The one question I don’t get asked very often is “What is your favorite lure?” I don’t get asked that because most people, if they follow fishing very much at all, know that my favorite lure is a spinnerbait. I can fish a spinnerbait all day long. I really enjoy casting a spinnerbait out to tight cover and reeling it back in. I really, really enjoy that.

Now, as far as the rest of the baits in my tackle boxes, I do have some confidence baits that I really depend on using when the money is on the line. My favorites, in no particular order, are the Cordell Hot Spot – a swimming minnow imitation, a crankbait – the Fat Free Shad is my favorite, the Pop-R topwater bait – sort of a chugger type bait, the Zara Spook topwater bait which is a stick bait, the plastic worm in all shapes and varieties, the rubber leg jig, the Branson Bug, the Blakemore Road Runner and the Red Fin minnowlike lure. This is my basic arsenal.

These lures comprise what I will use in tournaments. These fill all the major categories of bass fishing lures for the most part. The others I really don’t use that much so I won’t even mention them here.

As you will notice, the majority of these baits can be fished rather quickly and require only a cast and a retrieve of some sort. Most can be retrieved at a high rate of speed or slower if I desire. The point I am making, I fish baits that allow me to cover a great deal of water and cover it qualitatively. I mean, when I have gone down a bank, I want to feel that I didn’t leave any fish behind out of lack of effort in presenting a bait for them to bite. I continually teach that in order to catch a fish, the bait or lure has to be in the water. That is the only way a fish can be caught. I cannot catch bass while eating a sandwich, drinking a cup of coffee, spooling on new line, tying on baits, choosing baits, arranging my tacklebox, etc. All these things need to be done the night before. Before you begin fishing.

In a tournament situation, I prefer the spinnerbait because it casts easily underhand and I have constant eye contact with the bait. I can guide it to a pinpoint target and let it land without a drop of water entering the air. The only noise I make with a spinnerbait is the blade jingling as it goes through the air and I got people working on that problem. But, more importantly, I have flash, color and vibration working for me with a spinnerbait plus a high frequency of casts per minute. The Hot Spot is very similar to the spinnerbait in advantages except it is less weedless because of the treble hooks thus limiting my casts to fairly open areas but makes up for that with better depth and greater distance.

Crankbaits offer a high frequency of casts to the competitive angler plus variable depths, imaging that matches the forage and good distance casting. Plus they have a built-in action that is seemingly very attractive to bass. The Red Fin which is like a crankbait but long and shallow running offers good coverage and easy casting qualities with great productivity. When the bass are looking up, this is one of my favorites.

Speaking of the bass looking up, my favorite topwaters are the Zara Spook and the Pop’R. The Zara Spook is a classic “walk the dog” type bait and I use it a lot when I am trying to “draw fish out” of the cover. I mean I know the bass are there like in cattails you hear and see the fish move around. The key is to bring them out, to drive them crazy with temptation that they charge out and attack the bait even when they don’t want to. A Zara Spook will do that. A Pop’R is a good all ’round topwater that really produces well. It can be worked slow or fast, but it is a good producer. I like to retrieve it back so that it moves along at a good pace just “spitting” water in front of it. It seems like that retrieve works really well under most conditions. The difference in the two is that one is a rhythm bait and the other is a spasmodic bait. That would make the Spook a better night fishing bait where rhythm is really important.

Plastic worms and jigs are the slowest lures to fish in the entire sport of fishing. The only time I will fish these baits in a tournament is when I have an area located with good, quality fish that are biting and they have ceased to bite all other lures on a regular and timely basis. Then I will switch to a plastic worm. I will do the same with a jig and pig combination when the cover is so tight that I need a falling presentation and one that is weedless. Then I will switch to the jig especially in coldwater conditions.

The Branson Bug and the Road Runner are manufactured by Blakemore Lures. These lures will catch anything, bass, crappie, walleye, drum, carp, bluegill, smallmouths, speckled trout. Anything! They are both ultralight rigging lures. And when I go to a strange pond or small lake for the first time, I will generally tie one of these two on and proceed to analyze the lake. I will generally catch one of everything that is in the lake. This system has never failed me. The Branson Bug is a crawfish imitator and the Road Runner is just a Road Runner. A crappie jig with a pony head and spinnerblade. I will even fish the baits in a tournament when I am needing a limit catcher.

Looking back over the list, tournament anglers are probably wondering what do I rig up for a tournament. Depending on the time of the year, I rig two spinnerbait rods, a plastic worm or jig, a crankbait and a topwater. This is routine. I don’t rig an ultralight on the deck, I keep several in the rod box. I carry a minimum number of baits on the boat. I need space to move around and be comfortable and maintain quality casting space. I have always professed that if I have to go to the tackle box to pick out a bait in the midst of a tournament, then I’m in trouble. I always carry at least two of whatever I am fishing and if that is plastic worms, then I mean two bags full.

As far as colors, for spinnerbaits I prefer multicolored skirts and one of those colors usually needs to be chartreuse. For crankbaits I prefer shad imitators. For the Red Fin, I prefer either gold or chrome depending on the water color. For Hot Spots I like the new bright Sam Rayburn reds and Smokey Joes. For Zara Spooks I like the ones with the glitter and chrome colors once again going back to shad imitators. Jigs in crawfish colors are my favorites for early springtime. In cooler months, I prefer blues and blacks. In Branson Bugs I prefer the motor oil color. In the Road Runners I like all the colors so I usually let the fish tell me which color. If I had to pick one it would be chartreuse or white. In Pop-R’s I prefer the shad colors with a little chartreuse or red on them. Plastic worms are a difficult choice but I normally go with what I know is hot on that particular lake. If it’s red shad at Guntersville, I like that color. If it’s tomato red at Lake Tenkiller, then I like that color. If it’s purple with silver metal flake at Lake Fork, I like that color. I do not believe anyone can have a favorite worm color for all lakes and all conditions.

These are my favorites. These are the lures I have an extremely high confidence level in and thus I fish them harder and with greater expectations that I will catch a fish on one of them. My favorites do not have to be your favorites. And your favorite lures, if different from mine, will probably not work as well for me as for you.

A friend of mine told me a story of a guy who continually would launch his boat in this 100 acre lake, go to a submerged hump and anchor. He would have a black ringworm with chartreuse tail tied on everytime he saw him. My friend asked one day why did he always go to the same place with the same bait time after time. “Is the fishing that good there at that spot?” This guy said, “I caught a 7 lb. 14 and three quarter ounce largemouth here last March on a purple ringworm with a white tail. THIS IS THE SPOT!” This poor guy did not understand seasonal behavior, or changes in pH that might change fish behavior, or changes in light penetration that will change color preference. He only understood that in March one year he caught a whopper right there. If he waits again until March of the following year he will have a good chance of catching another good’un at that spot because bass are very predictable. Then again, there is the story of the guy who caught an 8 lber on a buzzbait night fishing in the middle of February during a snow storm. Maybe they’re not as predictable as we think.