Best Spring Bass Lures
It’s spring, and you feel like you can’t wait to hit the water and start fishing for bass. Spring is an excellent time to spot bass, especially with the warm water temperatures bass will be spawning, and they tend to segregate at one location.
To succeed, you need to know the correct fishing technique, the right bass lure, and the suitable waters. Especially at this stage, where bass tends to be very aggressive.
This article will take you through the best lures most bass anglers use during spring and other vital facts about spring bass fishing.
Best Spring Bass Lures that Always Work
With spring being one of the highest-yielding, the weather can make it hectic to understand the sequence of the fish.
To catch bass, you’ll need to use the right lures and acknowledge the suitable fish patterns. Here are some of the best bass lures to use;
Lipless Crankbaits
Lipless crankbaits also called rattle baits, are very loud lures and appeal most to the bass. They have a split ring and two hooks to tie your line. Cast the plugs and let the bait sink. The combination of vibration, noise, and speed makes them splendid in shallow water.
Spinnerbait
Works in both deep and shallow water areas. It is designed for catching pre-spawning large bass. Having a pre-rigged hook on the top of the line makes it one of the best baits to trail hungry bass in spring.
Soft Plastic Baits
It’s the most versatile bait for bass, the best being the Gary Yamamoto 5-inch Senko green pumpkin black flake. It can easily be rigged to skip under docks. Some anglers also use it with Carolina rig, swing heads, drop shot, and shaky heads.
Chatter Baits
This is one of the deadliest bass lures; the bladed swim jig or vibrating jigs are very effective when the bass are in shallow waters. This bass lure is pre-rigged; add a soft plastic trailer to bulk it for you to catch fish.
Topwater Hard Lures
They have four main styles, wake baits, spooks, poppers, and prop lures. Prop lures work better in wavy or choppy water conditions. They are best effective during dawn or when the bass is actively feeding.
Square Bill Crankbaits
Square-bill is an excellent bait for fishing around all covers, and it comes in all shapes, sizes, and colors. They can be silent or have knockers to create more disruption. They can quickly locate bass other crankbaits can’t reach and can imitate crawfish, shad, and even beam, among others. When using it over covered areas, reel it at a slow retrieve.
Paddle Tail Swimbait
It is one of the most influential living baits used to catch big bass. Cast it around the shallow cover where the spawning bass is hiding. Let the swimbait alert the nearby bass. They can work anywhere on shallow, deeper water, open water, or covering water structures.
Ned Rig
It’s a finesse fishing style primarily for anglers fishing in harsh conditions or pressured waters. They are used with small plastic worms or creatures paired with a light mushroom head.
If you are fishing around wood, use a Texas-rigged jig head instead. It’s popular with serious anglers for catching bass but can also be used to target perch, walleye, drum, bay bass, and redfish.
Techniques of Early Spring Bass Fishing
Early spring is when the water starts warming. Bass migrates from the cold water and comes to the flatty sunny flats. At this time, try slow-rolling the spinnerbait along the bottom, stumps, and treetops. Here are some fishing techniques to catch early spring bass;
Choose an Appropriate Location
It’s challenging to find bass during early spring. They weigh on various factors like; water temperatures, watercolor, and the bottom condition.
First, do some sight fishing and determine where the bass spent their winter, then figure out where they’ll move to spawn and find the best route between the two.
Use Lures Proven For Early Bass Fishing
Use lures that can retrieve slowly. Professional bass anglers have favorite springtime lures. e.g., Midwesterners love jigs.
A lipless crankbait is best; around the Ozarks, jerk baits sell out, and it’s hard to beat a hair jig up North. Since bass is very aggressive, use a fish attraction lure by tossing it in the water and then drop a line in the area around it.
Fish in Shallow Waters
This is where spawning fish lay their eggs, making it convenient to fish around the water column.
Best Early Spring Bass Baits
The commonly used early spring baits are as follows;
- Bladed jigs and spinnerbaits
- Finesse jig
- Suspended jerkbait
- Lipless baits- used in secondary points and river banks.
- Soft plastics- clear water fish depend on sight and use baits similar to their feeds. In addition, use a soft plastic craw jig with either Carolina rigs, or Texas rigs.
Colors to Use for Early Spring Fishing
Knowing the best color to use is quite a challenge since many lure colors exist. When you go to bait shops, choose spring bass colors depending on the water clarity and the sun. Red and green are the most identified by bass.
Here are some of the colors that you can use;
- In muddy and stained water, use white or chartreuse.
- Super stained and murky water uses black and blue, and brown.
- When using crankbaits and soft plastic, use red and orange; they mimic crayfish.
- Ghost pattern colors are transparent and a good imitation of the bass forge in clear conditions.
- Sunny granny mimics yellow perch.
Best Spring Fishing Locations
As bass make their way to the shallows, they stay in spots along with points and ridges, fallen trees, grass, rocks, and water lilies, especially where flat shallows join steep drop-offs.
Fishermen can also find Migrating bass around rocky areas and docks when the water is warming and the monster bass is lazy. Here are some of the famous bass fishing destinations in the U.S.
- Lake Seminole Georgia
- Guntersville Lake Alabama
- Lake Fork, Texas
- Lake Okeechobee Florida
- Choke Canyon Reservoir, Texas.
- Reelfoot and Kentucky lakes, Tennessee
- Lake Norman, North Carolina.
- Rosse Barnet, Mississippi
- Southern California lakes
What is Pre-spawn Bass Fishing?
It is fishing before the bass moves upon their bunks to lay eggs. It happens during the end of winter and early spring.
Pre-spawning bass fishing is the best to catch giant bass since they are very vulnerable. Try working fast to catch pre-spawning fish by suspending jerk bait, swimbait, lipless bait, and spinnerbaits.
Conclusion
Target the southern lakes during springs, where there is more sunlight, also, stained water warms faster than clear water, where you can catch the most active fish.
Note that suspending jerk bait can remain in the strike zone for longer, allowing you to catch more pre-spawn fish.