Hey folks, Glenn May here at BassResource.com. And one of the problems I see all the time on our forums and people asking me questions is, what kind of lure should they get? Especially, if you're starting out, or if you're on a budget, or maybe you've been on hiatus for a while and you're just coming back into bass fishing. There's so many choices and so many different ways to catch fish. And everybody talks about how great they are, it's really confusing, it can be frustrating when you're at the tackle store trying to figure out what to buy.
So, I'm gonna give you the top seven lures that you should focus on. And, really, the main theme here is focusing on versatility and lures that can be fished year round. The more you focus on that, then the more you can make your budget go a long way and you'll be able to catch fish no matter what condition that you're in, be it weeds, be it docks, be it rocks, be it deep water, clear water, muddy water, windy days, cloudy days, days that there's no wind at all, hot days, cold days, whatever. Get that these seven lures that I'm about to outline for you are the most versatile lures that you can have in your tackle box, and you need to have them in order to catch fish.
All right, so the first one is actually the hands-down champion of all lures, and that's the jig. I have tons of them, but here's a couple of them. The thing about the jigs, you can fish them year-round in every sort of depth, every condition you can think of. You can fish around 40, 50 feet of water, even deeper, all the way up to a couple of feet of water during the summer time. You can drag them. You can hop them. You can swim them. You can do pretty much anything with them, with the different weights here. And in the summertime when there's thick weeds, you can get a heavy duty one, that's, you know, a three-quarter ounce or an ounce, punch it through the weeds. There's finesse jigs like these, perfect for when the bite is slow or largemouth like these two. There's so many different kinds of jigs out there, but the reason being is that they're so effective. If you only have one lure in your boat, you've gotta have a jig.
Okay, next on our list is the crankbait. There's so many different crankbait styles out there, but that's for a good reason. They catch fish. Now, in the wintertime, you're gonna wanna go to something with a slim profile, with a narrow bill. This type of bait right here, that's what you wanna go with. It's got a tighter wiggle. That works really well in the winter time.
As the water warms up, then you can go to something with a little bit deeper dive. There's a round bill with a little bit longer bill on it and go a little bit deeper. And it has a wider wobble. That's the main thing about this. It's wider than the crankbait I just showed you and it has more of a wobble, a wider side to side and this a real tight wiggle. This works better when it's warmer, works better when it's colder, colder water temperature. And then as the fish get deep in the summertime you want to go after them, get something like that. Look at the bill on that. That's gonna go nice and deep and go after them right where they're at. That's why these crankbaits work so well.
You can also have different types of bills for the different kind of cover you're fishing in. For example, square bills, these are designed... Oh, they're called square bills for a reason. Look at that, it's a square bill. These are designed to deflect off of wood and other types of cover and the hooks won't get hung up on them. So you can fish it in some thicker stuff than you normally would not worry about the hooks getting snagged. Then, they have hybrids of these things. You've got the round bill. The round bill dives deeper, like I just mentioned. And then in between is the coffin bill, and that's what this is, the coffin bill is kind of a good combination of the two. You can still go deep with this, but it will also bounce and deflect off of cover woodies, covers especially without the hooks getting hung up.
So there's a lot of different types of crankbait styles you can fish for the variety conditions that you find yourself under, but that's the key thing, you can dig in and get those fish regardless of where they're hiding year round. That's why the crankbait's on this list.
All right, the next bait on the list is the jerk bait. Absolutely killer throughout the entire year. Now, I know some of you are gonna be really surprised about that because most...well, not most, but a lot of guys think jerk baits are only used in colder water temps, usually in the early spring. That's a mistake. You should be fishing them year round. I fish them all year round. I catch lots of fish on them every season. I truly believe the reason why people aren't catching fish other than in the early spring with jerk baits is simply because they're not fishing them. You can fish them very fast in the summertime. The rule of thumb in the summertime is that you can't fish them too fast, just jerk, jerk, jerk, jerk, bring them back really quick across the surface. You can let a pause for a long amount of time, you can stop it whenever you want to and bring it back even faster to vary your cadence, vary your speed.
One way I like to fish it, is just throw it out there and then give it like three quick jerks and let it sit, let it come all the way back up to the surface and let it sit for a while then jerk, jerk, jerk. Let it sit for a while. Fish sometimes will annihilate it when it's just sitting on the surface and it's 95 degrees out and sunny. It works great. And in the wintertime, they make deeper diver once like this with a big bill and they suspend. That's perfect for when the water temperature's really cold for me about 50 degrees or below. I'll throw it out there and it dives down 7, 10 feet and it just sits, and sits, and sits until a fish will come out and grab it. They might move a little bit upwards, a little bit downwards depending on the model that you get, but it works really well for catching those lethargic fish in the wintertime. So jerk baits, fish them year around and you'll catch a lot more fish.
Next on the list of must-have lures is the craw worm, craws. Gotta have these, they're gonna come in different colors, there's different styles and varieties. Matter of fact, they even come in many sizes. This is great year-round fish no matter where they are. They feed on crawfish all the time. In all but the coldest part of the year, that's when crawfish are active. They're protein-rich, great slow-moving snacks that the bass just love to eat. So anytime you're in a warmer...well, except for like the dead of winter, you can fish them as jig trailers, that's perfect for that. You can fish them on just a Texas rig, put them through the weeds, and then the rocks. Shaky head works really well during the winter time, but bringing down deep and drag it real slow. I like to put on football head jigs and get it around rocks and such.
There's so many different ways to fish them, it's really limited to your imagination. Works on split shot, works on Carolina rigs. There're so many different ways to do it, to get at the depth where the fish are at, where they're actively feeding. That's really the key. Figure out what depth they're in. In the wintertime and the summertime they're gonna be deeper. In the springtime and then the fall they're gonna be a little more shallow. Be buried up in those weeds for example. And you gotta go and dig them out. Craw's a great slim profile bait that's not gonna get hung up on those weeds. It's a great way to go in and dig them out. Get some craws in your tackle box, boys, and go out there and catch some fish.
All right, next on the list of must-have lures, the spinnerbait, my favorite. Spinnerbaits are so versatile year round. This one's got a Willowleaf blade on. This one's a Colorado blade on it. You can fish them in any part of the water column. I always have one tied on and on my deck year round. You can fish big three quarter-ounce ones like these real slow and drag them on the bottom, slow roll them when it's really cold out, the water temperature is 42 degrees and the fish just really lethargic you can drag this right behind them and get a reaction strike. You can fish them as faster through weeds and not get hung up with a willowleaf blade like this. This one is only a three quarter spinnebait.
In the summertime, it's great to burn a wreck near the top, bulge the surface. Even a big bait like this, you can bulge the surface on the summertimes. It's almost like a buzz bait. You can fish them around wood, weeds, rocks, docks, anything and not worry about getting hung up so much because this is like a big weed guard here. The wire here works to prevent that hook from getting hung up. It's a great lure to have tied on all the time, as long as it's white. Okay, that's my preference. But white with a trailer, that's how I like to fish it. Tie directly, by the way. Don't use snap swivels or anything like that, just tie directly to it. I use a uni knot, some folks like to use palomars. Either way is fine, whatever your preference is. The point is, tie one on and use it throughout the whole year. You're gonna catch a lot of fish.
All right, next on the list that you gotta have, finesse worms. Right here, look at that. Finesse worms are killer year round. You've got to use these things. They're very, very versatile. In the wintertime, you can fish them on a split shot or on a shaky head and just drag it on the bottom real slow. In the summertime, say for example one like this, you can put it in a wacky rig, throw it out there around docks, twitch it back really fast. You can put this on a little jig head and throw it up in those docks and lilly pads. In the summertime, put it on a drop shot, fish it deep, just nose hook it right here on the end and give a little bit of wiggle. There's a lot you can do with finesse worms all year long to catch those finicky fish. You've gotta have this especially when a cold front comes through and the fish really don't wanna feel like biting. All those other lures I've shown you so far, not the best choice. But when it comes, when the bite's really tough you gotta have these in your tackle box.
Another must-have in your tackle box has to be the lipless crankbait. These babies...they work all the time. The cool thing about these is, because of their shape, you can fish them at any depth and at any speed, which is great for matching the activity level of the bass and where they're located. You can drag them really deep down the water column and just yoyo them off the bottom. You can burn them really quick across the top in the summertime over weed beds and entice those fish to come up out of the weed bed and strike them. You can fish them around docks. You can stop and go retrieve on them. You can do all sorts of things where they're very, very versatile, which is why you wanna have these tied on. They're different colors, so you can match the bait fish with the color of the forage that the fish are feeding on. And they come in different weights and sizes, so you can adjust your speed and depth as well that way. So such a versatile lure, you're limiting yourself if you don't have some of these in your tackle box.
And there you have it, the top seven baits that you need to have in your tackle box in order to catch fish year round. Notice they're all very versatile and you can fish them in variety of conditions, each and every one of them. You can fish them in docks, you can fish them in weeds, you can fish them in rocks and deep water, shallow water, hot water, cold water, that's the point. Get these lures in your tackle box, and you'll be a extremely versatile angler and you won't have to spend a fortune in order to fill out your tackle. For more tips and tricks like these, visit BassResource.com.
