Situation.

Solid weather for the past week.  high's in the low 60's upper 50's.

Bass have been sited on beds, but just a few straglers the spawn is not in full blume yet.

Water temp 57º, clearity 2 feet of visability.

Weather forcast, high 64º and overcast turning into rain.

What bait would you start off with??

Jerkbaits and spinnerbaits.

Jerkbaits and spinnerbaits.

Ditto.

T-rigged beaver.

Bass won't normally become too active until the water is in the mid 60's.  Around 64 degrees to be exact.  You can try to hit them with a drop shot rig, and wiggle that in front of them for a little...  That is the only thing that we could get the fish to hit, with the water that cool 3 weeks to 4 weeks ago...  I did get a bunch of hits off my Berkeley Beast also...  It all depends on the fish in your area...  They all react different, in different regions.  The water temperatures i stated above, are what it says in my books...  Or information that I heard for other fisherman, in different areas of the U.S.  Whatever you do, just have fun!    It would be a very good time to experiment with different set ups!  

I would go right to the rattletrap and then switch over to a bandit 200.

buzzbait and spinnerbait

the water is still pretty cold.  I would look for those bedding fish if i was you, and my best catches from bedding fish have come on a Yum Wooly Hawgtail in natural colors.  I have never tried any size but the 3 inchers because they work!

Good Luck and Tight Lines

Captain Insane-O

Storm Shad Wildeye

Heddon Sonic

Heddon Sonar

I like an oldtime lure once in a while.  The Sonic and the Sonar still catch them, especially in low visibility situations.

Spinnerbait. White/chartruese skirt, and small silver and large gold blade combination. You choose the blade shapes and sizes.

Bass are more active in mid 50's water temps than you think. Some of the biggest bass will spawn early in the cooler water in many lakes.

My baits that I would have tied on would be a suspending jerkbait, a lipless crankbait, a single Colorado blade spinnerbait, a jig and a Crig. These 5 rigs will catch fish anywhere a bass swims in the spring.

My first bait of choice is the lipless crankbait looking for active fish, especially around grass, rock and plain bottoms on points, drops and flats near spawning coves. Next is the jerkbait is in the same areas. Third comes the spinnerbait, slow rolled along the bottom, preferrable around wood near staging areas. Next is the jig around wood and rock cover in the same areas. Last, the Crig on staging points.

Good luck!

Brad

first i'd throw a spinnerbait to try and get active fish, then i'd go with a weightless senko/lizard.

spinnerbait and lipless crankbait

So far this spring, I've been getting them on shallow Shad Raps, Rattlin Raps in 05 size, and X-Raps in 08 size. The water temps have been in the 54-62 degree range. The Shad Raps have been the most productive.

Falcon

a zoom 6 in" lizard in cotton candy baby bass or any shad looking colors

It's generally best to begin with ground-covering lures to skim any active bass.

The jerkbait is a great pre-spawn lure, and the rat-l-trap is a great post-spawn lure. During the actual bedding period though,

females are super tough, and though bucks are highly protective they are rarely aggressively feeding.

All the same, the pre-spawn, spawn and post-spawn stages are always generously overlapping, so power fishing

is bound to snag a few bucks. But if the power-approach brings poor results (as I would expect), I wouldn't hesitate

to turn the other cheek and slow-crawl a plastic crayfish or any creature bait with those annoying tentacles ;D

Roger