Best Bass Lures
Choosing the correct bass fishing lure for each day of fishing and specific fishing spot can be a daunting task. Which lures are going to work best is a common dilemma that all bass fishing anglers face.
Factors such as seasonal patterns, water clarity, water temperature, and the type of the body of water cause most anglers head to spin.
Our mission on this site is to educate, inform and arm all bass fisherman with the best bass lures for any fishing situation.
The plastic worm or also commonly known as a rubber worm has without a doubt caught more fish than any other lure on the fishing market to date. We rate the plastic worm as the number 1 bass fishing lure.
The Original Creme Rigged Scoundrel
Over 65 years ago, Nick Creme invented the plastic worm. Nick was tired of digging up real earthworms and wanted a solution to go fishing whenever he could. Meeting with a DuPont chemist he was able to create a plastic/rubber material which worked like crazy. The scoundrel was born, even with a spinner on the front. You can still purchase the original fish catching rubber worm here.
The Best Bass Lure Yamamoto Senko
If there was ever a lure which improved the original and completely changed the bass fishing industry forever it was the Gary Yamamoto Senko. The original design was molded out of a pen. Incredibly simple in design, but simply irresistible to bass all year round.
With its wide range of uses and subtle natural action, the Yamamoto Senko has quickly become a favorite with anglers all over the world. The beauty of the Senko is in it’s simplicity. The Yamamoto Senko may just look like a thick round plastic worm but the fall rate created from the large amount of salt impregnated in the body drives fish mad.
When rigged weightless the Yamamoto Senko falls horizontally with a seductive side to side tail action. Try wacky rigging or texas rigging the Yamamoto Senko and experience the versatility and effectiveness it provides.
The Senko really shines in the spring of the year when the Largemouth Bass heads to the bank to spawn. There is something about the finnese presentation of a Senko that a bedding bass can not stand.
Rigged in texas style the Senko can easily remain weedless and be casted, flipped or pitched into any emerging vegetation.
In 2015 Dave Ochs, caught a unofficial 19.2lb largemouth bass in Florida on a Yamamoto Senko. The bass was so large that he could not fit the fish in his livewell and get an official weight, but if the fish weighed 19.2 lbs then it would have been certified the new state record of Florida.
2. Best Bass Lure- Bass Jigs
The bass jig which is called often called a jig & pig, swim jig, flipping jig, or weedless jig is one of the best trophy bass lures, and the only reason why we did not rank the bass jig as the number one lure is the fact that less people have caught fish with a jig than a plastic worm. Professional bass fisherman like Denny Brauer spent his entire career pitching and flipping a jig.
A jig is typically paired with a plastic trailer such as a Strike King Rage Craw, NetBait Paca Craw, Zoom Flipping Chunk, or a Yamamoto Twin Tail Grub. Jigs are appealing to bass since they can imitate a bait fish, crayfish, blue gill or perch, and both smallmouth, spotted and largemouth bass devour them.
When the bass are hanging in thick hydrilla, milfoil, laydowns or deep in the shadiest spot of a dock a serious flipping jig is required. I absolutely love the Dirty Jigs heavy duty flipping jig.
Paired with a short shank Gamakatsu ultra sharp hook this jig can stand up to heavy pressure from even the toughest braided line. The short shank hook also makes for a perfect slim line profile to slip into the smallest of holes in the grass. The 60 degree flat eye allows for a better hookup ratio.
I simply add a Strike King Rage craw to the back and get to work!
Anytime that we hit the water no matter if it is the Potomac River or Lake Champlain a black and blue finesse jig is always tied on. Simply put this finesse jigs catch from when the water temperature is 38 or 95 degrees.
The Strike King Tour Grade Football Finesse Jig comes standard with an incredibly sharp Gamakatsu hook for better penetration when setting the hook. The jig has a “crew cut” supple Perfect Skirt in beautiful colors and a specially designed tapered barb “keeper” to securely hold soft plastic or ElaZtech Trailers.
Without a doubt, if you are looking for a versatile jig that catches largemouth, smallmouth, and spotted bass in 1 foot of water or 50 foot of water this one is a winner!
To round out the trifecta of jigs that any bass fisherman needs to have in thier arsental is a swim jig. Swim jigs are used to imitate shad, crayfish, and bluegills. Often times a swim jig never hits the bottom as an angler continually pumps and reels the jig in. Swim jigs have a thinner weed guard which allows for easier hooks setting.
The Strike King Tour Grade swim jig is my favorite. The reason why I love this jig is the wire trailer keeper which is molded into the lead head. No more jig trailer falling down!
The tour grade swim jig sports a super sharp hook to ensure no missed short strikers. To round out the features of the Strike King Tour Grade Swimming jig is an Ultra-Lifelike Perfect skirt that looks just like bluegills or shad.
Swimbaits are relatively new to the bass fishing world, but one of the best trophy bass lures.
Steve Kennedy can attest to this, in 2007 at Clear Lake he demolished the heaviest four day catch in a BASS tournament with a total weight of 122 pounds 14 ounces.
Since Steve broke the record swimbaits have become a must have in any bass anglers tackle box.
Swimbaits can be broken down into two categories soft and hard. Soft swimbaits are rigged with either a large offset hook or a lead jig head. Soft swimbaits can be rigged to be weedless, which allows then to be fished in vegetation.
Hard swimbaits come rigged with treble hooks and lend themselves to open water fishing.
I took a trip to fish a tournament at Douglas Lake in Tennesse a few years ago and my eyes were opened to the world a deep water swimbait fishing.
As usual I bought every type of swimbait and tested them out in official practice. The bass were coming off the bank in late may and setting up on offshore structure sometimes as deep as 35 feet.
The Zoom 5″ Swimmer swim bait rigged with a 1 ounce lead screw head turned out to be the best fish catcher. A steady slow wind was the best retrieve, with pauses in between produced some explosive strike from bass up to 7 lbs.
The Zoom 5″ Swimmer has a hard paddle of the tail, even with a slow retrieve. Much better than Strike Kings Shadalicious.
The Jackall Gantia 180 Swimbait will make a great addition to any bass angler that wants to catch the biggest fish in the lake.
The coolest feature of this swimbait is that it suspends, and when you twitch the bait it will do a 180 and look backwards! Right in the face of any bass that maybe following the swimbait.
The realistic baitfish colors are sure to fool any leary clear water bass. Many fish have been taken from clear reservoirs in the United States with the Jackall Gantia 180 swimbait.
4. Best Bass Lure - Buzzbait
Few things in life excite me as much as a trophy bass crushing a buzzbait. The Nichols Reflex Buzzbait has long been my absolute favorite buzzbait. For one the color selections of the painted blades really get the bass fired up!
With a flat head and a supieror crafted wire the Nichols buzzbait allows me to crank much slower, which results in many less hook ups.
I do like to take the skirt off on occasion and add a Zoom Horny toad to the back. A tackle box without he Nichols would simply be a huge mistake. The biggest problem I have had is that I can never find them in the local tackle store around me, no need to worry because Amazon now sells them!
5. Best Bass Lure - Square Bill Crankbait
To round out the Top 5 Best bass lures I have included the Strike King Square Bill. Kevin Van Dam made this bait famous when he won the Bassmaster Classic on it.
I am sure you have seen it or even own a few. I bet you did not realize that they now make this square bill in 58 different color variations! The unique “wander” action as this bait “hunts” in the water simply catches fish.
I have also added the plus sized model to my arsenal. Any time I need to cover water and want to provoke strikes from larger than average bass then I go to the larger sizes.
Amazon now has ever single color in stock and you can get them the next day!