Lures everyone has, but never catch fish on 2024

guest reply :

It seems everyone has a Jitterbug in their tackle box. I've got several but have never managed to catch a fish on them. I know how to fish top waters, I just can't get anything to hit these. I'm not knocking the lure, but I'm jinxed with it.

Anyone else have any classic lures that don't produce?

linesider7 reply :

I've got a few Zara Spooks in my box, don't catch fish because I just don't fish them.

For that matter, I've got a LOT of tackle I don't fish.

David P reply :

SPINNERBAITS, Period.

I have several, but just don't catch fish with them.

Jeff H reply :

My biggest waste of money years ago was a Dancin' Eel. I still have it around here somewhere, I think my youngest son has it in his box. I never caught a fish on it, my oldest boy never caught a fish on it and now it is the box of my 5 yr old son who I'm sure will never catch a fish on it.

cajun1977. reply :

the only lures i have that dont catch fish are the ones that aint been fished yet

Mattlures reply :

Spinnerbaits for me too. I realy have no desire to learn them eithr. The Dances eel is the biggest let down ever. The bait looks great! it has a ton of action and the design was cutting edge. I KNEW this was a great bait back when I was a teenager. I never caught anything on it though. I do have a theory as to why it sucks. When I was a kid I would use crawlers and minnows and crawfish for bait. They all caught bass. I would even use bullfrog tadpoles but they didnt work. I had a small pond with pet bass and they would only eat the tadpoles if they were starving and they would spit a lot of them out. I think there is something about the taste of a tadpole that repells bass. The dances eel looks and swims like a tadpole.

THATS WHY IT SUCKS!!!

David P reply :

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Spinnerbaits for me too. I realy have no desire to learn them eithr. The Dances eel is the biggest let down ever. The bait looks great! it has a ton of action and the design was cutting edge. I KNEW this was a great bait back when I was a teenager. I never caught anything on it though. I do have a theory as to why it sucks. When I was a kid I would use crawlers and minnows and crawfish for bait. They all caught bass. I would even use bullfrog tadpoles but they didnt work. I had a small pond with pet bass and they would only eat the tadpoles if they were starving and they would spit a lot of them out. I think there is something about the taste of a tadpole that repells bass. The dances eel looks and swims like a tadpole.
THATS WHY IT SUCKS!!!

Thank GOD there's someone else in the same boat as me with Spinnerbaits. I can't stand them, yet I still have them for some reason.

Thank you Matt, you made my day!

islandbass reply :

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Spinnerbaits for me too. I realy have no desire to learn them eithr. The Dances eel is the biggest let down ever. The bait looks great! it has a ton of action and the design was cutting edge. I KNEW this was a great bait back when I was a teenager. I never caught anything on it though. I do have a theory as to why it sucks. When I was a kid I would use crawlers and minnows and crawfish for bait. They all caught bass. I would even use bullfrog tadpoles but they didnt work. I had a small pond with pet bass and they would only eat the tadpoles if they were starving and they would spit a lot of them out. I think there is something about the taste of a tadpole that repells bass. The dances eel looks and swims like a tadpole.
THATS WHY IT SUCKS!!!

Thank GOD there's someone else in the same boat as me with Spinnerbaits. I can't stand them, yet I still have them for some reason.

Thank you Matt, you made my day!

Man, I was too embarrassed to mention it. Spinnerbaits are at the top of my "lures that don't do jack for me," list. The weird thing is that I catch them on inline spinners, homemade ones to boot. But if my life depended on a bass caught on a spinnerbait, I'd be pushing daisies in not time flat. :-[ Then again, I hardly throw them and haven't take the time to learn to use them effectively. I even caught fish on the flying lure!!! Come on, spinnerbaits, give me a break! ;D

David P reply :

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Spinnerbaits for me too. I realy have no desire to learn them eithr. The Dances eel is the biggest let down ever. The bait looks great! it has a ton of action and the design was cutting edge. I KNEW this was a great bait back when I was a teenager. I never caught anything on it though. I do have a theory as to why it sucks. When I was a kid I would use crawlers and minnows and crawfish for bait. They all caught bass. I would even use bullfrog tadpoles but they didnt work. I had a small pond with pet bass and they would only eat the tadpoles if they were starving and they would spit a lot of them out. I think there is something about the taste of a tadpole that repells bass. The dances eel looks and swims like a tadpole.
THATS WHY IT SUCKS!!!

Thank GOD there's someone else in the same boat as me with Spinnerbaits. I can't stand them, yet I still have them for some reason.

Thank you Matt, you made my day!

Man, I was too embarrassed to mention it. Spinnerbaits are at the top of my "lures that don't do jack for me," list. The weird thing is that I catch them on inline spinners, homemade ones to boot. But if my life depended on a bass caught on a spinnerbait, I'd be pushing daisies in not time flat. :-[ Then again, I hardly throw them and haven't take the time to learn to use them effectively. I even caught fish on the flying lure!!! Come on, spinnerbaits, give me a break! ;D

I think there's more people that have no luck / don't like spinner baits then we think, they're just too shy to say it. When you hear spinnerbaits you think bass fishing, but I HATE them.

I use the Banjo minnow with 100 times more success then a spinnerbait.

T-rig reply :

I dont seem to able to catch fish on crankbaits for some reason. I only caught like 4 or 5 this year on cranks. I friend of mine has fished this lake for 15 years and also catches very few on cranks.

I guess it's just not a crankbait lake. On the other hand we catch quite a few on japanese spinnerbaits in natural colors like the Megabass V-Flat.

Here one of the very few crankbait bass I caught this year:

jdw174 reply :

I'm sorry, but for the life of me, I simply can't picture anyone not being able to catch a fish on a spinnerbait Like any other lure, success depends on current conditions, retrieve, and color selection. I pitch them into brushpiles and blowdowns like a jig.......bang them off of stumps/trees....let them flutter into crappie stakebeds...the list in practically endless. True there are days they just don't want one. If the water is calm and it's sunny......forget it! There are better lures for that. But if it's cloudy with a ripple on the water......

Redtail reply :

Spinnerbaits and Crankbaits for me. I always allow some time on each trip for them with the same result, Frustration. It's soft plastics for me or I ain't catchin any fish! I just like catchin, I really don't care what I am catchin em on!

blade reply :

please send all unwanted spinnerbaits to me. They are without a doubt my #1 producing bait in the spring and they will catch monsters too 8-). So IM me if you have some you want to get rid of. My bait I never catch fish on would have to be senkos, I have a bunch of them and fish them fairly often but just never catch much, maybe we can work out something.... Spinnerbaits for senkos...

bassbob08 reply :

mine would have to be this kind of eel thing.

Avalonjohn44 reply :

Anything Gulp.

I also cannot buy a bite on Sweet Beavers, believe it or not.

Vyron reply :

i would say crankbaits , cant catch a fish on them

spinnerbaits on the other hand , are my goto lures .

nra4life reply :

ive never caught a bass on a scumfrog, ive caught fish on horny toads but not on scumfrogs, don't really have any confidence in them because they really dont have any action

senile1 reply :

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the only lures i have that dont catch fish are the ones that aint been fished yet

I think what Cajun stated is the key. If one's experience with a lure initially started with no success, from that point on, that lure has probably been used less than others which met with initial success. I had a period many years ago where I "thought" I couldn't catch fish on spinnerbaits. When I finally gave them a real chance under the right conditions, they became one of my favorite baits. How's that for a turnaround in thinking? I've always found that the lures and techniques that are unsuccessful for me are the ones that I don't use enough and I really haven't given them a chance to be successful.

flyphisher # reply :

Dont really have one anymore. I get sale or giveaway stuff I dont like. I dont think I own anything I "CANT" catch fish on, just a matter of how much i fish it. Storm swimabaits and hybrid cranks are only lures i have/had i never caught anything on.

Mobydick reply :

Jigs, I cant catch anything on them, and I always have one on one of my rods.

roadwarrior reply :

I fish ponds 1 1/2 - 2 hrs at a time. I make it a point to fish one type of bait/ lure only. I may take another, but it is the same in case I lose the first. This forces me to concentrate on one technique only. I often fish lure classes that I don't like (spinnerbaits for example). Over the years I have found that all lure classes work, sometimes. Maybe I'm not always fishing the "best" lure for the day, but I fish that lure "the best I can."

If you want to learn how to fish a bait and become confident that YOU CAN FISH that lure, work one lure ONLY. I think you will be surprised.

Ky_Lake_Dude reply :

Probably swimbaits. I have thrown these a lot and have never even had a bite.

T-rig reply :

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Jigs, I cant catch anything on them, and I always have one on one of my rods.

You are probably not fishing them the right way. Jigs will catch bass anywhere in the world!

bass109 reply :

swimbaits, and not many bass jigs.

ejtaylor822 reply :

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My biggest waste of money years ago was a Dancin' Eel. I still have it around here somewhere, I think my youngest son has it in his box. I never caught a fish on it, my oldest boy never caught a fish on it and now it is the box of my 5 yr old son who I'm sure will never catch a fish on it.

Ditto. Know the Dancin' eels will catch fish, but, never have for me. Never got so much as a nibble. I have watched the Bill Dance show 2x where he was using these. Nothing for me.

I have/had (2) - shad and chartruese colored. I say had because the fish were really biting Saturday. Opened up my bag to try something different and noticed the eels in there. Thought this would be the perfect opportunity to break my mistake luck with them. Tied on the shad colored one, and just like that - poof - the fish stop biting. I fished it every way I know how - slow, fast, jerk, yo-yo, "dead stick" - nothing.

The good news. After about 30 minutes of no bites I got it hung up on some sunken brush and lost it. I love Bill Dance, but, he needs to come show me how to fish this thing before I buy another one.

Eddie

RoLo reply :

Actually, all of my lures never catch fish!

Oh that's right, I haven't been fishing in a while :'(

Roger

grimlin reply :

Crankbaits for me....Can't catch a darn thing off them,but yet own a few.

Spinnerbaits work well when the shads are swimming,otherwise the bite is hard to get.I like using the smaller spinnerbaits though,not those oversize 1/2 oz that feels like 2oz spinnerbaits.

MN Basser reply :

For me, it's crankbaits. Haven't caught anything on them this year, but haven't tied them on much..Spinnerbait are great for me. Caught alot on them.

GLoomisman reply :

Red and White Lucky 13....

llPa1nll reply :

Spinnerbaits + Wind Blown Shoreline = Hold On!!!

Jigs + Pork Trailer = My Biggest Confidence Bait!!!

Crankbaits I am just now gaining confidence in...

Like "roadwarrior" said put everything else down and just concentrate on that one lure/technique.

If I had to chose a lure that I cant get bit on it would be a swimbait. I however have only had it for 2 months, I dont fish it enough to get bit because I dont have allot of confidence in it yet.

David P reply :

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I fish ponds 1 1/2 - 2 hrs at a time. I make it a point to fish one type of bait/ lure only. I may take another, but it is the same in case I lose the first. This forces me to concentrate on one technique only. I often fish lure classes that I don't like (spinnerbaits for example). Over the years I have found that all lure classes work, sometimes. Maybe I'm not always fishing the "best" lure for the day, but I fish that lure "the best I can."
If you want to learn how to fish a bait and become confident that YOU CAN FISH that lure, work one lure ONLY. I think you will be surprised.

This is exactly what I do as well. I have a VERY over populated Golf Course pond about 10 minutes from me. I bring one sometimes two types of baits that I want to practice. There aren't any fish over 10in or so, but you def get a feel for fishing each technique and how to fish it to get bites.

The problem is, this lake is so overpopulated, the fish will eat my finger if I put it in the water.

Davis reply :

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Spinnerbaits and Crankbaits for me. I always allow some time on each trip for them with the same result, Frustration. It's soft plastics for me or I ain't catchin any fish! I just like catchin, I really don't care what I am catchin em on!

Same. I have a lot of lures in my tackle bag but when it comes down to it.......I love using plastics in all sorts of different setups. Thats my talent is fishing plastics. I used to catch a good amount of bass on spinnerbaits as a kid but it just doesn't happen anymore. Same with crankbaits and rattletraps. Killed bass on them as a kid. But now at 27 years old. I can't catch squat on them. But give me a plastic of any kind and I will catch bass on it. Maybe its a confidence thing on knowing how to use them?

Davis reply :

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I fish ponds 1 1/2 - 2 hrs at a time. I make it a point to fish one type of bait/ lure only. I may take another, but it is the same in case I lose the first. This forces me to concentrate on one technique only. I often fish lure classes that I don't like (spinnerbaits for example). Over the years I have found that all lure classes work, sometimes. Maybe I'm not always fishing the "best" lure for the day, but I fish that lure "the best I can."
If you want to learn how to fish a bait and become confident that YOU CAN FISH that lure, work one lure ONLY. I think you will be surprised.

I need to do this more often. I can take one or two different plastics with me and only fish one. But for some reason when I try this with hard baits I always get frustrated and go back to my plastics. Leaving my plastics at home would do me some good. Need to learn to be more versatile in my fishing. Thanks for the drive to do this Road.

sodaksker reply :

Those darn jitterbugs have me jinxed too. I am going to break through it this year though.

Davis reply :

Jitterbugs are up there with me too. Great action and sound in the water. I try them at night but nothing. Probably doesn't help that I'm fishing them in heavy pressured waters though. I may try them out in my dads small pond.

bugman reply :

I just started fishin Jigs this year and have not had any luck. I think my problem is feeling the bass hit the jig. Any advice would be appriciated.

Davis reply :

I just started fishing jigs this year too.

I think the best advice is to always keep a tight line. You feel something out of the ordinary, set the hook. Sometimes it will be some vegetation....sometimes a nice bass. After I caught my first bass on a camo colored jig with a zoom chunk trailer I went out and bought about five more bass jigs. It also helps if you can see the fish heading for them though.

Also make sure your making those suckers hop and be patient after the cast. Let them sit on the bottom for a bit.

Matt Fly reply :

I bought some of the walking worms long, long, long time ago and never did catch anything until.............I tried them as a drop shot bait. The natural curling action on the drop shot looks appealing and works. I rembered what they did do and look like in the water, one day I was fixing to throw them out when I figured I'd give them a shot on the drop shot rig.

The classic baits that I still own have caught fish during their era.

Matt

MattStrykul reply :

Moby what line do you use? I used braid forever with jigs, fished them all the time and pretty much never got bit. Switched to mono a few weeks ago and have been catchin em left and right, bigger fish too!

FishTank reply :

I tend to fish at least once or twice a week like RW. I'll stop by a pond on the way home from work for an hour or two to fish a specific lure at my local honey hole to work on a specific technique. The pond I fish I always catch a lot of fish and have never been skunked. The fish their will attack anything. I have learned quite a bit from these short stops but there is one lure I have never caught anything on and that is the Bomber Flat A.

.dsaavedra. reply :

SPINNERBAITS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! JEEZ I HATE THEM THINGS!!!! I COULDNT GET A BITE OFF ONE IF I WAS USING A MILLION DOLLAR BILL AS A TRAILER i jus cant figure out all the hype about em. other than spinnerbaits, practically anything topwater (excluding jitterbugs...my fav.) i cant get a bite on buzzbaits, hollow bodied frogs, walkers, poppers, nothin. thats good, im glad im not the only one who doesnt like spinnerbaits. :

Lucky Craft Man reply :

Lures I suck at that I have plenty of:

- Rubber Worms and Lizards (Texas Rigged Worms & Carolina Rigged Worms)

- Jigs

- DeepDiving Crankbaits

Lures I have that work extremely well for me:

- Spinnerbaits

- Senkos type baits

- Topwater lures (Zara Spook, Frogs, etc.)

- Rattle Traps

Looking at everyones lists, it is interesting how some people have success on one lure, but not on another (that someone else has great success with). For me, I sucks with jigs and I don't know why. I keep using them and try many different retrieves, but I have trouble catching fish. On the other hand, I feel I am good with spinnerbaits and seem to catch a lot of quality fish with them. I assume it has to come down to an issue of confidence. I have no confidence in a jig (and I try to fish it a lot). The question I want to know is, how do you build confidence in a bait when you fish it a lot and still catch nothing with it?

.dsaavedra. reply :

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please send all unwanted spinnerbaits to me. They are without a doubt my #1 producing bait in the spring and they will catch monsters too 8-). So IM me if you have some you want to get rid of. My bait I never catch fish on would have to be senkos, I have a bunch of them and fish them fairly often but just never catch much, maybe we can work out something.... Spinnerbaits for senkos...

hey im up for that...senkos are my go to lure!!! i'll shoot ya a PM if you are serious.

.dsaavedra. reply :

another lure on my sh!t list is the jig. i try to fish them as much as i can and i do want to catch fish w/ them but they never produce, and always end up getting covered in bottom slime . ive only caught 3 total fish off a jig.

RoLo reply :

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SPINNERBAITS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! JEEZ I HATE THEM THINGS!!!! I COULDNT GET A BITE OFF ONE IF I WAS USING A MILLION DOLLAR BILL AS A TRAILER i
Another lure on my crap list is the jig. i try to fish them as much as i can and i do want to catch fish w/ them but they never produce

Have you ever thought about Tennis? just kidding, just kidding ;D

.dsaavedra. reply :

i dont get it.... :-?

the ohh face reply :

It used to be jigs, then I got a good rod, then tubes till I caught a monster on one last year and started using them more often, now its cranks and spinnerbaits. I'm going to start using a spinnerbait more often though so hopefully that will start producing for me. Cranks I just cant get into. Too many treble hooks to get caught on everything, I cant really tell what depth they are running at, and I have never caught a fish on one. But for some reason I have like 15 cranks in my box. Probably 10 of them have never touched water. Maybe its just because they look good. I think im going to start hanging them on my wall.

armesjr reply :

Crankbaits, i have a bunch of them, but since i am fishing from the shore 90% of the time i never use them.

phase5supply reply :

I never seem to have any luck with buzz baits.

Sinjin Kim reply :

Lucky Craft Real California swim baits. Ugh! These things cast horribly.

Catt reply :

Tube bait....aint caught nuting on em

guest reply :

I don't have any baits like that...I only buy baits that I'm pretty sure I'm going to catch fish on.

If you're not catching fish on spinnerbaits its because you're using them in the wrong place at the wrong time. Don't throw them in highly pressured waters, on calm days, or in areas of sparse cover. They are about the most unrealistic lure there is so you've got to throw them when bass are actually feeding.

I fish alot of small lakes that get hammered by anglers all year and I rarely fish SBs in those waters, regardless of conditions. When I fish lakes up north that get little pressure I will throw them any day from May-October, and I will catch fish, lots of them. If I moved to southern California I would probably get rid of all of my spinnerbaits.

Also SBs are at their best in spring and fall. Find a windy shoreline and make sure that bait contacts cover on every cast.

moby bass reply :

Swimbaits, like Storm, no success. Crankbaits, don't work for me either. However, I'll qualify that statement by saying I don't fish them much because I shore fish and they are running too deep by the

time they get back to the bank. I had an old red head jitterbug (still have it) from years past, that I never

caught a fish on, but have had good success with a black Jitterbug at night. Right bait, right time and place. Spinnerbaits are BIG producers for me. MY PB was caught on one.

KU_Bassmaster. reply :

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Spinnerbaits for me too. I realy have no desire to learn them eithr. The Dances eel is the biggest let down ever. The bait looks great! it has a ton of action and the design was cutting edge. I KNEW this was a great bait back when I was a teenager. I never caught anything on it though. I do have a theory as to why it sucks. When I was a kid I would use crawlers and minnows and crawfish for bait. They all caught bass. I would even use bullfrog tadpoles but they didnt work. I had a small pond with pet bass and they would only eat the tadpoles if they were starving and they would spit a lot of them out. I think there is something about the taste of a tadpole that repells bass. The dances eel looks and swims like a tadpole.
THATS WHY IT SUCKS!!!

Thank GOD there's someone else in the same boat as me with Spinnerbaits. I can't stand them, yet I still have them for some reason.

Thank you Matt, you made my day!

Man, I was too embarrassed to mention it. Spinnerbaits are at the top of my "lures that don't do jack for me," list. The weird thing is that I catch them on inline spinners, homemade ones to boot. But if my life depended on a bass caught on a spinnerbait, I'd be pushing daisies in not time flat. :-[ Then again, I hardly throw them and haven't take the time to learn to use them effectively. I even caught fish on the flying lure!!! Come on, spinnerbaits, give me a break! ;D

I think there's more people that have no luck / don't like spinner baits then we think, they're just too shy to say it. When you hear spinnerbaits you think bass fishing, but I HATE them.

I use the Banjo minnow with 100 times more success then a spinnerbait.

Add me to the list. I have two full spinnerbait boxes and I can count the number of bass I have caught on a spinnerbait on one hand .. and it doesn't take that many fingers

largemouthslayer reply :

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Spinnerbaits for me too. I realy have no desire to learn them eithr. The Dances eel is the biggest let down ever. The bait looks great! it has a ton of action and the design was cutting edge. I KNEW this was a great bait back when I was a teenager. I never caught anything on it though. I do have a theory as to why it sucks. When I was a kid I would use crawlers and minnows and crawfish for bait. They all caught bass. I would even use bullfrog tadpoles but they didnt work. I had a small pond with pet bass and they would only eat the tadpoles if they were starving and they would spit a lot of them out. I think there is something about the taste of a tadpole that repells bass. The dances eel looks and swims like a tadpole.
THATS WHY IT SUCKS!!!

Thank GOD there's someone else in the same boat as me with Spinnerbaits. I can't stand them, yet I still have them for some reason.

Thank you Matt, you made my day!

Man, I was too embarrassed to mention it. Spinnerbaits are at the top of my "lures that don't do jack for me," list. The weird thing is that I catch them on inline spinners, homemade ones to boot. But if my life depended on a bass caught on a spinnerbait, I'd be pushing daisies in not time flat. :-[ Then again, I hardly throw them and haven't take the time to learn to use them effectively. I even caught fish on the flying lure!!! Come on, spinnerbaits, give me a break! ;D

I think there's more people that have no luck / don't like spinner baits then we think, they're just too shy to say it. When you hear spinnerbaits you think bass fishing, but I HATE them.

I use the Banjo minnow with 100 times more success then a spinnerbait.

Add me to the list. I have two full spinnerbait boxes and I can count the number of bass I have caught on a spinnerbait on one hand .. and it doesn't take that many fingers

SPINNERBAITS.......WAIT TILL THE WIND IS BLOWING HARD TOU WILL CATCH PLENTY

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