What are your most productive lures in 55 - 60 degree water?

Here are mine:

1. Senko

2. Suspending Jerkbait

3. Jig And Pig

4. Tube

5. Shallow Running Crank

Lipless crankbait

Chatterbait

Spinnerbait

Hard jerkbaits, jigs, Senkos. Toward the upper range is when I'll start to drop shot.

Jerkbaits, Pointers and Husky Jerks. As the water warms I will start to use T rigged and shaky head soft plastics.

Shakey Head

LC Flat Mini SR

LC Pointer 78

chrome/blue trap

senko, i like mine wacky

white spinner

white chatter

and i always seem to throw a double tail hula grub at some point...  8-)

Do you guys burn the lipless crank or use a stop and go, yo yo type retrieve this time of year?

Do you guys burn the lipless crank or use a stop and go, yo yo type retrieve this time of year?

I would like to know this as well

Im fishing a pearl white super fluke right now with a 4 hook. Weightless and killin em. Been having 60 degree water now. They arent on the bank yet though. Best fish caught in 20-30 feet of water. You catch em chasing minnows and throw it in there. Tears em up.

So far, drop shoting a Senco has been my goto bait for those temps. However, I bought some Zoom flukes, for weightless jerk baits, I'll see how those work.

as far as retrieves go in water temps similar to yours, a steady slow to medium retrieve with an occasional brief stoppage,followed by a quick twitch to get it trackin' again works good for me as far as triggering strikes go. you get a different flash on the flutter and a sound change on the the twitch breaking up the monotony of a vanilla retrieve.

Do you guys burn the lipless crank or use a stop and go, yo yo type retrieve this time of year?

I would like to know this as well

I like to yo-yo them, just as I begin my retrieve i will use a steady retrieve until I hit grass. Once I hit the grass I start to yo-yo. I will pull it up just enough to rip it out of the grass. This will really help the bass react to it.

Do you guys burn the lipless crank or use a stop and go, yo yo type retrieve this time of year?

I would like to know this as well

I like to yo-yo them, just as I begin my retrieve i will use a steady retrieve until I hit grass. Once I hit the grass I start to yo-yo. I will pull it up just enough to rip it out of the grass. This will really help the bass react to it.

Something about lipless cranks over emerging grass seems to just nail bass.

ice,

The way I look at it, it's "how much speed are they willing to chase?"

Speeds good for covering water, but it's also important to what the fish perceive as catchable for their given state of activity. You have to play around to discern that.

But, there seems to be, as water warms, a certain speed requirement to attract/trigger strikes. While bass can chase in cold water to some degree (if motivated by easy prey) when water warms they seem to NEED speed more often than not. Above 55 is where I start to really see it.

I often speed test small bass (easy to find bc there are lots of 'em) to see if they need speed. Too often I'll be fishing "my own way" and find I'm impaling small bass when I reel up to cast again. This is a BIG CLUE , and, although I my continue my way for a time (to be sure), increasing speed turns out to be the ticket.

As to lures, I have my favorites but all the above are fine. But I think speed and the willingness of bass to make a capture (your pauses and accelerations) is what's important.

Disclaimer: These comments are the thoughts and ideas of one Paul Roberts and may have no connection with reality outside of Paul Roberts limited intellectual capacity and time spent on Earth. ;D

Instead of looking at just the water temperature I would want to know what the weather pattern was 3 days prior.

If it has been stable then I would bust out the Rat-L-Traps. I would rip em through grass, bounce em of wood, & kneel-n-reel em. Oh yea I'd do the same thing with a spinner bait!

I would throw Texas rigged plastic in, around & through any available cover followed by a Jig-N-Craw; soft plastic swim baits would also be in the picture.

Target areas would be main lake points, secondary points, spawning flats & starting at the second break line off the bank.

If the weather pattern 3 days prior was cold fronts then I would slow down presentations

Yeah, agree with Catt that weather trends are a clue to activity. I was thinking spring and rising temps (reaching 55-60) -there does seem to be a progression with general temp (the number) as spring progresses. I assumed this is what ice was talking about.

Early season like this I expect aggressive fish when the water's warming and have to slow down when it's cooling (cold front). Summer's different though. Dark skies are a blessing then.