Pro Guide : 5 Best Spring Bass Lures – Spring Bass Lures Explained

Table Of Contents:

• Fishing For Bass In The Spring
• Crank Baits
• Soft Plastics
• Spinner Baits
• Buzz Baits
• Finesse Jigs
• Honorable Mentions: Live Bait
• Overview of the Best Spring Bass Lures

Fishing For Bass In The Spring :

So, it’s Finally March, April, and May, the snow is melting, which means Spring is here and those trophy bass are hungry after the long winter. We’re ready to bust out our rods, dust off our tackle boxes and hit those honey holes, are you? If you’re a beginner or an experienced angler with the start of the fishing season it is okay to have a couple questions or even need a reminder on what the best spring bass fishing lures are and how to use them. Not to worry, the experts at Fin Feather Fur Outfitters has put together a comprehensive guide for you on the best spring bass lures, how to use them, and even included a couple of other juicy spring bass fishing tips! Get your lure collection out and make sure you have everything you need, if you are missing a couple of bass lures no trouble, lucky for you I hear we have a pretty fantastic selection of spring bass lures in our online store!

Crank Baits :

The crank bait may be one of the most iconic and versatile lures of all time. With its ability to mimic both baitfish and crawfish, swim action act multiple depths, and skill at bouncing off of rocks and other debris, the crank bait needs to be in every angler’s arsenal especially in the spring. Small crankbaits like the Strike King 6XD drive bass crazy with its various shad colors, and side to side swimming action. Additionally, the lipless crank bait is a phenomenal option for those picky spring bass. With a loud thumping, and heavy vibrating sensations that pulse through the water even at colder temperatures lipless crankbaits are quite effective at drawing the attention of cold-water bass. The 6^th Sense Quake Lipless Crank Baits do a superior job of mimicking any bait fish, or crawfish and climbing and level of the water column as bass are moving around quite a bit in the spring.

When & How To Use Crank Baits In The Spring :

There are plenty of situations where crank baits will help you get a tight line with a juicy spring bass. When the bass are in deeper water in early spring, don’t be afraid to throw a deeper diving crank bait that swims about 18’ – 20’ deep. You can always slow your retrieval or raise your rod tip to bring a deep diving crank up to about 10’ – 12’ deep as well. This is an effective way to get the deeper depth early bass spring bass to bite. When bass are moving up into warmer shallower waters in later spring swapping to a lipless will allow you to cover large water areas while still dialing into those shallow bass. Hover the lipless crank giving it slight jerks towards you on retrieval to get the bass interests, causing a strike on the pause. All this versatility and adaptability makes crankbaits one of the best spring bass fishing lures.

Soft Plastics

Soft plastics are without a doubt one of the most effective ways to imitate live baits. From outstanding action to thousands of color and creature combinations, soft plastic rigs are at the top of any true angler’s list of superior spring bass lures. Soft plastics are the best when it comes to mimicking living creatures from bait fish, insects, crawfish, worms, and other creatures nothing is more accurate than soft plastics. This gives a very natural shape and presentation to the bass in the water. On top of this, an endless option of both natural and bright funky colors most popular being green pumpkin, watermelon, and black other great options are white, pink, chartreuse, and various blues and greens. Some of the most popular soft plastic baits for the spring are the Z-Man Scented Jerk Shadz, 6^th Sense Divine Shaky Worms, Berkley Powerbait Craw in Green Pumpkin, and the Gary Yamamoto Slinko 5.5inch. These elite soft plastics make for some of the best spring bass lures you can have in your tackle box.

How To Fish Soft Plastics For Bass In The Spring :

Similar to the endless color and creature options, there are plenty of ways to rig up soft plastic baits for spring bass fishing. One of the most popular is a simple Texas rig. Click here to read a guide on how to do a Texas rig. A weedless Texas rig is a great option to fully display the soft plastic shape and allow you to drag and drop the bait across a plethora of environments. The rigs weedless nature will help you fish through grass and other debris without getting snagged to find those hidden spring bass. Another very similar way is to pair a soft bait with a finesse jig. Like a Texas rigs the finesse jig with prevent hangups in weeds and other structure. The drop shot and wacky rigs also are great options for spring bass fishing with soft plastics which will suspend your soft plastic bait higher into the water column. These two techniques will have an exposed hook, so you run the risk of snagging, but it gives you the ability to jig your soft plastic creating plenty of action on the bait. For any of these techniques comes the opportunity to fish for bass in the spring by “bed fishing”. By sighting a bedding bass you can cast any of these rigs near a bass bed to trigger a reaction strike on your bait, and essentially any soft plastic and rig will work for this technique.

Spinner Baits

Spinner baits are a perfect choice when fishing for pre-spawn bass in early spring due to their ability to cover lots of water, their slim profile, and their thumbing and flashing design. Spinner baits are one of the best spring bass lures because for all levels of fishermen since they are one of the easiest lures to cast and retrieve. Their slim profile allows them to avoid snagging on cover, and the blade or spoon attached to the spinner bait creates a thumbing sound in the water while if flashes in the sun. These characteristics of the spinner bait attract hungry bass like crazy making it a favorite bass lure for anglers. One of the best spinner baits on the market for spring bass fishing is the War Eagle Spinner Bait Double Willow.

How to Fish a Spinner Bait for Spring Bass:

Spinner baits are ideal for spring fishing when water temperatures are between 50 – 70 degrees, this temperature range causes bass to come to the banks to feed and to spawn. Throwing a spinner bait in shallower water and gliding it across the middle or top of the water column, especially when it is sunny will drive bass crazy mimicking wounded bait fish. These reasons make spinnerbaits a great fishing lure for spring bass.

Buzz Baits

In the pre-spawn and spawning periods for bass during the spring, they are often in shallow waters and very active in guarding their beds. A buzz bait will be incredibly effective at targeting these fish due to its ability to cover this shallow water, create noise attracting fish, and it won’t get caught up in weeds and structure. Since the buzz bait is a topwater lure it is versatile in many different water conditions. The buzzing that the lure creates on the waters surface is what causes the strike from the fish, not visually seeing the lure. As a result of this buzz baits are a great option no matter the water conditions. Some of the most popular buzz bait options are the Strike King Premiere “Double Take” Buzzbait and the Booyah Buzzbaits

How To Fish Buzz Baits In The Spring

When it comes to fishing a buzzbait in the Spring season it is fairly simple, cast out our buzzbait and retrieve with a steady pace keeping the blades of the lure on the surface creating the commotion or “buzz” of the lure. This buzzing sensation is phenomenal for fishing around structure like docks and stumps where bass like to stack up in the spring, causing them to come out of the structure and hit your buzzbait with an aggressive strike.

Finesse Jigs

Finesse Jigs are quite effective in mimicking live baits due to their size, presentations, and combinations with soft plastics creating a realistic looking, and accurately fishable spring bass fishing lure. The finesse jig is a bare or skirted jig head that can be dragged, dropped, or swam through the water column, used for precision casting around bedding bass or spring bass stacked up around structure. Many finesse jigs are a weedless setup which is a major advantage when fishing heavily grassy areas in the spring season. Adding a soft plastic onto a finesse jig can give the presentation of a crawfish, a baitfish, or other worms and creatures in the water. In the spring, some of the best finesse jigs you can use are the Z-Man Midwest Finesse Swim Jig or the Dirty Jigs Finesse Swim Jigs.

Spring Fishing With A Finesse Jig:

When fishing for spring bass, they can either be stacked up around structure or bedding in shallow waters. Take a finesse jig, attach a soft plastic bait of your choosing and drop it in or around a bedding bass to trigger a reaction strike, or if you choose a baitfish presentation you can swim the jig by structure to lure bass out for a more aggressive eating bite. Either way you want to fish this lure in the spring you will have success in shallow water, around cover, and be able to virtually match any hatch with blue gill patterns, shad patterns, crawfish presentations, and of course chartreuse colors as well.

Best Spring Bass Lures Honorable Mention: Live Bait

While this article was about the best fishing lures to use in the spring for bass, we would regret not mentioning the effectiveness of real, live bait. Since so many of the pros of our top 5 spring lures mentioned is that they effectively mimic live bait, it is only fair to give real worms, minnows, shad, crawfish, and other live baits a spot on this list, plus can anything mimic a wounded shad better than an actual wounded shad? With the most accurate look, smell, and feel real live bait is always an excellent option when fishing in the spring for bass.

Top 5 Spring Bass Lures Overview:

We hope this article helped you learn something new, or inspire you to throw a different lure this spring when you are out on the water trying to hookup with those early spring bass. From top to bottom of our list we trust that these lures will be successful in triggering strikes form bass throughout the spring season. If you have any other questions feel free to contact our bass fishing experts by clicking the button below or giving us a call as well. Good luck out there, and make sure to stock up on all of your spring bass fishing lures in at our affordable online tackle shop.

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