Bass fishing help.?

Question

What are the top 5 or so must have largemouth lures. I am fairly new to bass fishing. What colors for time of year? Is a bait caster a good investment. I will be fishing mostly in northern Wisconsin, where the ice dont break until april or so. Does water temp matter a lot? All advice welcome. THANKS

Answer 1

Well first of all top 5 lures? Spinnerbait, crankbait, plastic worm, jig and pig, popper. But for me I would have to add my favorites, buzzbait, frogs, tubes. Colors depend on the weather and water clarity. If you are fishing on a bright sunny day the rule is bright colors, chartruese, white, orange. Cloudy day natural colors black, brown,green pumpkin, and gray. Same for water clarity the clearer the water the more natural colors while in stained chocolate milk looking water brighter colors. If you are new a spinning outfit might fit you best but if you are willing to learn and pick out back lashes a baitcaster is a sound investment. It doesn't take long to get the hang of it. Practice, practice, practice. Water temp is key but you can catch fish even in the coldest water.The barometric pressure is what to watch. It will tell you what the weather is doing and what the bass will be doing.

Over 30.20 and rising or steady= fair weather fish will be deep or in cover
falling slowly= stable weather, fish will not be changed
falling fast= warmer and cloudy, fish activity picks up, may move shallower

29.80 to 30.20 and rising or steady= no change in weather, consistant bite
falling slowly=little change, fish activity may pick up
falling fast= rain or snow, fish feeding shallow away from cover

Under 29.80 and rising or steady= clear skies but cooler, fishing fair located deeper in or near cover
falling slowly= rain, fish activity increased
falling fast= storms likely, fish feeding heavily shallow away from cover

Keep an eye on this prior to your outing, it will give you an idea where to start. Good luck!!

Answer 2

Im a bass fisherman here in michigan my suggestions will be really close to what you need.

The top five lures I use:

Yum Dinger - There is not a color that doesn't work but the best is the Junebug color

Bass magnum weedless Bass stopper- always a trusty lure for bass here in the north

Crankbait - throw them near weed edges and you'll catch quite a few

spinnerbait - the best colors are white and red

buzz bait - I use a black one all the time and do great

I wouldn't get a bait caster. I would get and ugly stik with an open faced reel...the pole is very sturdy and you'll be impressed with the reel

water temp matters alot...bass react slower when the water is cold and really warm, but the water dont usually get that warm up here. When water is really cold, use a yum dinger or senko, with these you dont really have to worry about color

good luck!

Answer 3

Now, here are some of my favorite TOP-WATER "Big Bass" baits that I strongly recommend to try.

1. A "full size" Zara Spook

2. A Buzz Bait

3. A "Soft" jerk bait

4. A Torpedo (Prop-Bait)

5. A large 6" Gitzit (or tube bait)

These baits have caught more larger bass for me than most top water baits on today's market.

These other baits would be SUB-SURFACE "Big Bass" baits that I would use should be worked under the waters surface:

1. A Jig & Pig combo (a jig can be used with several different types of trailers) my personal favorite trailers would be either a plastic pork chunk or a 4" twin tailed Hula Grub.

2. A Carolina Rig (rigging this rig properly is just as important as what type of bait you would use with it.) My 2 favorite baits I usually use with this rig would be a 6 inch Lizard and a 4" Gitzit (or tube bait)

3. A Texas Rigged twin tailed Hula Grub or a 4" plastic Crawl.

I certainly would use these baits anywhere in the world to catch bass because they have proven themselves time after time to catch the more quality and heavier bass.

Color choices are not nearly as important as size and action. Any color that presents a good profile in varying light conditions will work. Personally, I like to stick with more natural size and color selections like black, brown, green, red, chartruese and combinations of colors. Plastic baits with scent "cooked in" like Berkley Gulp or Powerebait are very productive.
Learning to master one bait and technique at a time then moving to another is well advised. It's better to do one thing and do it well than do many half-assed. Good equipment is necessary and a baitcaster a must. Get one with a minimum of 5 ball bearings. Something else you will want is a quality graphite rod of at least 6' medium action. A 6'6" medium heavy with 14-20 lb Trilene XT should handle most any bass.

Water temp is very important and key temp for bass spawning is 58 degrees. Another factor is Moon phase.

Ice out is a long way off for you which does give you time to aquire the tools you need, learn basics techniques and practice pitching and flipping. I do this indoors several times a week in the dead of winter just to keep muscle memory and hand-eye coordination. It also breaks the monotony of staying indoors.

Hey you can always come to the Southern States and fish. Lots of great waters down here, but leave your Pike and Musky lures at home. Bass, Crappie and Catfish are king down here.

Have you been to http://www.YouTube.com and watched the instructional bass videos? Doug Hannon has some very good videos worth watching that you can see there.

Best of Luck!

Answer 4

Water temperature does matter A LOT!!! Bass are a coldblooded species, which means that the colder the water is, the slower they will move. Therefore, that means that bass will not eat as much when it is cold because their digestive system is moving very slowly. With this in mind, use very small lures and work them as SLOWLY as possible. The bass do not want to move as much for their food in that weather either so make sure you are fishing areas with structure(i.e. weedbeds, dropoffs, etc.). Also, in the colder water they will be deeper and when the weather becomes warmer in spring they will move up to shallow water and make beds for spawning(mating).

So, with all that in mind, the best lures to have will vary by the seasons and what temperature the water is. To find the surface temperature of the water, average out the temperature lows from the last 5 nights.

But, overall, here is a list of good lures.

1.a pencil lure. This is a skinny lure that, when given a little tug, will splash and roll to one side.
2.Zoom Brush Hogs. These work great when texas rigged. To learn more about texas rigging visit http://www.bassfishingusa.com/Rigging/rigging1.html
3. crankbait. Bomber makes good ones, buy the tennessee shad in a medium size.
4.spinnerbaits. This is one of my favorite baits, they work best in spring and summer because you want to work them pretty quickly
5.Poppers. Great splashing effects from this bait attract big bass.

Also, remember that you dont want to rule out live bait. Crawdads and nightcrawlers are some of the most productive baits that you can use.

Have fun fishing

Answer 5

My favs are in this order.

# 1...8" Plastic worm I like culprit fire and ice color or any purple color rigged Texas style. My all time fav is" Manns Jelly Worm" (GRAPE)

# 2 Is Heddon Pop~N~Image

#3 Heddon torpedo or (tinytorpedo) topwater lure.

# 4 Crankbait for deep water

#5 buzzbait white or chartruse skirt for hot weather (reeled just under the surface in summertime near structure)

Match lure colors to natural forage fish where you are fishing. SIZE is important... Smaller lures in spring and larger as the year goes on.

Bait casters are good yes but a good spinning reel will also work fine.

Yes water temp matters somewhat . But not as much as presentation of a lure. Always fish lures slow to start with and try varying your retrive. Let the bass tell you what they want as far as presentation

Answer 6

Must haves are soft plastics (worms, lizards, and craws), spinnerbaits of varying colors and blades, crankbaits in brown, silver and black, gold and black, and fire tiger running in various depths, jigs and trailers, and various topwaters. Go to the tackle shop and buy a tackle box and stock it with some soft plastics, spinnerbaits and a few crankbaits and jigs. Keep buying a little at a time till you have a well stocked tackle box.

Baitcasters are a good investment. I use them for everything except softplastics which are usually a little too light to throw effectively with a baitcaster. The thing to remember about baitcasters is they take practice. You will have some backlashes. Don't give up though, keep fishing them. When I first started I spent alot of time picking out backlashes, but now they are few and far between. Tie on a sinker to the end of your line and practice in the yard.

Answer 7

in my opinion these are the best "go to" baits,but it all depends on what u have confidence in.
1)jigs
2)tubes
3)spinnerbaits
4)crankbaits
5)topwater
color of ur baits really depends on water clarity.the darker the water the darker the bait.stained water=blue/black jigs.clear water=lighter colors like green pumpkin,pumpkin seed.
water temp matters alot ot bass fishing.the colder the water the slowewr the metabolism of the bass,which means the less they eat.

Answer 8

My tried and true lure is a red #6 jig with one black dot in the middle, string a crawler on and jig off bottom reeling in only to retrieve slack.
Another good bass lure is a floating-jointed rapala which will catch you a variety of fish as well as bass.

hope this helps!

Answer 9

jig, plastic worm, crankbait, spinnerbait, buzzbait it depends on what kind of baitfish are in the lake u fishin crawfish color (oranges and browns) in spring and summer shad colors white year round; yes; yes high 50s and up good fishin

Answer 10

I use plastic worms, "lead heads", Shad Rap, any fake frog, and spinners. If one doesn't work, switch to another. Different ones work better for different conditions and cover.