How many lures catch 80% of your bass?

[Swamp Girl]

In another thread, @Craig P wrote, "Find a technique or two you like and roll with it, the fish will come."

 

I agree with Craig, but I use more than one or two lures. I catch 80% of my bass with these lures:

 

Popper 

Plopper

Spinnerbait

Underspin

T-rigged soft plastic

 

So, I thrive or die with five lures. How about you? How many mainstays do you have?

[Rockhopper]

White double willow spinnerbait and black/blue football jig with trailer.  Both half ounce.

[softwateronly]

Jigs;

 

5/32 horizon head w/ rapala freeloader

1/2oz zorro booza bug w/ a d-bomb

3/4oz dj cali swim jig w/ 5" gambler ez

 

 

I'm a junk fisherman for sure so t-rigs, free rigs, flukes, spinnerbaits, scroungers, glides, and spoons all had their days/weeks.  But in the end, my year in "big" fish would almost be unchanged if I only fished the above 3 jigs.

 

scott

 

 

[Craig P]

I do the same as you and employ more than just a couple of methods as I like several but I wish I could go back 6-7 years and tell myself to just get good at a couple of things.  After that, start dabbling.  Social media and marketing is rampant throughout bass fishing and the dangling carrot is hard to ignore.  We all have dreams of catching the quality and quantity of bass we see on screen and getting distracted from perfecting a method is easy in the pursuit of fishing fever.

[A-Jay]

IMO, it is completely dependent on where & when I'm fishing.

Lakes, rivers & reservoirs all present different challenges. 

 Lake Menderchuck is no different.

While they do seem to change a bit from year to year,

my most 'productive baits' from last season appear below.

A-Jay

https://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-forums/topic/263885-productive-baits-2024-edition/

 

[detroit1]

Spinnerbait and dropshots for me...not 80%, probably closer to north of 50 anyways.

[Craig P]

9 minutes ago, Rockhopper said:

White double willow spinnerbait and black/blue football jig with trailer.  Both half ounce.

 

Stop that!  It hurts when you read my mind! LOL but definitely agree!

[Jar11591]

Spinnerbait

Popper

Jig

Texas Rig

Weedless Frog

 

These account for about 80% of my catches. If I added walking baits and wacky rigged senkos I’m guessing it would be around 90%. The other 10% would be made up of probably 6-8 different baits/presentations. 

[Pat Brown]

I find that year to year in NC, we experience enough variation in water quality/conditions - it pays to stay open minded and be aware of how your strengths align with 'the moment' that you're fishing.

 

That being said -

 

Jigs 

Plastics

Frogs

Buzzbaits

Lipless

Jerkbait

Spinnerbait

Swimbait

Glide bait

 

Some years will be overwhelming slanted one way or another because of dirty or clean water or vegetation doing well or not doing well etc.

 

You still gotta fish the moment but I'm pretty much only fishing these baits all year long - making adjustments as necessary.

[Catt]

How many lures catch 80% of your bass?

 

How many worms come in a pack?

[casts_by_fly]

ignoring color variations which would add 2-4 options for a bait, I probably caught 80% of my fish last year on 4-6 lures.  That will be skewed a little since I focused a lot on neds and had 4 pretty good days that boosted the numbers.

 

spinnerbait OR chatterbait OR swim jig (depends on the year it seems.  last year was spinnerbait)

texas rigged creature (beaver, but a couple more came on a craw)

buzzbait (one color, one size)

ned rig (couple different but similar plastics)

walking bait (sexy dawg, one color)

 

putting it this way, that's the water column from top to bottom, fast/medium/slow baits, and sizes from a 2" ned up to about 6" depending on the specifics.

[Wprich]

My mains are:

-Worms: Neko, Wacky, Shaky Head, & Dropshot(Senko/Missile Baits Magic Worms/Strike King Finesse worms)
-Finesse cranks(Shad Rap/Frittside)
-Minnow baits: Dropshot, Underspins, Minner shaking, Jig Head(X-Zone/Keitechs/Baby Z Too/Flukes)
-Creatures: TX/Carolina Rigging(Game Hawgs/Lizards/Rodents/Craws)

 

Catch a few here and there on jigs, chatterbaits, jerkbaits, spoons etc but no where near my main producers but hope to become at them all.
 

[webertime]

Small Football (Keitech or Beast Coast)

Carolina Rigged Zoom Speedcraw 

Jerkbait 

Chatterbait 

Fat Ika or Magdraft Freestyle 

[Tennessee Boy]

Before I answer the question let me tell you why I don't like the question.   For me fishing is not a search for the right lure.  Lures are tools.  

 

@Craig P wrote, "Find a technique or two you like and roll with it, the fish will come." 

 

Finding a technique is very different from finding a lure.  I have no use for a hollow body frog unless I'm fishing froggy water.  It's a tool for very specific situations.  

 

Now that I've got that rant off my chest I'll answer the question.  In 2024,  I caught 80% of my fish on 7 lures if I don't differentiate between different colors and different weights.  4 of those 7 were soft plastics.

[GRiver]

 Last year I made myself use hard baits… so for 2024 it was square billed. Any other time it’s T-rigged worms or creatures, with that being said, my numbers dropped greatly for 2024. 
Not making that commitment to hard baits for 2025.

 

[Team9nine]

Just ran through the catches of the better quality fishes this year and 85% were captured on the following 5 baits; 

 

Ned rig

finesse jig

jighead minnow

crankbait

blade bait

 

[rboat]

1. Fluke

2. soft stick bait

3. spinnerbait

4. lipless crankbait

5. spook or popper

[Jig Man]

Jigs, Ned, shaky, swim baits 90%+

[WRB]

60% finesse soft plastics.

15% top water, jerk and crank baits.

20% jigs*

5% swimbaits.

Tom
* 95% bass over 10 lbs.

[LonnieP]

I catch at least 80 percent or more on 

Jigs

Texas rigs 

Crankbaits

[Swamp Girl]

I added and divided all that I could and the average is four lures per BR angler catch 80% of our respective bass. A few of the posters wiggled like an oiled newt on crack, making their individual totals elusive and so I didn't add their "numbers" to the total because I couldn't seize them.

 

"Four lures per angler" isn't sweet music for the Bait Monkey's ears.

[gim]

spinnerbait

jerkbait

chatterbait

ned rig

wacky/neko rig

 

Probably close to 90% of my bass are caught using these 5 techniques.

[Jigfishn10]

I’m sure that once I get back to freshwater fishing this year 80% of the bass won’t be near 20% of my lures  

[SC53]

Soft plastics ( senko type, speed worms, creatures/craws, flukes, in that order)

Jigs ( swim and hair jigs)

Topwaters ( minnow type, spooks, hollow frogs)

 

 

[Aaron_H]

Three have reigned supreme in the last few years.

 

Chatterbait

Lipless crankbait

Jerkbait