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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
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
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