Bass Fishing With Swimbaits
Swimbaits are one of the hottest trends in bass fishing this decade. Bass anglers from California have known about these big bass baits for years, but now, the rest of the country has caught up. Swimbaits are great baits for catching bigger bass. Out west, swimbaits as big as 10 to 12 inches are not uncommon, but in other parts of the country, sticking to a 4 to 6 inch swimbait will give you the best chance of getting bit.
Swimbaits are definitely a big bass bait, but you have to be patient to fish them. It may take a couple of hours at times to get a bite, but when you do, it’s usually a big bass.
Bass Fishing Resources:
- Shop Swimbaits
- Largemouth Bass Fishing Library
- Smallmouth Bass Fishing Library
- Top Bass Fishing Trips
Bass Fishing With Stickbaits
Stickbaits are long, slender topwater baits that are meant to be fished with an erratic twitch, followed by a pause. The zara spook is one of the most popular stick baits on the market. This lure has a walk the dog movement back and forth across the surface. Sometimes, a steady back and forth retrieve will draw explosive strikes, while other times require a pause in between twitches to get a bass to go airborne to eat your lure.
Bass Fishing Resources:
- Shop Stickbaits
- Topwater Bass Fishing Tips
- Largemouth Bass Fishing Library
- Smallmouth Bass Fishing Library
- Top Bass Fishing Trips
Bass Fishing With Casting Spoons
Casting spoons are not a popular lure among the bass fishing community. They will catch fish, but there seem to be many other lures on the market that get the job done a little better. Casting spoons are easy to use and you can cover a lot of water with them. They are great lures for northern pike and many pike anglers will run into an occasional big bass fishing with spoons.
It’s a lure to have in the tackle box just in case you want to throw something different at them. If you fish them hard, you will catch some bass and the bigger spoons do give you a better chance of catching a bass in the 5 pound range or bigger.
Bass Fishing Resources:
- Shop Casting Spoons
- Largemouth Bass Fishing Library
- Smallmouth Bass Fishing Library
- Top Bass Fishing Trips
Bass Fishing With In-Line Spinners
In-line spinners work well for largemouth and smallmouth bass. Spring seems to be one of the best times to throw these lures because bass are feeding on smaller minnows at this time of year. Spinners will catch fish into summer and through fall, but spring is the time to fish them hard. A slow, steady retrieve usually does the trick.
Some of the better colors to use are all white or a green and orange mixture. Bass love these colored spinners in the spring time. You may also run into an occasional northern pike, walleye, perch or crappie.
Bass Fishing Resources:
- Shop In-Line Spinners
- Largemouth Bass Fishing Library
- Smallmouth Bass Fishing Library
- Top Bass Fishing Trips
Bass Fishing With Spinnerbaits
Spinnerbaits are a great warm water and cold water bait. Use it as a search bait or just work some cover with a slow, steady retrieve and you will catch bass.
Many tournament anglers turn to the spinnerbait to cover some water and find active fish. Then they usually follow up with a jig, plastic worm or something else that they can fish slow once they know they have found an area of water that is holding bass.
Spinnerbaits work excellent all spring with a nice, slow retrieve. As the water warms up with the warmer days of summer, a faster retrieve can produce heart-pounding strikes. Work them into the fall as well and remember that a spinnerbait is a great lure for throwing into schools of bass feeding on the surface over deeper water. If you put enough time on the water, you will see this at the end of summer into the fall as water temperatures start to cool down.
Bass Fishing Resources:
- Shop Spinnerbaits
- Largemouth Bass Fishing Library
- Smallmouth Bass Fishing Library
- Top Bass Fishing Trips
Bass Fishing With Spinner Rigs
Spinner rigs are not a common bass lure at all, but they can be highly effective for aggressive bass. The same spinner rigs that walleye anglers carry dozens of will work for bass, but you don’t have to fish them with live bait such as nightcrawlers, leeches and minnows. Live bait will work, but a spinner rig tipped with a 5 to 6 inch soft plastic minnow that has a curly type tail will catch lots of nice-sized bass. A 6 to 7 inch soft plastic worm will also work as a trailer. Fish these baits just like a spinnerbait. Cover some water and hold on because you will get bit.
Just be prepared to run into a northern pike every once in a while if you are fishing some waters that hold northern pike. If you are fishing a good northern pike lake, you may want to use 20 pound test line because northern pike will tear this bait up.
Bass Fishing Resources:
- Shop Spinner Rigs
- Largemouth Bass Fishing Library
- Smallmouth Bass Fishing Library
- Top Bass Fishing Trips
Bass Fishing With Plastic Worms
The plastic worm is arguably the most popular fishing lure ever created. Although, most tournament anglers tend to gravitate towards the jig, most of the weekend anglers choose to go to the plastic worm when they want to catch a bass.
Bass love worms and there are so many different types of soft plastic worms on the market that will get the job done. From free-falling worms to drop-shotting, carolina rigging, texas rigging or just simply using a split shot, hook and a plastic worm, you have plenty of options to fish this lure.
From one foot of water to 25 feet down, anglers catch bass on plastic worms. Make sure you have some in your tackle box before your next trip to the lake.
Bass Fishing Resources:
- Shop Plastic Worms
- Largemouth Bass Fishing Library
- Smallmouth Bass Fishing Library
- Top Bass Fishing Trips
Bass Fishing With Minnow Baits
Minnow baits are similar to crankbaits, but they are much longer and skinnier, hence the name minnow baits. These lures resemble all types of minnows and other bait fish that bass love to eat. These longer lures tend to work better in waters that bass are feeding on longer, more slender bait fish. One example would be perch. In a lake that has lots of walleye, smallmouth bass and perch, a minnow style bait may outproduce better than a regular crankbait because the smallmouth bass are consistently feeding on perch - which are longer and slender than a bluegill.
Minnow baits are also great baits for walleye and northern pike, but they will also work well for catching big largemouth and smallmouth bass.
Bass Fishing Resources:
- Shop Minnow Baits
- Crankbait Fishing Tips
- Largemouth Bass Fishing Library
- Smallmouth Bass Fishing Library
- Top Bass Fishing Trips
Bass Fishing With Soft Plastic Lizards
Soft plastic lizards took the fishing industry by storm in the 90s. Just because they aren’t the new thing anymore doesn’t mean that they don’t produce. There are times when a lizard will out produce the plastic worm, although, most bass anglers prefer to use the worm over the lizard.
One situation that can be very effective is using plastic lizards around the spawning beds during the spring time. When bass move in to spawn, they will start to guard their beds and a plastic lizard usually has that extra action that drives a bass to bite. When you’re fishing the beds, watch out for bass that will pick up your lizard by the tail and just move it away from their bed. This is fairly common because the bass aren’t really grabbing your bait out of hunger; they are just trying to protect the bedding area.
There are many other situations that the lizard will work for you as well. Any spot where you would throw a plastic worm would also be a good spot to fish a plastic lizard. Sometimes, just giving the bass a chance to see something different is all you need to get a bite.
Bass Fishing Resources:
- Shop Soft Plastic Lizards
- Largemouth Bass Fishing Library
- Smallmouth Bass Fishing Library
- Top Bass Fishing Trips
Bass Fishing With Jigging Spoons
Jigging spoons aren’t used by most bass fishermen, but these baits can really do a number on deep water bass. Jigging spoons will imitate a wounded bait fish and they can get down to the deep water extremely fast. When using jigging spoons, you never know what you’re going to catch either. You may catch largemouth and smallmouth bass, but also run into a big crappie, perch or rock bass as well and don’t be surprised if you bump into a walleye or northern pike either.
Let your jigging spoon drop to the bottom and jig it off the bottom with an erratic twitch and let it fall back down. Make sure to pay attention when the bait is falling back down because that’s when most of your strikes will occur.
Bass Fishing Resources:
