What would be the best thing to use if your not fishing near brush or logs. Just off a bank or pier out to open water to fish for bass. I have had zero luck with a Texas rig past 2 days.

Lipless Crankbait or Spinnerbait       Good Luck.     You might finess worms with real light weight or weedless worm.

Ill buy a few, Ready to catch my first bass already but was having no luck with plastics so far.

Just because you are fishing from the bank or a pier doesn't mean you have to "cast to open water". I am sure you know that bass are structure oriented fish and will rarely be found when they are not related to some form of structure or cover (credit to Catt, I have that post of his almost memorized lol). So what I would suggest is to watch BassResource's bank fishing video on youtube. When I fished from the bank I would make a lot of casts from one spot in a fan pattern. Start parallel (as close as possible) to shore and cast a few feet more towards open water each time. This will make a fan pattern and cover all of the water you can reach.. Try fishing off of a point. Look for any change in the shoreline and fish it. Laydowns are great, too. Just because you don't have a boat doesn't mean that you have to fish "open water". Now that you know this, just about any rig or lure you see on this website is an option to catch fish from the bank. Hope this helps.

 

Brian

I think the lipless crank a la red eyed Shad by strike king or similar is what i use. I'll throw it when i don't have good angles or buddy is tying on a lure and boat isn't in optimal position. Caught a nice perch last week just that way!

Carolina rig.  Might be able to cast it further than a t-rig.  USe it to 'feel' the bottom of where you're fishing and look for cover.  Once you find cover, rocks, stumps, etc, hit that area pretty hard before moving on.

Makes sense, I was dragging it along the bank wall with the t rig not just out in open water all day. But no luck and the luck I did get was a few nice big sticks I reeled in haha, or just got caught up. When ever I get the water pump on my boat I can take it out and fish in better spots but for the next couple weeks its going to be a lot of bank and pier fishing so was just curious of the best things to use in this situation.