Thursday, April 28, 2022

Downsize Baits for More Spring Bass

Fishing for bedding bass provides many anglers their best opportunity to catch a trophy bass. Though spawning bass are usually easy to spot against their fanned-out beds, catching them can often be frustrating …


Most bass fisherman revert to standard bass baits (jigs, worms and sometimes topwaters) when fishing for bedding bass and more recently specialized sinking worms and soft-stickbaits.

Depending on the stage of the spawn, bedding bass can be aggravated into striking or moving “conventional-sized” bass lures.  Much of the time, however, bedding bass will refuse most of the normal-sized morsels dropped into their liar.

When encountering those times when bass are reluctant to strike normal-sized offerings, down-sizing your lure selection increases success for bedding bass!

Three Mini-baits To Cure Bedding Bass Blues …

Over the years, I have found these three bite-sized morsels can turn hesitant spawner into an aggressive defender of their bedding territory …


The eighth-ounce jig and trailer combo …

Try using this down-sized version of the jig ‘n pig favorite of most bass anglers.  With it’s smaller profile and slower fall, this mini-morsel can often trigger strikes causing bass to pounce on it once it enters their lair …

A “Fuzz-E-type” grub on a eighth or sixteenth ounce roundball jig head offers not only the smaller profile and slower fall but the added advantage of being far different than most baits dropped into their beds …

Over a decade ago, the Yamamoto Senko re-ignited the bass angler’s interest in sinking worm-type baits after introducing the four and five inch version of this great bass bait.

Boasting both a slow fall rate and enticing wiggle during decent, the sinking worms on the market today are a staple in every bass fisherman’s arsenal. When bedding bass resist the longer sinking minnow offerings, switching to the shorter, stubbier, three-inch version can be just what the doctor ordered for that bedding trophy bass strike!

Other small baits can work equally well on bed fish including a 3.5" hellgrammite rigged on a Ned-style jig head which was dragged through a bedding fish's domain. This bass just couldn't stand the little hellgie invading its turf!


So remember, sometimes downsizing pays off, not only in numbers of bass but quality fish too!

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