Top 5 summertime bass lures

[Skspacemonkey]

Hi guys, I'm just wondering what your top 5 best summertime bass lures are? If you could include the brands and color that would be really helpful. Thanks?

[iiTzChunky]

Mornings and evenings I like top water frogs. Middle of the day I like worms. Havnt had much luck on anything else in the dog days of summer. 

[Skspacemonkey]

What's your favorite frog to use?

[gim]

I'll second the frog, especially early and late in the day.  Pad crasher and spro.  Terminator just introduced a soft body frog too that I might try.

[Skspacemonkey]

17 minutes ago, gimruis said:

I'll second the frog, especially early and late in the day.  Pad crasher and spro.  Terminator just introduced a soft body frog too that I might try.

What Colors do you like? And do you use the poppin frogs or just the normal?

[Outdoor Zack]

If I had to pick 5 (in order of top of the water to the bottom): 

 

1. Rebel pop r or rebel magnum pop r

 

2. Squarebill crankbait (flat sided if it's during the middle of the day usually.  Something like a KVD 1.5 any other time)

 

3. Brush hog, lizard, or other creature bait on a t rig.  

 

4. T rigged senko (weightless)

 

5.  Finesse worm 

 

 

Honorable mentions: grub and small spinnerbait

[papajoe222]

Welcome to the forums.

My favorites are divided into two categories; Numbers, and Hawgs.  For numbers, a split shot rig with a french fry or centipede in green pumpkin with a little Spike-It on the tail and a MegaStrike Shakey head or Charlie Brewer Slider head rigged with a Havoc Bottom Hopper of the same color as above. A Norman Deep Little N in their chilli bowl or black splatter. A Pop R rounds it out.

For better than average size fish it depends on what section of the water column I'm targeting. Both a jig and craw trailer and a 10in. ribbon tail worm can be worked from the upper to lower sections, but I prefer to use either as bottom contact lures. Black/Blue for the jigs with either a RageCraw or Paca trailer and purple or grape firetail worm with a sliding bullet weight. Topwater is a toss-up between a black buzzbait or a bone colored Zara Spook. A 6in. hollow body swim bait rigged on a darter style jig rounds out these four.

[IndianaFinesse]

Half of a green pumpkin zinkerz on a 1/16 ounce mushroom head, a booyah Popping pad crasher or pad crasher junior both in cricket frog, a 1/8 ounce shaky head with a green pumpkin finesse trick worm, a wacky or Texas rigged senko, and a deep little n. 

 

If I could have five more it would be a 3/8 ounce jig, a black or white buzzbait, a popper, a super spook, and a square bill.

[wdp]

1. Baby 1 minus

2. Zoom Super Fluke or GY Senko (tie)

3. Redeye Shad

4. Shaky Head w/straight tail worm or ultra vibe speed worm

5. Rapala Skitter Pop

[scaleface]

1 Plastic worm - Texas rigged

2 Deep diving Cranks

3 Shallow diving cranks

4 Lipless cranks - Red Eye Shad

5 Buzzbaits

[Clinton john]

For where I fish I only need two slots of the five slot best summer time bait list.

 

1. Ribbet frog, colors- black and red flake or white with chertruese feet, fish them all day, middle of the day look for think shady cover.

 

2. Bandit sqaure bill, color pearl and black back, for the schooling fish on Sandy points and sand bars.

[jr231]

Rage bug. Punching through the slop where the bass are taking shade and picking off unsuspecting forage and critters/bugs. Seriously, so fun tossing it out there and setting into a bass you knew had to be there. And the rage bug gets it done. Always.  June bug and summer craw are my favorites. 

 

GY senko/fat IKA/ DT hula grub . They charge as much as they do because they catch fish. And people are willing to pay it for a proven plastic. All three of these baits are deadly weightless ! Idk which I like more... But always have more than I need of these in my totes. And they are always in my bag spring through fall. The senko and the hula grub can be rigged many different ways.. the senko being the most versatile IMO but a simple jighead or Texas rigged hula grub has more than once been the days winner for me.  As for colors I've never bought a pack of GY anything that didn't work. But my vote goes for pumpkin with green and black flake. Or root beer with 2x emerald flake. 

 

Rapala shad rap. A sweeping retrieve has been my best overall. Back and forth with varying speeds and pauses until I find the right cadence. I often find myself catching more than just bass when this has been tied on but have caught over 4 bass 5+ in about a decade of fishing and countless fish 2-4 . Doesn't seem like much but given I'm in the north, have other responsibilities and am only a part time recreational fisherman, the stats are pretty decent with the shad rap. Classic perch or silver / black back are my go-to's

 

Jig. All kinds of jigs.  But mainly a light brush jig (1/4-3/8) or a swim jig being in my main rotation. On the brush jig I like to use the rage craw and chunk, zoom chunk, and 3/4 of a 5 inch senko. As for the swim jig I like curly tail grubs( kalins) rage menace , and small paddle tails. Jigs stay in my bag year round and have some with rattles , different heads, skirt materials , colors, and weights. I used to like to match my trailer perfect to the jig, but now tend to throw contrast on the trailer. Such as a Green pumpkin jig with a black trailer.  Mainly use earth tones as colors for my jigs but I've had recent success with a pearl white swim jig. 

 

Popper. At night... Right ? Nothing I like more than making my heart jump when a bass slams my popper at night. That being said, I actually have the most luck using them mid day. In the heat of summer ! I caught 2 bass last year over 20" on a popper . And one was 24". Both fish were taken between 12-5 on seperate days. I like the rapala skitter pop. Many brands do the job in this category. Whether it's a megabass popmax or rebel pop-r (or my modestly priced skitter pop ) I'd keep at least one of these on hand. Black belly and white belly are all you need. 

 

I also like to use scents and dyes. JJ's magic and spike it markers . Mend-it for my expensive soft plastics. 

 

Good luck to you this summer. 

 

[Robert Riley]

I night fish mostly in the summer, so I'll expand a little past my top 5.

Topwaters:

1. Whopper Plopper (Bone or Loon)

2. Cavitron Buzzbait (black on black)

3. Spro Bronzeye or Scum Frog

Fishing Deep:

1. 10XDs

2. Big Worms

3. Carolina Rigs

4. Drop Shots (I wanna try this more this summer)

Punching and Pitching:

1. My custom Jigs

2. Havoc Pitboss

3. Missile Baits D Bomb

[Kidflex]

I only night fish during summer but my top 5 baits are:

1. V&M wild thang worm 8.5 & 10.5

2. Jig with rag lobster

3. Lucky craft Sammy 115

4. Zoom ol'monster

5. Single Colorado spinner bait 

[OCdockskipper]

I would like to lodge a formal complaint.  

 

Talking about favorite summertime lures in the middle of March is as bad retailers putting out Christmas displays before Halloween.  For heavens sake, focus on the wonderful season we are currently experiencing, fat bass headed for beds and then hanging around for weeks eating everything in sight.  Summer will get here soon enough 

[Catt]

1. Shallow water structure & cover

2. Deep water structure & cover

3. Lures & techniques to effectively fish the entire water column in both!

[LBASS01]

Early morning I like the Rebel Pop-R, Booyah Buzzbaits, Wakebaits, Frogs and Toads.  Afternoon I like Texas rig or weightless worms, craws, and critters.  Evenings surface lures are good and black spinnerbaits work well at night.

[GreenGhostMan]

Cavitron black/black 1/4 or 3/8 oz with half a zinkerz threaded on

Super spook Jr

Carolina rig

    zoom baby brush hogs

    zoom dead ringers 8"

    z-man lizardz

    z-man zinkerz

    z-man turbo crawz

Texas Rig

    zoom z-craw jr

    zoom trick worm

    zoom mag II worm

    SK rage bug

    SK rage craw

    z-man finesse worm

Wacky or weightless senko or zinkerz

SK 3XD, 5XD, 6XD

Rapala DT10 and DT16

 

There are random lures that work some days, but the above are my summer regulars

 

    

[WRB]

1 hour ago, Catt said:

1. Shallow water structure & cover

2. Deep water structure & cover

3. Lures & techniques to effectively fish the entire water column in both!

^^^^this^^^^

Tom

[JustinCT]

Black Zara Spook

Green Zara Spook

Double bladed spinner bait

Shaky head 

Senko

[Bassn4fun]

Green pumpkin 3" tube

Green Pure Poison bladed jig

Drop shot with a 3" Berkley minnow

Green Pumpkin swim jig with a green pumpkin craw trailer

Black/Blue jig with a black paddle tail trailer

 

[Sly Foxx]

I like black senkos Yamamoto

 

[gim]

On ‎3‎/‎28‎/‎2017 at 7:49 PM, Skspacemonkey said:

What Colors do you like? And do you use the poppin frogs or just the normal?

 

I prefer dark colors because it seems to stick out better, although I do have more than just one color and I use all of them with pretty good success.

[iiTzChunky]

On 3/28/2017 at 7:21 PM, Skspacemonkey said:

What's your favorite frog to use?

Pad crasher is my favorite. I like the green with yellow belly and the all white frogs. 

[Airman4754]

If I'm fishing wood I'm using a jig, pads are a jika rig, docks are a bubba shot, grass is a chatterbait or swim jig depending on how thick it is, and canopy is a punch rig with something from Gamber on it.

 

Off shore I have the same pattern. Throw a 6XD or 10XD depending on depth until I hook a fish then go C-rig with a Rage Anaconda or 12" lizard , a wrecking ball with a Crazy Flapper, 6" Speed Shad, football jig, and finish up with the drop shot.

 

On points I drift a 10-12" ribbon worm with a 1/8oz unpegged across them.

 

I hate fishing in the summer so I just try to catch toads.