Keri: There we go. That's a better fish.
Glenn: There we go.
Keri: Yeah. Way to go. Give a little tail walk. Dig, dig, dig, dig, dig. That's a mad fish. I saw her come out and eat it. She was definitely hungry. She came slowly sauntering out and grabbed it. Stop it!
Glenn: That's a good fish. Nice.
Keri: Nice.
Glenn: That's a really nice fish.
Keri: Yeah. I saw her come out and eat it. Look at that.
Glenn: That works.
Keri: Thank you, little girl. Nice fish. Look at her tail.
Glenn: Wow.
Keri: Thank you. Saunters off under the boat.
Glenn: Hey, folks. Glenn May here with BassResource.com, and today I wanna talk about the top five inexpensive baits that I feel are budget-friendly that will work for you throughout the entire spring. These are gonna save you some money. And because of the versatility, you're gonna be able to fish them whether the fish are deep in the early part of the spring, or up shallowe spawning, or somewhere in between even in the post-spawn. These are very effective. So, they're budget-friendly because they don't cost you a whole bunch. Plus, they have value to them because you can use them... they're very versatile, you can use them throughout the entire spring. So, let's jump right into it.
The first bait I wanna talk about is the YUM Dinger. I really like the YUM Dinger for a variety of reasons. First of all, it's got that nice subtle action that all stick baits have. But even the ones that have a real soft, soft plastic to them, it still has that action. But because it doesn’t use that soft, pliable plastic that some of the others use, it's more durable. You catch several fish with it before gets all tore up. So, just by that nature, you're saving money, but also you can buy them in bulk. And when you buy them in bulk, they're only gonna be a couple of pennies a piece. So, it saves you a lot of money.
As far as the versatility is concerned, early in the spring when the fish are deeper, you can tie it onto a split shot rig or a drop shot rig, get it down there deep where they are and work it deep along the creek channels, along those ledges, those humps, those main lake points that are entrances into those flats. And as the fish move up shallower, you can start to lighten up on the weight. And then even fish it weightless and those fish are up in the flats feeding heavily or even spawning, I just fish it weightless Texas rig. Just throw it out there on slackline and just let it flutter straight down, it falls horizontally and use a 2/0 or 3/0 hook. And you catch a lot of fish that way. There's not a lot of work you have to do to it.
And in the post-spawn when these fish are guarding fry, you can twitch it right through the ball of fry. And there's usually an aggressive male nearby guarding them and he's gonna whack it.
All is I ask is if you're catching bedding bass, or if you're catching fish that are guarding fry, just make sure you're going right away so they can finish with what they're doing with the spawn. It's really important that they're able to continue and finish that spawn. This lure by the way works really well in bedding bass too. You can bring it over the beds and just annoy the crap out until they bite it.
Weeds. Nope, that was a fish. Absolutely, it was a fish right there. This is a guarding bass. Going after your lure. Here, you got it. There you go.
Keri: Damn. He's an aggressive little thing.
Glenn: Yeah.
Keri: Dang. Got you, little guy. Come hither. Come hither. I'll put you back so you can continue guarding. There we go. Gosh.
Thank you, little guy. Now, go guard. Go guard away.
Glenn: So, that's number one. The next lure I like to use that's inexpensive is a jig. I like Siebert's jigs. They don't cost you that much, under five bucks. They're made with strong, strong hooks. They use wire ties for the skirts, so they don't wear out and break over time. I've had some baits for 5,10 years and they still work really well. So, they're a bargain at only a couple of bucks a piece. And they're built right. So, that's why I like Siebert's jigs.
And again, you can fish them at all depths, from 60 feet up to zero. And you can just change in the weight on them. So, what I like to do is, early spring I'll use a heavier weight like a half-ounce, maybe even a three quarter-ounce. Football head jig, where there aren't any weeds and I just crawl along the bottom real slow like a little lethargic crawdad, the football jig will do is a wobble back and forth just like that. And it just looks like a little crawdad. Just come out of its slumber from the wintertime, and they're very vulnerable at this time. That's when the bass are gorging on crawdad. So, it's a great bait to use early spring.
Later on, what I like to do is my favorite is a flipping and pitch jigs into heavy cover, bushes, any kind of flooded trees, shrubs. Any kind of cover I can find where the fish will be up in there, flipping and pitching jigs right back in there and getting them where they are at is a great way to fish them during the spring.
And you can swim them. They're so versatile. You can swing it along docks, you can swim it through balls of baitfish, you can swim it post-spawn and the fish are aggressively going after baitfish to feed up for the summer and recover from the spawn. It's so versatile that it's worth getting jigs and using them throughout the spring. You're gonna catch a lot of fish that way.
Keri: You can't tell me there ain't no fish in here. You just can't tell me that. I don't buy it. There we go. See, I was just mentioning it.
Glenn: He get it right when it hit the water.
Keri: I was just mentioning that. Little buckaroo.
Glenn: Yep. Right when it hit the water.
Keri: Little buckaroo.
Glenn: He's like, "Saw it incoming." He nailed it.
And if the fish are reluctant to bite, they generally will bite this. Now, if they don't want to, that's when I go to my next lure, and that's a tube. Tube jigs are very inexpensive. There's a variety of companies out there that make them. I like Outlaw baits, OutCast baits, there's few others that make really good tubes. A lot of companies do, but they're very inexpensive regardless who you buy from. And generally speaking, buy them in bulk. I like to buy them in a 100-pack. That's how much I like tubes. So, they'll last you a long time. They don't get tore up that much and they're very inexpensive.
Just rig it on a jig head that's got the eye offset from... it's not the front but a little bit offset from the front. It's just an open jig head. And with that, you get the spiral action when you drop it in the water. It looks like a dying baitfish. Throw it up next to docks. So, right next to those old drops and those weed edges and just let it spiral and let it do its job. You don't have to do anything, just let it fall on slackline. For that reason, that's why I throw out on spinning tackle so I can flip the bait and just let it fall. And that's a great way to catch them, especially if the fish are again like I said when it was fronts come through, though, maybe they're on top of the hump before the front came through, they'll move off to the sides or even right down to the base of the hump when those fronts come through. And those fish if they're not actively attacking that jig, that's when the tube works really well because you can put a little scent inside. When the fish bites it, it's squishy, it feels realistic. They hold onto a little bit longer because it's got the scent in it and you get a better hookset on it. So, a tube jig is a killer secret lure that I use that catches a lot, a lot of fish. So, and it's inexpensive too.
Keri: There we go.
Glenn: Hit it right when I cast, of course. Going for the bigger girls huh?
Keri: Yeah. Totally. Yes. Actually, I am. All right, ready to come in. Come on in. Say hi. Hi. Come, hither.
Glenn: There you go.
Keri: All right.
Glenn: Nice.
Keri: Yeah.
Glenn: And you get to hook her.
Keri: I know. She's a cute little girl that right in the middle of nowhere undid in my backlash. And as I was reeling it in it chased it to the boat.
Glenn: Oh, yeah. You're kidding me.
Keri: So, I threw it right back in front of it and it hit it.
Glenn: No kidding.
Keri: Yep. Chased it to the boat.
Glenn: The next bait I like to use a lot during the spring that doesn't cost you an arm leg is a spinnerbait. Now, before you go, "Whoa, wait a minute," there's a lot of expensive spinnerbaits out there because there are. There's a lot out there, but the ones I find that are the best bargain for you are the ones made by BOOYAH. And that's because they're built really well and they don't cost a whole lot. They have really strong hooks that don't bend out, they use quality ball bearings for where their blades attach, their wires are strong so they don't bend, and most importantly, they run straight right out of the package. It's hard to find that in a bargain spinnerbait, but the BOOYAHs I found tend to fit all those categories right out of the package.
And again, you can fish them throughout the entire spring. Heavier spinnerbaits, slow rolling it early in the season, so half-ounce, three-quarter ounce. And then when the fish are up shallow and the temperatures are up in the upper 50s into the 60s, burning it across weed beds, burning the long docks as fast as you can through stump fields can elicit some very vicious, vicious strikes. Three-quarter ounce spinnerbait works great in those scenarios when the fish are up shallow. So, spinnerbait, great bait to use.
Keri: Hey, look at that. Got a little bucky boo. Got a little bucky boo.
Glenn: There we go. A frog.
Keri: On a frog.
Glenn: Actually, it's a toad, if you wanna be specific.
Keri: You got a little bucky boo on a toad.
Glenn: He's hungry because that's a big toad for this guy, but I'll take it.
Keri: Take it.
Glenn: All right.
The next one I like to use during the spring which isn't very expensive is a frog. There's two main frogs I like, two brands of frogs. One is the BOOYAH Pad Crasher and the other one is by Spro, the Bronze Eye Spro. Great bait to use because it's relatively inexpensive. The Bronze Eye costs a little bit more than the Pad Crasher, but you can get it on sale and it's a moot point.
The thing is about these two baits is that they're very, very durable. So, fish after fish after fish, they're not gonna tear up and become unusable. They last a long time. The hooks are very strong, they don't bend out. So, it makes it a great bargain because you can use them season after season after season.
The thing about frogs in the spring is I fish them a lot earlier than most people do. I start fishing them when that water temperature gets about 50 degrees. Yeah. I know right? Crazy. I fished a tournament last year, and I caught most of my fish on frogs are all big fish. The biggest one was pushing over six pounds. And when I told people what I caught them on, they couldn't believe me because it was 52-degree water temps. Like,"You're not fishing frogs, you liar." Okay. What have I got to gain by lying?
So, but that's the truth because what happens is those fish start moving up shallow and they move up into that cover. And you also need is a few days of nice weather like this where maybe it's been terrible rain, cold, but you get three or four days in a row where the weather has been nice, or you get maybe several days of rain, but it's been warm. So, it warms up that water quickly. All you need is a quick warm-up where the water temperature changes several degrees in a short period of time and that'll move the fish up shallow. And that's when they're susceptible to a frog, and that's what it was at that tournament situation. We had several warm days. We had two weeks actually of warming trend when it rained really hard. Warm rain is gonna warm up a lake a lot faster than a bluebird sunny day like today. So, that's when I broke out that frog because the temperatures went from 46 degrees to 52 in a week. So, they all came up shallow, frog city.
Frog can be really fun even as you get closer into pre-spawn and even when they're spawning because it floats and you can bring it right on top of a bed and just park it right on top of the bed and just give it a little subtle twitches with the rod tip and entice that bass to smack it. And you can bring it over the tops of balls of fry during post-spawn, bring it over those weeds that are now emerging and bring in a little pockets of those weeds and let it sit. Just give it little twitches it looks like a something that's struggling, some amphibian. Boom those bass will suck it right up. So, frog is a great lure to use, inexpensive to use throughout the entire season.
Okay. So, those are my top five inexpensive lures to use during the spring. I hope those tips help. For more tips and tricks like this, visit BassResource.com.
