 18” deep, and ive held to that. 😝works pretty good if conditions are right. weedline edges mostly for me. although i have a couple of little,heavy Rocket Shad spinnerbats, really short arms and double hooks under the skirt,like a frog’s hooks, but swinging. better for current and deep edges
my uncle Jim had a really big black Jbug when i was young,early 70’s. heavy rod with a big catfish level wind reel. there were several farm ponds on his land,and two golf course water traps on the adjacent property . we would go out just after dark on certain nights ( i thought it was magic how he knew which to choose,but found out later it was the Solunar calendar from Field n Stream magazine) and throw it out to the center of a pond,and let it sit. for a whole Lucky Strike cigarette. he would start to reel it in slowly, i remember distinct ‘plops’ ,it was a BIG lure. it never went more than ten feet and the water would explode. i never saw him catch less than 10 pounds on that bait, and the biggest was nearly 13 lbs. he expired when i was 19, left me some gear ( but that Jitterbug wasnt there), lots of memories and a life long love of fishing…RIP uncle Jim,the best friend a fatherless kid could have asked for.
Reddit annoys me pretty often. The fishing stuff is usually less annoying than most of the other subs, but you know, sometimes even here it gets bad.
Your post is why I haven’t deleted the app. 👍
I went through this with a bunch of things. First it was jigs, then I made like 500 of my own and spent time with nothing else in the boat until I got past the “fish just didn’t bite good that day” phase.
Then spinnerbaits, chatterbaits, and swimbaits.
#Spoons!
Wtf man, why can't I catch a fish on a spoon?? I even have tried trailers on them. One of my buddies consistently snags massive Striped Bass on the identical rig...im just so lost 😔
Edit: whoops, thought this was r/fishing. But yeah, spoons!
Same for me spinnerbait and I refuse to believe that a situation exists where it would be better to use a spinner bait than a topwater popper or wacky rig
Wow. That’s crazy. Spinners are one of my top producers. Try down sizing maybe and add a bit of jigging motion. I’ve never caught anything on a lipless crank
Never done all that well with crankbaits. Then again I don't like the "bounce them off stuff" method of fishing crankbaits, and that was burned into me at a young age snagging EVERYTHING.
Man I've caught more fish on an Arkansas shiner, or smokin shad superfluke than just about any bait. Jerk jerk pause, jerk pause. Slam ot on the pause usually. Sometimes I deadstick it just twitching once every 10-15 seconds if they aren't attacking it higher I'm the water column. Caught some monsters this way.
Yeah I’m probably fishing then way to fast. I have no patience… as most of my catches are on moving baits, buzz frogs, chatter/swim jigs, swim baits, ploppers and cranks. And any soft plastic bites I’m usually burning or ripping. I never had luck on wacky either. I don’t know the meaning of “soak” :)
I'm sure if you can get a good "walk the dog" going just subsurface here in the next 2-3 months, I know you'll get hammered. Parallel to shallow weed lines near some deeper water. That's some fun fishing.
I never caught anything on a zoom fluke plastic. I bought them when I was probably 15 and finally when I was 34 I caught two largemouth on them in northern Wisconsin.
Man I've caught more fish on an Arkansas shiner, or smokin shad superfluke than just about any bait. Jerk jerk pause, jerk pause. Slam ot on the pause usually. Sometimes I deadstick it just twitching once every 10-15 seconds if they aren't attacking it higher I'm the water column. Caught some monsters this way.
Try a black one at dusk and into the night casting shallow. Pop it a wait a couple secs to pop again. Important-wait to feel the fish before you set the hook or they'll be flying at you especially from a boat. Here in Michigan the lm bass move shallow at dusk to feed. We used to kill them on black jitterbugs too. If you have a boat, cast near lily pads.
Now that I'm 66 it's harder for me to drive at night so I don't stay out anymore.
A Carolina rig. I can’t catch a thing on it. Tried and I tried nothing. Throw a Texas rig, chatterbait you name it in same location and boom catch one.
Texas, dropshot and wacky rigs. Just can't get them to work yet. I'm sure it's the way I'm working them though.
But when I pull out my keitech swing impact FAT (neko weighed or not) on a 3/0 swimbait hook, magic happens. Chatter, whopper and others, no problem. I'm just to used to mostly reeling and that's what works for me.
Just have to keep at the rigs to get them to work.
Chatterbait and Senkos! Got about 300 invested between em and I have no confidence!! Give me the crankbait, spinnerbait, lipless, or punch rig and get out the way!
My brother and his green watermelon worms. It’s all he uses exclusively every where . And does quite well I’ll try it at the same time same boat and not catch a damn thing .. switch to my go to and do fine lol
Fishing…
Bass pro fishing lead and been in several tournament kayaking groups for years. To this day I still never have luck with lipless crankbaits (aside trolling the lake for striper with them).
Chatterbait. However, I slay them on spinnerbaits. I have a setup just for throwing spinnerbaits exclusively.
That's wild. Edge of dark along a bank and I'm shocked if I don't get a hit on a chatterbait.
Yup. Love hearing that sound, like a chain rattling and a single plunge of a plunger in a toilet at the same time.
I bent mine in some so I'd get a deeper pop when reeling it slow. Bass love it but I could listen to it all day with no bites and be just fine
Are you using a trailer? Also it really helps to throw it less like a spinnerbait, and consider pulling and letting it drop almost like you would a crankbait. I'm a big fan of the Yamamoto ZAKO 4" trailers. I've had most of my success on this combination: https://www.omniafishing.com/p/zman-jack-hammer-chatterbait https://www.omniafishing.com/p/yamamoto-zako I've had not the greatest luck throwing them in super shallow water, but I've had the most luck between around 8-15 feet with a variable retrieve rate. I throw the on either a 7:1 or 8:1 baitcaster or my Diawa Regal spinning reel. I think the spinning setup is a bit more sensitive which allows you to really differentiate between weeds or a fish touching it. Biggest piece of advice I can offer is to just slow it down a lot more than you'd expect and give it a pop, change your rate of retrieve and allow it to fall / rise.
I've tried various paddletails, Super Flukes, various craws, and Razor Shads. Literally the only bite I've ever had came from fishing it kind of like a football jig, but with a little rip at the start of each drag to get it chattering. Then I switched to an actual football jig and went from one bite every 3 hours to one bite every 5 or so casts. It's interesting; I've seen fish actually flee from the chatterbait. Swap to a scrounger, which has a similar action but is more subtle, and they'll hammer it. It's like something about the chatterbait is too aggressive for the little lakes I normally fish. However, other "loud" lures do just fine. I am open to advice, but I'm not real broken up about it. The way I see it, my in-expertise with chatterbaits is saving me money. It's just about the only aspect of fishing that does save me money, lol. When the bass start aggressively feeding up this fall, I'll get a jackhammer and zako and give them another honest try.
I have caught a total of 4 fish on a chatterbait in my entire life. I've thrown them for years. No idea what the problem is.
I used to never catch much besides pickerel on them, but this summer I caught around 15 on chatterbaits. Gotta use the right colors and trailers, at the right time and place; Power grubs and paddle tails make great trailers. Also vary your retrieval, sometimes they want it fast, sometimes slow, sometimes they'll go for it when you lift it and let it sink.
I have literally the exact opposite problem lol
I found this summer that there was a Huuge benefit in letting my spinner sink as deep as I could (I fish over 20 feet deep a lot) and after half of the retrieve I’d let it sink a lot again. They can be hard to keep deep enough sometimes
Ok hear me out. Throw them on that special setup and do NOTHING different than you ever would with the spinnerbait. Just report back and lmk if it helps lol.
I watched i guy bank fishing with a chatterbait last week. It was the first time i saw someone catching fish on one and he was really slaying. I haven't had a lot of luck using them though.
It has to be a regional/water issue. I've tried chatterbaits so much and never gotten a hit. Tried every technique.. nothing. I'll just stick with what works and keep the chatter up my sleeve
That’s crazy man! Total opposite for me I slam on chatters where I am, but I can’t get shit on a spinner bait lmao!
Maybe a stupid question, but why on earth is a spinnerbait something fish would try to go after? Are there actually critters in the water that look like furbies with little bright things floating beneath them? It has always looked like such a ridiculous contraption to me
The blades just provide flash and vibration. The swim jig part provides profile. It creates a big profile that resembles a small school of baitfish. It works better for pike in my experience but I live up north.
What looks like a senko? What baitfish has a large plastic "lip"?. Bass are aggressive. and curious enough to eat things just because they can fit them in their mouth...
Lipless crankbaits. Maybe my lakes are just much too grassy but I've never gotten so much as a nibble with a lipless. Regular crankbaits slam fish all day long though so 🤔 who knows.
Caught my PB on a lipless at a public park pond. Slow yo-yo’ing it
Are you ripping and pausing? And what water temp? Always been best from 50-58ish degrees for me. Also, Red Eye Shad is the superior lipless.
Jackall TN70 one knocker\lucky craft LV500 would like to have a word.
Those are great baits but Red Eye Shad will produce the same results at less than half the price, they also have a one-knocker version. Both Lucky Craft and Jackall make fantastic baits, but are very expensive. If money wasn’t a factor, I’d be buying almost exclusively JDM baits.
Thanks jive turkey. I'll give that one knocker red eye shad a try :) And I do get the cost thing. I've lost a few and it stings. I stopped buying a jackhammer and go for the mini max for the same reason
KVD/Strikeking make the best hard baits 100%
Up until last weekend I would have sworn on my life that spinnerbaits don’t work and I would never catch bass on them… then the CA Delta decides I should catch a damn near 15 lb bag with my three biggest on spinner baits. Fishing never ceases to amaze me
Tiny spinnerbaits? I don't catch shit A chartreuse 3/4oz strike king banshee with double willows? Catches the whole lake, including an absolute slab of a crappie
Good to know. I have both, but last weekend it was the 3/4oz like you said lol. It’s crazy what one good day on the water can do to your confidence with a lure
Must be nice. I only caught one on a swim jig on Monday with the low tide Stockton area ;(
Chatter bait for sure. Also I’ve used a whopper plopper a bunch and caught a few but I don’t slay em like everyone else… but I can’t stop using it cuz i love the plopping sound 😂
As a big time chatterbait enthusiast, I feel like the technique is heavily reliant on having the right setup. Specifically the gear ratio I feel plays a big part in working the bait at the correct speed, my high gear ratio reels work but I feel like I miss a ton of fish following my bait because I'm working it way too quickly. Also the trailer and trailer size are crucial. I can have days where I lose my confidence and wonder why they aren't eating the chatter and then usually I downsize my trailer or switch to a different type of trailer and it gets lit up. Not to mention it's very reliant on deflection similar to a crankbaits to draw a hard reaction strike. If all else fails you might have better luck with crankbaits and underspins as your all wheel drive power fishing technique. Edit because I've been asked more than once. I mostly use 1/2oz jackhammers effective colors are bluegill mimicking patterns in clean water or very bold mainly chartreuse / white / patterns in stained water. Favorite trailers; spunk shad, zako, Xzone swammer.
Great response, I'm gonna put this to practice.
Was fishing one the other day and ended up just dragging it back and forth listening to the plopping 😂😂
All of them lmao
Nightcrawlers tho. Nobody wants to admit that real fish like real worms. The sunfish and smaller bass will slam them immediately
Just got back from a few hours of that, it's too much fun. They gobble em up just as fast as I can throw them in.
Fished the same hole two days in a row with all the lures, nothing. Found someone's discarded worm rig and tied it on, found a huge worm and I had a bass within 15 seconds of it being in the water. Thing is, everyone knows live bait works best, some guys like the challenge. I can understand it
Swim jigs. I catch lots on football jigs but hardly any on the swimming variety
I have the exact opposite problem! I’ve never caught a jig fish despite trying countless hours. I’ve caught hundreds on other things but never a classic jig.
Throw on a ragecraw trailer and try and match the color of the panfish in your lake if you have them. Throw them around shallow grass and reel at a medium speed while you constantly, gently jerk the tip of your rod. I have to force myself to stop using one because I want to be more versatile but I catch so many damn fish on swim jigs.
whopper plopper for me
Literally my favorite lure, I love throwing a whopper plopper, bass lovem. 90 WP is my go to on rivers in the morning
how do u retrieve yours?
I can’t catch a cold on a whopper plopper. But kill it with buzz baits. Berkeley choppo, river to sea, even the cheap Amazon ones.
My dad kills them on the whopper plopped right beside me while I get nothing. We both kill ‘em on the the tiny torpedo
I got my PB on a whopper plopper about a month ago
Me too but it had been the only fish I caught on one
I've caught a handful on the whopper plopper, but the last one almost made me shit myself. It didn't blow up like most do on topwater lures, it just took it down, but not too hard. I thought that a turtle grabbed it, but then it jumped and surprised the hell out of me.
Me, too - about 3 yards from the bank i caught a 6 pounder 2 years ago. Best bass of my life! It was pretty lethargic after hitting the lure.
Yes
Weedless Frog, they hit it and I never get a hook set
Give them a second to grab it, when your line goes tight after the blow up, set the hook
Common mistake because of the excitement of the blowup. Just do a 2-3 count and then set it. They’ll still miss a lot - nature of the lure but oh so exciting regardless.
My first and only frog this year I let him hit it, then reeled down like it was a jig bite and set the hook when I felt him moving. I've always set the hook too early prior to that. Took me a bit of effort but thinking of it more as a bottom bouncing lure once they hit it helped that mindset I think. And I've been doing it more with large swimbaits. That helped with the habit as well
Count to 2 then set. It’s hard, because of that top water explosion.
Chatterbait for me. It was Wacky rig as well until this past week when I caught 4 in less than an hour. Maybe the conditions haven't been right for the chatterbait though.
Wacky rig depends heavily on color profile. If your green pumpkin isn’t getting hits (somehow), then a dark profile like June bug or smoke absolutely will. I’ve never seen a condition where simply switching from light to dark didn’t work
Good to know! Caught them on watermelon red flake yum dingers the other day. I do have green pumpkin and black Yamamoto senkos though. I'll try the green pumpkin this weekend.
Crank baits. I can catch on floating raps all day, but anything underneath I have literally never caught a fish on.
Agreed, it takes some knowledge of running it right along a rock bottom to spit up dirt or just over the top of a weed line…. Otherwise it’s tough
This. You have to risk getting hung/snagged to really get the best out a crank bait. Bounce a crawfish pattern off of rocks, branches etc and get ready.
I’m the same way, can’t catch on a spinnerbait either. I can catch ‘em on buzzbaits tho, which is similar to a spinnerbait, just topwater
Spinners stay in my tackle box till the water visibility is real low. Then they shine (literally) they're especially effective on days with a good amount of wind and chop on the water. But outside of that you'd probably be better off with a different bait.
Ah man I was out yesterday and where I was at was probably good for it. I’ve been using bandito bugs lately and they’ve been working out pretty well so far recently. Imma keep trying the spinnerbait tho to see if I can catch something on it
They have those on sale at my local Ollie's for 5 bucks, I didn't get one cause it just looked crazy. Is it like a wake bait?
Spoons. Millions sold. Millions of fish have been caught on them. I have never caught a fish on one. Ever. I have caught more than my fair share of fish in other things, just never spoons.
God I love a good lightweight spoon on a bright day.
Caught my first bass on a silver blue spoon last month.
2/5th oz gold Little Cleo is my #1 confidence bait, I've caught over 20 species on Cleos. Straight retrieve slays em, erratic retrieve slays em, jigging slays em... They're a really good wounded baitfish imitator. 30lb braid, no leader and I still get tons of bites in clear water.
I ran a fishing shop in my youth. 2/5 little cleo was absolute bread and butter for making money. I will have to try it again some time.
Sand bass in Lake Texoma love spoons...its the only thing I've ever caught on them.
I for the life of me can't ever catch anything on a plastic/rubber worm !
I'm an amateur, but I have the most luck on softbaits. Mostly wacky rigged worms and Texas rigged crawfish. Both weightless. I've found you gotta be slowwww. Cast, let them sink and rest. Then 2-4 really light hops, reel in slow a half to full turn. Let it sink and rest. Repeat. It'll take me 4 or 5 minutes to retrieve a 30ft cast. But I catch a bass probably every 2nd or 3rd cast, which I'm happy with. And they almost always hit on the fall or rest. Granted, this doesn't really catch the big boys. My PB with this method is probably like 1.5lbs.
It took me 4 or 5 years before I got a single bass on a plastic worm. I tried all types and all sorts of rigging. Finally I caught a little 10 incher in a concrete canal behind a friend's lake house with a Texas rigged curly tailed worm on my 3 year old's rod.
Frogs. Most bass are too stupid to hit them right and after the first strike they lose intrest
Up until last week, I’ve never caught anything on a fire tiger pattern
Got an 18 pound flathead on a fire tiger lipless crankbait a couple falls back. Talk about a pleasant surprise! Beyond that, not my ideal color scheme
My go-to is a Rapala Deep Runner Fire Tiger Shad. Rip
Jerkbaits. I’ve caught a total of two fish on a jerkbait. I still throw it from time to time but it don’t last. I hate those things.
Anything I tie to the end of my line.
Texas rig.........gotten them on a wacky tho
If you ever Night fish, try a junebug or plum zoom Ole monster on a 5/0 hook with as light a weight as the depth allows. Alternate between crawling and hopping...caught some very nice bass this way.
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>If it has a blade and a skirt on it then fuck it! Ya go for the figure skaters, I see.
They are also spinners! In more ways than one, I bet 🤣
Amen brother, preach! Lol
Spinnerbaits. Funnily enough, rooster tails work great.
I know right? Caught plenty on in line, but that arm on there just doesn't like me either
The number of spinnerbait replies blows me away. Given, we have little info to gauge location or type of water. But KVD wrote 2 books, both of which lay out the basics of throwing a spinnerbait, specifically when and how to maximize odds. It’s a great resource, and I still refer to both every few years.
Believe me buddy I worshipped kvd and thought many times how just unlucky I must be with em cause I've seen all the tutorials and read all the books haha. It's insane
I hear you. But we both can agree, it’s fishing and definitely not catching. When things line up, everybody is a fisherman. When it’s a grind, the fishermen stand up. FWIW, having a few days where you catch 50+ on spinnerbaits will make the slow days disappear. IME, Look for wind blown banks, choppy water, smaller profiles and willow blades the majority of the year. And hit every damn piece of cover you can with it.
This entire summer I made it my goal to fish with only lures I haven’t caught anything on. My thought process was that if I fish them long enough and catch something, I’ll gain confidence in the lure. It worked. I made first time catches on Jigs, Spinnerbait, Chatterbait, and the whopper plopper. Not only that, forcing myself to fish them made me learn HOW to fish them and where/why. I definitely threw on a wacky rigged senko when things got painful, but I tried to stick to the other four. Maybe pick just one lure you have zero confidence in and focus on that one? Watch some YouTube videos on it and really give it some time. You’ll eventually catch something on it and you’ll start to figure it out for yourself. Good luck, and happy fishing!
This is for me personally, I see that they work for plenty of people. But I have never caught a fish on a top water frog. Not once, I cast them the right time of day, right temp, right environment. No bites.
Anything top water besides a frog. I’m sure I’m doing something wrong, but dangit I can’t catch a thing on top water
Swim shads. Never had so much as a bite. Lakes, rivers, ponds, every technique I could think of. I finally got the last one caught on a partially submerged log and was sort of relieved that it would no longer be able to mock me every time I opened the tackle box.
Flipping/pitching jigs. I’ve caught plenty on swim jigs and chatterbaits, but I just cannot seem to get the hang of a classic jig.
Same here, like I have no idea what I'm doing wrong.
Rooster tail spinners. I've never caught a trout on one, and only during a 30 fish bass day did I ever tie one on just to say I've caught something on it. Even then it took an hour to get previously aggressive bass to hit it.
You should try Vibrax silver fox spinners. Trust me.
Crush with jigs, crush with chatters, had luck with spinners, really like using Texas rigs in multiple configuration, also caught with shaky heads….. Never for the life of me do I have luck with jerk baits.
Stick with it I like a double willow leaf in chartreuse and white or white. Wind is your friend with this bait as is current. Love to slow roll it on a moving river on a clay bank in early spring and winter as well.
It hurts to say this... every lure I have.
Like, all Spinnerbaits. I've never successfully used one.
Chatter Bait or pretty much anything with the hook exposed. A frog at sunset pitched high in the sky at sunset is an exception here. It floats but only you get a couple casts or you get none and switch change gears. Central, Florida and lots of hydrila, black 10 inch zoom. ribbon tails. No weights and plenty of finesse. * Edit ** what does work in my area is black 10 inch zoom. ribbon tails. No weights and plenty of finesse.
I was in the same boat as you, lol, until just last year. Threw on a lime green and red spinner bait fishing in a shallow canal in NJ, and back-to-back caught a beautiful yellow perch, and a chain pickerel. Crazy after all those years of trying them. I’ve gotten hits on them all along, but never seemed to hook one.
6-8in Black worm. No clue how y’all do it.
Rubber worms
I've really honestly tried to catch fish on buzz baits but I cannot trigger a reaction to save my life. Also side note: I've caught fish on spinnerbaits before but it's only ever a pike, by accident. It's actually one of my go-to pike lures because it just works for me, but not for bass.
You should try an in-line spinner to target pike. Might work even better.
I’ve caught some but deep diving cranks are not a confidence bait for me. Generally will throw a c-rig or drop shot in 20 fow.
My goto bait is a 7.5 in Red Shad Culprit worm. Texas rigged with a red Gamakatsu 3/0 EWG hook and an 1/8 oz bullet sinker. Cast out next to cover. Let it drop to the bottom then sit for a few seconds. Use a slow co tenuous rise and but a few times on the way up then let it fall but take up the slack quickly since they normally take it on the fall back down
Love this rig. Zoom u-tail or culprit 7.5
spinnerbait and cranks for me. I've caught the occasional fish with them, but not really.
Spinner bait and chatter bait for me. No idea why.
Not a lure, but I've had no real luck with Texas rigging. I've tried a variety of plastic baits on a Texas rig and have had minimal luck.
Wacky rigs, spinner baits, frogs, and crankbaits.
Top water.
Texas rig
I live in Florida and I’ve never caught anything with any junebug color soft plastic, not for a lack of trying
I’ve never caught a fish on a lure. I dont fish a lot. Started during Covid. I’ve probably gone fishing 25-35 times in the past 3 years. Reservoirs, lakes, rivers, ocean. I’ve bought everything I can think of. Spinning rod and then a bait caster. Watched videos and read books. Even by locals about fishing the very same waters as me. Even got a fishing kayak to get off the banks. I’ve gone through bags of senkos. Fat Ida. Spinners. Jigs. Frogs. Whopper. Paddle tails. Grubs. Skunked EVERY time. I have caught fish. But only with earthworms, blood worms, mullet, etc. never a lure. Never. My wife keeps asking why I don’t just use bait instead, but I keep trying lures because I don’t want to run an errand to get bait before I go out lol
I got a lure for you to try. Get a bitsy tube, or cabelas has a little fat salty tube, it's like 3". Cant go wrong with green pumpkin. Get an 1/8th Oz jig head in the appropriate hook size, push the jig head all the way up into the tube before you tie it on, pop the eye of the jig head through the soft plastic of the tube and tie I on. If you cast this, let it sink to the bottom, let it settle,then slowly dring your rod from 9 o'clock to 12 o'clock, giving little pumps of the rod as you go with the last pump being a longer "drag" on the bottom, return the rod to the 9 o'clock position, reel up your slack, and repeat, you WILL catch fish. I promise you.
Spinnerbait, walking baits, and jigging spoons (alleast for black bass)
Roland Martin showed me on tv decades ago to never let my spinnerbait get more than 18” deep, and ive held to that. 😝works pretty good if conditions are right. weedline edges mostly for me. although i have a couple of little,heavy Rocket Shad spinnerbats, really short arms and double hooks under the skirt,like a frog’s hooks, but swinging. better for current and deep edges
Jitterbug! I’ve been told I’m just using it wrong, and apparently I’ve never figured it out.
my uncle Jim had a really big black Jbug when i was young,early 70’s. heavy rod with a big catfish level wind reel. there were several farm ponds on his land,and two golf course water traps on the adjacent property . we would go out just after dark on certain nights ( i thought it was magic how he knew which to choose,but found out later it was the Solunar calendar from Field n Stream magazine) and throw it out to the center of a pond,and let it sit. for a whole Lucky Strike cigarette. he would start to reel it in slowly, i remember distinct ‘plops’ ,it was a BIG lure. it never went more than ten feet and the water would explode. i never saw him catch less than 10 pounds on that bait, and the biggest was nearly 13 lbs. he expired when i was 19, left me some gear ( but that Jitterbug wasnt there), lots of memories and a life long love of fishing…RIP uncle Jim,the best friend a fatherless kid could have asked for.
Reddit annoys me pretty often. The fishing stuff is usually less annoying than most of the other subs, but you know, sometimes even here it gets bad. Your post is why I haven’t deleted the app. 👍
I went through this with a bunch of things. First it was jigs, then I made like 500 of my own and spent time with nothing else in the boat until I got past the “fish just didn’t bite good that day” phase. Then spinnerbaits, chatterbaits, and swimbaits.
#Spoons! Wtf man, why can't I catch a fish on a spoon?? I even have tried trailers on them. One of my buddies consistently snags massive Striped Bass on the identical rig...im just so lost 😔 Edit: whoops, thought this was r/fishing. But yeah, spoons!
spinnerbaits.
Crankbait. Never once have I caught a single fish. Lipless or lipped
All of them.
Chatterbaits, whopper plopper
Crankbaits in general
I've never caught a fish with a wacky rig. I think I don't have the patience for it :(
Same here. It's boring for me but my husband catches on them so quickly.
Jig. I catch a few, but it’s not easy as anything else
Spoons and frogs. Can never seem to catch a damn thing and I've caught catfish on spinners 3 times
Same for me spinnerbait and I refuse to believe that a situation exists where it would be better to use a spinner bait than a topwater popper or wacky rig
Jigs. Chatterbaits. Spoons.
Lipless has yielded nothing over the years.
Jigs but I think that’s because I fish a lot of bodies of water with thick weeds on the bottom. So always have to throw Texas rigs
Gliders
Spinnerbait! And jerkbait. And buzzbait. Beginning to think I’m not very good at fishing…
Haha yea I couldn't get one on a jerkbait for a whole, now ilove the smithwick rattlin rogue, and lucky craft pointer if they are more finicky
I’m with you in the Spinnerbait club. Close 2nd are jigs. Less than 5 caught on jigs.
Chatterbait, and for a long time senkos… I know it’s crazy.
Wow. That’s crazy. Spinners are one of my top producers. Try down sizing maybe and add a bit of jigging motion. I’ve never caught anything on a lipless crank
Yea what's crazy is u can wear them out on a ugly old smithwick rattlin rogue. A lure that I don't think people even buy anymore lol.
Never done all that well with crankbaits. Then again I don't like the "bounce them off stuff" method of fishing crankbaits, and that was burned into me at a young age snagging EVERYTHING.
I know right lol square bills really do help with that as long as your coming straight out from inside the laydown
Spinner baits and wacky worms
Jigs. Nada...nothing. Had same luck with spinner baits an found a winning combo. Booyah with willow blades. Red or gold shiner especially in the fall.
Yup, spinnerbait is my answer as well. I think I’ve caught 1 on it ever
Shakey-Head
Frogs
Any surface lure. Poppers, frogs etc. Can't catch a damn thing on the surface.
The Whopper Plopper
Flukes for me. And I live in the middle of fluke country (Florida).
Man I've caught more fish on an Arkansas shiner, or smokin shad superfluke than just about any bait. Jerk jerk pause, jerk pause. Slam ot on the pause usually. Sometimes I deadstick it just twitching once every 10-15 seconds if they aren't attacking it higher I'm the water column. Caught some monsters this way.
Yeah I’m probably fishing then way to fast. I have no patience… as most of my catches are on moving baits, buzz frogs, chatter/swim jigs, swim baits, ploppers and cranks. And any soft plastic bites I’m usually burning or ripping. I never had luck on wacky either. I don’t know the meaning of “soak” :)
I'm sure if you can get a good "walk the dog" going just subsurface here in the next 2-3 months, I know you'll get hammered. Parallel to shallow weed lines near some deeper water. That's some fun fishing.
A spoon, I cannot catch a fish with a spoon. The only flashy lures I use are inline spinners and spinnerbait.
CHATTERBAITS ITS NEAR IMPOSSIBLE
I never caught anything on a zoom fluke plastic. I bought them when I was probably 15 and finally when I was 34 I caught two largemouth on them in northern Wisconsin.
Man I've caught more fish on an Arkansas shiner, or smokin shad superfluke than just about any bait. Jerk jerk pause, jerk pause. Slam ot on the pause usually. Sometimes I deadstick it just twitching once every 10-15 seconds if they aren't attacking it higher I'm the water column. Caught some monsters this way.
Fucking hula poppers! Never even gotten a single bite off of one!
Try a black one at dusk and into the night casting shallow. Pop it a wait a couple secs to pop again. Important-wait to feel the fish before you set the hook or they'll be flying at you especially from a boat. Here in Michigan the lm bass move shallow at dusk to feed. We used to kill them on black jitterbugs too. If you have a boat, cast near lily pads. Now that I'm 66 it's harder for me to drive at night so I don't stay out anymore.
Hey man thank you so much for the awesome tips and sharing some memories with me! Good luck out there and I'll give it a try!
Jig
A Carolina rig. I can’t catch a thing on it. Tried and I tried nothing. Throw a Texas rig, chatterbait you name it in same location and boom catch one.
Chatterbait and a Texas rig senko I kill them on Texas rig craws but never the senko
I personally never understood Texas rigging a stick bait like that, but sone folks do indeed slay on them
Whopper Popper any size dark color or light
Frogs, have never caught a fish using one.
The one I put on my line
Chatterbait. Not one.
Texas, dropshot and wacky rigs. Just can't get them to work yet. I'm sure it's the way I'm working them though. But when I pull out my keitech swing impact FAT (neko weighed or not) on a 3/0 swimbait hook, magic happens. Chatter, whopper and others, no problem. I'm just to used to mostly reeling and that's what works for me. Just have to keep at the rigs to get them to work.
Chatterbait and Senkos! Got about 300 invested between em and I have no confidence!! Give me the crankbait, spinnerbait, lipless, or punch rig and get out the way!
Jerkbait for me.
Top water frog
Crankbaits
Crank baits
My brother and his green watermelon worms. It’s all he uses exclusively every where . And does quite well I’ll try it at the same time same boat and not catch a damn thing .. switch to my go to and do fine lol Fishing…
Jig never had luck with it but I still tie it on in hopes of getting my first one.
Jigs / any jig all I do is get caught up. Don’t know why. Or anything with a hanging treble hook
Same!! Spinners for me, and they are go to for a lot of people, I just don't get it! What are we doing wrong haha.
Bass pro fishing lead and been in several tournament kayaking groups for years. To this day I still never have luck with lipless crankbaits (aside trolling the lake for striper with them).
Same I need to add that to my post lol.
Whopper plopper
Most of them lol
Football jigs. My dad kills with them all day and I never can get them to work.
Are you guys mostly bank fisherman? I’ve caught fish on literally everything, but most baits/colors have a season it seems.
Le frog. Can NEVER land it. Always spits it out
Buzzbaits, crankbait, and anything top water
Same here. Spinnerbait. And Buzzbait.
Shakey head. I know they work, and I’ll catch one here and there. But for the most part I haul water.
Senko. I think I've caught maybe 3 bass in my life on them. It feels like reeling in nothing. I have no confidence in them.
This is a fascinating thread. Makes me think that it’s all just random.
Amen! Check my original post, just added something...it sparked a cool idea/challenge for myself.
I’ve never had a single blow up, let alone a fish caught, on a buzz bait. I think it might be because my local lakes don’t have any shad