The Best Soft Plastic Baits To Use While Bass Fishing

Bass are a favorite quarry among freshwater anglers. Soft plastic lures have been a standard in bass angler's arsenals for as long as there have been artificial baits. In the past decade, the number of soft plastic lures that are available to bass anglers have skyrocketed.

Of course, there are some soft plastic lures that are better than others. One of my favorite all time soft plastic baits is the Yum Dinger. Yum makes these soft plastic lures in a variety of colors as well as several sizes. The sizes are 3,4, 5, 6, or 7 inches. I like to use natural colors such as watermelonseed. I have used every "do nothing" soft plastic lure on the market. The reason I like this one so much is that it sinks very slowly. Most bites happen as this lure is dropping through the water column.

I like to wacky rig Yum Dingers in 1 - 10 feet of water. Because of the time it takes for these things to sink, I do not recommend using them in deep water. I believe that you can always find bass living in shallow water. Wacky rigging is also a structure oriented presentation. Use wacky rigging once you have determined that bass are relating to a specific type of structure such as standing timber. Take your wacky rigged Dinger and cast it to each tree you find in the area you are targeting. Allow the Dinger to sink straight down to the tree's base while you watch your line. Set the hook if you see the line jump or shoot off in one direction or another. You will need to set the hook immediately when you detect a bite because a bass will engulf this small worm very quickly.

Once the water begins to warm a bit in the springtime bass will go into their pre-spawn mode. During this time the big females will move shallow to seek out suitable spawning habitat. When they are not shallow they will spend lots of time feeding on the flats adjacent to the spawning areas. When I am targeting these fish I like to use large baits. One of my favorite is the 10 inch long Yum Ribbontail worm. This humongous soft plastic bait is meant to be Texas Rigged. Again, I am partial to natural colors like pumpkin pepper green flake or Junebug. When I am using this presentation in the early springtime I like to just barely crawl it along in the flats that are adjacent to spawning areas. it takes a lot of time to properly work one of these flats, so what i like to do is to concentrate on specific areas.

Places that I key in on are creek channels, drop offs or weed lines. I will concentrate on weed lines even if the weeds have not grown yet. Bass will relate to dead weeds.

Soft plastic lures have caught more bass than any other category of lure. My two favorite types of soft plastic lures are the Yum Dinger and the Yum Ribbontail worm. Yum makes a complete line of soft plastic lures that will fit all of your soft plastic lure needs.