Must Have River Bass Baits

[Catch and Grease]

What lures would you never leave the house with on a river fishing trip? I'm going river fishing this weekend during a camping trip but I don't wanna take alot of my tackle due to limited space.

I'm bringing a small tackle box with all my cat fishing stuff and some spools of leader line.

For bass fishing I'm bringing a jitterbug, lipless crank, squarebill crank, 4 spinnerbaits, trickworms, craws, and swimbaits. Is there anything else y'all would try to cram into this small box??

[MassBass]

Grubs, inline spinners, spinnerbaits, tubes, poppers.

[Ima Bass Ninja]

3" Yum mighty bug. Works really good since the claws are thicker than most craws. Keeps those pesky bluegill from tearing the claws off.

[bigbill]

River fishing it's the smaller chartreuse rebel crawfish lures.

Panther Martin spinners, mepps inline spinners, joesflies.

In the shallower areas I cast past the rocks and drop my lure into the pools around the rocks.

I find the river bass more aggressive and very strong fighters.

After all there swimming in current.

[ColdSVT]

Black and chrome x-rap, a chartuese spinnerbait, a black or white single colorado blade spinnerbait, a chugbug and some tubes

[aavery2]

I would throw a nice heavy jig or two in the box, 1/2+

[iabass8]

My homewater is the Mississippi River. The baits I always have on my deck are:

 

1/2 brush jig/craw trailer

3/8oz tungsten + beaver/craw/worm

squarebill

1/8 or 3/16 oz shakey head + trickworm or baby rage craw/dbomb

swim jig or chatterbait

frog

popper

[Raul]

It depends on the river don' tcha think ?

[Fishdude216]

Buzzbaits, Spoons, Grubs and Plastic Worms

[Steveo-1969]

3" Yum mighty bug. Works really good since the claws are thicker than most craws. Keeps those pesky bluegill from tearing the claws off.

X2.  This is my t-rig "go to" plastic for river smallmouth right now.  I rig it on a 2/0 EWG hook.

[smalljaw67]

It depends on the river don' tcha think ?

 

This is a true statement, the river I fish most of the time is the Susquehanna, it is very wide but shallow and the determing factors of which lures to use is based not only on season and water temp but water clarity and whether the water is rising, falling or stable. If you have clear water and you are looking at smallmouth, then one of the best things to have at this time of year is a floating jerkbait, Rattlin' Rogue is my go to but I do like both sizes of the Bagley Bang-O-Lure and the size 8 and 10 in the Rapala Flat Rap. Spinnerbaits are always a good thing to have and at this time may be the best bait to have. You also have to look at tubes and make sure you have enough jig heads, hooks and weights.

[CTGalloway21]

for rivers in the south, all you need is topwater, spinnerbait, jigs.  

[Catch and Grease]

I'm at the river and I'm going fishing in a few hours, its super high and muddy due to flooding but I'm still gonna try!

[MichaelJ7]

Last week I fished out of a buddies Jon boat on a local river. Caught 11 nice ones in just a few hours.... All I needed was a 5" dinger

[Catch and Grease]

No bass the first night :/ got two good catfish though... My reels got sand in them and I had fun cleaning them haha

[Catch and Grease]

No bass the first night :/ got two good catfish though... My reels got sand in them and I had fun cleaning them haha

[iceintheveins]

3" - 5" Curly Tail grubs

Hula Grubs

Tubes

Shallow - Medium Cranks

Lipless Cranks

Couple Spinnerbaits

Couple Buzzbaits

Couple Prop Baits

Couple Walking Baits