Bassmaster Top Lures Average

[On the Waterfront]

On the Bassmaster website, you can find a list of the lures that the top 10 anglers in each event used.

 

I compiled the information from 2021, 2022, and 2023 in an excel spreadsheet. I found a lot of recurring lures that proved popular in certain months. Right now, I have month, year, lure color and type, and the number of times each lure was used by an angler that reached top 10 in a Bassmaster event.

 

Would it be worth releasing this spreadsheet? I was thinking of compiling more years for a greater idea of what lures to use. I feel like it would be either a hit or miss: either anglers would love this information or they would need more variables listed...such as weather and location. If it's highly requested, I'll work on it more and release it.

[Bankbeater]

I think it would be interesting to see how their top baits compare to our top baits for the same bodies of water.

[On the Waterfront]

I went through the Bassmaster Top Lures lists for 2021, 2022, and 2023, and compiled them together in Excel. I attached pictures of the spreadsheet.

 

How to read the spreadsheet:

The top ten anglers showed off their lures after each event. All of the lures were tallied together for the events of each given month. Green are "go-to" lures. Yellow is an alright choice. Red is less used and more questionable. Let's use February 2021 for example: the blue worm was used five times across the events in February 2021; the most used lure for that month. It's at the top of the list for February 2021 and bold because it overlapped with other years' green or yellow cells of the same month.

 

There are definitely overlaps between months and definite winners for most used lures for each month. 

 

Did I stumble on some genius information that the pros have been using this whole time?

Will you use this as a reference when you fish in the future?

Does this need more variables listed? Or is it good enough as is?

[padlin]

I appreciate the work you put in but it’s too fuzzy to read, at least it is on my ipad. Anyone have better luck?

[On the Waterfront]

@padlin I have the excel document but I don't know how to post it on this forum. Is there a way? The png image files get compressed when added to the site.

[FishTax]

Too blurry for me as well. Hopefully there is another way I'm interested in seeing this data! 

Does it have location included? February in Florida is a lot different than in Tennessee. 

[Tennessee Boy]

I see two problems.  1. Anglers use the lures that work for them and report the lures that sponsor them.  2.  Fish don’t follow our calendar they follow a seasonal calendar roughly based on water temperature so a February tournament could be prespawn or spawn depending on the year and where they are fishing.  

[Glenn]

1 hour ago, On the Waterfront said:

@padlin I have the excel document but I don't know how to post it on this forum. Is there a way? The png image files get compressed when added to the site.

Onedrive and Google drive are two free options.

[MN Fisher]

^ Go with Google Drive - I've had issues with One Drive and don't use it anymore.

[MIbassyaker]

This is an interesting project, and it's worthwhile to see the results, but I can't imagine trying to rely on it as a guide. None of these anglers are fishing the waters I fish, or waters that are even very similiar to where I fish, during the times of year that I fish them. 

 

Take a bunch of tournament pros and drop them onto my favorite anonymous 100-acre lake, hidden out in the fields 20 min from my house, some time between mid-june and august...would they really use the same lures as on this spreadsheet?  The first thing they would probably want to know is what I'm using...

[On the Waterfront]

This is the spreadsheet from Google Drive.

 

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1TFSRzusNtWxwcoMo1LjeWPk77Ya0aBxW/edit?usp=drivesdk&ouid=102258890283507481549&rtpof=true&sd=true

[On the Waterfront]

If you had a dream spreadsheet of which fishing lures to use, would you rather have location, weather, or spawn cycle? I can do location for sure but not everyone fishes those waters. I can try to get as many spawn cycles listed accurately. For weather, I might get lucky on the Bassmaster website too.

 

Any other variables?

[wvhunt]

On 3/18/2024 at 9:08 AM, Tennessee Boy said:

I see two problems.  1. Anglers use the lures that work for them and report the lures that sponsor them.  2.  Fish don’t follow our calendar they follow a seasonal calendar roughly based on water temperature so a February tournament could be prespawn or spawn depending on the year and where they are fishing.  

Number 1 was the first thing that hit me when I read the original post.  Of course the top producing lure will be the same name as on their hat/jacket/boat/etc.  After all, it's all about advertising.  "Boy the Jaberwocky Rippledipple really slayed the bass in today".

[Umphreak]

Interesting idea and you can definitely see a pattern as far as lure choice/color. However just the type of lure tells you very little about how the fish was caught. The guy that got first and the guy that got last could both be using a green pumpkin jig but the difference could be the first place guy was dragging a 3/4oz football jig in 20’ of water while the last place guy was using a 1/4oz swim jig in 5’ of water 

[Koz]

So, in other words, throw a green pumpkin worm 😀

[On the Waterfront]

My original intention was to provide a spreadsheet that gives anglers a general idea of what lures to do based on highest probability of being successful. Many anglers won by using lures that weren't most used.

 

However, if you have nothing to go by and want to know what catches fish, and have had zero luck with your purple and yellow shad rap, this should at least give you some ideas on what to try. It might not bag the heaviest fish, but it should at least bag some fish.

 

I agree with some anglers showing their sponsored lures. It's advertising. I do know of some anglers that use the baits they show. Scott Martin and Kyle Welcher show footage of their YouTube channels of them catching fish on the lures shown. What they don't tell you is why they use one bait over another. That brings in more variables than spawn season.

 

Mentioning spawn season and seeing some responses to spawn season, would it be more practical to type up a spreadsheet for lures used in each spawn-related season? I could list locations beside the month.

 

(Other variables too difficult to log: wind, true-non-sponsored lures, water temp, and lure size.)

[5by3]

Can’t wait to see this thing fill up with the jighead minnow 😁just kidding, but I’m curious if you’ll notice any shifts in baits with the recent ffs trend or if the usual baits will still dominate.

[On the Waterfront]

I might not go any further with these spreadsheets. Bassmaster angler Garrett Paquette did a spreadsheet of his own and read through the statistics. After 67 events, he took home $270,000. In comparison, Scott Canterbury did 72 events and took home $638,000. It seems like reading Bassmaster statistics doesn't really pay off as well as the higher paid pros.

 

However, I don't know if that's something Canterbury has been doing all along too. 🤔

 

Is it all about the insider secrets? Maybe learning what the top anglers are truly throwing in different conditions?

[GoneFishingLTN]

I forgot it was Garrett Paquette, I seen this years ago and forgot. I do think going to that extreme detail now days is probably not that helpful

 

1 hour ago, On the Waterfront said:

I might not go any further with these spreadsheets. Bassmaster angler Garrett Paquette did a spreadsheet of his own and read through the statistics. After 67 events, he took home $270,000. In comparison, Scott Canterbury did 72 events and took home $638,000. It seems like reading Bassmaster statistics doesn't really pay off as well as the higher paid pros.

 

However, I don't know if that's something Canterbury has been doing all along too. 🤔

 

Is it all about the insider secrets? Maybe learning what the top anglers are truly throwing in different conditions?

 

[MIbassyaker]

7 hours ago, On the Waterfront said:

My original intention was to provide a spreadsheet that gives anglers a general idea of what lures to do based on highest probability of being successful. Many anglers won by using lures that weren't most used.

 

However, if you have nothing to go by and want to know what catches fish, and have had zero luck with your purple and yellow shad rap, this should at least give you some ideas on what to try. It might not bag the heaviest fish, but it should at least bag some fish.

 

I agree with some anglers showing their sponsored lures. It's advertising. I do know of some anglers that use the baits they show. Scott Martin and Kyle Welcher show footage of their YouTube channels of them catching fish on the lures shown. What they don't tell you is why they use one bait over another. That brings in more variables than spawn season.

 

Mentioning spawn season and seeing some responses to spawn season, would it be more practical to type up a spreadsheet for lures used in each spawn-related season? I could list locations beside the month.

 

(Other variables too difficult to log: wind, true-non-sponsored lures, water temp, and lure size.)

Yeah, I like the effort and I think it's always worthwhile to systematically compile data. I just think the choice of lures depends too much on context -- particular lakes, with particular environments, in particular seasons, with particular prey species, even particular tournament strategies....change the context, and all bets are off.