Picking the ten best lures for summer largemouths would be a daunting task. Limiting the list to just the five best, must-have baits for summer bass would be nearly impossible. But I had confidence that pro angler Joe Balog of Millennium Promotions would have an answer. You see Balog fishes all over the country and has a pretty good idea of what works and where. Still, limiting the choices to just five lures was not easy.
“When I considered this question, I thought it would be impossible to choose five baits at the top of the list all across the country,” said Balog. “The diversity in fishery types limits this. For example, the five best lures would be different in a northern, grass-filled fishery than in a stumpy southern backwater. So I chose baits that I thought would get me by regardless of the fishery - lures that would work well everywhere.”
Most bass enthusiasts will admit that they have way more lures than they’ll ever use. Having a big boat with lots of storage facilitates this. But suppose you were fishing out of a kayak or from a two-man bass tub. This selection is what you need to have in your must-have, minimalist summer tackle box.
1) Hollow Body Topwater Frog ex: Spro Bronzeye.
“Great for any thick summer vegetation and thick backwater areas,” said Balog. “hollow-bodied frogs are perfect for casting around shallow docks. They’re ideal around areas with lots of chopped-up weeds from summer boat traffic.”
SPRO® Bronzeye Frogs are sleek, mean, and perfectly balanced. They exhibit a wild leg kicking action bass can't ignore. Specially weighted to cast long and always land on its belly, the SPRO Bronzeye Frog is as weedless as a lure can get. You can throw it into the nastiest stuff you can find where lunker summer bucketmouths hide and not worry about getting snagged. The lure comes with premium Gamakatsu® hooks.
There can be inherent problems if you’re not versed in fishing frogs. Frogs produce a ton of blow-ups, but the hook-up percentage is often low, especially with the SPRO Bronzeye. The Bronzeye’s hard, hollow body makes it difficult to stick fish. You need to restrain yourself at the strike, wait until you feel the fish, and then plant your feet and set the hook. Don’t spare the rod or line when fishing frogs. Have another rod rigged and ready. When a bass blows up on a frog, and you don’t hook them quickly, toss a jig or worm where he showed. Quite often, he’ll be waiting for a second chance.
Other top brands of frogs include LiveTarget's Hollow Frog, Booyah's Pad Crasher, and Jackall's Iobee Frog.
2) Plastic Worm ex: Berkley Power Worm
The classic, venerable rubber worm should not only be in your summer bass survival kit, but if you only had to pick ONE lure for bass, a rubber worm might be it. One reason is its versatility.
“A rubber worm is great on any structure - weeds or wood - deep ledges, rock piles, etc.,” advised Balog. “Rubber worms are especially good at mid-depth (7-10 ft) and deep (20 ft+) structures. Worms produce lots of bites because they look natural and feel like something good to eat.”
Of course, a rubber worm is different now than 20 years ago. From when you could only get a Mann’s Jelly Worm in a 7-inch purple model to the explosion in plastics we have today is surreal. You can get worms in every conceivable size, shape, and flavor from shaky worms and drop shot finesse worms up to 12-inch anacondas. The truth is, though, you can still catch a ton of bass on a 7-inch purple worm.
3) Chatterbait ex: original Chatterbait
“A chatterbait is great around wood and weeds for cast and retrieving and covering water,” offered Balog. “It best in depths of a foot to 6 or 8 feet.”
Precisely what is a chatterbait? “Essentially, it’s a swim jig fitted with a vibration-producing blade that does a fine job of plowing through the water and letting anything with a lateral line know it’s a-comin',” wrote David A. Brown when describing a chatterbait. “And, although bass are mostly sight feeders, they're more apt to look for it when they can hear and feel approaching prey.”
Chatterbait is a generic term among bass anglers for a particular type of lure. They are anything but subtle. Chatterbaits are a searching gizmo intended for target-rich environments like stump fields, submergent and emergent vegetation, docks, and laydowns, offering the action of a crankbait, the profile of a jig, and the flash of a spinnerbait that’s especially good in murky water. The standard for the industry is Z-Man’s Original Chatterbait.
4) Small, compact flipping bait ex: Sweet Beaver
“Rigged with a substantial weight, this lure can be flipped and pitched into the thickest cover, fished around docks, or pitched into deeper weed beds and fished on weed edges,” offered Joe Balog. “I would regularly choose it for waters from a foot to 12 feet.”
According to Reaction Innovations Andre Moore who designed the bait, “The body of the Sweet Beaver features forward facing ribs that create lots of pressure waves that let bass know something is moving and offers bass a texture that they seem to like when they inhale the lure. The centerline is recessed for better hook penetration, but the 'nose' of the lure is thick to hold your hook without tearing on every fish. The long, flat beaver tail is textured on the flat surfaces and along the edge, and it's splitable so you can have a twin tail look, an attention to detail not seen in most soft plastic lures. The Sweet Beaver also has additional tails set at 90 degrees to the beaver tail for fish attracting movement no matter how the lure is moved.”
Rigged with a 5/16-ounce or heavier tungsten worm weight and a 4/0 hook, the Sweet Beaver can be used to punch and flip heavy cover where summer bass often take up residence.
5) Deep running crankbait ex: Rapala DT 16
Summer bass seem to be in two places – shallow or deep. “A crankbait is essential when bass are deep. For covering water out on points, river ledges, or deep grass flats, it’s tough to beat a crankbait,” Balog said.
According to Rapala, “DT Series lures, designed by crankbait authority David Fritts, dive fast and stay in the strike zone longer than any other crankbait. The Rapala DT Series lures are made from the top seven percent of select balsa wood. Perfectly consistent wood combined with carefully placed internal weights, a tapered fuselage, and a thin tail creates an incredible crankbait action found only in the DT Series.” The ability of the lures to dive quickly to a certain level and stay there is a big plus.
The DT 16 reaches a maximum depth of 16 feet on the retrieve to place it exactly where summer bass can often be found chillin’. The DT 16 is a must-have addition to your summer bass survival kit.
