Discover the Best Lures for Bass Fishing: A Comprehensive Guide

Jan 09, 2024

Last update March 06, 2025

6 min read

While tons of anglers in the past have fished live bait for Largemouth Bass with success, the vast majority of Bass anglers prefer to use artificial lures to draw the bite. There are thousands upon thousands of Bass fishing lures so picking lures to give you the best shot at catching a trophy Largemouth Bass is extremely important. If you try to go out and wing it with a random lure, chances are you won’t have a great day of fishing. However, if you take a scientific approach to Bass fishing and really try to understand the nature of the Largemouth, picking the right lure should be no problem and will often result in a pretty successful day. There are a ton of different factors that can play into lure effectiveness from weather to lunar phases and more. Having a good grip and understanding of these various factors helps to play a major role in which you lure you choose to tie on first. Thankfully, the Fishbox App takes care of this for you so you don’t have to spend as much time researching and you can spend more time on the water. The Fishbox App is a unique app that analyzes various factors that play into the bite and gives the fisherman a better understanding of the conditions that they are working with. As a result, the angler can be more informed to select the right lure for the job. Stop missing out on better fishing and download the fish finder app today.

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Key Factors in Choosing Bass Lures

Read also: Best Time for Bass Fishing: Deciphering Seasonal and Timing Patterns

Best Largemouth Bass Fishing Lures: A Detailed Analysis

Soft Plastics:

Crankbaits:

Jigs:

Topwater:

Swimbaits:

Spinnerbaits:

Read also: Unveiling the Secrets of Freshwater Fishing: A Guide to the Best Lures

Top Picks and Recommendations

While all of the baits listed above can be extremely effective, I believe 5 of these baits are exceptionally good at catching Largemouth Bass.

  1. Finesse Worm: By far the most versatile bottom-of-the-water column bait. Because it is a finesse worm, you can make it do whatever you want it to do giving you unparalleled versatility in bait presentation. This bait excels any time of year when the bass is hugging closer to the structure or the bottom.
  2. Lipless Crankbait: One of the most productive baits I’ve ever fished. Because of the quicker retrieve, you can cover lots of ground very quickly. The lipless crankbait has a unique ability to pull fish out of the middle of the water column. Any time of year, this will almost always be the first bait I throw in a pond just to see how active the fish are off the bat.
  3. Popper: Hands down the best topwater bait. The commotion a popper can make when properly fished is often enough to convince a stubborn fish to bite. One of the most popular situations I use this bait is when I notice a lot of Largemouth Bass surface action already. 
  4. Swimbait: The swimbait is the closest you’re gonna get to replicating a Bass’s real prey. If you can learn to fish a swimbait correctly, you will be almost unstoppable in ponds and lakes during warmer months.
  5. Spinnerbait: Along with the lipless crankbait, the spinnerbait is another great middle-water column bait. Like the lipless, it has an effortless retrieve, however, it does cover ground slightly slower just because of the nature of the bait. Again, this is a bait I will use as my first bait in the water when I pull up to a spot.

Expert Tips for Maximizing Lure Effectiveness

Although I shared a good bit of tips for lure presentation in the past two sections, there is one overarching theme that I want to highlight before moving on. At the end of the day, fishing with lures for Largemouth Bass is going to come down to one factor—are you replicating the Bass’s natural prey well? That is the entire point of the artificial bait industry. Can we create something that looks so real to the fish that we can convince it to bite it? Having this in mind while fishing artificially changes everything. With every cast, you need to be thinking and practicing how you can best fool this fish into thinking this bait is real—don’t get lazy. Let me give a couple of examples starting with a frog. In real life, a frog is not going to be able to swim across a pond at top speed the whole way, instead it’s going to have to take breaks. Thus, you must reflect this in your retrieval speed. Don’t get lazy and reel that thing in immediately. Make sure you’re adding in pauses to better entice the fish. I’ll give one more example. Say you’ve seen that the bluegill in the pond is a lot closer to the surface than normal. Bring your swimbait up to the right depth. Don’t fish a bluegill imitator that’s out of place—the Bass are going to be more hesitant to bite. My final piece of advice for optimizing lure performance is to not be cheap in your tackle. If you’re cheap, it will cost you. Invest in a nice rod and reel combo and enjoy the fishing.

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Common Mistakes to Avoid

One of the biggest mistakes I and other anglers have made is being too stubborn to change lures. We all know that one go-to lure that “works every time.” Well guess what, it’s not gonna work every time. You have to be willing to change your strategies. DO NOT force a bait if it is not working, you’re just wasting time. Like I’ve said again and again, you must be willing to change and adapt to become a better angler, even if it means sitting down your favorite lure to try a new one. This being said, let yourself get outside of your comfort zone if your best bait doesn’t work. If the fish don’t want it, then change it.

User Reviews, Experiences, and Conclusion

I have fished for Largemouth Bass for a long time and as a result, I’ve formulated a pretty good tackle box that allows me to go out of the house and be confident I’m going to catch something. The top 5 lures that I recommended are a large part of this tackle box. Now a lot of my decisions on what bait to throw have come from the years of experience I’ve had, but other decisions are from knowledge gleaned from those who have been in the sport longer than I have. Don’t ever take other’s experiences for granted as they can offer extremely valuable insight. I’ll give you one example of this. For the longest time, I was a swimbait hater. I would never use them because I thought I could do better with my current strategies, and I stayed in this state of mind for a while. Then, one day while fishing with an older mentor, he introduced me to the swimbait. I’d never seen someone fish a bait so effectively. He outfished me by a significant margin that day and because of that, swimbaits will forever be a part of my tackle box. Yes, your own experiences are important, but remember that there will always be someone who knows more than you—heed their advice. I hope this article gives you a good grasp of some of the best baits to use for Largemouth Bass. Remember what I said, you’ve got to be willing to change strategies and baits to maximize success. I hope you enjoyed this article, and as always, tight lines!

Photo Source: All photos in this article were provided by expert Pierce Latta.

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