My opinion is that the chicken scratch came into being to imitate "pogies" ie: Menhaden. This past October there was a small school of very large menhaden trapped at the mouth of Narrow River. 3 of us caught 25 or 30 big bass (15 to 35 pounds) on yellow swimmers including the chicken scratch coloring. After awhile we started trying different colors and never stuck a fish. When we went bac k to yellow or the chicken scratch pattern we hooked up on every cast.
