April Hot Baits!

April is a great time to go bass fishing. This is the time of year when the bass are in the spawn or pre-spawn and are becoming active as the water warms. This can make for some great fishing conditions. A bait such as the Rapala X-Rap is a great bait around points, dropoffs and docks. Vary your retrieve speed to find out which works best. A crank and pause retrieve sometimes works well.

Another great bait for early spring bass is a football jig with a soft plastic trailer. These work great anywhere the is cover, such as around laydown trees in the water or stumps. These are great snag-free baits to use around these submerged obstacles to find big bass that are attracted to the natural cover. Once again you can vary your retrieve to find what will entice the bass to bite. Slowly dragging the jig along the bottom, twitching the jig or hopping it around submerged cover will really drive these spawning bass crazy!

Killer Lure Kit

I recently came across this great kit full of high quality crankbaits, jigs and spinnerbaits. This kit would be a great addition to the avid angler as well as beginners since it has such a wide variety of baits. There are baits for any situation and depth that you might need.

These are all Strike King lures hand picked by Bassmaster Classic winner Kevin VanDam to be the ultimate bass anglers kit. Click on the image to get more in depth information.

Jiggin' For Bass

Booyah Boo Jig The jig that shouts "Eat me!" to any bass in proximity. Flat bottom with 18? rise, noisy double-barreled magnum rattle, slinky 50-strand Bio-Flex silicone skirt, Mustad? Ultra Point? black nickel hook.

The jig is always a great bass catcher. I like it at this time of year because it has a big profile when paired with a soft plastic trailer like a Strike King "rage tail" chunk trailer. Big females eating extra for the spring spawn love the big baits.

They work great twitched or hopped along the bottom near cover. Another great bass fishing trick is to hop them along places where the lake bottom drops off, where the bass can easily get to either shallower or deeper water fast.

When jig fishing for bass use lighter colors like chartreuse and white in stained water, and darker colors like black and blue when in clearer water. Once you hook up to a pig bass with a jig, you will be hooked too.

Lipless Crankbaits

The hottest bait at the Bassmaster Classic this year was the lipless crankbait. The majority of bass caught were bagged using this versatile bait. This lure can be fished at any speed and can be fished at a variety of depths for whatever presentation turns the bite on.
These baits have a tight wiggle action that isn't quite as aggressive as other crankbaits, this is perfect for fish this time of year especially since the bass are moving a little slower and getting ready for the spring spawn and may be a little skittish. These bait usually have ball bearings inside that rattle and along with the vibration really rings the dinner bell for hungry lunkers.
All of the baits I mention can be found at Bass Pro Shop, you can click on the banner at the top of this blog and do a search on the BPS site.