best fishing lures for bass fish

Catching your local Bass can be a stressful past time. These fish can be very particular on what type of lure they will latch on to. During my time as a weekend angler, I have tried out some of the best fishing lures for Bass fish with varying results.

Its good to have a wide range of lures in your tackle box to try out. Usually, if I go to a new area I will cast out a maximum of 15 times with a certain lure into different spots and then change it out to a new lure.

Some days Largemouth bass will strike at deep divers, other days they will latch onto surface swimmers such as frogs and poppers. This is why I don’t have a favorite lure for Bass fish but in this post, I will list a few that work for me.

Different types of Bass Fish

There are many different types of Bass fish such as the Largemouth, Smallmouth, and Spotted bass. These are the some of the most popular game fish in North America.

  • Black Bass
  • Temperate Bass
  • Asian Sea Bass
  • Australian Bass

These Bass fish can be found in rivers, creeks, lakes, and dams. Bass love to eat fresh bait such as worms, insects, and frogs. They are excellent hunters and will also target lures that mimic baitfish, worms, crayfish, frogs, snakes, and mice.

You will have to take into consideration the Largemouths bass habitat. Be it weeds, rocks, deep-water, shallow-water, logs and water quality.

Best Fishing Lures for Bass Fish

Over the past 20 years, I have tried many different types of lures for Bass. I mainly target the Largemouth bass and I have found that the plastic frog works best for me in my favorite spot.

Here are my top 8 best fishing lures for Bass Fish:

  1. Plastic Frog
  2. Rubber or plastic jigs
  3. Crank Bait deep divers
  4. Jerk Bait
  5. Rubber baby crawfish lures.
  6. Spinnerbaits
  7. Finesse Worms
  8. Lipless crankbaits and rattlers.

If you have each one of these in your tackle box and rotate them during the day you will be sure to catch a Largemouth bass if it is in the area.

Types of Lures

Plastic Frog

frog lures for bass fish
Click for more information over at Amazon

The Plastic or rubber frog is specifically designed to imitate a frog jumping close to the surface. Pick a color frog that is native to the area. I found brown and green color frog lures work well for me.

Plastic Jigs

jigs for large mouth bass and fresh water fish

Jig lures have been around for a very long time. You need to work the jig to make it attractive to the bass fish. The way I like to work the jig is to cast it and wind it in fast using a jerking motion. Keep a steady wind on the reel but jerk the rod.
Try going faster or slower if you are missing strikes. Often the bass will strike at the lure but if it is going too fast the fish will miss.

Jigs can be made out of feathers, rubber, silicone, plastic, cotton and many other different materials. I like to use fluffy feather type of jigs and these really fluff up well in the water.

Crank Bait deep divers

Cranks baits also called deep divers are designed to swim down deep into the area of where the fish are. The longer the bill on the lure the deeper it will dive.

Try varying the speeds on the lure and also try some jerking actions. This should attract the Bass fish out of its home.

Jerk Baits

Jerk baits are usually longer than its smaller crankbait and more streamlined. They are designed to float when you stop winding in or jerking the lure. These are great if there are a lot of underwater obstacles so you can float above them.

Keep the jerking motion going at all times. It will simulate a baitfish in distress.

Rubber baby crawfish lures

Craw-fish taste great and many different species of bass love them as well. The rubber baby crawfish jigs work well in areas that are prone to snags. I find a slow jigging motion works best.

You can get them in a range of colors but brown seem to work best in murky water while blue works best in clean clear fresh water.

Spinner Baits

Spinnerbaits usually target other types of fish but often they will attract out a large bass hiding under a log. They look like a jig but with a rotating silver spoon flashing outer casing which will reflect the sunlight.

I like to use the fast retrieval method with the odd jigging motion. Spinners work best in clear water when there is lots of sunlight. Check out this post if you would like to make your own homemade spinning lures out of rubbish.

Finesse Worms

Worms have always been a favorite bait for small and big mouth bass. But often I can’t get fresh bait from the local tackle shop so the next best thing is the imitation finesse worms. These are made to look like a fat brown worm and they move the same when used as a lure.

I like to cast them out and let them sink down to the bottom. Often fish will strike while they are drifting down. Once on the bottom, use a jigging motion back to the surface will often tempt out some large bass.

Make sure to get a few packets of finesse worms as fish will often destroy these worms.

Lipless crank baits and rattlers

bibless crang bait gold, blue red, white

Lipless crankbaits are more of a newcomer onto the angling scene as they don’t have a bib to make them dive deep. Often they will have a small rattler or ball inside which will make a jiggle sound which will attract the predator fish up from deep down.

I tend to use these as a last resort if nothing else has been working. With snap lock swivels you can quickly change out lures in a few seconds. Try them all you may be surprised that one will work better than the other in your local area.

How to kit out your Boat for bass fishing.

Having your boat correctly kitted out to target largemouth bass. Just like most fish Bass can be tricky to catch but if you follow these standard accessories for your boat you will have a great time.

If fishing with live bait, it is important to keep your bait tank cool and well aerated. Change the water often as this will keep your bait fish alive for longer. I like to use a 6-foot cast net to catch live bait in the shallows. You can also use a small fish bait trap which works well but takes longer to catch your bait.

Have a good filleting knife handy and a large esky for your catch with ice. The quicker you can bleed your fish the nicer tasting the white flesh will be. Having all of your lures ready in a tackle box with many different types will make your day easy. The Plusinno fishing lures kit shown below is a great value kit for targeting bass fish.

How to tell the difference between Female and Male Bass Fish

It is very hard to tell the difference between male and female largemouth bass. You just about have to be a marine biologist. There are a number of tell-tale signs but unless you catch them every day it will be hard to spot.

  • The male bass bottom jawline will be more pointed and triangular while the female bass lower jaw will be wider and more rounded in shape.
  • Nearly all largemouth bass weighing more than 8 lbs. are female.
  • Males tend to be thinner and more streamlined whereas females are fatter.
  • When during spawning season if you press gently on the bass fishes stomach and massage down towards the rear vent if a milky white substance comes out called milt then its a male.

Make sure you know your local size and catch limits, and if you catch a female I like to throw them back. Especially if its a large female over 6lbs. Let these fish populate the area for the next generation.

Largemouth bass habitat

Now we are getting into where the fish like to live. Generally largemouth bass like to live in fresh water up to 20 feet deep. Log and rock cover are very important for the bass to make it feel like home.

They also like lots of aquatic vegetation such as cattail, bulrush, and water lilies. This will provide cover and shade for the bass. Lots of vegetation also promotes wildlife like insects and frogs to the area which the largemouth bass will target.

Bass like slow-moving water. They are an ambush fish which will wait for the perfect opportunity to strike.
Water temperature is also very important as they prefer to live in temperatures around 65 to 90 deg Fahrenheit.

Conclusion

At the end of the day, you can have the best fishing lures and gear for bass fish and still not catch anything if they are not in the area. I find early morning and near dusk the best times for bass to be feeding but I have caught them all day long if they are in the area and biting.

largemouth bass size of its mouth
Large-mouth bass can swallow huge lures.

If you would like a challenge and want to try catching a Largemouth bass with ancient survival techniques then how about making your own fishing gorge hook. It’s a shame we are forgetting how to use our traditional fishing methods. But advancement in technology usually improves our success rate.

Often it’s not about how many fish we catch, or the size of the one that got away but just being out in nature is the reward in its self. Good luck everybody.

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