First time

[burrows]

I remember my first hard bait bite, was a cool morning and I was fishing a farm pond. I had never caught anything on a hard bait I had a cotton cordel crankbait a deep diving minnow I think it was called I had bought for like a buck and a half, I casted with no luck for about and hour or two, and was retrieving the bait to go home and call it quits and pow it was like I had snagged a ton of bricks I pulled out a 4 pound farm bass! 

What was your first hard bait that you used to catch a bass?

[Arobb2012]

Mine would be a rebel wee craw. A friend from mine at the time asked if I wanted to go wading a river with him and his brother and of course I said yes. He told me to go and pick up some rebel wee craws to use on the trip. Not long after we started our trip I cast out my craw and it was slammed by a fiesty rock bass that fought for whopping 3 seconds before it gave up. 

[Ratherbfishing]

If, by hard bait, you mean "crank bait", it almost definitely would have been a small original floating Rapala as that was about the only crankbait i had for a long time.  Otherwise, I'm sure it was a small Mepps Aglia spinner.  Ah, those were the days!  (or so my selective memory chooses to believe).

[Jar11591]

The first hard bait I caught a bass on was a 2.5" Storm Chug Bug. It was when I was a kid, and we were fishing for smallmouth around an island. I tied on my chug bug and cast towards the island and after a few pops, a 2 lb smallie nailed it.

[scaleface]

I can vaguely remember my first fish  A sunfish caught on cane pole , bobber and worm . I bet I was three or four . I can remember it because of the bright colors and the name "sun"fish . I dont remember my first bass or first caught on an artificial . Its a pretty good bet that it was caught on a doll fly .

[jr231]

I was about 12 years old.. 11 years ago..  Me and my bestfriend at the time would troll jointed rapalas off the back of a paddle boat on a small lake. We caught bass and it's what made me fall in love with artificial lures in general.. this also carved out a lifelong spot for rapala in my tackle box. No matter what the "hottest" and "best new" cranks are. 

[TheRodFather]

I got back into fishing this spring, was a little late in the season for the good trout action (which was all I really knew as a kid).  A guy at work told me about this farm pond on my way to work that has Largemouth in it.   So I spent a couple days reading the internet to find out what type of lures I should be throwing.

I ended up with some Senkos, some jigs, a rebel popper, and a buzzbait.  Went to the pond and was lazily casting the buzzbait, thinking there was no way a fish was going to bite this strange looking thing.

All of a sudden, I saw a disturbance in the water about three feet to the right from the bait, and BAM, a 4lb largie exploded on the buzzbait.

I was hooked on Bass fishing.

Haven't caught another fish on a buzzbait yet......

["hamma"]

First hard bait bite? perch patterned floating rapala, at browns pond in my native city of Peabody, I was 16 and hitting small local ponds in the area, via my 77 suzuki gs 400. Funny how I can remember that, but if asked what I was doing Monday. I'd be drawing a blank,...lol, priorities

[frosty]

I don't think I've ever caught a fish on a hard bait. It's all been soft plastics of some sort or a frog.  I've had a few blow ups on a hula popper, but never hooked up. 

Edit, I did catch a few small bass on a small topwater popper once, it was a river that flooded and the fish were basically trapped. They would bite anything you threw in. 

[webertime]

Cordell Wally Diver

Cast out and on the retrieve a pack of smallies came back with it...  I was hooked.

[Bluebasser86]

I was so young I don't even remember. I know I have a picture of a nice bass from my grandparents pond that I caught on a floating Rapala. I remember that bass because my grandma filleted it and it had a mouse inside it (she's terrified of mice). I remember the bait because it's also the first bait I ever hooked myself with. 

[smalljaw67]

I was 9 or 10 when I got my first bass on a hard bait. My friend "borrowed" his Dad's tackle box and when he opened it I spied a brand new Jitterbug I had to try. It was a Chipmunk pattern and on the second cast with it I caught a solid bass, it was 16" or 17" if I remember right but I can still remember the bait and the strike because I was about bass fishing after that.