Which bait to use for bass

Several reasons come to mind. The pros and cons First, lures are more convenient. Good live baits and fish they catch include: Worms: bluegill, redear sunfish, trout, black bass largemouth, smallmouth, spotted , catfish, walleye.

Minnows: crappie, black bass, catfish, walleye, trout, sauger, pickerel, striped bass, hybrid striped bass, white bass, salmon. Crayfish: black bass, catfish, trout, rock bass. Small sunfish: catfish, striper, hybrid striper, black bass, walleye, pickerel. Frogs: black bass, catfish, pickerel, walleyes. Leeches: walleyes, black bass, sunfish, catfish, trout. Insect larvae hellgrammites, mealworms, waxworms, dragonfly nymphs, catalpa worms and more : trout, sunfish, rock bass, black bass, walleyes, catfish, crappie.

Page views. Beginner's Tacklebox: Steve Kennedy Bassmaster Elite Series pro Steve Kennedy provides the right lures and steps for anglers to begin throwing a swimbait. It started on the bank Read More. Along with all of the information available about bass fishing, there is also a lot of misinformation out there.

And if you want to learn about bass fishing with kids, we have more tips from a professional bass angler for you in Fishing with Kids: Tips from Bass Pro Kevin Van Dam. Skip to content. Red Fools the Fish In shallow cover—wood, stumps, clumps of grass—I like to use a spinner bait with a red or pink head, and a crank bait with red hooks. Skip Your Bait When you cast, stop halfway instead of following through, similar to a check swing in baseball.

Keep Your Hooks Sharp I use a file to sharpen my hooks every time I catch a fish and before every trip.

Face the Wind Sacrifice some distance in your casts and fish with the wind in your face. Fish Shallow in the Spring In the spring bass hang out in spawning beds. Make Your Bait Seasonal Bass eat different bait depending on the time of year. Fish before the storm The best time to fish bass is before a front comes through, and the worst time to fish them is after. Using frogs to catch bass is a little less beginner-friendly than the other forms of live bait bass fishing, but with a bit of experience, you will see that this is one of the best strategies for fishing densely vegetated areas.

Toss your frog near lily pads and other bass covers; the frog will usually swim to the bottom and immediately draw attention. Largemouth bass are predatory animals, so the best artificial lures to use are those that mimic the prey present in the water at the time.

Many artificial lures have a unique feature that helps attract bass despite not looking very similar to a real prey animal.

For example, they may flash in the light. Jigs, Crankbaits, Plastic Worms, Spinnerbaits and swimbaits, are all effective bass lures. Most of these are very versatile lures making them practical for largemouth bass fishing in most conditions throughout the year when used effectively.

Jigs are weighted bass lures that often have a skirt that pulses in the water to attract bass. Jigs are probably the most versatile bass lure, making them a great place to start when unsure of which lure to use based on conditions. They can be used throughout the year in almost any temperature, whether 50 degrees or 90 degrees.

Jigs can work in both shallow and deep waters and work in various environments, including shoreline grasses and steep underwater banks. Crankbaits usually look like a crayfish or small fish with a lip on the front, causing them to dive underwater and wobble as retrieved.

However, there are also lipless crankbaits that are just as effective. They get their action from a nose-down altitude made by placing the line on the back of the bait and its slender body, which will vibrate rapidly as the water passes over both sides.

Similar to jigs, crankbaits are pretty versatile and can be used in most types of weather and in both deep water and shallow water. During times of cold water, the largemouth bass like lipless crankbaits over deep points and dying grass flats. However, during warmer water times like the summer , fishing crankbaits are good to cover areas of water targeting schooling fish.

The plastic worm is popular among bass fishermen because it can be used in various conditions and rigged in many different ways to be fished in both shallow water and deep water.

Conventional methods of rigging plastic worms are the Texas rig , Carolina rig, weightless, and drop shot. Plastic worms are one of the simplest and most effective year-round lures that consistently catch fish. In addition, these versatile lures can be used in almost any conditions. In cold water, anglers can drag a worm on a Carolina rig or shakey head. In warmer water, anglers should twitch one weightless near the boat dock and vegetation. Spinnerbaits contain metal blades on them which rotate when pulled through the water.

These rotating blades reflect the light, making them look like baitfish to bass. Spinnerbaits also have rubber skirts that flutter in the water to make them extra attractive to bass. These can be used in shallow and deep water in various environments. Spinnerbaits are usually most effective during the early morning and when night fishing. However, they can also be good throughout the day during the spawning season for attracting bass over spawning beds.

Many bass anglers know Swimbaits to have a relatively lifelike action. They have a natural rolling motion, and their tail shakes when retrieved. Swimbaits can mimic various baitfish common in bass waters, making them effective pretty much all year. In the winter, bass anglers often have success hopping them on an umbrella rig or underspin then letting them fall to look like a dying shad for the nearby bass.

Swimbaits are most effective on either a jighead in the open water areas or on a weedless hook going through shallow grass during the summer. When bass fishing with a swimbait, be sure to reel in slowly in order to imitate the swim pattern of prey fish. Reeling in slowly makes the lure look like a dying baitfish near the surface of the water.

A topwater swimbait is sometimes more effective in the early morning or late evening, during the times the water is usually calmer.

Big largemouth bass often think swimbaits are dying baitfish and will strike hard. Crawfish are often found in the shallow weeds and deep rocks of bass fisheries. The ideal combination of noise, vibration, and speed, these lipless crankbaits are amazing in shallow water.

Did you know that topwater hard lures, such as topwater prop lures, can be very effective for targeting bass? Note that for this application, it is most effective during dusk or dawn when bass are most actively feeding.

In this cateogry, you have four main hard topwater lure styles to choose from. These are prop lures, topwater walkers aka Spooks , poppers, and wake baits. Almost all examples of these types of baits are rigged with treble hooks, so they will perform best without snagging in open water.

You will find squarebill crankbaits in all shapes, sizes, and colors, which is great. These crankbaits can either be silent or have knockers in order to create more disturbances in the water. Like a majority of crankbaits, they can easily be made to mimic bream, shad, crawfish, and almost everything in between. And anglers know that variety is certainly the name of the game, especially when it comes to plug fishing.

Keep in mind that unlike the curved lip of many crankbaits, a squarebill crankbait has a square lip just like the name implies. And the unique flat lip of the squarebill helps make it a deadly and effective bass lure. Also, you can easily wind a squarebill over riprap, laydowns, or even submerged weeds and plants without getting snagged.

So, if you are running shallow water and like a subsurface power technique, then fishing squarebill crankbaits is right for you. They can easily go where other types of crankbaits cannot and get plenty of bites. The Ned rig with Ned rig soft plastics has quickly become unstoppable in its unrelenting dominance of the light line finesse fishing soft stickbait category.