The "Electric Chicken"

[Bonefish]

The “Electric Chicken”…what is it? I was in South Carolina a few years ago fishing on the beach in late September, and I went into bait store on the pier to purchase some live bait and some “Old Boys” with deceiving eyes were sitting around a barrel of iced-down “Millers” talking fishing. After asking for some live mullet, they began to try to convince me to try the “Electric Chicken.” Well I had never heard of an “Electric Chicken” before, and I thought to myself what in the ___is an “Electric Chicken? One of the guys got up and pulled a pack off the wall, and after looking at it, I bought a pack. However, to me it looked like a “Sassy Shad” which I knew would catch fish, but it was not the imitation that caught my eye, it was the color…violet and green. I just couldn’t connect this lure with an “Electric Chicken.” For me, an “Electric Chicken” was one that got his pecker stuck in a light socket, if you can picture that. Maybe some of you are thinking the same thing.

So, that started me to research this “Electric Chicken” phenomenon. As it turns out, the “Electric Chicken” is not a specific lure at all, but a laminate color pattern with one color layered over the other, and there is some scientific rational to this phenomenon. Most lures sold as an “Electric Chicken” have a chartreuse bottom. Chartreuse is a color between green and yellow. Chartreuse is the most visible color to the eye, and the most complementary color of chartreuse is violet, which is a shade of purple and is a mixture of red and blue. If you place chartreuse on the bottom of a lure and place violet, the most opposite color of chartreuse on the top, you have the most extreme eye catching colors for a lure.

There are other “eye-catching” color combinations for the “Electric Chicken” which come from “complementary colors.” Complementary colors are colors opposite each other on the color wheel. They contrast, enhance and intensify one another because they do not share common colors. Red and green complement one another because green is made of blue and yellow. Some of the best complementary colors are red and green, blue and orange and purple and yellow. These are colors directly across from one another on the color wheel. Complementary colors rarely look pleasing when placed together, but they can be striking in appearance and may be extremely vibrant and show extreme contrast to fish.

I have said all of that to say this. Last weekend I had the privilege to fish with my sister. As our history goes, I usually put more fish in the boat than she does by far, but this weekend was a little different. At the end of the day in 89 degree heat, she had a 26+bag of 10 bass (all released without harm), and I had O. Yes...O! This didn’t include the 5 pounder she lost in the motor. How did she do it? She had picked up a pack of “Electric Chicken Grubs” from Wal-Mart a few years ago with a chartreuse belly and a violet back. I didn’t think much about it when she started catching fish with it, but at the end of day, she sure put it on me. Stubbornly, I stuck to my confidence lures and blanked. What was interesting about her technique was she fished the “Electric Chicken” very slow in 4 to 6 ft of water over grassbeds. I think it was the slow presentation along with the “Electric Chicken” colors of chartreuse and violet that did me in on that day. Another fact to keep in mind…bass will visit grassbeds on hot days because of the higher oxygen content and food source.

[Panfish Man]

I fish with Electric chicken crappie jigs all the time, they are pretty good producers if the water clarity is right!

[Bass Addict 170]

Did this pattern work well in dirtier water, or do you think it was just visible out of the grass? Thanks for the info!

[Tim_T]

Interesting info Bonefish. I thought at first it wa some kind of line dance done at wedding receptions!

[elnutsmalljaws]

Come on Bone, when the lady in the back of the boat catches 1 fish and you don't change - Shame on You, when she catches 2 fish and you don't change lures to what she is "throwing" - SHAME ON YOU, when she catches the 3rd and you are still stubborn (imagine that) and don't change to what she is "hurling" SHAME ON YOU!!!!!!!!!, when she catches 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 with a 26 lb sack then not SHAME ON YOU, YOUR JUST AN IDIOT!!!!!! MUST HAVE BEEN THE BANANAS THAT YOU BROUGHT IN THE BOAT WITH YOU!

Did you not learn anything in the boat with me this past winter? Pattern fishing 101 as taught by Dave Stewart interpreted by Elnutsmalljaws: When the person in the back of the boat catches 1 fish then watch the retrieve that they are doing and DUPLICATE it, When the same person catches a 2nd fish then put down your rod and watch the retrieve a couple of times and DUPLICATE it, When they catch a 3rd fish then ask them to let you take it off the hook for them SO YOU CAN SEE THE EXACT BAIT THEY ARE USING UP CLOSE AND IN PERSON - RELEASE THE FISH FOR THEM IF THEY SO DESIRE THEN TIE ON THE EXACT SAME LURE THEY ARE THROWING AND DUPLICATE THE EXACT SAME RETRIEVE, If you then continue to not catch fish and they continue to put them in the boat then KINDLY PUT THE TROLLING MOTOR ON HIGH AND WHEN THEY ARE STANDING UP AND LEAST EXPECT IT TURN THE BOAT VERY SHARPLY SO THEY LOOSE THEIR BALANCE AND FALL OUT OF THE BOAT - LEAVE THEM SWIMMING FOR A WHILE AND GO FISH ELSEWHERE! This has been Pattern Fishing 101 as learned from Dave Stewart.

[walkeraviator]

I learned this recently as well. I was fishing a color called "chicken on a chain" it was basically what i would call a baby bass laminate... watermelon on top, white on teh bottom and a chartreuse tail...

[roadrunner]

I'm with Tim I thought it was a dance.

Boy Elnut you do not like bananas in the boat. I fish with someone as stubborn as Boone and he has the same results. I was catching spotted bass in the buck brush on Bull shoals lake and was doing rather well, my fishing buddy in the back of the boat was refusing to cast into the buck brush; both of us fishing a spinner bait. I finally turn around looked at him and said they are in the buck brush and you can’t throw in front of the buck brush and expect to catch anything. He informed me he drove 400 miles to fish here the least they could do was to swim four feet to get his bait and he had the same luck as Boone.

Beep Beep

[roadrunner]

oops it is Bonefish not Boone.

[FlyLie]

oops it is Bonefish not Boone.

Guess we'll let it go this time, but in the future.....

[Bonefish]

Birdwood, I have to admit...I deserved the chewing, but that was a little rough. Next time I will have no mercy. It must have been a mental lasp as old as I am to let that happen. I went to Cedar this past weekend and caught three on the "Electric Chichen" within 20 minutes and then boat traffic simply washed me out on the back and that was the last of the fishing. If there was one boat there was 500 out there and it never stop after dark. I called it the "Cedar City after Dark." Birdwood, thank for the chewing. I feel cleansed now.