Top 7 Baits for Spring Bass Fishing
Spring is often considered the prime fishing season. From an angler’s perspective, it’s the most comfortable time of year to fish. In terms of matching what the fish are doing, you also get several advantages during the spring.
However, none of that matters if you’re not using the right lures.
To help with your spring bass fishing, we’ve put together this list of the top 7 spring bass lures, and we’ve even thrown in some handy tips and information for you to up your game this spring.
Let’s get started.
1: Berkley Powerbait Power Switch
The Berkley Powerbait Power Switch is a more advanced take on your traditional soft-plastic minnow.
Like other soft plastic options, it’s the basic shape of a minnow head and body, and the tail morphs into a typical paddle-tail bait. This is how it generates a ton of vibration while you pull it through the water.
However, it differentiates itself with a life-like appearance, embedded weight and hook jig, and 3D life-like eyes.
The Power Switch comes with several amazing features that even more expensive lures tend to lack. It’s designed to provide you with tons of precision while casting, and you can control the speed of its descent with subtle popping motions.
When you use it as instructed, it creates lots of life-like action that makes bass want to swallow it whole, but even if you use it like a standard swimbait, you’ll get decent results.
This lure is best paired with one of Berkley’s renowned scent products, and we highly recommend getting one of the models that have red in them. The clown model is probably the best for spring fishing since it’s chartreuse with red highlights, but various other options will work well, too.
The Power Switch comes in a variety of color combinations and lengths. For color, choose anything with red in it. For the length, you’ll want to consider the weight rating of your rod. If you’re using a heavy rod, you’ll want longer Power Switch lures that weigh more, but if you’re using a medium or lower, you’ll want to stick to the lower end of the spectrum.
Available in a variety of colors and sizes, minnows are a bass delicacy in the spring, and they’re very easy to present while offering a lot of precision and control. This might be your best bet this spring.
However, this is slightly more expensive for soft plastic bait, and you should expect to pay just under $10 on average for a pack.
2: 6th Sense Juggle Shot Minnow
This will provide many of the same benefits as the Power Switch we discussed, but it’s cheaper and more flexible.
The Juggle Shot is a lot simpler in its design, with a tubular body that shrinks down into a simple forked tail. The profile is still highly reminiscent of a minnow.
The main strength of this lure over our previous minnow suggestion is that it’s made to work with all kinds of rigs.
You can use it as a trailer on a spinner or jig, you can Texas rig it, use it weightless, or any number of other things. It’s meant to be flexible and perform well in a large variety of circumstances.
Unfortunately, having red or chartreuse highlights is a pretty big requirement for us when it comes to spring, and this one doesn’t have anything that matches that.
However, you can match the minnow hatch with white and silver options.there is also a pink option that can work fairly similarly to red highlights.
The second strength of this lure is that you can get a 9-pack for about $5.
Unless bass rip them up, weekend warriors probably won’t use the whole pack before the main fishing season is over, and even pros will be so busy switching between lures that one inexpensive pack is worth tossing in the tackle box.
Compared to other highly productive options, spending less than a dollar per lure is a great deal.
3: Bobby Garland Slab Hunt’r Finesse Baitfish
Bobby Garland Slab Hunt’r Finesse Baitfish is a tiny, soft plastic that packs a lot of punch. It mimics all baitfish during their more youthful period, and that works amazingly in the spring season when all fish are spawning their next generation.
It’s just a small, ribbed, soft plastic, swimbait with a paddle tail, and it comes in a large variety of colors. To get bass in the spring, we recommend getting one with red or chartreuse in it.
You can grab these in 1.25 or 2.25-inch lengths, and they only cost $4 on average.
To use them, you’ll need smaller worm hooks. That increases the price slightly since you likely have worm hooks for 3 to 6-inch soft plastics in your box, but it’s well worth it. You can catch practically anything with these.
Unfortunately, their paddle tails tend to rip off fairly easily, and they can slide off the hook.
You can’t do much about a ripped tail except keep the lure melting down and pour it into a mold for more lures later, but you can use a dot of super glue to keep it on the hook. Just let the glue harden for a minute before you toss it in the water.
4: Molix Stick Flex
This 6-pack of straight stick-style worms is a great option for spring or all year round. For spring bass fishing, we’ll be talking about the watermelon with black and red flakes variant, but you can pick up nearly any of them and use them during any season effectively.
For spring bass fishing, we recommend wacky rigging these. If you’re not familiar with it, it’s simple. You run your hook through the center of the worm body and let both sides dangle off. When you toss it in, the worm floats to the bottom slowly and waves both ends around crazily. That’s why it’s called a wacky worm.
We recommend using a small black hair rubber band to hold it in place because you’ll burn through lures quickly since they slip off easily in a wacky rig.
At $4 per 6-pack, this is a great bargain, they match our color requirements for spring fishing, and you can use them beyond spring. So, this is a great soft plastic lure to throw in your tackle box at any given time.
However, they’re a bit short compared to other worms. They have a similar profile to Yamamoto Senko baits, but the tail end has ribs. So, Texas rigging them is a little less effective.
5: 6th Sense Boosa 9.6-inch Worm
This is a bait you toss out when you want an extremely large lure for big bass. It’s 9.6 inches long, you can get it in red or watermelon with a chartreuse-like tail, and it produces tons of action. It’s also flexible. You can use it weightless, on a spinner or jig, or Texas rigged, and it will hammer bass all day long.
There’s not too much to say about this. It’s less than $4 for an 8-pack, has a U-tail for action, and is a proven staple among anglers.
If you grab one of the varieties that include red, and you fish it slowly, this is sure to pick up big bites. Unfortunately, it’s a bit too big for smaller bass. So, unless you’re going for quality over quantity, you might want to pick something smaller. On longer worms like this, you can also miss bites very often, because so much of the lure dangles off away from the hook.
6: Berkley Money Badger 6.75
The Berkley Money Badger 6.75 is a deep-diving crankbait that's about ½-ounce in weight and a bit over 2 inches in length. It comes in a variety of colors, and many of them include red or chartreuse. So, this is a great all-around bait.
The Money Badger is designed to dive to about 10 feet in the water column. In most of the places you’re going to fish, that’s more than enough.
In general, Berkley is a well-known brand with high-quality baits, and you can’t go wrong tossing a few of these in your tackle box. Of course, the $8.99 price tag doesn’t hurt considering it’s a crank bait. You won’t have to replace it unless it gets broken off in a snag or the line breaks.
7: Mattlures U2 Bluegill
Mattlures U2 Bluegill is for our anglers with a bit more money to spend. Bass are hungry in the spring. They just got done with winter, and they didn’t have much to eat throughout it. This lure is essentially a 1-to-1 recreation of a bluegill with a hook coming through the top.
If “match the hatch” were ever taken literally, this lure does it. It looks just like a bluegill, but to generate some action, the tail is a paddle design. Otherwise, it looks like they stuffed a bluegill and ran a hook through it, and it acts similarly in the water.
That’s a great detail because you’re not forced to rely solely on presentation and tricks. As long as you make the bait act like a bluegill, bass are likely to swallow it up.
The only real drawback with this is that it’s a soft-body swimbait, and it costs $20 for one of them. Since it’s a fancy soft-plastic lure, you can expect it to get gnawed on and ruined fairly quickly.
While it’s not a great choice for a budget angler, it can be a game changer for a pro with expendable money.
Why Fish in the Spring?
Now that we’ve gone over the top 7 lures, it’s time for some general information.
To start, why should you bother with spring fishing?
Well, it’s generally considered the best season to fish. Especially for those who don’t fish year-round. The weather is great, the best fishing periods are mid-morning and late afternoon, and the bass are aggressive. So, you don’t have to wake up too early, it feels great when you’re out, and you’re going to get some great action as long as you’re in a decent spot and using good techniques.
Spring can be the best season to fish in, and whether you’re a pro or a weekend warrior, you should try to get out as much as possible before the hotter season hits and the fish start getting pickier.
The Best Colors for Spring Lures
Spring bass fishing is an easy way to get into the swing of things, but if you’re trying to optimize your fishing experience, you need to pick between two different color options.
First, we recommend anything with red highlights. You can pick any main color you want to match the hatch and weather conditions, but red highlights trigger bass bites like crazy in the spring.
Second, we recommend chartreuse. It’s not as flexible as red highlights on any other color, but it does work in the spring. It’s generally one of the most popular lure colors for any season.
When to Use Your Spring Lures
There are three main points to consider when deciding when to fish for the best experience during spring.
First, there’s the time of day, and it takes two of our recommended points. Mid-morning is a great time. It’s not hot, plenty of bugs are attracting bass, and in general, it’s the perfect temperature for you and the fish.
If you work mornings or otherwise can’t get out for the first prime period, try the late afternoon before dusk. It’s not too late. So, it’s still comfy outside, and the water is perfect for bass activity.
This is one of the reasons spring is so great. It’s easy to find a suitable time, and the bass are ready to go.
Check Out BassForecast
If you want to make the most of your spring bass fishing, download the BassForecast fishing app and get access to exclusive maps, in-depth weather information, user-generated tips and tricks, and more.