Top Spring Baits
Published on Bassmaster.com April 22, 2009
Here in Texas, we've had cold front after cold front and our water temps aren't much warmer now than they were over a month ago. The first two months of April were colder than the first two weeks of March. That should change very soon as we will probably jump from winter to summer.
Our water temps are still in the low 60s in the morning, but should reach 70 degrees in a couple of weeks. Be sure to check back in May for postspawn topwater techniques (water temps in the 70s). For this article, I have created four different queries against the Insider Basslog. Of the four queries, I have searched the database for the Top 25 baits for water temps in the 61- to 65-degree range and the 66- to 70-degree range, both by numbers and by average weight.
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To make the queries more useful for this time of the year, I filtered out some of the recorded fish. With over 2,300 registered users, my posts should be negligible. However, I took out all of my own posts because almost every fish I catch this time of the year is caught by sight fishing. Since I'm able to choose which fish I fish for, the average fish I catch this time of the year is over 5 pounds. So, it's possible that my stats could skew the overall stats. Keep in mind that other users are also recording fish that were caught while sight fishing. The reason I bring this up is that the best sight fishing lures may not be the best choices for throwing blindly. For instance, notice in the stats below that with water temps from 61 to 65, a Texas rigged baby craw has an average weight of almost 5 pounds. I'm certain that a large portion of those fish were caught on the beds. FYI: I catch most of my fish on tubes and lizards while sight fishing.
I also filtered out the posts from the latter half of the year, so we're not mixing up fall patterns with spring patterns. Additionally, I didn't include posts from users that recorded suspiciously high numbers of fish during short time periods. Finally, for the average weight queries, I only included lures that had at least 10 fish recorded. I didn't want a lure to show up at the top of the stats because the average weight was high, but only a few fish were caught on that lure.
The charts should be self-explanatory, so I'll conclude this section with the charts. Be sure and record your fish so that the Insider Basslog stats can be even more accurate. The more fish that are entered, the more helpful it will be for all of us.
Top 25 Springtime Baits (Water temp 61-65 degrees)
For Numbers | For Size | Average Weight | |
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1 | soft stickworm - weightless | Texas rig - small craw worm | 4.83333333 |
2 | crankbait - shallow diving | Texas rig - large lizard | 4.66666667 |
3 | Texas rig - medium lizard | spinnerbait - willow/Colorado blades | 3.58333333 |
4 | jig - rubber skirt body | jig - rubber skirt body | 3.31756757 |
5 | lipless crankbait - 1/2 oz | Texas rig - small creature bait | 3.21428571 |
6 | crankbait - medium diving | Texas rig - long curly tail worm | 3.20833333 |
7 | spinnerbait - willow/Colorado blades | spinnerbait - double willowleaf blades | 3.16 |
8 | soft jerkbait - medium | soft jerkbait - medium | 3.04761905 |
9 | spinnerbait - double willowleaf blades | Texas rig - medium curly tail worm | 3.025 |
10 | Texas rig - small craw worm | Texas rig - medium lizard | 3.01724138 |
11 | jig - unskirted w/worm body | lipless crankbait - 1/2 ounce | 3 |
12 | Texas rig - medium straight tail worm | drop shot rig - finesse worm | 2.7 |
13 | Texas rig - small creature bait | Texas rig - medium creature bait | 2.6 |
14 | weightless non-floating worm | crankbait - deep diving | 2.525 |
15 | Texas rig - large lizard | soft stickworm - weightless | 2.49264706 |
16 | Carolina rig - straight tail worm | crankbait - shallow diving | 2.4609375 |
17 | hard jerkbait - plastic suspending | Texas rig - large creature bait | 2.35 |
18 | wacky rig - soft stickworm | creature - weightless | 2.3 |
19 | Texas rig - medium curly tail worm | swimbait - shad imitation | 2.25 |
20 | crankbait - deep diving | crankbait - medium diving | 2.16666667 |
21 | Texas rig - long curly tail worm | jig - unskirted w/worm body | 1.925 |
22 | drop shot rig - finesse worm | hard jerkbait - plastic suspending | 1.91666667 |
23 | swim bait - shad imitation | Carolina rig - straight tail worm | 1.91666667 |
24 | wacky rig - plastic worm | Texas rig - medium straight tail worm | 1.825 |
25 | Texas rig - small finesse worm | wacky rig - plastic worm | 1.8125 |
Top 25 Springtime Baits (Water temp 66-70 degrees)
For Numbers | For Size | |
---|---|---|
1 | soft stickworm - weightless | topwater - weedless topwater frog/rat |
2 | Texas rig - medium straight tail worm | topwater - weedless plastic frog |
3 | crankbait - shallow diving | Texas rig - medium curly tail worm |
4 | Texas rig - medium lizard | jig - rubber skirt body |
5 | Texas rig - long curly tail worm | Texas rig - medium flip tail worm |
6 | soft jerkbait - medium | Texas rig - medium straight tail worm |
7 | topwater - weedless plastic frog | lipless crankbait - 1/2 ounce |
8 | jig - rubber skirt body | Texas rig - small creature bait |
9 | Texas rig - medium creature bait | swimming blade jig - medium |
10 | weightless non-floating worm | crankbait - deep diving |
11 | wacky rig - soft stickworm | Carolina rig - small ring fry |
12 | crankbait - medium diving | Texas rig - medium lizard |
13 | spinnerbait - double willowleaf blades | spinnerbait - double willowleaf blades |
14 | spinnerbait - single Colorado blade | Texas rig - craw tube |
15 | lipless crankbait - 1/2 ounce | Texas rig - medium creature bait |
16 | swimming blade jig - medium | Texas rig - long curly tail worm |
17 | Texas rig - medium curly tail worm | topwater - medium popper |
18 | topwater - weedless topwater frog/rat | crankbait - medium diving |
19 | Texas rig - medium flip tail worm | soft jerkbait - medium |
20 | topwater - medium popper | lipless crankbait - 5/8 ounce crankbait - shallow diving |
21 | spinnerbait - willow/Colorado blades | Carolina rig - straight tail worm |
22 | topwater - small popper | spinnerbait - single Colorado blade |
23 | Texas rig - small finesse worm | wacky rig - soft stickworm |
24 | Texas rig - small creature bait | topwater - small popper |
25 | Carolina rig - straight tail worm |