Best trophy bass bait

[IndianaFinesse]

What is the best over all big bass (over five or six pounds) bait for northern strain bass?

[Josh Smith]

Depends on the location.

Jigs, worms, crankbaits...  Where I'm at it's generally thick cover unless I'm fishing the Wabash, so I rig appropriately.

Josh

[Gundog]

Most of the big bass I've caught have come on baits that were slow moving. Jigs and big worms are the baits that have caught the biggest bass for me. Mainly because big fish in lakes that I fish mostly seem to stay under the heaviest weeds they can find. 

[Airman4754]

Your brain. Trust me, once you figure it out what is on the end of your line doesn't really matter. At that point it's just matching gear to weight and bait to cover/structure/conditions.

Also, you're probably going to need to fish deeper than you're used to or comfortable with. 

 

[j bab]

Jigs

[SDoolittle]

[Turkey sandwich]

Big live bait fished properly is probably as good as it gets.  If not live bait, I've caught more 5-6lb Largemouth on jigs w/craw trailers or T-rigged worms than all else combined.  

[Slade House]

In terms of what bait has caught the most trophy bass?  so trophy bass is any bass over 10lbs?  no comparison, Huddleston , period (with a close 2nd to jig with pork and a Lunker Punker -- which produced  a 39 lb striper a week ago).  \\\.  \

BUTCH brown has the youtube videos to prove it.  where he is fishing in all of these videos is Lower Castaic Lake or Castaic lagoon. here is his 65lb sack of 5 fish (wht the 18.5 kicker).  HE HAS many of these videos , and ill tell you the guy also pretty much invented the split shot (or w its 45 minutes from my house) but castaic at one time produced 4 of the largest bass ever caught, but now you;re lucky to get 12lbs in a tournament.  they used to have tournaments at upper castaic but would hold the weigh in at lower castaic and then release all of the tournament fish into lower castaic, so that little lake b ecamse a dumping ground for tournament fish.  I fished uppwer castaic 2 days ago and i hate that place it sucks.  

 

[eyedabassman]

Big swimbaits,jigs,BIG worms,big live bait.

[frogflogger]

Plenty of good ideas here but don't forget big topwaters - they are overlooked for big northern lmb -

I forget what pro said it years ago - the jig with a trailer and the zara spook are the best big bass baits known - of course this was before the development of Hud's and other swimbaits.

[Turtle135]

fall, winter and spring: my biggest bass almost always fall to jigs

summer: my biggest bass almost always fall to 10" - 12" plastic worms

Most of the time I am on water that receives heavy fishing pressure. Presentations with few "negative clues" seem to work best for these educated largemouth.

[Weld's Largemouth]

Any lure really. Doesn't have to be big at all. I catch some big fish 5+ lbs on a 4" wacky rigged zoom centipede. Small bait that usually catches me small fish but still some big ones. 

Spinnerbaits, senkos, big worms, frogs.

[d-camarena]

Big swimbaits, jigs, manns jelly worm, magnum fluke, magnum lizards. And deep diving crankbaits

[A-Jay]

A-Jay

[blckshirt98]

Big swimbaits but it takes a special mindset and ungodly patience to be able to fish those properly with the intent of targeting and catching trophy sized bass.

[Ohio Yakker]

My PB came on a crankbait, but normally crankbaits catch me numbers, not necessarily size. Typically the baits that catch me bigger fish are either a topwater frog (hollow body or soft plastic) or a chigger craw on a Buckeye Spot Remover.

[J Francho]

Location is a better strategy for big bass.  Once you have that, cover, bottom composition, physical structure of the area, and cover will dictate what bait is best, or will even work.  No sense tossing a treble hook hard gill in a slop field, when a frog, jig, or punch rig is more suitable.

[Raul]

4 hours ago, A-Jay said:

A-Jay

Hmmm, to go where ?

Don´t need no Passport nor plane ticket to go and ketch me some biguns, they ain´t too far away ya know. 

[the reel ess]

Of course size matters to big fish. But the #1 way to catch big ones is to fish where there are some. Then the bait size is secondary. I just lost what would have been a PB Sunday on a T-rigged Hula Grub...not known as a monster bass bait but more of a numbers bait.

All my fish over 5 lbs last year except for two came on a craw imitation. Most of them on either a Zoom Super Speed Craw or a Berkley Chigger Craw. And the other fish over 5 came on a Rat L Trap and a Chug'n Spook, Jr.

I'm left with only one conclusion and that is that big bass eat craws. But they ALL came from the same body of water.

[J Francho]

My second biggest LMB from NY came on a tiny 3.8" finesse type worm on a 1/16 oz. wacky jig.  My biggest came on a 10" Power Worm.  Both were over 7.  You never know what the big girls want.  The largest was luck.  I've neither heard of, nor myself caught anything even remotely close to that size in that water.  The no. 2 fish came from a lake well know for fish.  A buddy has two over 7 and one over 8 from that place.

[A-Jay]

1 hour ago, Raul said:

Hmmm, to go where ?

Don´t need no Passport nor plane ticket to go and ketch me some biguns, they ain´t too far away ya know. 

True Trophy Green Bass requires some type of Pilgrimage for this basser.

However, I am surrounded by plenty of Bronze Bass Trophyness.

A-jay

[Darren.]

We should ask @Fish Chris about some of his trophy bass.

Live nightcrawler, live crawdads, swim baits.

Small to large. They all work.

For me, or I should say, my PB, a 5" senko. Most of my 6+ 
pounders on 4" senkos... All depends on, as @J Francho 
said, "what the big girls want"...

[Raul]

7 minutes ago, A-Jay said:

True Trophy Green Bass requires some type of Pilgrimage for this basser.

However, I am surrounded by plenty of Bronze Bass Trophyness.

A-jay

Lucky U. 

[A-Jay]

Just now, Raul said:

Lucky U. 

Right back at ya ~

A-Jay

[Raul]

2 minutes ago, Darren. said:

We should ask @Fish Chris about some of his trophy bass.

Live nightcrawler, live crawdads, swim baits.

Small to large. They all work.

For me, or I should say, my PB, a 5" senko. Most of my 6+ 
pounders on 4" senkos... All depends on, as @J Francho 
said, "what the big girls want"...

FC´s weapon of choice lately was Basstrix Paddletail Swimbait.

Let´s not forget Matt Servant too.