K-M I agree that fad lures may be of value but that a better mouse trap is always around the corner.

Take the Slugo. Still used and still sold in catalogs, but many other soft jerk baits have blown the style away and are more versatile to boot. Pork rind was the only trailer people used, but now soft plastics are used far more for many reasons. The #8 willow leaf blade spinnerbait the Roland Martin sold is no longer popular, though I still make them and cast them every year.

 

The Chatterbait is what a would call a niche lure - it fulfills the need for a specific action certain times of the year. Other baits do as well or better and I haven't heard of any major tournaments where they were key to winning, same as the Senko. Better baits and presentations survive the test of time and the marketing of them becomes unnecessary because they become standards. Many that don't sell well disappear and maybe shouldn't  have - I miss many a good lure that was discontinued.

 

Frank

Just an update: 6 hours of fishing x 2; 1 bite each, I caught mine. He missed his.  

 

Water temp ~45-49 degrees, air temp ~60, stained water ~3-4' visibility, pressure dropping, wind 15-20 mph SSE. We know some guys who fished the lake yesterday and did real well. This is a lake both of us know. We expected good things. Maybe we are not as versatile as we think we are?!

 

I started using a chatterbait-so as not to lose a cup of coffee  . 30 minutes into the day caught one just short of 18" in 5' of water on a long gravel secondary point. My partner missed one a little later pitching a beaver in a similar spot. We threw  an assortment of baits including; chatterbaits, spinnerbaits, cranks-with and w/o lips, hard and soft jerkbaits, jigs, and plastics. We fished muddy water up in the creek, to main lake points. In the teeth of the wind and completely sheltered spots, shallow to deep (20'). 2 bites total, one fish. In retrospect we probably should have spent more time on the secondary points

 

FWIW I don't think a chatterbait is any more a niche bait than a spinnerbait, but I only caught one fish on lake that was supposed to be hot- so I could be wrong.  I'll do better next time...

I misunderstood you then, sir. My apologies. After your second response I much better understand what you're getting at. I agree that many pros will endorse a product for the returns, and market it to gain the sales, to start the fad, as it were. The benefit, however, is that very often the ingenuity that comes along with it is entirely beneficial in that it opens many doors. I don't disagree, either, that fads do come and go, some much more readily than others.