How many lures catch 80% of your bass?

[AvoidingYardWork]

#1 Hallow body frog

#2 Some form of popper: pop max, rico, googan blooper (don't sleep on this one, replace the hooks and it is a killer)

#3 Suspending Jerkbait

#4 Spiner bait/bladed jig

 

The rest of the time I'm trying out new stuff or trying to commit time to making lesser used lures/techniques work.

 

[Phelptwan]

Changes by the year, but I'd say;

1. Wacky Rig

2. Rat-L-Trap

3. Frog

4. Jerkbait

5. bladed jig

 

 

They move around pretty regularly depending on the conditions for the year.  Last year was weird because we didn't have a real freeze and had a BOATLOAD more grass than usual. 

[Bird]

Flickshake - 60 %

Spinnerbait -20 %

 

 

[DaubsNU1]

I always have rods rigged up with the following when my boat launches. They seem to catch 80%+ of the fish when I'm on the water:

1. Spinnerbait
2. T-rigged curly tail worm
3. Senko
4. Square-bill
5. Drop shot

Rod locker holds 10...the other five rods are changed out based on my feelings for that day, or the lake I'm fishing.

[TheSwearingAngler]

The question seems to be geared toward quantity of fish.. I’ve found with big numbers quality happens too…last season went like this

 

chatterbaits, full size and flashback minis… flashback mini caught more, I caught 2 MA trophies on full-size and 2 on the mini. Countless fish just shy of trophy class.

 

booyah pond magic.. big numbers every year, 2 trophies last season.. 1 just shy.. same fish hit my next lure 5 days earlier. Catch and release works and I have photographic evidence.

 

Lunkerhunt Compact Frog (smaller of the 2 sizes).. lots of fish, 1 trophy class… 1 just under, same one that hit the Booyah 5 days later

 

4 inch Yum Dinger, weightless, texposed on an EWG.. lots of fish every year.. a couple just short of trophy class last season.

 

Small squarebills… I think they’re the 6th sense crush 25… 1/4 oz if I recall.. lot of fish..  nothing memorable size wise.

 

runner up is a ned rig, I had less success with it this past season but in the past it’s been my #1 producer by a wide margin.

 

The pattern in these baits is they are almost all small… small catches numbers here and with enough numbers size is usually mixed in..

 

For reference a MA trophy fish is 21 inches or more. Catch and release.

 

PB on the pond magic 

[C.Tucks]

Ned rig

Drop shot

Walking topwater 

 

can you tell I mostly target smallies?

 

[Swamp Girl]

@TheSwearingAngler: I thought your fat bass was one of @Bluebasser86's Kansas hogs. 

[Lottabass]

@Swamp Girl  I know you fish in a canoe.  I'd be interested to know what tackle you carry and how you carry it.  Thanks!

[Swamp Girl]

1 minute ago, Lottabass said:

@Swamp Girl  I know you fish in a canoe.  I'd be interested to know what tackle you carry and how you carry it.  Thanks!

 

I carry two to six rods, all spinning, but that might change in 2025 as I'm thinking of adding a casting outfit or two to the mix. I carried just two rods if I'm fishing my pond for an hour or an hour and a half in the evening, where a canoe, paddles, and net await me.

 

I have tried a couple soft-sided tacklebags with Plano utility boxes inside. I did not like those. When I return from a fishing trip, I usually remembered to open all the utility boxes to let them dry, but not always and I lost some hooks to rust. So, for 2025, I'm trying an old-fashioned hard tacklebox with two trays like a kid 50 years ago might have owned. Instead of removing and opening all the utility boxes, I'll just have to open the lid.

 

If a canoe is already at a pond, I carry all my gear in one trip, with the rods in one hand and my tacklebox in the other. I strap wheels to my canoe at one pond and just load all my gear into the canoe and pull it. The water's a long walk from my car at that pond, thus the wheels.

 

If I can't use the wheels, it takes multiple trips to carry the canoe, net, paddles, and fishing gear to the water, which is a lot of work, but sometimes bass like these await me:

 

 

I do retie and change my lures before each trip, depending upon where I'm going and the weather will be. I rarely retire during a trip.

[Lottabass]

@Swamp Girl  Thank you!  You catch some dandies!  I use a pond prowler and my system is similar to yours.  Also am going back to a tackle box for the same reason.  My area is a bass fishing desert (except for the bass clubs, or should I say bass boat clubs) so it's nice to have someone to get ideas from.

[Swamp Girl]

9 minutes ago, Lottabass said:

Also am going back to a tackle box for the same reason.

 

 

11 minutes ago, Lottabass said:

My area is a bass fishing desert (except for the bass clubs, or should I say bass boat clubs) so it's nice to have someone to get ideas from.

 

If I were you, I'd fish Iowa's rivers, streams, and farm ponds. Is the Mississippi within reach? That's a fish factory. 

 

I Googled Pond Prowler and it looks like a real comfy way to fish. I'd like the high seat. It's hard casting from the low seat of a canoe. 

[Lottabass]

@Swamp Girl  When I said desert I meant as far as fishermen.  There are lots of people fishing but not many as consumed with it as I am.  The fishing is great, I fish anywhere there is water.  I've found the watershed lakes to be the best.  No boat ramps and very little fishing pressure.  Perfect for a small, portable boat.  You have to drive on gravel and dirt roads to get to them and that keeps the Skeeters away.  🦟

[Swamp Girl]

32 minutes ago, Lottabass said:

No boat ramps and very little fishing pressure.  Perfect for a small, portable boat.  You have to drive on gravel and dirt roads

 

One wicked cool thing about bass fishing is that I'm on edge of a continent and you're in the middle, I'm surrounded by trees and you're surrounded by corn, I smell salt in the air and you smell hay, but we fish, more or less, the same way. We both bounce down dirt roads with little boats and launch where there are no ramps and few other anglers. 

[txchaser]

Probably five, but they aren't the same five that catch 80% of my big fish. 

[Swamp Girl]

16 minutes ago, txchaser said:

that catch 80% of my big fish

 

Do tell! When someone has caught a bass bigger than 13 pounds, I'm all ears.

[The Rooster]

I always have at least one rod with a 5” Yum Dinger wacky rigged on a 3/0 EWG hook. Either Watermelon Pearl Laminate or Black/Blue Flake colors. Also fish a variety of crankbaits, but the Bandit 200 and 300 are fished more than most. Those have been responsible for most of my bass catches for the last several years.

On 2/1/2025 at 9:08 AM, Lottabass said:

@Swamp Girl  Thank you!  You catch some dandies!  I use a pond prowler and my system is similar to yours.  Also am going back to a tackle box for the same reason.  My area is a bass fishing desert (except for the bass clubs, or should I say bass boat clubs) so it's nice to have someone to get ideas from.

I fished from an 8.5’ Sundolphin Sportsman for about 5 years. After I modified the heck out of it, it turned out to be a pretty nice little boat. But eventually I went back to a larger vessel with an outboard again.

[txchaser]

On 2/2/2025 at 4:10 PM, Swamp Girl said:

 

Do tell! When someone has caught a bass bigger than 13 pounds, I'm all ears.

In fairness, I live in Texas so they grow kinda big here. One thing to point out, in each of these cases the bait is more quiet than the usual version of that presentation. Always close to whatever counts for deeper water in that part of the lake or the lake as a whole.

 

Writing this has helped me realize I fiddle around with too much other stuff.

 

Middle:

-6th sense 75x Flatside in wild lava craw (late winter, prespawn for this color) and black when they are gill eaters. I fish this everywhere, including in and around weeds. Slowwww, and usually with no bottom contact. Heresy, I know, but that's what's worked so there's that. Don't be afraid to crash it right into a weedline. Bait will get fouled but that last foot occassionally has a big girl. Very light rattles.

-Nishine silent lipless. It is a totally different bait than a regular lipless. Fell into this looking for any silent lipless. Needs better hooks for tanks though.

-Jackall Digle 2-5m. You'll have to get the 3's from japan, rest are available here. Depending on your lake depth and where your weed edges or interesting structure are, pick based on that.  Very light rattle.

 

Bottom:

-Netbait t-mac trick worm in kentucky craw, which is GP, dark maroon/scuppernong, with blue flake. Very good match for the local craws. 

-Carolina rig

-Jig with 8" lizard or some other 8" worm (actually a slither rig made by siebert, but it fishes like a jig. Just better in nasty cover). Jig skirt is dark/light GP/watermelon. Kinda looks like a gill or a craw.

 

PB bait, but I had to cut because no other giants:

stanley buzz-it frog, kind of a mix of a small buzzbait and a small ribbit frog. I'll never know if a small buzzbait would have done the same. They were on shad post spawn on an inside turn of a creek channel, just off the weed edge. I'd probably only pick this bait on open water shad eaters.

 

[tander]

Most of my fish are caught on a Junebug Trick worn with 1/8 shaky head or a crankbait, either a Frittside 5 or a Bandit 100 Tenn Shad. Yep, I fish shallow water nearly year round.

[BlakeMolone]

Now that I’m in Utah a hair/feather jig, a small jerkbait, and some sort of plastic on a jighead catch close to 100% of my smallies, largemouth, and trout. Will be experimenting more with tiny poppers and micro bladed jigs and spinnerbaits I’ve been making this winter.

[J Francho]

Of the baits I regularly carry. It's got to be close to 80%. Not all the baits all the time, but it averages out over the season. I'm pretty basic. 

[FishTank]

Me and my baits...  😁

 

[DogBone_384]

I’d have to put a crankbait first, followed by a jerkbait, and lastly a wacky Senko.

 

I fished jigs a lot more in ‘24 and am continuing that for ‘25. Hopefully they’ll replace Senkos in the near future.

[AboveAverageAngler]

1 lure catches about 90% of all the smallmouth bass I catch…3 inch power grub with beetlespin overhead spinner.

[Swamp Girl]

36 minutes ago, AboveAverageAngler said:

1 lure catches about 90% of all the smallmouth bass I catch…3 inch power grub with beetlespin overhead spinner.

 

You are Bait Monkey immune!