Adventures Outdoors'
IN WISCONSIN
My Favorite Bass Baits
By Rick Spoerl
My favorite baits aren’t categorized by success and aren’t necessarily the best bass baits. Their more of a combination of challenging, fun to throw, as well as successful baits. More times than not live bait will catch more fish than artificial lures. Just ask bass guides down in Florida. They’ll tell you a large shiner is the most deadly bait for bass. Bass tournaments don’t allow live bait and it’s for a reason. So challenge does play a part.
I like a fun bait to throw. I would much rather test my accuracy throwing spinner bait at different targets along a shoreline than toss a plastic worm out. Even though the worm has caught probably more bass than any lure, it’s simply not as fun to throw as a lure (to me).
But of coarse were all out there to catch fish. So we do want to use lures that can do that. So I have listed in order my favorite four bass baits and why.
The Spinnerbait. The spinner bait is fun, versatile, challenging and does catch fish. You can cover lots of water quickly. You can ride it high on the water creating a wake, just below the water, down deep with a jigging motion, slow or fast. Not only does it come in every imaginable color but also has different types of blades attached creating different vibrations. It will mainly catch Bass and Northerns, but also Musky, Crappie, Rock Bass and an occasional Walleye. Although I’m mainly talking about the bobby-pin spinner type bait, I also use the in-line spinners like those produced by the Mepps Co. of Antigo Wisconsin. Small in-lines are great for big blue gill, crappie and white bass. Large in-lines are mainly for fishing Musky’s or big pike. The one problem is, they do pick up lots of weeds. On the other hand the bobby pin spinner (V shaped) is nearly weed less. After living on a weed choked lake for four years I really appreciated the weed less nature of the spinner bait. Although short strikes do happen frequently with this bait, a trailer hook will offset your losses. This bait is normally fished rather fast and should be tossed with a fairly stiff rod and bait cast reel. Because of the speed this bait travels through the water, it isn’t normally used during cold front conditions.
The Buzzbait. This is my favorite top water bait. Although the buzzbait looks similar to that of a spinnerbait, the heart stopping pop and pull of a four pound largemouth hitting your buzzbait on the top is all its own. Buzzbaits are big fish baits. Your partner may well out fish you in numbers using a spinnerbait or worm but chances of your fish outweighing his are much better. Smaller fish tend to stay away from a big buzzbait but bigger fish are attracted to the noisy "blurb, blurb, blurb, chatter, chatter, chatter" of it. I’m not sure if they’re trying to eat it or just trying to take a bite at it scarring it away. I think it aggravates them and causes more of a reaction strike than anything. It works best with a little one to two inch chop on the water. It’s deadly in flooded areas where bass are aggressive. Although its killer down south where the bass are the king daddy, it also produces nice fish up north. It’s mainly a bass catcher and probably isn’t the best choice for a cold front but if put in front of a fish on a small lake that’s never seen it, and no matter up-north or down south the big girl is likely to hit.
The Jerkbait. To me a jerk bait is just a thin long (3 to 9 inch) shallow running crankbait. Probably the most popular of which is the Rapala. On a windy day I like to drift with the wind across a big weedy bay of 3 to 10 feet deep and toss these baits down wind creating extra long casts. Than I reel them in fairly quick, keeping them about an inch to a foot under the surface. These baits seem to work best on cloudy days. They come in a variety of colors. The chartreuse and orange is hard to beat, but my favorite is chrome with red highlights. I like a 6 inch long jerk bait. Rebel and Storm make some nice models. This bait can also be slowed down to a classic "float until the wake is gone" type presentation. You can jerk it along, steady reel it or let it sit. The small varieties should be thrown with a spinning reel but bigger jerk baits can be accurately tossed with a bait cast. I have caught mainly bass and northern pike with this bait.
The Crankbait. A crankbait is what it says. It’s a minnow shaped bait you throw out and crank it in. When I get away from the shoreline and get into deeper water I like to start working drop-offs with crankbaits. After a little practice with a few casts it’s easy to keep the bait at a certain depth without getting snagged. That’s really the only down fall of the bait. When a fish strikes it’s usually hooked. They look like a minnow more than any other artificial lure. Different length lips provide different depths. Lipless crankbaits are also available such as the rattle trap by Bill Lewis lures and rattlen rap by Rapala lures. These lipless cranks weigh more than balsa wood baits and sink. They also rattle when retrieved creating an irresistible noise to aggressive fish. You can go conventional with a minnow colored bait, go with a crawfish color or exotic like red or orange. Again, it’s hard to beat the success of chartreuse. They make fat cranks as well as thin ones. The thin crankbaits such as the "thunderstick deep jr." made by storm lures catch mainly walleye but I have caught largemouth as well as smallmouth on them. If I’m in "Bass only" waters or I’m fishing a bass tournament than I will only use fat cranks. If I’m in Canada or waters that hold walleye, northern, musky and bass, I’ll use thin cranks. The small (one to two inch) shallow running cranks are great little lures for fishing shallow bays or flooded areas. Think short and fat for bass and long and thin for walleye and pike.
I do use plastics for bass but it’s usually when all else fails. Using Carolina rigged or Texas rigged worms are simply just to boring for me and I’m sure it cost me in some tournaments. Swimming jigs and bouncing them off the bottom is another method of taking bass that I rarely take part in. Top water lures such as pop-r’s, hula poppers, jitterbugs and zara spooks all serve a purpose but it’s a slow method requiring more patience than I have. Do I use them? Sure, but not often. There are many types of lures out there that produce bass but normally I stick with my top four. If you want some fun, tie these lures on four rods and head to the lake. If nothing else you’ll break up the boredom of watching a worm sit on the bottom.