My 2024 bait of the year

[Munkin]

Last year was a complete grind with small finesse baits working the best. Fishing throughout the summer Thursday evening tournaments this bait accounted for most of my fish. I pour 3/32 ballheads using the New EWG hooks for these and they just flat out worked. Went from 3 fish the first tournament to 19 the second once I found these little baits. Hopefully for 2025 other baits work because I do not like fishing these little baits.

 

Allen

[JohnFromLisbon]

My bait of the year was definitely the little Keitech football jig. It took me years to figure out the jig but up until last year it wasn't exactly a confidence bait, it was just something I enjoyed fishing with whether I was catching fish or not. The little Keitech jig paired with either the tiny Paca Chunk or the top half of a tiny Rage Craw has been an absolute killer for me since last year. It's almost replaced my Ned rigs when the bite gets tough.

 

Runner up was the Shower Blows 125. It was a last minute pick up on my way south for a guided trip. I thought a (just shy of) 1oz walking bait might be overkill but it ended up catching my PB in October.

 

[casts_by_fly]

8 hours ago, Munkin said:

Last year was a complete grind with small finesse baits working the best. Fishing throughout the summer Thursday evening tournaments this bait accounted for most of my fish. I pour 3/32 ballheads using the New EWG hooks for these and they just flat out worked. Went from 3 fish the first tournament to 19 the second once I found these little baits. Hopefully for 2025 other baits work because I do not like fishing these little baits.

 

Allen

 

I am guessing you had the negligible rain low clear water summer like we had up here also.  I too caught the majority of my fish on finesse neds, even though it was my first real year of fishing them.  My biggest fish still came on other stuff, but numbers were finesse.

[king fisher]

Here in Mexico I was forced to use finesse baits too.  Most years my best lure has been a spinnerbait, with crankbaits coming in a close second.  This year my best bait by far was a Junebug T Rigged Zoom Ole Monster.  I prefer the moving baits, but if I have to I will break out the finesse gear. I hope 2024 was just an off year, and in 2025 I can get back to throwing my favorite spinnerbait, but to be safe, I did by a few more bags off Ole Monsters, if I have to finesse them.

[A-Jay]

For size & numbers it was the 

Megabass ITO Vision One Ten ~

A-Jay

[webertime]

Keitech football jig with a ned

&

Zoom Speedcraw on a carolina rig 

[Mr. Aquarium]

Don’t really have a bait of the year. The bite sucked for me. Couldn’t figure out the bass in the spring and then the stripers in the summer.  No patterns what so ever. Every time I fished it was a grind.   I fish for everything that’s hitting from salt to fresh. If I had to choose a top bait it would have to be my jigs. It did the best for all species I targeted this year. Bass, stripers, big trout, sea bass, fluke and scup 

[BassKat]

Probably various wacky presentations. I really had to switch up the baits from the usual suspects to keep the bite hot. Honorable mention to speed worms in and around summer grass. 

[DaubsNU1]

I would have to say a bluegill colored spinnerbait was my top lure of 2024.

 

Broke the 5lb barrier here in Nebraska on a SB.

[Rockhopper]

White spinnerbait followed by a black/blue jig as a close second.  White flukes accounted for most of my smallmouth catches as well.

[MN Fisher]

Was shorebound this past year - so finesse was the name of the game.

 

1/16oz to 1/8oz Shakey head with a Zoom Finesse Worm got most of my bass...and a few crappie as well.

[MediumMouthBass]

I caught 4 bass i think? Didnt fish much due to health concerns.

Winner for numbers was the 1/2oz Red Eyed Shad in red.

Winner for size was the 6" Daingerous in white or albino.

[Swamp Girl]

It would be this little, pink Shimano popper with Flash Boost. It caught hundreds and hundreds and one morning, it caught 75 pretty much by itself. However, the feather tail is LONG gone. I think that only lasted the first evening I used it. I also added extra split rings and changed the hooks once or twice in 2024. It doesn't look like much, but the bass sure loved it. I even caught bass with it when the Sun was high and hot:

 

 

This was another big producer for me, the Dobyns Beast spinnerbait. One morning, on consecutive casts, it caught a four-pounder, a five-pounder, and a four-and-a-half-pounder:

 

 

Yeah, it caught big girls:

 

[F14A-B]

The Indiana state LMB record was caught on a 1/4 ounce pop r, big bass love small baits, but they also love large baits. I guess for a fish with a huge ass mouth what ya expect huh 

🤣😂🤣😉

[MRQturbo]

My forever bait of the year will always be a 4.8 Keitech swing fat impact... If I need a bite, it's my number 1 confidence bait.. 

[Swamp Girl]

3 minutes ago, MRQturbo said:

My forever bait of the year will always be a 4.8 Keitech swing fat impact

 

That used to be my favorite bait. Then I fell in love with the Crush City Mayor. Then I fell in love with the Yamamoto Kickin Zako in Chartreuse. They're all great baits, but I think the Zako is the wiggliest. 

[Bass Rutten]

My bait of the year was the jackall 5.8 flickshake worm on a 3/32oz gamakatsu g-finesse wacky head.

[FishTank]

These two caught a lot of fish for me.

 

 

The best of the rest are kind of divided between a handful of lures..... I also did well on the Megabass Vision 110jr +1, Senkos, OSP DoLive Beavers and the Evergreen Piccolo PC-5. 

[papajoe222]

Last year was a grind here, too.  My most productive lure was a 1/8oz. hand tied, deer hair jig and I likely boated as many on a nose hooked senko, but crankbaits took the big fish trophy away from skirted jigs for the first time in many years.

[Bluebasser86]

On 2/24/2025 at 11:57 PM, Munkin said:

Last year was a complete grind with small finesse baits working the best. Fishing throughout the summer Thursday evening tournaments this bait accounted for most of my fish. I pour 3/32 ballheads using the New EWG hooks for these and they just flat out worked. Went from 3 fish the first tournament to 19 the second once I found these little baits. Hopefully for 2025 other baits work because I do not like fishing these little baits.

 

Allen

I really have liked those things also. I don't know if it's the profile being a little different or what, but the fish really eat them well here despite seeing a ton of Ned rigs. 

 

A Ned would have to have been my bait of '24 also. Both of the bigger tournaments I won, on a Ned. A lot of my bigger fish, including my biggest of the year, on a Ned. A lot of my tournament fish that resulted in another AOY, caught on a Ned. Wasn't quite '24 but now my biggest fish I've ever caught of any kind, on a Ned. 

[BassKat]

@FishTank That dark sleeper is absolutely mangled!!

14 hours ago, papajoe222 said:

Last year was a grind here, too.  My most productive lure was a 1/8oz. hand tied, deer hair jig and I likely boated as many on a nose hooked senko, but crankbaits took the big fish trophy away from skirted jigs for the first time in many years.

I nose-hook flukes sometimes, but really like the idea of a nose-hooked senko. Do you screw in and align a CPS spring for the hook to try to keep the bottom of the senko facing down for optimum wobble?

[FishTank]

@BassKat Its actually a Gobyz.  The finish is not real durable.  In spring of last year I caught over 100 bass on it. I couldn't bring myself to throw it away.

[BlakeMolone]

I hate to be in the jighead minnow crowd but it was probably a 2 or 3 inch smelt powerbait minnow on a jighead, caught tons of bass, trout, perch, crappie, and bluegill caught on the thing. There is a ridiculously pressured small city lake near me with clear water and I caught three three pounders in like 10 minutes using the two inch power minnows under a float and letting the wind blow it around. I was sold on em after that 😂 Marabou jigs and the lc pointer 65 were also way up there for me.

1 hour ago, Bluebasser86 said:

I really have liked those things also. I don't know if it's the profile being a little different or what, but the fish really eat them well here despite seeing a ton of Ned rigs. 

 

A Ned would have to have been my bait of '24 also. Both of the bigger tournaments I won, on a Ned. A lot of my bigger fish, including my biggest of the year, on a Ned. A lot of my tournament fish that resulted in another AOY, caught on a Ned. Wasn't quite '24 but now my biggest fish I've ever caught of any kind, on a Ned. 

Do you use many non stick worm baits on the Ned? I’ve been really liking the trd bugz. I do wish zman made a trd bigger than the micro but a bit smaller than the finesse trd.

[Bluebasser86]

24 minutes ago, BlakeMolone said:

 

Do you use many non stick worm baits on the Ned? I’ve been really liking the trd bugz. I do wish zman made a trd bigger than the micro but a bit smaller than the finesse trd.

I don’t use a lot of other baits except for the 10,000 Fish Sukoshi Bug and the Biospawn ExoNed.

[Munkin]

On 2/25/2025 at 9:40 AM, A-Jay said:

For size & numbers it was the 

Megabass ITO Vision One Ten ~

A-Jay

 

You are not finding that shrimp color anywhere.

 

Allen