Man, I Cant Catch A Bass On _______

[Mobasser]

Man, I can't catch a bass on a chatterbait. I've tried em, and they just don't work for me.                                                 Fill in the blank with a bait that just doesn't work for you.

[gimruis]

Topwater.

 

I used to catch fish regularly with a buzzbait and a frog.  They won't even touch them anymore.  Its too bad because topwater fishing is an exciting way to fish.

[FishTank]

A plastic ribbon tail worm. It's usually a summer staple for me but nothing this year.

 

Also, a big spinnerbait.  Not a single bite. A smaller, compact spinnerbait has caught a few but it too has been slow.

[DinkDonkey30]

I think chatterbaits are the only thing I absolutely have never caught a bass with. Swim jigs and plastic swim baits would be my second most unreliable technique.

[Bankc]

38 minutes ago, Mobasser said:

Man, I can't catch a bass on a chatterbait. I've tried em, and they just don't work for me.                                                 Fill in the blank with a bait that just doesn't work for you.

Grass is the key to chatterbaits, I've found.  If there's no grass near by, they don't seem to work.  I don't know why, but I can't get bit on one on most of our lakes, since most of these lakes don't have grass.  But on the few that do, they tend to work okay. 

 

But for me, it's hard jerkbaits.  Our water is too stained.  I've tried hard jerkbaits for years now, and even with rattles, they just don't work.  Bass can't seem to locate them.  Now, soft jerkbaits can work pretty well.  But they don't have exposed treble hooks, so I can throw them in cover where the bass are.  These bass won't travel far to hit a lure in open water, but they'll hit a lure right in front of them. 

 

Fishing for bass in open water is pretty difficult around here anyway.  Your best bet are lures that get down deep and cover lots of water, like deep diving cranks, spoons, blade baits, etc.  Sometimes a worm or a jig works too.  Lures that suspend over deep water without going deep themselves don't seem to be effective for me. 

[Pat Brown]

I believe I could catch a LMB on any lure category - I am not a huge fan of chatterbaits or lipped crankbaits and prefer spinnerbaits and lipless crankbaits.  It's not that they don't work - I just don't like throwing them.

[gimruis]

16 minutes ago, Bankc said:

But for me, it's hard jerkbaits.  Our water is too stained. 

 

I could see that.  Its definitely more of a clear-water type tactic.

[LrgmouthShad]

Anything works but I really don’t like flukes or jerkbaits

[Skunkmaster-k]

Drop shot . 

[MN Fisher]

I''m still waiting to catch a bass on a T-Rig...I think they're laughing at me when I try.

[Peacedivision]

whopper plopper. I've seen them work, been standing right next to people catching fish on em, never works for me.

[Catt]

Full size Brush Hog!

 

Kill em on a Baby Brush Hog but zero on a full size.

[Bankc]

1 hour ago, Pat Brown said:

I believe I could catch a LMB on any lure category - I am not a huge fan of chatterbaits or lipped crankbaits and prefer spinnerbaits and lipless crankbaits.  It's not that they don't work - I just don't like throwing them.

I can't do much on lipless crankbaits.  But we don't have much grass around here, which is where they're supposed to shine.  About the only luck I have with them is ripping them off the bottom and then letting them fall. 

[Pat Brown]

6 minutes ago, Bankc said:

I can't do much on lipless crankbaits.  But we don't have much grass around here, which is where they're supposed to shine.  About the only luck I have with them is ripping them off the bottom and then letting them fall. 

 

 

I don't like fishing them around any sort of vegetation - for me that's strictly weightless plastics/drop shot/frog/buzzbait/swimbait/punch rig/swim jig deal. 

 

For me lipless crankbaits are a hard bottom cold water tactic and I like them after heavy rains that make things very muddy in the winter.  Hard flat bottom near deep water seems to be very productive

 

Warmer winter days with wind I throw them out a little deeper on structure and yo yo them slowly.

 

I'm always looking for clean hard bottom areas with pieces of cover (rock piles/brush/stumps)

[Bankc]

5 minutes ago, Pat Brown said:

 

 

I don't like fishing them around any sort of vegetation - for me that's strictly weightless plastics/drop shot/frog/buzzbait/swimbait/punch rig/swim jig deal. 

 

For me lipless crankbaits are a hard bottom cold water tactic and I like them after heavy rains that make things very muddy in the winter.  Hard flat bottom near deep water seems to be very productive

 

Warmer winter days with wind I throw them out a little deeper on structure and yo yo them slowly.

 

I'm always looking for clean hard bottom areas with pieces of cover (rock piles/brush/stumps)

Ah.  We don't have much hard bottom around here either.  But, I'll keep this in mind, because there is some. 

I've also found that the winter often fishes a bit like the middle of summer.  Not exactly.  But close enough that they can often share some techniques.  So I might have to give this a try soon and then keep it in my back pocket for the cold months.   

[Bankbeater]

A Beetle Spin. 

[king fisher]

Right now, anything with a hook.

[Bluebasser86]

Lipped crankbaits. Only time they ever work for me is the cold water months when I'm banging them into rocks. If I fish those same areas now, it's nothing but snags, catfish, and drum. I use to be able to catch them on squarebills over the grass and ripping them through the grass, doesn't work anymore for whatever reason. They're still there, because I catch them on bladed jigs all the time in the same areas, they just won't eat a crank. 

[Spankey]

I agree with you on the chatterbaits. But I have to put some (most) of that on myself. Pretty much have taken a lackadaisical and a non committed approach to using them. Have been used as just another bait. 

I should take every bait and rod out of my boat, throw a few chatterbaits and a few trailers in a ziplock bag and grab one casting setup and go to the lake or river. Force myself to use it. Nothing else to throw. 

[gimruis]

I'm slightly surprised with the chatterbait responses.  Its not a difficult lure to fish.  Honestly you can just chuck and wind it and probably get at least a few bites.

 

There has definitely been a noticeable drop off in bites when I'm using one though.  I started fishing with those things about 5 years ago and they were a killer lure.  Bass, pike, even muskies.  I've noticed more bass anglers using them in recent years though and I think that fish have seen too many of them, especially in more pressured waters.  Just like with any other lure, fish can see too many and avoid them.

[MN Fisher]

18 minutes ago, gimruis said:

I'm slightly surprised with the chatterbait responses.  Its not a difficult lure to fish.

Here-here - I've caught bass, walleye and pike on full size; crappie, bluegill and perch on Flashback Minis..seems everything likes a chatterbait

[Mobasser]

2 minutes ago, MN Fisher said:

Here-here - I've caught bass, walleye and pike on full size; crappie, bluegill and perch on Flashback Minis..seems everything likes a chatterbait

I think my water is too clear for them to work well. 

[Choporoz]

5 hours ago, Bankc said:

But for me, it's hard jerkbaits.  Our water is too stained.  I've tried hard jerkbaits for years now, and even with rattles, they just don't work.  Bass can't seem to locate them.   

 

4 hours ago, gimruis said:

 

I could see that.  Its definitely more of a clear-water type tactic.

I was here a few years ago. 

 

One of my 'home lakes' is murky to muddy 300 days a year and I quit on jerkbaits very early on.  Until someone who I mostly trusted at the dock talked about banner days with jerkbaits.  I was pretty skeptical.   But I am a convert.  There are some conditionals, though.... in thick water, I generally only target suspended bass between about five and nine feet deep....and only after I've fairly confidently seen them on downscan or ClearVu.  But if they are on flats or points swimming less than ten feet from the surface, a hard jerkbait can be money, even in pretty dirty water

[gimruis]

1 minute ago, Choporoz said:

even in pretty dirty water

 

Do you find that a brighter color works better in murkier water?  I don't even usually try them in murky water but I do have a couple or bright colors I could use (clown, tiger stripes).

[thunderblack]

chatterbait for sure