What Fishing Gimmick Did You Fall For?

[A-Jay]

46 minutes ago, the reel ess said:

Red hooks. They still sell them.

And I still buy them.

A-Jay

[Bluebasser86]

LiveTarget baits. They look so good and I've been fooled by them more than once. Coincidentally, I've been fooled by them more times than I've managed to fool the fish with them. I know their frogs are good, but of course that's one of their baits I've never tried.

[Pat Brown]

13 hours ago, FishTax said:

That I need fancy rods and lures. The bait monkey is the gimmick. 

All I ever needed was the ugly stick and a senko...

Winner!

 

I really feel like every thing has a time and a place and is 'important' for someone and a gimmick for other people so take what I say with a grain of salt:

 

I don't like fluorocarbon, locked down drag, braid to leader with FG knots, orange plastic spacers, super short or super long rods, super duper noodly or super duper stiff rods (I never seem to find used for these extremes?), crazy breaking systems on baitcasters seem annoying and generally unnecessary, incredibly high speed reels (over 8:3:1????  Yeah I'm good.), micro guides are kinda meh, split grip rods need to go away, cork - even fake cheap cork - is much better than foam handles, spinning rods are actually really good for bass fishing (so I guess 'baitcaster or death' is the gimmick..), fishing apps that tell you what you can plainly see by simply looking around you and not at a screen.

[Jigfishn10]

Stop fooling around @Pat Brown and stick with the OP subject  

[TnRiver46]

I don’t think I’ve ever fallen for any, I’m always skeptical. I would say the walking worm back when I was a kid, but I slayed fish with those things 

[wdp]

Berkeley Vanish for me as well. First fluorocarbon I ever tried. Pure junk but it was only thing available close by at Wal Mart. I had so many break offs & bird’s nests with that stuff. It’s a miracle I ever stuck with fluoro. But about 5 yrs later I finally settled on Seaguar InvizX - only fluoro I’ve used for 10+ yrs now. 
 

Oh yeah, and many yrs ago The Dance’s Eel. Never caught a single fish on that thing. 😂

[Mobasser]

I never really fell for gimmicks. I thought the Shimano Fighting Drag was a gimmick, until I actually tried it. It worked good.                                                  As a kid, I wanted a Popiels Pocket Fisherman. The commercials on TV made it seem really cool. But I never got one.

[Tennessee Boy]

I've told this story several times.  Back when there were mom and pop tackle stores everywhere I would stop by one several times a week after lunch.  I would see if they had anything that looked interesting but before I would leave I would check out the rods.   I would take one of the high end rods and drag the tip across the floor to feel the vibration.  I was always amazed at how much more sensitive the expensive rods were.  One day a coworker was with me and ask what I was doing.  I explained that I was testing the sensitivity of the rods.  He laughed at me and said I was crazy.   After some discussion we devised a blind test so that I could show him that I could identify the expensive rods with my eyes closed just by feel.   I closed my eyes and he handed me various rods.   I failed the test miserably.  

 

That experienced changed me.  I realized the power of the placebo effect.   I stopped being a tackle fan boy and became a tackle skeptic.  

[softwateronly]

@VTFan That eel sat in the top tray of my tackle box for years as a kid.  All I ever caught was weeds.  There are more current "gimmicky" lures that have at least delivered a few fish.  The combo of the eel and my experience level means it's the most notorious in my mind.  I should go digging and see if I still have it somewhere, could be my 2025 goal and Bill's redemption! 

 

scott

  

[Mobasser]

3 minutes ago, Tennessee Boy said:

I've told this story several times.  Back when there were mom and pop tackle stores everywhere I would stop by one several times a week after lunch.  I would see if they had anything that looked interesting but before I would leave I would check out the rods.   I would take one of the high end rods and drag the tip across the floor to feel the vibration.  I was always amazed at how much more sensitive the expensive rods were.  One day a coworker was with me and ask what I was doing.  I explained that I was testing the sensitivity of the rods.  He laughed at me and said I was crazy.   After some discussion we devised a blind test so that I could show him that I could identify the expensive rods with my eyes closed just by feel.   I closed my eyes and he handed me various rods.   I failed the test miserably.  

 

That experienced changed me.  I realized the power of the placebo effect.   I stopped being a tackle fan boy and became a tackle skeptic.  

There's a kid that works at a local tackle shop that holds the tip against his throat and talks to you while you hold the rod handle. Of course you can feel a little vibration in your hand.                    He's probably sold a lot of high end sticks doing this. 

[the reel ess]

1 hour ago, A-Jay said:

And I still buy them.

A-Jay

Sure, they do the same job as any other color hooks. I remember when red line was the new thing because, they said, red is not as visible to fish in water. Then they come at us with the red hooks, supposedly to mimic blood???

[Catt]

3 hours ago, Swamp Girl said:

Me too. I don't like fluorocarbon. I want to like it. I feel I'm supposed to like it. But it's stiff and unknots itself and the bass I catch don't really seem to care if I'm using easily seen braid

 

Add one more your list, it coils way worse then any monofilament or copolymore. Tried really hard to like it but in the end it's a no go.

 

 

2 hours ago, the reel ess said:

Red hooks. They still sell them.

 

Still very popular down here on the saltwater seen, along with Tru Turn.

 

 

 

[the reel ess]

21 minutes ago, Tennessee Boy said:

I've told this story several times.  Back when there were mom and pop tackle stores everywhere I would stop by one several times a week after lunch.  I would see if they had anything that looked interesting but before I would leave I would check out the rods.   I would take one of the high end rods and drag the tip across the floor to feel the vibration.  I was always amazed at how much more sensitive the expensive rods were.  One day a coworker was with me and ask what I was doing.  I explained that I was testing the sensitivity of the rods.  He laughed at me and said I was crazy.   After some discussion we devised a blind test so that I could show him that I could identify the expensive rods with my eyes closed just by feel.   I closed my eyes and he handed me various rods.   I failed the test miserably.  

 

That experienced changed me.  I realized the power of the placebo effect.   I stopped being a tackle fan boy and became a tackle skeptic.  

When graphite and boron rods were a recent development my dad showed me how you could feel vibrations from a speaker through a graphite rod that you couldn't through a glass or composite rod. Those were the days before Super Wal Marts. I worked at one a few years later and I would take the rods over to the automotive dept, which was right beside fishing and test them with a car stereo speaker that was mounted on the wall. I was a broke student and always on the lookout for a deal, so my buddy at the sporting goods desk would tell me when they were going on clearance and if I wanted one, would take it behind the desk until they were severely discounted down. I bought two that way.

[Swamp Girl]

1 hour ago, Pat Brown said:

spinning rods are actually really good for bass fishing

 

Yeah, I"ve caught a few bass with 'em.

[A-Jay]

39 minutes ago, the reel ess said:

Sure, they do the same job as any other color hooks. I remember when red line was the new thing because, they said, red is not as visible to fish in water. Then they come at us with the red hooks, supposedly to mimic blood???

I have No Idea if or what a red treble hook on a bait is suppose to mimic or what a bass might believe it is. And I don’t actually care. But there's No Way to convince me that it REDUCES bites in any way, shape or form.  

I've extracted too many from trophy size bass to change back now.

YMMV

A-Jay

[the reel ess]

6 minutes ago, A-Jay said:

I have No Idea if or what a red treble hook on a bait is suppose to mimic or what a bass might believe it is. And I don’t actually care. But there's No Way to convince me that it REDUCES bites in any way, shape or form.  

I've extracted too many from trophy size bass to change back now.

YMMV

A-Jay

I would neither replace plain hooks with red nor replace red hooks with plain, unless something is wrong with them. To each his own. Whatever works. Someone on this thread mentioned the Whopper Plopper being a gimmick. I've caught a bunch of big bass on that gimmick.

[Swamp Girl]

4 minutes ago, A-Jay said:

I have No Idea if or what a red treble hook on a bait is suppose to mimic or what a bass might believe it is. And I don’t actually care. But there's No Way to convince me that it REDUCES bites in any way, shape or form.  

I've extracted too many from trophy size bass to change back now.

YMMV

A-Jay

 

I use them too, Andy. I just wish the red didn't wear off so quickly. If I've swapped trebles for new red trebles, I have so much confidence, so I think they really do work, thus my confidence. I'm remembering all the bass red hooks have caught. 

 

2 minutes ago, the reel ess said:

To each his own. 

 

Yep. Use what works for your local bass and your fishing style. A few times in my life, I've fished with anglers who want you to use what they're using. They were annoying. Now, catch twice what I'm catching and I'll beg to use what you're using. 

[Aaron_H]

6 hours ago, Susky River Rat said:

Whopper plopper and jack hammer. My money would have been better off spent using it as toilet paper. I bought into the hype though. 

 

You have wounded me greatly.

 

2 hours ago, Bluebasser86 said:

LiveTarget baits. They look so good and I've been fooled by them more than once. Coincidentally, I've been fooled by them more times than I've managed to fool the fish with them. I know their frogs are good, but of course that's one of their baits I've never tried.

 

This was my answer. Caught some schooling jacks on the little greenie sardine one, but nothing on the mullet or pinfish I bought. Very little action in the water, tail thumps but no secondary action at all and they come through the water like a torpedo. They looked good enough to fool me for a few purchases, though. I actually did have a couple of decent days on their prerigged shrimp, but worth the price over a simple DOA? Personally, no.

[Jigfishn10]

Ford F150 Lures

 

Happened many years ago but I was driving by a body of water that looked bassy. I got out and grabbed my rod with a topwater rigged on it from another trip. I wound up looking to make a long cast and caught the side mirror on a passing F150.

 

That F150 casted like crap and ended up spooling me  

[Tennessee Boy]

How do you prove that a bait is a gimmick?  How many hours on how many different days on how many different bodies of water does it take?  

[Functional]

I wouldnt say I fell for a gimmick because a lot of what doesnt work for me works for others here. I will say I was dumb and went in harder than I should have before proving it worked for me...I'll list those.

 

Ned Rigs

Jigs

 

[scaleface]

Slow speed reels for crankbaits. I dont carry enough combos to justify a dedicated crankbait reel . I'm back to a more versatile 7 to 1 ratio reel. 

[softwateronly]

41 minutes ago, Tennessee Boy said:

How do you prove that a bait is a gimmick?  How many hours on how many different days on how many different bodies of water does it take?  

Obviously one childhood in the Midwest with the dancing eel. Next question please. 
 

scott

[dytmook]

Flying Lures as a kid. I'd say Whopper Plopper more recently, but I only bought 2 and honestly have never put enough time in them to really consider them a total failure. 

[king fisher]

When I was a kid I had a cheap with a cheap spinning reel, 8 pound mono line, plastic bobbers, split shot, size 10 snelled hooks, and fished from the bank.  I caught multiple species, ate everything I caught and had fun every minute I spent fishing.  I even enjoyed digging the worms I used for bait.

 

I now have enough fishing gear to stock a Bass Pro Shops store, and more on the way.  I can't possibly catch more fish, or have more fun than I did when I was young, so truth be told it is all a gimmick