Whats the deal? I have confidence in every lure and plastic I throw. So according to alot of people you need to throw what you have "confidence in", yet I dont catch fish on every lure I toss. So much for that theory!

I think a confidence bait is something you believe you can catch a fish on under almost any conditions.

There are lots of baits that I have confidence in, that just don't produce on some days. There are a few lures that I'm confident that I can get bit on under any conditions. However, that doesn't mean that they will always be the most efficient or most effective.

But I agree, if I don't have confidence in what I'm doing, I stop doing it.

When the going gets tough the Senko gets going!

I believe you need to have confidence in technique and versatility and the baits will fallow.

Sweet Beaver!

Bomber model 5A, for the truly tough times.

It also means if you are throwing a bait that you haven't caught many fish on that you will not put much as effort into it when it counts (tourney time).

A LOT of people have confidence in techniques or lures they are fishing. I have confidence in MYSELF TO FIGURE THE BASS OUT AND WHAT THEY ARE BITING ON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! If you get confidence in yourself (sounds like you do), then YOU are your own confidence bait. NOW, I DO have a number of Crankbaits that DAvid Fritts calls lures made at 10:45 on Wednesday baits. He says that is the peak of their performance for the workers at the lure factory. No longer thinking about last weekend, not planning for the coming weekend and paying attention to what they are doing. These baits he says he would not take $1000 for, and that was in 1997 or 1998. I have like 10 or 12 of those baits that just catch more fish than the others do. Most people that fish aren't confident fishermen, they have not achieved the confident levels as of yet. MANY have confident presentations, but not all presentation. MOF, I am about to RE post my articles I wrote about this subject in 2000. I will start with teh first 2 articles today. Hope this helps explain the CONFIDENCE factor a little better. Tight lines, keep safe and good luck.

Thad Rains

Shad colored Rat-L-Trap

Your confidence baits are only as good as your confidence spots that you have found on your lake. It takes many years of practice using both under all kinds of conditions.

You should be working those baits and the spots establishing confidence for every kind of weather along with the lake conditions. Both will vary depending on the time of year from the main lake to the back of the creeks as the fish make these seasonal changes.

You have baits and places for:
- The colder early months is when the Crayfish begin their dance.
- The Pre-Spawn.
- The Spawn.
- Post-Spawn.
- All of which are affected by wind, clouds, sun, frontal conditions, calm conditions, clear water, stained water and muddy water.
- The Shad Spawn and Bluegill Bedding areas and confidence baits there of.
- Summer patterns and deeper water.
- Fall patterns and following the schools of bait.

There is so much involved in developing confidence baits for each and every time, place or thing. It really helps to develop a great ledger and learn to make notes on those high dollar depth finders.

Missile baits D Bomb Texas rigged with a tungsten flipping weight. Seems like it can always get them to bite.

Fish confidence trumps fisherman�s

Donald and sprigsss pretty much nailed it down. Ones no good without the other.

I'll add that you should have different confidence baits/areas depending on the time of year. Throwing a spook mid day in August might not get you real far. The real message is when its rough just slow down and fish high probability baits and places given the conditions instead of having 15 rods on deck and running all over the lake.

So if your a shad and want to get to the other side of the cove, it's safer to do it in the summer near the surface around noon?