Bass Fishing Basics: How To Catch Bass

How-To Fishing Videos
Are you ready to elevate your bass fishing game, whether you're a rookie or a seasoned angler? Dive into our latest video, where we reveal the top 10 essential lures you absolutely need for bass fishing. It's all about maximizing your catch with minimal gear!

What's Inside?
Bass Fishing Simplified: Learn how to thrive in various environments - from bank fishing to kayak adventures.
Gear Guide: Uncover the ideal rod, reel, and line for any situation. Say goodbye to confusion!
The Ultimate Lure Selection: Discover the 10 must-have lures that promise success in any water condition.
Save Big: Expert tips on snagging high-quality gear without breaking the bank.
Pro Tactics: Best practices for fishing in different structures and covers. Never miss a catch!
BassResource.com Insights: Exclusive tips and tricks from the pros at BassResource.com.

Baits & Gear

Seaguar Smackdown Flash Green: https://bit.ly/3LmYMdu

Seaguar InvizX -- https://bit.ly/3tzJaLO

Seaguar Tatsu -- https://bit.ly/3lHBVi3

St. Croix Bass X Casting Rods -- https://bit.ly/41ejhjK

St. Croix Bass X Spinning Rods -- https://bit.ly/3M1dwBO

Shimano SLX 150 XT Casting Reel -- https://bit.ly/42zO4si

Daiwa Tatula LT Spinning Reels -- http://bit.ly/3Y3X5HV

Strike King Tour Grade Football Jig -- https://bit.ly/3EshIXI

Roboworm Straight Tail -- https://bit.ly/3mhSTDy

Big Bite Finesse worms -- https://bit.ly/3HDDbfK

Xzone Lures MB Fat Finesse Worms -- https://bit.ly/44DhcAT

Bomber Model 5A and 6A Crankbaits -- https://bit.ly/3jZMr6u

Bomber Model 7A Crankbaits -- https://bit.ly/3WMxSSd

Berkley Flicker Shad 3" Crankbaits -- https://bit.ly/3M5BWKy

Bill Lewis Rat-L-Trap -- https://bit.ly/3kjyeOU

Cotton Cordell Super Spot -- https://bit.ly/3Xj7Wxq

Booyah One Knocker - https://bit.ly/2ZpzCI8

Bill Lewis Rat-L-Trap -- https://bit.ly/3kjyeOU

Cotton Cordell Super Spot -- https://bit.ly/3Xj7Wxq

Booyah One Knocker - https://bit.ly/2ZpzCI8

Strike King Premier Pro-Model Spinnerbait -- https://bit.ly/3Orj5as

Strike King Premier Plus Spinnerbaits Colorado -- https://bit.ly/3pggzNF

Big Bite Baits B2 worm -- https://bit.ly/2Y6yg4y

Yamamoto Senko - https://bit.ly/3jPPAmn

YUM Dinger -- https://bit.ly/3ytLkzn

Big Bite Baits 3.5" tube -- https://bit.ly/3bWKrru

Rapala Original Floater - https://bit.ly/3RhWgJ3

Heddon Wounded Zara Spook - https://bit.ly/3Hku8jn

Lucky Craft Sammy - https://bit.ly/3usyd07

Rebel Pop-R - https://bit.ly/3vWxLHc

Transcript

All right. So, you're just getting into bass fishing, or you decided, "Hey, you know, let's get off the boat. Let's go do some bank fishing or try some tube fishing, kayak fishing, that sort of thing. What kind of gear should I bring? And how many baits do I need for bass fishing?" So, that's what I'm gonna talk about. Let's get into the basics here. This is the 10 basics, the 10 lures that you need. Super simple. Let's talk about downsizing. Guys, you really don't need a ton of equipment to be successful at bass fishing. Let's dive right into it.

Let's first of all, talk about the rod and reel. You need one baitcasting reel, baitcasting rod. One. The best one to get is one that's between 7 foot and 7 foot 2, medium-heavy, fast-action rod. It's the jack of all trades, man. This is the Swiss Army knife of bass fishing. I've mentioned this before. It's so versatile. You can throw worms, you can throw jigs, topwater baits, crankbaits, spinnerbaits, chatter baits, tubes. There's so many different baits you can throw with this rod. It's super versatile. So, you don't need a whole arsenal of rods to throw a wide variety of baits. Just the rod.

The reel, you want something like a low to medium gear ratio in the sixes. So, like a 6.3:1 to 6.6:1 gear ratio. That covers a wide spectrum of all the kinds of baits I just told you about. You don't need to go above a 7:1, that's a bit too fast. The line I would go simply 15-pound Seaguar InvizX fluorocarbon line, straight up. The reason I go with that is it's very versatile. Fifteen-pound will take you pretty much anywhere you're gonna go, whether it's thick cover or you're fishing in open, clear water. Fifteen-pound is just universal for that. I like fluorocarbon because it is abrasion resistant in both rocks and weeds and wood. Braid. Braid actually gets nicked up and frayed more often in rocks than fluorocarbon. I don't know how many guys actually know that. Fluorocarbon is more durable in rocks than braid. And braid also, if you're fishing woody cover, braid tends to dig into that wood that's been underwater. It's all soft. Well, fluorocarbon won't do that. So, it's actually a more versatile universal line than braid.

In addition, the InvizX is more of an all-around basic do-all type of line of all the lines that Seaguar makes. By the way, Seaguar made the original fluorocarbon fishing line, just so you know, they own the patent to it. They make their own line versus the other companies. Maybe they do, some of them don't. But neither here nor there. InvizX is the one that I would definitely use on the rod that I'm talking about. So, that would be your basic setup for baitcasting.

Now, for spinning, that's all you need is one spinning rod. It's very similar. Again, a 7-foot to 7' 2" medium heavy rod. That's all you need. And the reel here would be about a size 2,500. Now, depending on the manufacturer, sometimes they call it 25 instead of a 2,500, but it's the same size. So, 2,500 works, a 2,000 also works well, a size 20. I wouldn't go a size 3,500 or anything bigger than that, but a 20, 2,500, that's about right.

The line, again, I would use straight up fluorocarbon line, no braided line to leader or anything like that because you want versatility. And when you start using that braid to fluorocarbon, you start to limit what you can throw. With this setup, with this line, I would have used a 10-pound or 8-pound fluorocarbon line. I like to use Tatsu. That's super limber, super easy to cast, very sensitive. Again, the durability and the flexibility, being able to use it in a variety, variety of cover, that's why I would go with that. But with this spinning outfit, you can throw all the lighter lures, the smaller crankbaits, the finesse lures, the jigs, the finesse jigs, grubs, tubes, drop shot, split shot, a whole variety of smaller finesse-type lures. That's what you're gonna need this for.

And these rods don't need to be high-end, expensive rods either. You can get good rod and reel combos at any sporting goods store for less than $100 and you're off and running. You don't need to spend a whole lot. You can also check garage sales, yard sales, estate sales. Don't forget those, you can get some really good deals on some high-end equipment that's only barely been used or gently used for a good deal. Maybe your friends are upgrading their equipment and they wanna sell their equipment to you at a reasonable price. You can check the Buy Nothing groups on Facebook. There's a lot of options available where you can get good quality gear at a reasonable price without having to spend an arm and a leg on this stuff. That's it, man. Two rods and reels and you're set to go as far as equipment. You don't need to get any more fancy than that.

All right. Let's talk about the 10 essential lures that you're gonna need. You really only need one tackle box to carry everything you need for bass fishing. This is great for downsizing. Again, you're fishing the shoreline, a bank fisherman. You don't have the ability to carry a lot of stuff with you, or you're in a kayak or a float tube. One tackle box with the following lures, you're gonna be able to cover every situation that you're gonna encounter.

So, let's start off with the jig. The jig is actually the champion of all lures, and that's because you can catch them...this has been around for decades and they still catch bass. They're just the number one bass producer, in my opinion. You can fish them in anything. You can fish it in 40, 50, 60 feet of water, you can fish it in super shallow feet of water, really in the summertime, or in the winter, spring, fall, any season. You can hop them, you can swim them, you can yoyo them back. There's a lot of different ways that you can present them. So, it's just super, super versatile. They work really well in thick weeds, you can fish them in clearwater, super versatile. So, we're talking versatility here. That's why they're so effective. Because if there's only one lure that you're gonna have, it's gotta be a jig.

The thing about it is that there's so many jigs out there on the market, you can go crazy, drive yourself nuts trying to figure out which is the right ones to get. They've got several different heads, Arkie heads, football heads, ball heads, all these different and tons of different colors and different sizes. So, stop, stop. Let's not confuse ourselves here. We gotta keep it super simple there. So, it's really easy. All you need is 3/8 ounce and 1/2 ounce jigs in three basic colors, black and blue, green pumpkin, and brown. That's it. Don't go crazy with anything else. Those three colors and you get it... So, you get two in each, right? You get a 3/8 ounce and 1/2 ounce in blue, you get a 3/8 ounce and 1/2 ounce in green pumpkin, and so on. You get the point. So, you only have 6 jigs.

That's gonna cover everything you need. As far as the jig head shape, I would go with a football head jig. That's, again, the most universal, that you can throw in pretty much everything and you're not gonna get hung up. The only one drawback with it, if you fish in a real weedy lake, you can catch a lot more weeds and gunk on a football jig than you would say, a bullet-shaped jig. But really, the bullet-shaped jig is really only good for fishing in weeds or if you're swimming a jig. Otherwise, it loses its versatility. So, that's what I would say. A football jig, you can fish it in all those scenarios and you're good to go.

The next one on the list is finesse worms. Okay. You've got to have this in your tackle box, again, for the versatility. The small finesse worms, the 4-inch finesse worms are perfect when the bite is really slow, and you can fish them year-round. You can fish them in the wintertime, spring, summer, everything.

And you can fish them in deep, super-deep, or super-shallow. You can put them on a drop shot rig, you can put them on a split shot rig, shaky head. You can even fish them wacky style. And you can put them right next to cover on the edges of the lily pads or under docks. You can skip them under docks. They work exceptionally well when the bite is slow. When you've had a cold front come through, something like that, and the bite is off, the fish really aren't biting, that's when the 4-inch finesse worm comes into play.

A little secret a lot of guys don't use is the larger-size finesse worm, this 6-inch finesse worm. This works, you can throw it like a regular Texas-rig plastic bait, flipping and pitching into cover. But because of the slim profile, it goes through that cover a lot better and it gives a different look than what the fish are used to seeing and you get a lot more bites that way. You can also fish it weedless and pretty much fish it on the top like a trick worm and twitch it back to the boat and get bites that way. There's a lot of different ways you can fish it.

Keri: We're using finesse worms today.

Glenn: Finesse worm.

Keri: Finesse worms.

Glenn: You only need like 4-inch and 6-inch size. That's it. Color-wise, you can make it very simple. Don't go hog-wild with all the different colors. Green pumpkin is gonna be your number one choice. That works great. And if you're fishing in clearwater, go with a lighter color worm, more natural color. The green pumpkins, the translucent colors work exceptionally well. And if you're fishing in muddy water or dingy water, then go something more towards a darker brown or even black will work well in really dingy water. So, you don't need a ton of color choices, maybe three or four in each of the different sizes, and you're good to go.

Next on the list are crankbaits. Now, that can be a touchy subject because, my gosh, there's so many different crankbaits out there. It's like, "Oh, which ones do I get?" Again, we wanna be simple. Stick to the essentials. You want medium diving crankbaits, and there's really only two types that you need to have. One is with a narrow diving bill, and the other is a wider, rounded diving bill. The narrower ones are better in the colder months. When the water is colder, it has a tighter wiggle to it, and the fish want a tighter wiggling bait when the water is cold, they just produce better. Conversely, a wider wobbling bait works better when it's warmer. That's why you need the wider bill, the rounded bill. That gives, not only a little bit more wobble to it but they dive a little bit deeper, too, because there's more resistance, there's more on the bill itself, allowing it to dive a little bit deeper. And in colors, don't go crazy, guys. Don't go crazy. You only need two colors. What? Yeah, two colors, shad and crawdad. That's it. Okay. Don't go crazy in that. So, you got, like, two different types, narrow bill, and a wide bill, and crawdad and shad in both. So, you got four crankbaits, and you're good to go.

Another lure that you got to have in your tackle box is the 1/2 ounce lipless crankbait, like a rattle trap or a One Knocker. These are so versatile. They catch bass year-round. It's because of the shape of them. You can be fished in a whole variety of ways and at different depths. You can fish them super-deep, super-shallow. You can fish them slow and drag them right on the bottom. Or you can burn them back towards the surface. You can yoyo them, stop and go. You can fish them along docks, rocks, over the tops of weeds, so many different ways you can fish them, so many different places you can fish them. That is why they're so productive. They've been around for decades, and the fish just keep on pummeling them. So, a lipless 1/2 ounce crankbait. Don't go too crazy with the colors here, guys. Again, we wanna keep it super simple. So, a chrome with a blue back is universal. Use that almost all the time. But the other color you wanna have is a crawdad color. Those two colors are it in 1/2 ounce. So, you got two baits, boom, you're done. Easy.

The next bait in your tackle box is gonna be a spinnerbait, specifically 3/8 ounce spinner bait. And you're only gonna need white or chartreuse. And I would get one type that's a double willow leaf, and the other would be a double Indiana. And that's it. You're gonna have like four baits and it's super, super simple.

The reason why you want those is, with the Indiana...or the willow leaf blades will work best when it's really weedy and the fish are really shallow and you wanna burn it back really fast over the top of weeds, that type of thing. When the bait fish are prevalent in the fall, willow leaf blades produce best. And also when it's really sunny and clear out, maybe real calm conditions willow leaf puts out less vibration. It's more of a flash, and it's more of a visual type bait.

And the bass tend to key on that more so than those Indiana blades.

Conversely, the Indiana blades work really well, particularly when the water is a bit dingy or when you wanna slow down that bait and keep it down on the bottom. You slow roll it, maybe a little bit deeper, and 10 to 15 feet of water. It kind of thump thumps along and stays down there. The willow leaves have a bit of a lift to it and will bring it up towards the surface if you try that.

Between these two types of spinner baits in just white or chartreuse, you'll be able to cover the entire water column and at any time, all four seasons, all four seasons of the year in virtually every kind of cover. The wire on it acts like a weed guard. So, you can throw it in some pretty thick cover. Don't be afraid to throw it into some lily pads, or some thick weeds, or sunken brush. It will come back. You're not gonna get hung up. The wire on that really does act like a really good weed guard. You'd be surprised at how well it comes through the water. I would not use a trailer hook in those situations. Trailer hook is gonna get hung up easier. I actually just put a plastic twin-tail trailer on the back of them and it works great. Gives a little bulk, a little bit more vibration, a little bit of something bigger visually for the fish to hone in on. So, I always use a plastic trailer on it and I tie directly to them. No snaps, or swivels, or anything like that. I just use a uni knot. Some guys prefer polymer knot. Either way, those knots are both really good just as long as you have one tied on. You've got to use a spinner bait because, boy, you can catch a lot of fish on 'em. Spinner baits, man, you guys got to fish them. Come here. You guys got to fish them. Bass just can't stand them.

Now, another crucial bait you got to have in your tackle box is the 6-inch plastic worm. This is the basic ribbon tail plastic worm, and that has been around since the '70s and continues to produce bass year after year after year after year. It is a proven winner. You've got to have them at 6-inch. And with the colors, I would stick with green pumpkin and watermelon, watermelon seed with red seed, watermelon red seed. Those two are the most productive colors. And then I might have a third color, say, a really dark color, like a black or tequila sunrise, something. If the water is really dingy and muddy, a real dark-colored worm like that works really well. But green pumpkin and the watermelon red seed is gonna be your go-to colors.

You can fish these in virtually anything. It just depends on what size weight you put on them. You can go from completely weightless to putting on a heavy 1-ounce, once-and-a-half weight for punching through heavy cover mats of vegetation in the summertime and all weights in between. Typically, a 3/8 ounce weight is what you wanna start with when you're fishing in and around normal cover, weeds, lily pads, sunken logs, docks, things like that. A 3/8 ounce is kind of what you start with, maybe a 1/4 ounce even. And the rate of fall is dictated by the activity level of the fish. The heavier the weight for the faster fall when the fish are super aggressive, you just want it to drop through the water column. And conversely, if they're not biting very aggressively, you lighten up and give it a slower fall, give them a little more time to react to it. And you can catch more bass that way. You can fish them in any depth you want. You can even drag it along the bottom in 20, 30 feet of water, just up and over some structure, maybe over a hump or along a ridge, and the fish will just suck it up right off the bottom in so many different ways and so versatile. I can go on and on, make an entire video on it. Wait a minute, I have. I made a few videos. Check them out. There's a lot of different ways to fish just having a worm. If you just had two lures in the entire tackle box, a jig and a worm would be like covering everything. So, definitely, get those worms, put them in your tackle box, you'll be good to go.

Now, how can I talk about essential lures without talking about the soft plastic stick bait? Things like the Senko and the YUM Dinger? I mean, these are dynamite baits. I think every bass angler that's ever fished has some of these in their tackle box and for a good reason. They are killer. They catch a lot of fish and they work year-round, super-versatile. Most of the time you fish them weightless, just thread it on a hook and throw them out there and let them fall through the water column on its own, on slack line. And that enticing little wiggle that it has in that slow fall, that's enough to trigger a bite. Typically, when the fish are shallow is when it works best when they're less than 10 or 15 feet of water and when the water has some visibility to it, not when it's super muddy. You want a little bit of some clarity to it so the fish can see it.

However, you can expand its reach and use when you throw it on a split shot rig, or Carolina rig, or a drop shot rig. You can fish it deeper than the 10 feet zone doing that and you can vary the speed bringing it back. If we fish in a weightless, you can twitch, twitch, twitch all the way back. You can throw a bullet seeker on it and flip and pitch it into cover. So, many different ways you can fish these baits you've definitely got to have in your arsenal. For color, green pumpkin. Really, that's it. Green pumpkin. There's a lot of different colors that work really well. But if we're downsizing here and we wanna make sure we have the essentials, green pumpkin, a 5-inch green pumpkin. I know they make it 4-inch, 3-inch, 6-inch. They make different sizes of these. Five-inch green pumpkin is gonna be your bread and butter and it's gonna work in a wide variety of conditions. That is what I definitely recommend.

Next on the list are tubes. Yeah, the tube bait. Oh, my goodness. That has been around since the '80s and has been a standby allure for many, many anglers, has won a lot of tournaments. And they work so well. Why? Because they kind of imitate a bait fish, but they also imitate a crawfish. Just depends on how you fish them. They're very, very versatile. But bait fish and crawfish is a staple of the bass's diet, so they mimic it very well.

The thing about a tube is you fish a little bit different. These are more of a target-type bait. You drop it in a certain area and you work it real slow. So, you work an area where you know where the fish are. It's not necessarily a search bait, but it's great for cleaning out, you just clean house of an area where you know where fish are congregated. You fish it on slack line. Why? Because the tube is so flexible, the fish will bite it and they'll hang onto it for a long period of time.

So, you don't need to feel that initial strike. You just let a slack line, they'll grab it, they'll swim off with it. When you reel up, you'll tighten up, you'll feel that weight. Bam. Pop them, and you got them. Very, very effective lure to use mostly when the fish are shallow, but I've caught them as deep as 40 feet on a tube. Again, they're versatility. You can put them on a Carolina rig, on a drop shot rig, split shot rig, fishing very slow that way. You can put them on Texas rig with this bullet sinker in front and flip and pitch them into thick weeds for largemouth. These aren't just for small mouth. These baits really work well for large mouth, too. You don't have to have crystal clear water to be fishing the tube. They work.

I've seen Denny Brower, actually, I think, won...was it the classic? Or he won several tournaments of flipping a tube for largemouth. So, extremely versatile. As far as color and sizes are concerned, you want a 3.5-inch tube that covers the whole spectrum. And the colors, green pumpkin works exceptionally well. A lighter translucent color. I like to use something like a clear with black and salt pepper flake in it, for when the water is really clear. And then when the water is really muddy, I might go to a darker color. I have like a coffee color, real dark black or dark brown color, works really well when the water is really muddy. That's it. Three colors. One size, two baits, man, fish them.

The next must-have lure in your arsenal is gonna be the jerkbait. This is the shallow running jerkbait, specifically the Rapala size 11 jerk bait. It's been a standard mainstay for many, many years and it's the reason why so many bass have been caught. It is extremely effective. The problem is a lot of guys think it's only good in the early, early spring when the water is really cold and the fish are just starting to move up shallow, and that's when they go crazy with a jerkbait. And then they put it away once the fish get into spawning mode and don't take it out again till the next season, that's a mistake. This lure works year-round. It mimics an injured bait fish. Anytime fish...well, I shouldn't say anytime they're fishing on injured bait fish. Bass are predatory in nature and they're opportunistic. And so when they see an injured bait fish, they're going to attack it. They don't care what the water temperature is at that point.

So, it works through spring, through summer, through fall, and even in wintertime. The difference is your cadence and your speed of retrieve. The warmer the water, the faster you retrieve. It's usually like a quick little jerk, jerk pause. Jerk, jerk pause. It's kind of normal in the spring. The pause varies. The more aggressive the fish are, the shorter the pause. The less aggressive they are, the longer the pause. I've had fish come up and nail it while that jerk bait is just sitting still in the water. But after you've jerked and paused it a few times and you just let it sit. They just can't stand it anymore. They're staring at it, they finally pow. Scares the bejeebies out of you sometimes. In the summertime, you can't fish it fast enough. You're gonna pop, pop, pop, pop, all the way back to the boat really fast and they'll clock it at some point. It's scary when they do that. It's so exciting though. It's a thrill to catch them that way. But again, they're super-versatile. And the color is just your simple shad, silver-black back. That's it. Just get a number 11 Rapala, silver-blackback, you're good. That's all you need. And you can fish it year round and catch a ton of fish on them.

And finally, the last one that you want in your tackle box is certainly not the least, but is some kind of top water lure. I like a popper-type lure, a chugger-type lure, and then also a walking-type bait, like a Zara Spook. Those are really it. That's all you really need, the popper... Both of these imitate kind of an injured bait fish, which I mentioned. Bass will attack that, it's its natural instinct. A popper looks like a little bait fish. That's just our chugger. Both of those just kind of pop, plunk, plunk through the water. You can fish them many different ways. The cadences and retrieve, how hard you pop it, how soft, little gurgles. You can slowly swim it back, a lot of different ways you can fish it to make it look like a little injured bait fish, that's key, is gonna trigger a bite.

Zara Spook, it's been around for decades and it's very popular. It takes a little bit of practice to learn how to get that walking-the-dog cadence back to the boat, takes some work to learn how to do that, but that drives bass crazy. Especially in the spring through fall, it's very productive bait to use in low-light conditions. The fish will clobber them and you catch a whole lot. Top water is so much fun. It's a blast.

So, armed with these lures, armed with all the lures I just mentioned to you, you have covered the entire water column, top to bottom, all activity levels of the bass, as well as all the seasons of the year. Okay. Let's talk a little bit about structure and cover, areas where you're gonna go bass fishing. And what of these lures? Which ones are you gonna use for those? What's the best lure to use when you come up across these?

So, let's talk first of all about points. Points to me, if I came to a lake, I've never fished it before, the very first thing I do is I seek out a point and I fish it, and you fish it from top to bottom. You can cover the whole water column on it. Most effective way to fish it is with a jig, with a crankbait. Like, I love fishing it with both of those, you can cover a lot of different depths doing that. I would also throw in there a worm, probably a finesse worm, and then also a topwater bait.

With those baits, you can cover, not only the entire water column but also the activity level of the fish. And you can quickly discover what's going on in that entire lake, what level the fish are at and what their activity level is, and what they're gonna bite. And you can go from point to point to point or they'll just seek out those areas throughout the entire lake and have a very productive day, even if you've never been on the lake before. So, that's how you attack points.

Another key area for catching bass is in the backs of coves. These shallow areas where there's flats, a lot of weedy cover, maybe laydowns, that type of thing. The best way to attack that would be...the number one bait I'd pick there would be a spinner bait. Two other really good baits to use are the lipless crank baits and the jerk baits. You can cover water very quickly and get aggressive reaction bites out of these baits, covering the entire flat that way.

Plastic worms work very well in those situations and the top water baits as well. Again, you're not fishing really deep. And the Senko, definitely use the soft plastic stick baits. These lures, you can cover the entire flat with these lures and you're going to catch a lot of fish. Definitely. The thing about it, when you've downsized your lures and such, you're not using a whole bunch of them, it forces you to use them. A lot of times you start retying and trying different lures and things when you don't need to and you waste a lot of time and maybe not even catch as many fish. Here, it forces you to slow down and really use these lures effectively and you end up catching a lot more fish that way.

The next form of structure is bluffs or really steep banks. These work especially well during the wintertime and in the summertime. It's good to target them during those times. And I would use like the finesse worms, the 4-inch finesse worms, I would go with a jig, would work really well in that area. Top water can be another really effective way. Again, the soft plastic stick bait can be really good, as well as tubes. Those would be the primary baits I would use for attacking these. Again, the cadence, and the speed, and the rate of fall, the drop is gonna depend on the aggressive level of the fish. The more aggressive they are, the faster the movement and the drop that you want. And conversely, if they're less aggressive, you can lighten up and slow down and match the activity level and catch a ton of fish. Bluffs are very, very productive in the hottest part of the summer and the coldest part of winter.

Another good area to target for bass are windy banks, and brush piles, and brush lines. When the wind is blown up against it, it churns up the water, breaks up the light getting into it. Sometimes it gets algae moving and it brings the bait fish up. It can be a really good area to fish. Kind of hard to fish slow when the wind's blowing up against it. So, you kind of limit your baits. But also the activity of the fish typically are more aggressive. So, you want a faster-moving bait anyway. So, there, I would throw your lipless crankbaits, your deeper diving crankbaits, spinner baits. Those are the type of things I'd go for. Jerkbaits can work really well sometimes in that area. Those are the things that I would target. Those wind-blowing banks. And you can just catch a ton of fish that way when they're just feeding frenzy on the bait fish that are up there. You can just blow through real quickly with a spinner bait, catch as many as you want, retie, put a liftless crankbait, go back down the bank and catch even more. It's a real fun way to catch fish, as long as you don't mind being out in the wind. As long as you're catching fish, it doesn't seem to matter, does it?

Now, another type of structure that you wanna target is a submerged structure. This is deeper water, maybe 10, 15 feet or deeper, things like humps, ledges, creek channels, especially when the creek channel swings in right to the bank where you've got this transition right there. Those are the type of things you can really target and the bass will congregate. The best way to fish these, year-round, is with slower-moving baits. You can use a worm or a jig, a worm behind a Carolina rig. You can use a 6-inch worm, just Texas rig, or you can use a smaller finesse worm. Put it on, drop shot, split shot. You can drag a Senko down there, YUM Dinger. I'd put a little bit of weight on there. I'd probably put them behind a drop shot or a split shot and just drag them down there on the bottom. But basically what you wanna do is cover the ground and drag baits across that.

Now, if you've got a little weed, maybe at the top of a hump or something like that, then if you can reach it with a crankbait, that's a good way to do it. But I think a lipless crankbait would be better for that because you can count it down, you can go as deep as you want, and then run that lipless crankbait, run it over the top of the weeds. Sometimes dragging it through. If there's a lot of rocks, you can get the lipless down there 15, 20 feet of water and bounce it and bang it off the rocks down there and elicit a reaction strike that way.

So, a lot of different ways you can fish it with the different lures that we have and you can catch a lot of fish. So, armed with 2 rods and 10 different lures, you can catch bass in virtually every situation. Sometimes it pays to get back to the basics. Even if you've been fishing for a real long time, focusing in on just the basics can really improve your skills and your versatility as an angler. Plus, it allows you to fish in a variety of different situations. You can go on the bank or you can fish out of a canoe, or a kayak, or float tube, even off a dock. There's a lot of different ways you can fish and catch bass and enjoy the sport of bass fishing. And you don't need to spend a lot of money on a ton of gear and lures. Just these essentials and you're good to go. Hope that helps. For more tips and tricks like this, visit BassResource.com.