I was torn on this. I would say good choices would be daredevil spoons or maybe wordens rooster tails. Both are pretty cheap and catch all kinds of fish.

Acadamy H2O CRS squarebill crank. Good inexpensive quality bait that catches every fish in the lake.

I am going to say the Senko, I know they are less durable than some other baits and a little more expensive, but they almost always catch fish.  IMO if you are not getting bit with a  Senko, might be a good idea to just pack it up and call it a day.

Dollar for dollar? A jig hands down. One 3 dollar jig can catch 40 or more fish.

I'm going to say a Blakemore Road Runner. If it swims you can catch it on a Road Runner!

Spinnerbait

Nightcrawlers. Dig em up and throw em in. Free of charge.

As far as crankbaits go, I'd have to give it to the Berkley Flicker Shad

A jig is not what I call best lure dollar for dollar, good jigs cost more than 3 bucks, in my case, half of the jigs I pull out from my t-box for jig fishing get lost on the first cast, there go 3+ bucks, most don´t make it through the second trip.

 

I can count with the fingers of one hand the spinnerbaits I´ve lost since I purchased my first pair back in 1984 and I still have those two, so for me ----> spinnerbaits are the best lure dollar for dollar.

Look for discounted lures at Wal-Mart and your mom and pop bait shops.

 

Mine was a flat not glossy orange colored spook. I caught as after bass one morning. I'm thinking people let there goldfish go in this pond and the bass are ready.

A plastic craw/ worm , soft plastics, anyday, everyday...

Buck fifty Zara Spook Jrs at Wal-Mart.

Seiberts dredge head jig kit $15 you get 5 jigs that are an absolute work of art and that brush head will snake through the nastiest stuff you can think to throw it in. I still have all 5 that I started with and each has caught multiple fish and one is always tied on.

A 3" Power Minnow on a 1/8th oz jighead.

Zoom super fluke or a bag of mister twister grubs ...anyfish that swims all a man needs

$1 WalMart buzzbait, $.97 BPS Super Spots, Academy cranks go on sale for $1.97 fairly regularly, The $2.99 DSG fat free shads (and usually some other lures too) are a no brainer (with the $10 off $50 purchase coupon of course), and the closeout bin is full of plastics that will catch fish.

rubber worms

Cavitron -for 6.95 they last for years can beat em

Senko, Rage Tail worms and craws, Berkley worms

A Berkley Chigger Craw texas-rigged.

Spinnerbait for me.

Few anglers fish jigs more than I do but they are not the most bang for your buck or bass per hour lure, IMO. Very hard to beat soft plastic worms, bullet weight and worm hook combination for numbers of bass caught per hour fishing, at the end of the day that what should count. More bass are caught on soft plastic worms each year than all the other lures combined.

Tom

To me it would be a high quality hardbait (crankbait/jerkbait/topwater.)  You can catch numbers daily and the bait can last for years.  Most plastic worms are good for no more than a couple of fish.  Dollar for dollar, fish for fish, the hardbait kills the soft bait on a per bait basis, which is what the op asked.

Senkos.  No matter what else I fish, I always catch more fish with them.

 

Hard baits though...  I have to say for the money Manns Baby Bass -1 is hard to beat.

Every bass angler who has fished more than 10 years has dozens of hard baits that they have never caught a bass on and since retired. The average cost today is well over $5 to $15 each. Hard bait have a limited effective window of time when they work good, then they are forgotten.

I agree with Rual that spinnerbaits are a good $ per bass lure, however skirts deteriorate and. Wire breaks, hooks get damaged beyond repair in a few years.

Soft plastic worms never get old, the bass never get tired of eating them and can be fished at all depth, every seasonal period year around.

I have a size and color that is custome poured that work as good today as they did 35 years ago, the cost is about 5 cents per worm in bags of 100.

Tom