The 7 Best Lures for Largemouth Bass (and When to Use Them)

Bass will indeed bite some pretty silly things, and bass fishing isn’t a sport that requires you to dial in every single detail to enjoy.

With that being said, whether you’re competing against yourself to beat your personal best or you’re against hundreds of other anglers in a giant bass tournament, you always want to have the best advantage you can to maximize your chance of catching the big one. 

Today, we’re going to go over 7 of the best lures for largemouth bass, and we’ll give some pointers on when we like to use them. 

1: Booyah Pad Crasher

The Booyah Pad Crasher hit the scene, and it became the most recognizable topwater frog out there.

In fact, outside of the Whopper Plopper and good old-fashioned popper lures, it might be the recognizable lure in the topwater category. That’s for a good reason. 

Now, some topwater lures will outperform the Pad Crasher in certain situations.

That’s how it is with practically every type of lure.

However, in our experience, the Pad Crasher is one of those lures that you can toss out there in a wide variety of situations, and you’ll get a bass. That is, as long as you use it at the right time and use it properly for the situation at hand. 

You can toss the Pad Crasher in all types of water, use cover and bank structures to your advantage, and customize it to achieve some great results. This makes it a lot more flexible than many of its top competitors. 

The best times to toss the Pad Crasher are in the early morning and right at the start of sunset. This is when actual frogs start getting active, and your Pad Crasher fits right in.

Some of our favorite things to do with it are to shorten the legs to prevent short-strikes, jam a couple of light split shots into its drain hole for a little vibration, and cast it onto a rock, log, or lily pads across the water from us.

After it sits for a few moments, lightly pop it off that structure, and use a series of short twitches to bring it back in. 

You’ll want to switch up your presentation depending on what the bass are going for, but that’s typically how we catch them. 

2: Whopper Plopper

The Whopper Plopper is another topwater lure for largemouth bass, but it solves a big problem that the Booyah has.

With the Booyah, you have to work on your presentation, and you have to tweak that presentation to match the current conditions.

The Whopper Plopper doesn’t require much skill at all. You chuck it out past an area that should have bass, and you buzz it back in. The lure does all the work. 

It also has several variations beyond simple color swaps, and you can experiment to see which setup your local bass likes more.

It’s also one that you can confidently buy generic versions of and stand a good chance of it working as intended. It probably won’t be as resilient, though. 

Those traits make the Whopper Plopper better for beginners, and it’s a go-to for veterans any time a fast topwater retrieval is warranted. 

Since it’s a topwater lure, you want to use it during the early morning hours and sunset. That’s the standard for anything topwater.

There aren’t many other tips to give beyond that, either. It’s such a straightforward lure that there’s no room for a super secret presentation. Look for bass cover or structure, cast past it a bit, and buzz the lure back to you. 

The only issue is that it’s not great on slower days when bass aren’t looking to chase a lure down. This is one you use when the action is fast, and the bass is explosive. 

3: Joe Thomas Pro Series Rooster Tail

In a market saturated with high-tech lures such as life-like swimbaits and things with mile-long marketing pages, you might be a little surprised to see the age-old Rooster Tail on this list. Well, simply put, it works.

This is a much lighter lure than many of the bass lures that have gained popularity in recent years, but it has put plenty of bass on the end of lines for decades.

The specific model we like to use is the Joe Thomas Pro Series Rooster Tail. It’s made to high-quality standards, has a consistent blade action, and holds up to a lot of abuse. 

However, Rooster Tails aren’t complicated, and if you’re on a budget, you’ll get plenty of performance out of a Strike King, Fox, or even some generic thing you grabbed in the dollar bucket at the tackle store. The difference is in the details. 

There isn’t a specific time to throw this, either. You can buzz it back through the column on warmer days when the bass are active, or you can chuck it out, let it sink a bit, and hop it back up for a slower presentation on cooler days or slower periods. 

We always love having largemouth bass lures in our box that can be used no matter what the conditions are, and the Rooster Tail is perfect for that. 

4: Deps Evoke Crankbait

Crankbaits are what a lot of anglers catch their first bass on. They’re simple, straightforward in usage, and most of them are pretty cost-effective when setting up your first tacklebox. 

Our recommendation for a crankbait is the Deps Evoke.

There are several color variations of this one, but it’s one of the highest quality crankbaits you can get. The finish stays on, the included hooks are amazing, and you’re not going to end up cracking it just by hitting some rocks on a bad cast. 

With that said, the Evoke costs about $25. So, it’s one of the pricier crankbaits on the market, and it’s one we recommend to more experienced anglers. A beginner is more likely to tie bad knots, break it off on snags, etc. 

Otherwise, you can use this just like any other crankbait. It’s a medium diver. So, it should reach the middle of the column in most lakes. You chuck it out where you think some bass are, and you just reel it in. You can toss some pauses into the mix for a bit of variety on a slow day. 

The best time to toss a crankbait is in the spring and fall. They’ll work in the more extreme seasons, but they’re at their peak fishing for spring and fall bass that are highly active. 

5: LunkerHunt Hive Hover Shot

Every angler needs a soft-plastic swimmer in their box, and while there are a ton on the market, we appreciate the LunkerHunt Hive Hover Shot.

It’s roughly shaped like a minnow, comes in multiple colors, and works like any other soft swimbait. The big difference is in a tiny belly detail. 

The belly of the Hive is perforated to look kind of like an accordion or as if it has little rubber ribs. 

This doesn’t impact its detailed silhouette too much, but it greatly enhances the amount of vibration the lure sends out into the water, even with very subtle movements. 

That’s a good thing, too. This is primarily going to be one of those lures you toss when finesse is the appropriate strategy. It’s great to throw when the water is highly pressured, the temps aren’t optimal, etc. 

Of course, it’s not as good when the fish are responding to faster lures such as spinners and cranks. You can reel this in quickly for a faster presentation in those situations, but it’s not meant for that. 

6: Mattlures Ultimate Bluegill

A big part of your time fishing is spent trying to make something that isn’t a fish look like a fish. Even if it doesn’t feel like that when you’re just twitching a rod tip a bit. 

So, it only makes sense that a lure that looks exactly like a bluegill would do extremely well for bass. 

The Mattlures Ultimate Bluegill is a life-like bluegill swimbait that looks, and almost feels, exactly like a bluegill.

If you were 20 feet away and looking at it on the ground, you’d probably be a bit irritated, thinking someone banked a bluegill for no reason. The only two tiny details that give it away are its paddletail and the hook coming from behind its big forehead. 

This makes the presentation extremely easy. You chuck it out, and you reel it back in. You can use pauses and twitches to make it look like it’s dipping down to eat at the bottom, but that’s what most of the strategy boils down to with this one. 

Also, since it’s so lifelike, there isn’t a bad time to throw it. It will work year-round, and it’s known to get some big bass. We would second-guess it if you’re at a fishery that doesn’t have a good bluegill population, though. 

The only issue we have with this lure is its price tag. It’s worth it, and you can see where that price comes in at, but at $24, it’s a bit pricey for anglers who aren’t serious.

As a soft-plastic, even its high-quality construction is going to give in and get torn up a lot faster than a hard bait. If you’re willing to throw down the money, or you’re a serious angler who wants that edge, it’s well worth it, though. 

7: Huddleston 68 Deluxe

If you liked the Mattlures Ultimate Bluegill, you’ll love this one. It’s also a couple of bucks cheaper on Tackle Warehouse’s site. 

This was one of the first big, popular swimbaits. It’s not the first, but it hit the scene, and influencers ate it up. Just like the Ultimate Bluegill, the 68 Deluxe is a life-like soft swimbait. Except, it’s 6 inches long, hollow-bodied, and hand-painted. 

There are a variety of these available from baby bass to carp and trout versions, but the only difference is the paint job. 

They’re good for slowly trolling, swimming around structure at a natural pace, and more. 

However, it’s not one we pull out all the time. It’s a clear water lure that does a great job of getting big bass to bite when they’d otherwise stay away due to water clarity, giving them a better view of the strange object bobbing around. 

Like the Ultimate Bluegill, this one’s about $21 for a lure that will get damaged a lot faster than you think. We'd save it for those times when your other lures just don’t fit the bill. 

Where to Get the Best Lures for Bass Fishing

We’ve told you what our favorites are, but you don’t need to scour the entire internet to find them and add them to your tackle box. They’re all in one place. 

Tackle Warehouse has each of these lures in all of their many variations, and they’re the most competitive price, as well.

That doesn’t just help you save a few bucks on your everyday users. It’s also crucial for trying some of those high-dollar swimbaits that a lot of anglers shy away from. 

Choosing the Right Lure for the Job

The 7 largemouth bass lures we listed in this article are going to cover topwater, realistic swimbait presentations, and some general techniques in various parts of the water column.

However, while that’ll get you pretty far in the bass fishing world, it’s always a good idea to round this list out with some of the tried-and-true classics that have put countless fish in boats for decades. 

First up, you can never go wrong with a Senko stick bait. There are multiple ways to rig it, it’s affordable, and the bass loves it. 

Another crucial lure we’d add is a football jig with some Rage Craw trailers.

Our list is pretty low on options for fishing the bottom, and you’re going to find plenty of bass there during very hot days and the spawn. This is a killer combo that will take care of that. 

Finally, no tackle box is complete without some good old-fashioned U-tail grubs. We like YUM brand because they’re fat, juicy, and tend to last, but just about any of them are going to get a bass on your line. 

For more guidance, check out the BassForecast blog, and if you want to boost your odds of landing bigger bass, learn more about our fishing app today!