Everyone who loves to fish has a favorite lure that never lets them down. But anglers who only use one bait and avoid the others are missing out.
The best spring bass lures have special properties that make them best for use in certain conditions at certain depths to provide more efficient and rewarding fishing.
Some lures like squarebill crankbaits have bills to help them over obstacles while creating a movement fish can’t resist.
Other styles like jerk baits are best for shallow fishing, where you can avoid underwater grasses and obstacles it can snag.
Crankbaits, jerkbaits, and spinnerbaits are hard, usually plastic, while plastic worms typically mimic the wiggly look of a real worm to attract fish.
Many anglers use more than one or all of these baits under different circumstances to catch the most fish with the least effort.
Let’s look at the best spring bass lures you need to have in your tackle box.
6 Top Spring Bass Lures
- Lipless Crankbait
- Jerk Bait
- Plastic Worms
- Spinnerbaits
- Squarebill Crankbaits
- Suspending Jerkbaits
Lipless Crankbait
Lipless crankbaits that look like crawfish are a great choice for spring bass fishing along banks of river channels.
Crankbaits are typically short and thick hard plastic lures, usually with two treble hooks, one hanging from each end.
These lures don’t have bills like squarebill crankbaits. Their design lets them wobble back and forth as they’re dragged through the water to help them attract fish.
They have a tighter wobble than other similar lures, so the movement is less erratic and can help attract curious fish.
Lipless crankbait with a rattle helps when the water is murky. The sound can attract bass from further away, even in murky water.
These crankbaits sink, making it easier to fish in deeper water than other lures. Especially during the spring, pulling slower and eliminating some of the wobbles can help attract bass because that mimics a more natural and expected movement.
Jerk Bait
Jerk bait is typically slightly longer and thinner than most varieties of crankbait. They resemble minnows and usually come in hard plastic in many styles and colors. Anglers can choose between sinking, floating, or suspending.
The thin length lets them have a wider wobble while moving through the water. These lures usually have three treble hooks underneath instead of two.
A movement of casting, letting the jerk bait sink to the depth you want to fish, then jerking it and pausing before moving it against is typically an effective way to use jerk bait to catch fish.
This method is especially good in spring if you wait longer between jerks like a cold fish might.
This bait works best at depths smaller than four feet and can be successful with a slow retrieval that makes the movement small in extremely shallow spaces.
A pause-jerk-pause pattern gives bait an erratic movement that can get the attention of all the bass in the area.
Plastic Worms
Plastic worms are a great all-purpose bass lure. They’re adaptable to different fishing spots and circumstances.
These worms are flexible plastic that lets them bend, bounce, and move to attract bass and other fish.
The worms work in different depths depending on the placement of the bait on the hook.
Flexible plastic worms make the best lures for spring bass fishing for beginners because anglers can hook them in different rigs to help attract fish without changing the bait.
Worm baits come in different styles, including stick baits, often called wacky worms that are symmetrical and shaped like a straight worm, and ribbon tail worms with a flattened tail on the end that can be curly, straight, or a hook tail.
Bass fishing enthusiasts can put the worm onto the hook in different ways to create further movement in the water, like the wacky rig that hooks a ring placed in the center of the worm so that it hangs on both sides or a Texas rig that connects through the nose.
Spinnerbaits
Spinnerbaits are some of the best lures for spring bass fishing, but they work equally well year-round.
They’re suitable for all types and temperatures of water and fishing in open water or heavy cover.
These lures, also known as safety-pin bait, are L-shaped. It’s easy to imagine them as an open giant safety pin because the metal of a spinnerbait bends at a 90-degree angle.
One or two blades are attached to one end with the hook, a fish-colored jig mold, and a skirt on the other end.
Spinnerbaits use the flash of the metal and the movement of the skirt attached to the end to attract fish.
Smaller spinnerbaits usually work best in shallow water, while larger ones attract more fish in deeper water.
On days when the water is clear, retrieving fast is best. Murkier water means anglers can pull slowly. Fishing in cover will cause more movement that can attract fish, too.
Squarebill Crankbaits
Squarebill crankbaits are crankbaits with a wide, slightly sloping bill in front that are great spring bass lures.
The baitfish shape of these lures is usually shorter because it’s more curved than standard crankbaits.
A squarebill lure is ideal for fishing deeper waters and attracting fish with an erratic movement. The bill gives the crankbait an advantage when it comes to clearing obstacles.
The bill is the first thing to reach the obstacle and generally pushes the bait up and over with a jerky wobble that gets the fish’s attention.
Anglers can cast these lures into open water and retrieve them quickly to create a realistic movement.
They can also use them to catch fish that cling to cover by throwing and pulling the bait in more slowly to avoid snags, then letting the lure make its movements as it’s flipped over obstacles.
The lures come in as many colors as other crankbait and are available with or without a rattle.
Suspending Jerkbaits
Suspending jerkbaits have a different movement than floating or sinking jerkbaits. While sinking jerkbaits drop quickly when not in motion, floating jerkbaits come to the surface when the retrieval motion stops, and suspending jerkbaits fall squarely in the middle.
These lures sink much more slowly than sinking jerkbaits and can hang in place in the water in a way the other types can’t.
These bait lures are for deeper water, down to 10 feet, and work best when fished in cooler water temps alongside structures or edges like river banks and ledges.
Fish in cooler water won’t chase a fast-moving bait, so a suspending jerkbait is one of the best spring bass lures before the water warms up enough to make fish more active.
The same cast-jerk-pause motion with regular jerkbaits works with these lures, but the pauses should be longer, especially in colder temperatures.
Final Thoughts
Anglers don’t have to limit themselves to using one type of spring bass lure. It’s best to try them all and have them on hand.
Some lures work better in some fishing spots than others, so what snags all the largemouth bass in one lake might not catch anything but gar and a few bluegills in another.
The best way to get great results with these best spring bass lures is to try them, choose a couple of reliable favorites, and be flexible enough to switch up the bait or the rigging method if something isn’t working.
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