Topic: The Best Bass Lures of 2023 (Read 33 times)
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This simple stick of plastic may look like nothing found in nature, but something about its wiggle on the descent means that bass can’t leave it alone. You literally need to throw it out and let it fall on a semi-slack line to be effective, meaning that beginners can feel like world-beaters, but don’t think it’s anything other than a legit tournament tool as well.
When they were first introduced, the Senko was met mostly with blank stares. Anglers had been conditioned to think that a soft plastic needed a big wagging tail and multiple appendages to be effective. This proved them wrong. It can be rigged Texas style, or a Carolina Rig or on a dropshot, but its most deadly presentation might just be wacky rigged through the egg sack with no weight at all. It falls slowly that way, but even without any angler input, it taunts bass to bite. Miraculously, despite over two decades to reverse engineer the Senko, no co*petitor seems to have found a way to match its seductive action.
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This one particular bass jig is a fairly recent addition and isn’t necessarily the original, but it’s emblematic of the genre, a lead head and skirt meant to penetrate thick cover. In this case, they’ve upped the ante with a gaff of a hook that stands up to vicious hook sets and braided line.
Whether it’s a jig and chunk or jig and craw, the simple lead head is a stalwart of heavy cover opportunities from the grass beds of Okeechobee to the thick buck brush of Texas. This is a jig that is extra durable, so not only can you put it in the nastiest possible places, but you can also be assured of extracting the giants who are often tempted to bite it. Fortunately, modern braided lines and sensitive graphite rods provide the co*plements that make this an efficient and tournament-proven system.
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Finnish angler Lauri Rapala’s creation was featured in Time Magazine in the early 1960s, and nearly 60 years later every decent tackle shop still has the Original floater on its shelves and every angler worth their salt has used one to catch bass. The tight, precision wobble and minnow-shaped body works everywhere.
When the Rapala lures first burst onto the scene they were so prized and scarce that anglers rented them with a refundable deposit in case of loss. They’re far more widely available today, but no less deadly. That’s largely because they run properly every time, and because their universal baitfish shape resembles a prime forage in just about every ecosystem holding bass. Young anglers beating the banks of farm ponds or wading shallow local creeks use them, and so do serious anglers chasing the fish of a lifetime. It’s the forerunner of every modern jerkbait, and while they don’t run deep, their side-to-side flash will call bass from a distance.
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This simple hunk of lead with a treble hook affixed via a split ring represents a dying baitfish better than just about anything else available. By adjusting the size of the lure, the size of your line, and the aggressiveness of your jigging action, you can control the fall and trigger strikes.
There are plenty of quality jigging spoons on the market, and most of them don’t offer major differences. That’s the point, they’re not co*plicated. Simply find a piece of offshore structure that’s holding fish, drop it down to the bottom, and jig it in varying ways until you figure out what the fish want on that particular day. You may have to fight off a variety of other species to get to the bass, but again, that’s the point — it’s such a universal shape that just about everything that feeds on shad or other baitfish will succumb to its simple charms.
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This simple lipless crankbait, an early model of a burgeoning category, and one of the first to beco*e widely popular, calls bass with its tight wobble and heavy sound profile. From the earliest pre-spawn to the latest portion of the fall feed, it calls bass from a distance, and when run in front of their faces generates vicious strikes.
The original Rat-L-Trap has beco*e the generic term for an entire category of lures, like “Coke” or “Kleenex,” and decades after its introduction, throwing a “trap” is still a viable way to catch bass in a wide variety of circumstances. Beginners can just lob it out and burn it back and expect to get bites, but in the hands of an experienced angler, it does so much more. Rip it free from submerged grass, yo-yo it over a hump, or kill it amongst dying shad, and you can expect to generate bites, often from the biggest bass around.
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Rebel temporarily discontinued the Pop-R in the 1970s, until a group of Texas bass pros bought up all they could find — and started winning tournaments with them left and right — convinced them to bring the lure back. Nearly 50 years later it’s a stalwart, and while some purists modify them for particular uses, they’re deadly straight off the tackle store shelf.
While there are more modern and more refined poppers available, albeit, at a higher price point, the original Pop-R is still the standard for topwater poppers. You can throw it out, let the ripples dissipate, and then slowly pop it, or alternatively, you can skip it along the surface like a fast-fleeing shad. Anglers in Tennessee even pitch it into buck brush in places most of us would only throw a jig. When you get a strike you’ll know it, because the waters often part in a biblical fashion. Just make sure you invest in a good set of long-nosed pliers because you’ll often find this topwater hard lure in the back of your fish’s throat.