My Most Productive Baits ~ 2021 Edition

[A-Jay]

 My quest for the Plus Size brown bass that inhabit the water I fish here continues. 

And while I was super fortunate to introduce myself to a few, I also caught more small to mid – sized bass this season than in many years combined.  Can’t really explain it, but something changed.

 

I was on the water more early (and some late) season.

This list of ‘the most productive baits’ reflects that.

Meaning, much of this is happening in relatively cooler and even cold water. 

So definitely pre-spawn, perhaps some post spawn with a few summer and fall trips mixed in at the end of it.  

Bottom line and what might be the important factor here is, these are the baits that took the better fish for me this season.

 

https://youtu.be/xOItisrL3EM

 

 While I have quite a bit of this burned in to my memory, I do not remember every bait I fished in every situation all year.

Still, it’s hard to forget the deals that took the better fish. 

Just to be sure, going back through report videos was very helpful and somewhat enlightening actually.  

Not going to discuss all of the horizontal moving hard baits that to me, feel like a glaring omission. 

But I just never got a bigger bite with that stuff this season.

 

Either way this is what I came up with.

The baits listed are pictured in the most productive colors/patterns based on the conditions I fished them in.

 

 

Jerkbaits;

Megabass Vision 110 Silent,

Megabass Vision 110

Megabass Vision 110+1,

Megabass Vision 110+1 Jr

Strike King KVD 300 Deep. 

That Silent bait is really proving to be a shallow water killer.

 

Blade bait

 Dimiki Vault ½ oz.

 

Vibrating Jigs

 Z-Man Jackhammer Chatterbait 3/8 & ½ oz

 Z-Man Chatterbait Freedom 3/8 & ½ oz

 

  Vibrating Jig Trailers 

  GYBC Zako and a Paul Krews Custom Baits Hand Poured Goby

 

Evolution Baits HD Goby on a football Head 

(Totally new deal for me )

 

Outkast Tackle Feider Fly Marabou Jig 3/32 & 1/8 oz

 

Everegreen Shower Blows 105

 

Strike King Rage Tail Cut-R worm

 

A-Rig 

G Funk Baits Bama Rig with

Strike King Rage Tail Swimmer,

Keitech Swing Impact FAT and / or

Strike King KVD Swim N Shiner

Mounted on Dobyns Light Hook Swimbait Head or

Dirty Jigs Tactical Bassin' Finesse Swimbait Jig Heads or

VMC Boxer Jig Head  – usually all 1/8 oz.

Baits are usually less than 4.75 inches.

 

I also fish the above swim baits & heads as stand-alone presentations in ¼, 3/8 & ½ oz. sizes

 

Strike King Burner Spinner bait – I changed the blades on some baits 

I’ve fished painted blades in the past (white) so it’s something I went back to this season.

 

Megabass Dark Sleeper ½ & ¾ oz

 

***  Baits along the Right side of the picture are Presentations I fished some and intend to fish more next year. 

These are in the ‘High Expectations’ category.

Megabass Vision 110+2 - (really hope to discover the Magic in this bait – if it has any.

@Munkin Custom Perch Spinnerbait

Megabass Sonicside crankbait

Tackle HD Hi Def Craw - (as a standalone bait and a trailer)

Tubes

Hair Jigs (bottom contact deals)

 

Wish List-

Baits that to the best of my knowledge do not exist, but I believe there’s a real need for.

 

5/8 oz Jackhammer (Seems it could be a real sweet spot as far as weight goes)

A SILENT Megabass 110+1 and 110+1 Jr. that will still cast well. 

 

 As always, please feel free to add your own selections to this thread should the mood strike you.

We like pictures.

Stay Safe & Fish Hard

A-Jay

 

 

 

[Big Swimbait]

Nothing over 9 lbs for me this year. These East Texas lakes were stingy. A few surgeries kept me off of the water most of the year. But 2 baits stood out. A custom painted 5" Bluegill Bull Shad by BB needs to go back for a repaint. It got chewed! And a bait I listed last year - the Cabin Creek Spider Parts, in particular The GP grub with the Tennessee Orange skirt. And the Ned rig saved me from a lot of shutouts.

[the reel ess]

I kept a big fish log this year. Dates, weights and baits. Notice the big fish trailed off a while back.

[king fisher]

I caught bass on almost everything I tried in 2021.  The baits pictured all caught bass 6 lbs. or over.  Some of the crankbaits in the picture are new, the old beat up ones that caught the fish have new homes at the bottom of the lake.  The spinnerbait on the far left was lost on a 9 lbs. bass when it wrapped me in a tree.  The next day a commercial fisherman caught the bass in his net, and gave me the spinnerbait back.  I'm still hoping to catch a few big bass before 2021 ends.

 

Spinnerbaits-- I made from parts purchased from different company's.  Wire bodies were pre made, I just added the blades and skirts.

 

Crankbaits--  Are Academy H20, 6th. Sense, Bomber, Rapala

 

Buzz Baits are Cavitron.

 

Rebel Jumping Minnow

 

Old Monster worm

 

7 inch Senko

 

Skinny Dipper.  Used on A Rig and as a single bait.

 

 

 

[thediscochef]

This is pretty much it for me this year, in terms of form factors. I have multiple colors of each of these baits for different times and places, but these are reliably on my chatterbait 99% of the time for big fish. Right now I'm sticking to white and chrome heads, with white or smoke plastic. Summertime it was chartreuse head and watermelon or red plastic. This lure combo caught Blue Catfish as large as 19.1lb, Buffalo as large as 10.8lb, and Bass as large as 3.8lb. I did catch bigger fish such as Gar and other LMB with them but I do not have photos, specific weights, or other documentation so I do not count them. Not pictured but honorable mention: 1/32oz and 1/16oz ned rig, size 90 whopper plopper.

[DitchPanda]

I caught alot of bass this year on alot of different baits. For me I'd say my most productive baits by season are

Spring: 3/8oz war eagle black black blade buzz bait

Summer: 1\4oz rebel Pop r with upgraded hooks and Texas rigged zoom mag 2 in June bug or red bug

Fall:  1\4 oz red eye shad in various shad patterns 

 

Overall hands down: green pumpkin TRD on a 1\16 Berkley half head

[QED]

Wacky rigged 4" Senko, drop shot rigged Z-man TRD, and spinnerbaits.  Then we had a toxic algae bloom and a possibly related fish die off at my nearest lake, so I haven't seen a bass since.  But I did manage to catch a large bullfrog on a spinnerbait!

[Aaron_H]

Interesting topic. Just went through my log for the year, and my top two baits were a senko (made up 44% of my 2021 catches, with 57% of those being on watermelon/red) and a lipless crankbait (which made up 40.5% of my 2021 total, 52% of those were on a Red-Eyed Shad).

 

Honorable mention to the Ned Rig in a very distant 3rd place, only making up 6% of my total numbers for the year. Ned rigs are a new thing for me this year, just started throwing them about halfway through the year so still a learning process.

 

Size-wise, lipless was the overwhelming lead, 100% of my bass over 5lb this year were on a lipless.

[A-Jay]

10 hours ago, the reel ess said:

I kept a big fish log this year. Dates, weights and baits. Notice the big fish trailed off a while back.

Nicely Done Sir ~

A-Jay

[scaleface]

I'll play . My 2021 A-team .  

 

 

[gim]

I will admit that 2021 was not a great season overall for this guy. 2020 was epic so I also wasn’t expecting a similar follow up.

 

My best lure was probably a black spinner bait. I didn’t use this color much in the past other than at night time. I tied it on one rainy morning in August and it was very successful until seasons end. Second best lure was a neon colored stick bait. Chartreuse with black flake and white with silver flake were the 2 best colors.

[MN Fisher]

I didn't get out much this year due to various things, but the two baits that caught bass this year were

 

1: 3/8 Z-Man Original chatterbait, white/chartreuse with a 4" Pit Boss trailer in Skeet's Chartreuse Shad

2: #2 Blue Fox Flash Spinner in Blue Shad

[QED]

3 hours ago, scaleface said:

I'll play . My 2021 A-team .  

 

 

The Beetle Spin is a classic!

[scaleface]

1 minute ago, QED said:

The Beetle Spin is a classic!

I keep some in my truck .When I stop at a ditch or something to just make a few cast , its usually with a Beetle Spin .

[Columbia Craw]

I always look forward to this thread.  A-Jay, there is a definite absence of lipless crankbaits, mid depth crankbaits and wobble heads in comparison to the last two years.

 

This year was with out a doubt the worse year for me regarding bigger fish.  I was the Dink Dawg for sure.  Decent numbers but it was cookie cutter 2021 .

[A-Jay]

10 minutes ago, Columbia Craw said:

I always look forward to this thread.  A-Jay, there is a definite absence of lipless crankbaits, mid depth crankbaits and wobble heads in comparison to the last two years.

 

This year was with out a doubt the worse year for me regarding bigger fish.  I was the Dink Dawg for sure.  Decent numbers but it was cookie cutter 2021 .

Yup ~

Hope that's the last year of that noise for us both.

A-Jay

[Bankbeater]

This year was one of the best for numbers and size.  Crankbaits, jigs, plastic worms, topwater, and spinnerbaits all caught multiple bass in the 4+ pound range, but I just couldn't break the 5 lb mark.

Crankbaits brought in most of the numbers in spring and summer, but the bite started to slow down in the fall.

Jigs, plastic worms, and spinnerbaits are still producing, but the bite has tapered down quite a bit since the weather cooled.

Topwater baits were killer in the vegetation this summer just after first light before it got hot. 

Pictured are the top producers from each category.

 

[the reel ess]

On 12/4/2021 at 7:03 AM, A-Jay said:

Nicely Done Sir ~

A-Jay

Thanks. I was hoping to add to those big gals. Not much luck since September. The year's not quite over yet.

[LrgmouthShad]

27 minutes ago, the reel ess said:

Not much luck since September. The year's not quite over yet.

Well if you believe @TnRiver46, December’s pretty good. Today, December meant busting through ice  to go fish. Only had a couple hours and got skunked ☹️. I don’t like getting skunked. 

[the reel ess]

7 minutes ago, LrgmouthShad said:

Well if you believe @TnRiver46, December’s pretty good. Today, December meant busting through ice  to go fish. Only had a couple hours and got skunked ☹️. I don’t like getting skunked. 

I'm still catching bass, and the occasional crappie bycatch. I did have one skunk and a couple days with only a couple fish. The skunks come after New Years for me. I just can't seem to find or get the big gals to take since September. This year was phenomenal for me, size-wise, but definitely not for numbers. I'd still go if I only caught 2 pounders, but they aren't a huge thrill. I don't intend to stop fishing this winter.

[LrgmouthShad]

22 minutes ago, the reel ess said:

I'm still catching bass, and the occasional crappie bycatch. I did have one skunk and a couple days with only a couple fish. The skunks come after New Years for me. I just can't seem to find or get the big gals to take since September. This year was phenomenal for me, size-wise, but definitely not for numbers. I'd still go if I only caught 2 pounders, but they aren't a huge thrill. I don't intend to stop fishing this winter.

Youve got a lot of passion for the sport. I think somebody would have to handcuff you to keep you from going fishing ?

[the reel ess]

1 minute ago, LrgmouthShad said:

Youve got a lot of passion for the sport. I think somebody would have to handcuff you to keep you from going fishing ?

I'm gonna do it until I'm physically unable.

[LrgmouthShad]

Meanwhile up in the way far north, we got guys looking at completely or nearly completely frozen over lakes and then log on to BR and see the article about buzzbaits for cold water bass. 

[TnRiver46]

1 hour ago, LrgmouthShad said:

Well if you believe @TnRiver46, December’s pretty good. Today, December meant busting through ice  to go fish. Only had a couple hours and got skunked ☹️. I don’t like getting skunked. 

HahahaGot em again today! Report to follow. 55 degree water is good no matter what month and that’s what we’ve got currently 

[DitchPanda]

1 hour ago, TnRiver46 said:

HahahaGot em again today! Report to follow. 55 degree water is good no matter what month and that’s what we’ve got currently 

Lucky dog