My girlfriend and I took up fishing last summer and we really enjoy it. We just bought fishing kayaks for this summer.  Currently I whacky rig senkos and she Texas rigs them. We use green pumpkin, black/blue, and PBJ.  Any advice on my next steps in expanding my lures? We currently fish in a pond and catch 1-2 lb bass.  We feel lost when it comes to understanding the conditions and how they affect the fish.  I would like to start to learn how to select what to fish and what color to use, etc.  any advice is greatly appreciated.

Well, you’ve come to the right place. There’s no shortage of reading material here. The search function is your friend.

First thing is welcome aboard.. You’re starting out with baits that are reliable fish catchers. As @12poundbass stated there are tons of info you can look up and videos on here. Let us know what part of the country you’re in and that can get you local info. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Like 12poundbass said, you are in the right place for bass knowledge. The information you can find on here will be invaluable to you as you learn bass. But, time on the water will be your number one tool in helping you become a better bass fisherman. You can do all the reading there is to do, but if you aren’t spending time actually fishing, you won’t have context to put that knowledge or information to. 
 

I would try not to go down the color rabbit hole just starting out. You stated you use Green Pumpkin, Black/blue and PB&J. Those colors should cover most bases, and for a lot of bass guys the jury is still out on what difference color actually makes. So with those 3 colors, you should have no problem catching fish. I’d stick with them. 
 

As far as learning how conditions affect bass, try using the search function on the forum for specifics. High/low pressure systems, fronts, rain, wind, storms, cloud cover, insect hatches and human activity are all things bass respond to. Try to fish in as many different conditions as you can and make note. Keeping a fishing log really helps with this. I believe BassResource has free logs you can print and fill out. They are a great tool to be able to reference from year to year, especially when newer to bass. 

Here’s a link to the free BassResource fishing log:

https://www.bassresource.com/fish/fishing_log.html

Edited May 15, 20251 yr by Jar11591
Added link to fishing log

Welcome! 

You can try different style of soft plastics, ribbon/ curly tailed worms, creature baits, lizards. That way your still Texas rigging them weedless. 
Top waters too, silver/ black back, popper or pencil style. 
Walmart has inexpensive ones to start out.

THE BAIT MONKEY WELCOMES BOTH OF YOU.

 

Welcome! My advice is to start off simple:

 

1. 3/8 oz chartreuse and white willow blade spinnerbait

2. 3/8 oz white willow blade spinnerbait

3. 3/8 oz green pumpkin bladed jig

4. Hollow bodied frog

5. Popper bait

 

That's all that you need to have a ton of fun on the water. 

 

One more piece of advice - DO NOT listen to the Bait Monkey. Ever. 😁

Learn how bass live, what they eat, when they spawn, how they react to water temp and water visibility, and weather. Then choose lures that will operate at the speed and depth that gets bites.  It sounds complicated but it's really not.  Start slow and build your knowledge over time.  Fish as much as possible and pay attention to what is going on while on the water.

Don't get caught up in the lure (and color) race.  You can catch a lot of fish on a handful of lures, but you gotta find 'em first, and that's where the knowledge part becomes the most important.

Welcome to my world.

http://www.pensacolafishingforum.com/attachments/f21/489881d1429545472-looking-old-funny-monkey-fishing-pic-image-jpg

 

Plastic worms are a great place to start. Those catch in most conditions.

 

In the spirit of easy heuristics to get you started and learning. Go get yourself a half ounce or lighter white spinner bait. Throw it when it's windy and overcast near wood or other structure. Try different speeds of reeling it back in.

 

To expand it's utility out a bit, and kind of build on the heueristic, you can also throw it sunrise or sunset to good effect.

 

Low light conditions near structure are where spinners excel. Couple ways to get that. Wind generated waves make it harder for sunlight to penetrate the water. Cloud cover reduces sun. Sunset/sunrise are also lower light. The flash and vibration of the spinner draws in bass well in those conditions.

Check this out. Go to the home page of this very site and look at the articles and videos for beginners. https://www.bassresource.com/how-to-fish

 

I'd say you started with the right lure though. My dad used to say that if bass don't want a black plastic worm, they aren't hungry. There was something to that wisdom as he usually outfished me when I was young. Later, I showed him what a crankbait and a spinnerbait can add to the arsenal.

 

I would branch out into other types of worms and soft plastics. Basic topwaters are poppers like the Pop R, buzzbaits, prop lures like the Whopper Plopper. Topwaters produce well in lower light conditions like morning or overcast. Try spinnerbaits around wood cover and weed edges. Just experiment, starting from the familiar and moving into other baits. 

 

WARNING: Collecting baits is addictive and becomes just as important or more so than actually catching fish if you're not careful.

2 hours ago, Kayak Koz said:

One more piece of advice - DO NOT listen to the Bait Monkey. Ever. 😁

I had to look at my account. I’ve been on this site for about 3 years now and this has got to be THE WORST PIECE OF ADVICE I’VE EVER SEEN WRITTEN HERE. 
 

I swear the bait monkey didn’t make me say that…

2 hours ago, Kayak Koz said:

Popper bait

 

I'd fish surface lures next and the popper is a great place to start. Once it gets hot, bass love poppers when the light is low: rain, fog, early morning, and late evening. 

A white double willow spinnerbait, a smaller football jig and craw trailer, a senko, a fluke, and some terminal tackle is all you really need to catch a bass.  

 

The rest is just fun and puts a lot of damage on your pocketbook.  I just dropped another $800 yesterday. 

13 minutes ago, Rockhopper said:

A white double willow spinnerbait, a smaller football jig and craw trailer, a senko, a fluke, and some terminal tackle is all you really need to catch a bass.  

 

☝️ Echoing this. You honestly could go your whole fishing career with very little tackle and one combo. Pretty sure a lot of our grandparents did just fine this way. 

 

I learned a lot from watching YouTube, which is where I'd say to go other than our site's awesome library, but you've got to also be ready to filter a lot of their gear advice our. They're paid to sell gear.

 

You don't need a lot to get very high quality fish. You do however need a LOT of time on the water. If you're going to spend money, spend it on gas, guiding services, and whatever gets you out with high quality practice -- not tackle.

6 minutes ago, Rucksack said:

 

☝️ Echoing this. You honestly could go your whole fishing career with very little tackle and one combo. Pretty sure a lot of our grandparents did just fine this way. 

My days when I take the kayak that is about all I actually end up using.  I have three rods with me on the yak.  Baitcaster for the spinnerbait.  Baitcaster for the jig.  And a spinning rod with a 3/0 EGW tied on for the senko and fluke.  Simple simple.

Get some white or off white zoom super flukes. Not expensive, rigged like a texas rig and they will catch fish. I fish them weightless. Many vids on you tube. And welcome! And enjoy every minute out there!!

7 hours ago, Rucksack said:

 

☝️ Echoing this. You honestly could go your whole fishing career with very little tackle and one combo. Pretty sure a lot of our grandparents did just fine this way. 

 

I learned a lot from watching YouTube, which is where I'd say to go other than our site's awesome library, but you've got to also be ready to filter a lot of their gear advice our. They're paid to sell gear.

 

You don't need a lot to get very high quality fish. You do however need a LOT of time on the water. If you're going to spend money, spend it on gas, guiding services, and whatever gets you out with high quality practice -- not tackle.

I would add that a well-balanced MH combo is the all-terrain-vehicle of bass combos. It's the catch-all if you're going to only use one.

Howdy and wecome.

 

I suggest starting very small with lure selection. In fact, 5-10 lures can cover every situation. It's fun trying new lures.

 

One tip, bass become conditioned to the same lure repeatedly. So, if you constantly throw a senko in the same spot every trip, and you fish it often, you'll likely come to a point where they don't work, but something else will work. Such as switching to a ribbon tail worm (for texas rigged not wacky rigged).

 

Worms, and all their variants are great, but there is a lure that is similar that is completely different that you should get and master. That's the Fluke. Zoom super fluke is the standard.

 

Flukes imitate a fish, just like a crankbait and a spinnerbait. But where flukes shine is, they are completely weedless because you texas rig them. And they have an action like nothing else.

 

That brings me to the next thing of note, knots.

 

You need to know 2 knots, a standard knot to attach lures and hooks, and a loop knot for some things including flukes. Using a loop knot to attach the hook for a fluke increases its action substantially. You can fish flukes with the hook tied the regular way, so don't let it stop you if you haven't mastered a loop knot, just know you should add one to your repertior.

 

I primarily use the Trilene knot, and the Kreh Loop knot. I know others, but those are the most useful of the half dozen I can remember.

 

So, if I was going to list a few lures that I'd give someone starting out, it would be:

•plastic worms. Senko, berkley power worm or culprit ribbontail. Green pumpking or watermelon red.

•zoom lizards, much like the worm, and fished the same both weighted and weightless. whatever color you like or if you know the lizard colors in your area match that.

•flukes, zoom super fluke. green pumpkin, junebug, baby bass, white.

 

•Jigheads and grubs. 1/4 oz jighead with a zoom fat albert grub. This same jig head can be used for a paddle tail grub or other types of grubs. Use a loop knot for this, throw it out, reel it in slow with a stop and go retrieve.

 

Grubs is very similar to a plastic worm, and will be easy for you to expand to and master. It's very downsized though, and sometimes you want that smaller profile.

 

I go 1/8oz jigheads for 2" grubs, and I don't go smaller than that. 1/4oz for the 3" fat albert.

 

•Beetle spin. This is a grub with an added spinner. They are very inexpensive, and they work, just like a grub. You can use it without the spinner. You can buy the spinner separate and turn a regular grub into a beetle spin. You can take the beetle spin softy body off and replace it with a normal grub or half a worm.

 

•Crankbaits. There are a lot of varieties but they all work, some better than others. The 4 types of crankbaits I'd recommend is:

 

The original Rapala minnow is a type of crankbait known as a jerkbait, basically a long slender crankbait. It has an excellent action but doesn't dive like a shad rap, and if you fish shallow is a must have lure. Made of wood, so it doesn't rattle.

 

Similar to the above, with the same construction is the Rapala shad rap. It's a great lure that ain't in the limelight right now... sleeper lures. Expensive, but they have a subtle action that catch fish when other crankbaits will not. Made of wood.

 

There is also a shallow shad rap, which is similar, but is made of plastic and rattles. They work very well too. I have all 3 in my box most of the time.

 

Squarebill crankbaits, KVD 1.5, H20X from academy squarebills are good lures, as is their 1/4oz mini squarebill, or any other similar squarebill.

 

Bomber Fat free guppy or fat free fingerling. Guppy is shallower, fingerling is deeper diving. Guppy is my most used for shore/shallow of the two. It's a classic crankbait and looks expensive but its only about $4.00 and is an excellent lure.

 

For crankbait colors, get about 3 colors. A dullish shad looking color, a red/orange color, one with a bright color like chartreuse. Some days they want one color over the other, but that'll basically cover you. I'd go shad color if I only had 1 color.

 

•Topwater, I'd recommend a popper. Any variety will do. A rebel Pop-r, an h20x popper, whichever one suits your fancy. Now... if you end up in love with topwater lures, which I am not, you'll want to expand to a few others, such as a whopper plopper, a zara spook puppy, and a jitterbug.

 

Okay I said it, I don't live for the topwater bite. Many do. I fish it, but I prefer flukes and crankbaits to all others.

 

There isn't a wrong way to fish, as long as you're catching fish, so enjoy it, build a style all your own, and experiment.

 

Something I heard or read somewhere; Bass like change; Any change; A change in water current, a change in light (shade to sun), a change in angle (around a corner), a bush, a stump, an underwater ledge, a lone twig on an otherwise bare bottom. Any change at all will attract bass.

 

Throw into a bush/tree/whatever, worry about how you're going to get the bass out after you get him hooked.

 

My 5 year old threw over a branch and ended up hooking a bass. He and my wife called for my assistance... I ended up flipping a bass over a tree limb about 10 feet up. 

Thank you everyone for the advice.  I really appreciate it.  I plan to get a revel pop r this weekend and a Crabkbait.  Everyone seems to agree that’s a good next step.  I have a whopper popper and a rapala minnow. This seems like a good start to a fun summer.  Let me know if I am missing anything.  
  Also, I know I am new to fishing but nothing catches fish like the zoom brush hog!

Buy a Jitterbug and fish it on a calm summer evening as the sun is starting to set.  It wont catch more bass than other lures, but life is never the same after a bass interrupts that subtle blurp blurp blurp sound with a violent splash.  Every bass angler should experience this at least once in their life.

21 hours ago, Rockhopper said:

My days when I take the kayak that is about all I actually end up using.  I have three rods with me on the yak.  Baitcaster for the spinnerbait.  Baitcaster for the jig.  And a spinning rod with a 3/0 EGW tied on for the senko and fluke.  Simple simple.

 

I used to take 4 in the kayak.

 

Sawed off some pvc and now I go with 6.

 

I'd love to get to 8. 

 

What's wrong with me!

 

LOLOLOLOLOL

11 hours ago, Bazoo said:

Now... if you end up in love with topwater lures, which I am not

 

Shame, shame on your family name! How can you not love surface fishing? When I fished muskies, I'd gladly catch one on the surface for three underneath. 

Welcome @Davefishes2366!!

 

This is a Great site with FANTASTIC contributors & moderators. I have learned so, SO much here!

 

Search is your friend, and read, read, read.

 

I am a part of some other species specific boards, FB pages, forums...and Bass Resources is 100%, absolutely the best and most friendly!

 

If you are catching fish in your lakes and ponds, keep fishing with those lures. What works in some parts of the country might not work in other parts. I love fishing a jig-n-craw, but it just doesn't produce in some lakes.

 

Good luck!!!

50 minutes ago, DaubsNU1 said:

What works in some parts of the country might not work in other parts.

 

 

You have to find what works on the bass where you fish...and it sounds like you already have:

 

11 hours ago, Davefishes2366 said:

I know I am new to fishing but nothing catches fish like the zoom brush hog!

 

My two most reliable lures in May are an underspin and spinnerbait. However, this morning, using those two for nearly two hours, I didn't get a single bite. So, we can't be one trick ponies.