This month I was challenged to catch bass with a chatterbait.  I had pretty good success with them when they first came out, but my catch rate started falling off and I lost confidence in them.  This was a very good challenge for me (thank you redneckriot)

I was out on May 1st. and fished several of the chatterbait/gambler/booyah baits that I have and couldn't buy a strike.  

I went out again today and did what you hear people tell you to do when you need to develop confidence in a particular bait or presentation.  I only took chatterbaits, and some soft plastics to experiment with for trailers.

Well the story was getting old and familiar.   NO HITS.

So I started to fiddle around with them.  I changed trailers, skirts, bent the blade's up, bent them down, mixed colors, fished fast, faster, burned em. Fished slow, slower, dead sticked em. I yo yo'd em and buzzed em.  Did I leave anything out?  

Another popular bait that I haven't had success with is the swim senko.  I decided I would combine these two and see how it worked.

I tried a number of things.  watermelon/red on a gold blade, no skirt with a color 222. and so on.

It was hot today and as hard to believe as this may seem,

I was beginning to get a little crabby.  

Anyway.  I took a pumpkin colored 3/8th oz Radlures chatterbait and took the skirt off to cut it down to less than 2 inches, then I put it on but backwards, then I trimmed about 3/4" off a white glitter swim senko and threaded it on tail down.

I was bank fishing and on the second cast I saw a decent bass dart out from under a weed mat and rocket toward the lure.  It turned away at the last moment. The lure was practically at my feet and I'm sure the bass saw me.

But this was progress!!

I trimed a few strands off the skirt and evened it out a little and kept casting.

I had a swirl right behind it but the bass missed.

I'm now starting to feel like I KNOW I'm gonna catch one.

Well to make a long story short.  I hooked 5.  Lost three trying to land them without dragging through the weeds and mud, but did land two.  

I'll spare you the photo of the fish but it is posted on the challenge results sticky.

But here is a pic of the modified lure.

I write this for two reasons.

First of course is that I'm feeling really satisfied that I was creative in meeting the challenge.

And second, there are alot of new members.  Some are struggling.  I can't emphasize enough how important confidence is to catching bass.  

If you bought a lure that others on the forum are having success with and your not, don't be hasty about giving up on the lure.   Tweak it a little. Play around with it.   I'll never forget the reaction I got from a fishing buddy when I took out sharpies and started recoloring a $29.00 megabass lure (famous for their paint jobs) but guess what??. It worked.  My catch rate went up.  Why?  because I know how to paint lures better than Mr. Ito???  I don't think so.  But I did things that added to my confidence.  

And that my friends is the big secret to bass fishing success.

Good luck and have fun

avid

Kewl idea Avid , I was doing well on a chatterbait till the past couple weeks now the bite on them has slowed , I might try some modifications

Yep.  Confidence is definatly the key.

You have to expect things of yourself before you can do them.

 -MJ said that.  We all know how that turned out.

The best advice that can be given!  Nice write up avid, way to go on the innovation!  And a nice way to get yourself what you wanted!  Just keep at it!  "All you have to do, is keep on keepin' on..."  Joe Dirt.  

yeah good stuff...i will keep it in mind while i am working on my challenge, which came from avid actually

Cliff

Great post, Avid. Enjoyed reading that one and the thought process you were using.

Agree with you on having confidence in what you are doing. Think your post also shows how you must be persistent in finding the right combination.

Eddie

Spider grubs and flukes also work good for CB trailers accordinf to the guys I fish with that fish them.

WOW!  Very good report/read Avid!  Like your outlook and the results!

Dan

Wow!

Seems like a waste of time to me, but I fish junk, too.

Why not fish a Senko or Fat Ika and catch some big bass from the get-go?

I know almost any bait will catch a bass SOMETIMES and if your're participating in a challenge I guess you have to stick with it. For anyone else though, there are much better options.

I fish certain techniques and lures for fun, even when I know something else will work better. When you get to that point, fine, but if you are REALLY interested in catching some bass, stick with what works. Soft plastics are NOT always the BEST option, but they almost always produce some bass.

Thanks Avid!!

I haven't had any success with either the chatterbait or swimming senko. I read your post and thought it would work in my canal. I took my Boogie Bait and put on a watermelon swimming senko and within five minutes I landed two three pound bass.

Great idea, thanks again,

Falcon