Home Forums Fishing Freshwater Name your most disappointing lures...

I thought I would flip the other "name your no fail lures" thread on it's head and ask what lures did you buy expecting great things and ended up sorely disappointed in them?

I'll start. Anything made by "Livetarget". They look great but I have yet to catch anything on them. Add that to the ridiculous prices they are and they fall into my "disappointing" category.

SS

Mepps- sacrilege I know but I've never caught a damned thing on them. Ever. Throw anything else over the side - slam fish all day long.

Wacky rigged worms. Dad and brother swear by em, fish them a lot. Not me. Never liked em.

+1 on "wacky" rigged worms. IME it's been about the only way Senkos haven't worked.

In my entire bass career, probably 30 years, I could never catch fish on a rattle trap. I never could figure it out. Was a pretty successful fisherman but never had success on that lure. I'm talking about when people were weighing in 60-70lb 10 fish stringers on Sam Rayborn and Toledo Bend reservoirs in the 70's and 80's and early 90's. powdr

Rattle traps. Spoons.

Tough one. Here in the northland, if you can get a lure past the pike deep enough, the walleyes will take it. Only lure I've had the wouldn't eat was a hellbender - a deep diving crayfish imitation. Much most? Of this is our faith in a lure. Mel's are great for pike and walleye, but a big fish will bend them and they don't run right. That was supposed to be mepps above, autocorrect sucks. Here wacky rigs work for sallies, walleyes,panfish, and even pike. But what do they imitate?

Both "go-to" lures for me up here in Canada!

SS

A bare hook

I bought some knock off mooselook wobblers at a sporting show. Fantastic colors and looked great in the package but weren't that much less than the original. Never could get them to swim, even after bending. Ended up taking the hooks and split rings off and chucking them.

Lures I haven't had initial success with after a couple of times out probably don't get a fair chance. Lures I've had initial success with get used more so have more chances to succeed. I've narrowed my lures down to only the ones that have usually worked. I'm sure I've got some disappointing lures that would work if tried more often.

IMO, a lot of how well a lure works or doesn't has as much to do with whether the fish are biting that day as anything else.

Roostertails and cast masters

I can't think of any lure that won't wax there tails at some point in the season. I'm not real fond of KVD square bills, I like the old strike king 4s way better than the KVD models. No let me take that back the old Dennys Brauer flipping jig, it was the most snaggy jig ever made, I swear to God I think they will get hung up on a sand botton. Worst jig ever made, a true pos.

How about the infamous red and white daredevle? They catch lots of small pike up to 5 or 6 pounds, but almost never larger. Black and white, or orange and black take much larger pike. Why?

Old Spice

They work great for all those I know that fish, but a Panther Martin catches NOTHING for me.

I might as well use a plain sinker.

Th work for everyone else though!

Funny!

Dont think I ever caught a fish off Daredevils. Other spoons have been a disapointment too except Little Cleo . The work for Whitebass.

Any topwater lure in general.

Kastmaster spoons. I have literally never caught a fish on one and the have tried periodically for about 20 years now. One of my best fishing buddies absolutely loves the darn things and I've seen him catch some monster rainbows on them.

Never had much luck with anything Mepps makes either come to think of it. I did catch some pike on a Mepps Little Wolf spoon but aside from that they've always been second fiddle behind Panther Martin and Luhr Jensen products.

"Old Spice" Now THAT is a great answer!

But staying on topic, the lure you tie on often and really learn to use will be successful. A lure you hardly ever use and therefore use poorly will not.

In my case, I have little to no success with Mepps-like inline spinners. Others swear by them. Years ago, I used to catch largemouth like crazy on plastic worms; today I seem to have forgotten how to use the lure. Or the bass here are smarter.

I don't believe that I've ever caught anything on any in-line spinner, especially bucktails.

When the bullheads were hitting hot and heavy, we used to throw out a bare hook (although one that probably still had some scent on it) and catch them on it.

Anyone remember Buck Perry's Spoonplug lures? I bought a number of them back in the 70s and never did much with them, other than a few pike while trolling.

Same with the old Creme plastic/rubber crickets, frogs, etc. I tried them as a kid, but they never did any good for me. I always went back to worms. Funny thing is, I now use garden worms more than anything else for walleye, trout, panfish, and bass.

Used to be the same way. Then I started fishing this frogs - they have rubber paddle tails. Get them at Fleet Farm.

Scum Frog they're called - have to have the paddle feet like this:



Fish real slow - get some bass but they're dynamite on slimers.

They'll come back for them. Cast this one into the weeds, hit it and missed. I did nothing but let it sit there, twitch twice and start a slow retrieve and it come back and freight trained it. Pulled it out of its mouth like this and with 5 minutes of untangling, went right back to fishing.



This was on High Falls Flowage 2 summers ago. I always have about 4 of these in white/red and green in my tackle box.

So far, this one has failed me.
I'll drag it behind the boat some this spring, and if it dosn't produce It's going in the lost cause tackle box.


(I should know better than to trust anything called "Xtreme")

My buddy calls it the "Strugglebait". It's a saltwater lure. I always joke that it's got something for everyone. How couldn't it work?

I think the biggest mistake fisherman make is letting the color catch them. Take the two lures above. That spinner bait in a shad or white w/a shad colored trailer in the fall and spring is dynamite. The runnin bait in that putrid crawfish color is dynamite in a shad color or baby bass color or a chartreuse/blue/chrome combination. It's funny but the old mud bug(a take off of the hellbender and the old arbergaster)in chartreuse/orange belly is still one of the top lures on Toledo Bend after 40 some odd years. So much for bass getting use to a lure and not wanting it. We also don't pay enough attention to green runnin baits...especially those w/orange bellys) as they mimic young crayfish and bream but we pay them no attention because they're so drab in color. A 3-4in grub and tubes are also excellent fish catchers when used in the right colors...salt/pepper, green/red flake, chartreuse/black/red or green flake. When it gets real tough just tie on a weedless road runner in 1/8 or 1/4oz in white/chartreuse or chartreuse/white and go about filling your limit. That bait will catch anything that swims. powdr powdr

That is sacrilege! I think a #2 gold Mepps is THE best lure made. Not the best for lakes but in the right type of river or stream it is deadly. You need to know how to fish it in the current and once you learn it you'll catch a lot of trout.

Most disappointing lure?

Push up bras.

The old homemade "Alka-Seltzer" Lure made from a Clothespin.

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