Over the last few years of doing a lot of kayak fishing in a few of Central NC’s lakes there are a few bait specific bites I haven’t experienced that are pretty popular. I have caught some fish on all but never had a “good bite “(caught more than a couple fish in a session) on any of them. These include the following

jig 

red baits

jerk-bait

Lipless cranks

shaky heads 

 

Do you have any baits that you haven’t really experienced a good bite on?

Jig is my main go to. Finesse or full size. I love fishing a jig. But lipless, jerkbaits, and red baits have just never produced for me

either. Yes I’ve caught fish on them. My wife’s pb when she used to fish with me is on a red lipless lol. I’ve been fishing a new Berkley stunna hard lately and it just doesn’t catch fish for me lol

I am also from NC and I fish those baits a lot and have had insane days with jerkbaits and lipless crankbaits and red baits and shaky heads as well as caught giants.

 

The biggest advice I can give to someone new to fishing these baits is fish them slower or faster than you think you should be fishing them.  I usually do my best fishing these baits either too fast for fish to recognize as fake or so painfully slow that I  sometimes see my line swimming off without even realizing one has the bait.  Most people fish too middle of the road with both baits.  
 

Another big piece of advice is fish small and bigger lipless and jerkbaits- they’ve seen a TON of the standard size.  
 

Try silent and rattling and knocking variants of both bait categories and keep your colors simple and natural looking for the most part - don’t stray far from the local minnows in terms of how your jerkbait looks.

 

Red baits - early spring - cold muddy water!

 

Shaky heads - just fish them more - they’re deadly and one of the easiest ways to get a bite on the planet.  Play around with jighead weight and worm size and use black worms - they get bit in all conditions.

A specific lure is rarely a panacea to catching bass. If that was the case everyone would be using it. The thought bass get use to specific lures and stop striking them imo another myth. What may be happing is bass susceptible to a specific lure get caught and no longer around to be caught again and again.

Another factor is strike detection, most bottom lure strike are missed by the angler until they finally learn to detect those strikes.

My advice is use lures you have difficult catching bass on when the bass are active and easy to catch in lieu of when your favorite lure isn’t working.

I catch a lot of bass on lures that pre date most other anglers on the lake.

Tom

Despite losing what would have been a significant upgrade on my PB a couple springs ago on one, I have yet to really dial in a jerkbait bite.  I’m going to put significant time into it next spring and maybe this winter (if the ice cooperates) because I know they catch fish.  I carry them every trip in the boat and occasionally plan to throw one as a first or second option.  And then something gets in the way.  Maybe I need to do a trip where I leave all else home and just fish jerkbaits.

 

The other for me that just hasn’t panned out the past couple years is the frog bite.  I think a ton of guys must throw them around here (May through July I see it with my own eyes) and the fish turn off to them.  I’ve stopped throwing them most of the year at this point and am using other stuff.

@casts_by_fly - the frog and jerkbait are both lures I like for fish I am positive are there - I am not a fan of looking for fish with either because both baits are pretty slow presentations.

 

Both baits are very effective even when fish are extremely pressured but the key is definitely timing and location.

 

Frogs - 99% of the time I hear people say “I throw a frog when it’s too thick of slop for a spook” or something to that effect.

 

I can count on one hand the number of frog fish I’ve caught in heavy vegetation around here.  It would take a lot more hands to count the frog fish I’ve caught on wide open clean hard bottom do nothing banks around rock or wood.  Weird huh?  
 

I think sometimes - a big key to having success with a new bait is figuring out where no one in their right mind would use it and start throwing it in places like that.  The obvious places are the places that they get educated fast.

 

The jerkbait is a lure I’ve caught 50 bass in 2 hours with.  It’s one of those baits that - when they’re in the right mood - it’s the only bait you need to bring.  Active feeding windows and places that they kill lots of bait are mostly what I target with a jerkbait.  It’s got a pretty specific job for me.  I might work it very fast near the surface if I know a smaller area is loaded with fish etc.

 

It’s funny that you said May-July, can’t buy a bite on a frog - for me - those are often tougher months to fish a frog - I do my best March - May and August - November on top water in general but by a country mile with frogs.

 

If you see a place you think “I bet there’s a bass right there” where normally you’d flip a jig or a worm, try gently placing a frog on the bank and sliding it into the water next to that laydown and then helplessly walk it back and forth real slow making it spit water now and again.    Next to lay downs, under shad lines, paralleling bluffs or rip rap etc.  I think of it like a spook where they don’t see big mean trebles or hear spooky rattles or knockers - the bigger bass seem to think of it that way too.
 

In March and April - this is a good way to get your rod bent!

@Pat Brown I may have to adjust your dates a little since March is usually half iced in here but point taken.  I grew up throwing the original rat before Mann’s bought them out on ponds and grass mats.  Back home, the ponds would get pretty matted in the summer and that was about the only thing you could fish.  We caught tons of fish on them so I still throw them for that purpose in the lakes around here.  And I do throw them in the way you’re describing- general cover fishy water type.  I just find that they don’t work as well for me as other stuff.  I’ll throw a buzzbait into the same areas and get bit when a frog is ignored.  The most recent one was the little lake I fished on Saturday.  In sept and Oct I fished the same lake a bunch of times.  Shallow sporadic grass with a ton of duckweed at the time that would slop up.  I threw a frog all through it and couldn’t buy a hit.  I swapped to a buzzbait and was straight into fish.  I’m not giving up on them as the bite will turn on one of these years.  I just think that so many guys fish them here that the fish are used to them.  

 

Jerkbaits though, they will get some play this winter and next spring.

Alabama rig.  Honestly I don’t care to ever throw it again.

Eastern NC but there isnt a day I go out that I cant hookup on a jerkbait. As @Pat Brown there are some days so on fire I put the rod down just to see what else I can catch fish on. 

 

Jig has been one that I never had a great day with. I can catch one or two here and there but I dont think I've ever caught more than 3 fish in a day on a jig...and not quality fish.

 

Again, agree with Pat though, my better success has always come from presenting smaller lures of all types. My buddy though has been throwing monster worms on a T-rig...I'm talking 14"+ custom pours and doing fantastic. Thinking of breaking out my big worms again and seeing how it goes. 

Buzz bait and whopper plopper. I'll keep trying but my time investment is minimal because I catch other ways.

If I never had to throw a crankbait again, I'd be just fine with it. Unfortunately they work every once in a while so I keep carrying them. Most of the time I fish them, I'm just getting in casting practice. 

Bladed jig been a 1 fish here 1 fish there lure for me. Probably because I am primarily a bank fisherman and I don't throw it constantly. Kinda the same with a spinnerbait.

 

Crankbaits though... man, If I could only fish crankbaits (broad as that is, including lipless), yeah, I could get along just fine.