Essential Lures For Spring Largemouth Bass

Essential Lures For Spring Largemouth Bass


Essential Freshwater Lures For Spring Largemouth Bass Fishing

By John Salamon

Fishing for Largemouth Bass would probably be the most popular freshwater fishing by far!

But what are the absolute best baits and freshwater lures to catch yourself a trophy Largemouth Bass in the early spring pre-spawn?
Largemouth Bass
Well there are many things to consider such as…

  • The weather conditions including light and water temperature
  • The location that you are your fishing
  • The most common or preferred food sources for bigmouth bass in the area
  • Light conditions and the clarity of the water

It’s easy to see why many people get easily confused and even frustrated when selecting the right freshwater lures for the job!

Although if your mindful of a few general and basic rules for selecting the best freshwater lures which will help you to get more strikes more often and quickly get a better feel for what freshwater lures work for any particular situation during the spring bigmouth bass season.

So here we go!

Early spring is one of my favourite times of year to go Largemouth Bass fishing, mainly because I hate the cold but also because the Bass start to become more active as they ready for spawn.

For spring Largemouth fishing I like to use a Jig with pork frogs (jig ‘n pig) or pork chunks, you can use plastic chunks although I get better results with the real pork.

The colour or the look of the jig head doesn’t really matter to much as I’m pretty sure the Bass don’t really stop to check if the jig head has eyes or not, its really the skirt that does most of the job as the Bass will most likely come from behind and the only thing they are likely to see is the jig skirt.

Jig head weight and shape are far more important than jig head color or appearance, a semi rounded bulbous shaped jig head will reduce snags on weeds and heavy cover.

If your using artificial jig crawlers/trailers, the two color combination I’d use would have to be a black/blue jig with a metal flake trailer and a green/pumpkin trailer as I have found they are most effective colour combination for most situations and water conditions also I highly recommend using a scented plastic trailer as it encourages the bass to give a more committed strike and gets the fish to hold onto the bait for longer.

With your jigging efforts concentrate on 1/4 ounce to 3/8 ounce weights as this weight range should suit all your needs for virtually all conditions and with hooks look for a wire of medium gauge and a hook size between 1/4 to 4 depending on the size of the fish your looking to catch.

Most freshwater fisherman mainly use the jig and pig for flipping and pitching although I have found jigs to be just as effective for deeper water, but remember that most of your hits usually happen just after your jig hits the water on the jigs initial descent.

If the water is particularly cold and your not getting any bites the bass may be a bit lethargic and they will take longer to get to your jig so you may need to let the jig settle on the bottom for fifteen or so seconds and then jig it along the bottom a little before retrieving and casting again to other cover.

Imitation crawfish is also an ideal bait and is one on the Largemouth Bass’s favourite foods especially in early spring. When using an imitation crawfish you need to let the lure settle on the bottom and then drag it to disturb the silt.

This imitates a crawfish emerging from its winter home, you can also put on a rattler as this will imitate the noise of a crawfish’s pinchers, these are two really effective ways of drawing in even the most stubborn of largemouth bass.

Spinnerbaits are also a great option for spring largemouth bass fishing, although spinnerbaits are generally considered to represent baitfish such as shad, a large spinnerbait when properly dressed and fished can just as easily imitate a fleeing crawfish.

The best places to fish with spinnerbaits while imitating crawfish would be weed beds and timber filled flats at the back of creeks. Good sizes for spinnerbaits would be a one ounce black spinnerbait with a number 7 or number 8 colorado blade mated with a black or blue trailer.

Another great lure to use over the flats during spring is a rattling lipless crankbait. Working over shallow flats with freshwater lures like the Rat-L Trap lipless crankbait is a great way to entice nice sized largemouth bass to strike as they often mistake this bait for a fleeing crawfish.

Remember to pause and rip to trigger the natural strike response from any largemouth nearby.

Probably the most important tip for catching monster largemouth bass in early spring is to experiment with a number of lures using all the above methods which imitate the most favored and sought after food source of bigmouth bass in spring which are crawfish.

Well there you have it, the best freshwater lures for spring largemouth bass fishing and the ideal methods to fish them.

John Salamon, has a wealth of knowledge when it comes to freshwater fishing and freshwater lures.

For more informative articles on the latest freshwater lures available and some great freshwater fishing techniques visit the Freshwater Lures website.

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