Hey guys,
Brian Schmitt here with Bassresource.com. I'm going to give you my five favorite May baits. These are baits that you can use all around the country. We're going to talk about why I choose these for certain scenarios, a little bit about the line sizes, the rod, reel, etcetera. But we're going to dive into some baits here real quick.
So these are five. I'm going to show you real quick each one and we'll talk about it. So I got a punching set up. I got a light flipping set up. I have a frog. I have a swim jig. And then I have a Neko style setup.
Why did I choose these? OK so. I'm looking at anywhere I go in the country. Clear water, rivers, lakes with grass, a little bit of color. There's always a bite. There's always a situation where the Neko can be a deal. So you know it's just an excellent tool for early post-spawn. I’m thinking May—some places where it's starting to get an early post-spawn, and even if there is still some spawning going on, this is a deadly weapon. For scenarios of more areas getting a little more pressure from angling pressure, there could be poor conditions, you know, cold fronts, etcetera. The Neko is just a proven tool wherever you go. So I believe in the month of May you must have this set up.
So I have this rigged up. This is a Missile Baits Quiver Worm. Green pumpkin 6 1/2 inch and I use a Spin Muscle Guard hook from Hayabusa. Has a very, very light weed guard that you could separate—it's two pieces of heavy heavy mono that you could separate and provide a little better protection for the hook point. 1/32nd oz weight in it. I'm hoping I did mention 12 LB fluorocarbon to 10 LB braid. I usually like a lighter rod. This is a 7'2" medium heavy, but this is a very, very light, forgiving medium heavy and I just pair this on a SPRO. This is a JC Elite MG 3000 series reel and this is just something I'm gonna target boat docks, suspended fish, live scope fish, visual spawners—anything I could pretty much come to where I feel like I can get away with finesse approach. So that's the Neko rig.
Now let's talk about the swim jig. We need a tool to cover water, OK? So vibrating jig could do it, spinnerbait could do it, there's a lot of options. A buzzbait could do it. The swim jig for me, the reason I choose—it provides me an option that I don't need the ideal weather. Like a buzzbait—you really don't want 2 foot rollers rolling into a bank. You know, a vibrating jig—sometimes you want vegetation or whatever. A vibrating jig is a good option. But the swim jig for me, man, it doesn't matter what really the conditions are—as long as I don't have extremely dirty water. And this is so subtle, that those early post-spawners and those late spawners will attack this. I catch a lot of fish on this swim jig all over the country. Excellent tool to cover water once again.
So this is a Hayabusa Little Schmitty. It's a signature series swim jig that I designed. I had this paired with a Missile Baits Chunky D trailer, 15 LB fluorocarbon and that's my line of choice. This is more of a lower, slower presentation. This is not something that I'm really going to skip up around thicker laydowns, bushes. I can fish this around docks. This is on a 7'1" medium heavy baitcaster rod that I designed with Fitzgerald. It's my signature series rod. It's the swim jig rod to be exact. And this is Jason Christie Elite MG. This is a 7.3:1 reel. That's my reel of choice anytime I'm swim jigging, and my line of choice for this particular technique. So this is something, you know, if I come in a situation where there's grass, a river situation, just going down the banks and lakes, going in little pockets—hey, you know, there's a little bit of lily pads around—just anything, guys, to cover a little bit of water. Swim jig gets it done for me. So that's number two.
Number three, I got to have something to flip into laydowns, flip into a little bit heavier structure—grass, lily pads—and in case I come around a bed fish, a late bed fish. So this is the Missile Baits Baby Destroyer, OK, just an excellent excellent bait. This is not too big. This doesn't really scare them, but it has a little bit of action. These tails put off just enough action for the month of May to really get their attention without scaring them.
I got this on a 5/16 and I put a little glass bead, little red bead on this guys. I just like a little bit of clacking. You know, sometimes I'll flip it in there and just shake it a little bit. It might be in my mind, but that bead gives me a little bit more confidence. Confidence is key to get a few more bites. 17 LB fluorocarbon is my line of choice on this. This is a 3/0 959 Hayabusa hook. It's just an offset worm hook with a pretty big gap in it, so you know, that's the deal there. This is a 7'3" Heavy Stunner rod from Fitzgerald, 7.3:1 reel from SPRO. That's my setup. Anything I come in contact with where I can't get the swim jig to or the Neko to—you know—and you're gonna come across that as you're fishing. You know, like we talked about a beautiful laydown—the Neko might get in there and get snagged or it might get a bite, but does it have the power to pull that fish out? This setup does. Got to have something to flip around, you know, on an isolated target. So that's the deal with that.
Now—gotta have a frog. Month of May, guys, you have to have a frog. You could have so many scenarios going on. You could have a shad spawn going on, bluegill spawn going on, bass spawn going on. A frog is deadly in the month of May a lot of places around the country. I chose a SPRO Junior Bronze Eye Junior in albino color. The reason I chose this? The little bit smaller profile—I feel if you get into this shady spawning kind of situation, a smaller profile gets me a lot more bites and I just feel like it's something different than everybody else is throwing. Maybe everybody's throwing a poppin’ frog or a bigger frog. It's just something that I have a little bit more confidence with.
This guy's anywhere shallow that provides habitat—it could be shallow grass, pads, bank grass, shallow docks, little bit of laydowns. You know, 50 LB braid. I'm not scared to put this where they live. I can get them out. You know, skipping it under docks. This is just a really good option for the month of May, man. Not to mention late spawn. Or sometimes you could be going down a bank and you're like, you don't realize it because maybe the water has just a little bit of color—there could be some late spawners that you don't see. They will jump on a frog. If not eat it, they will show themselves too. So this is a cool option.
The reason I chose a frog over a Spook—I can put this in a lot more places than a Spook or a Pop-R. I could get in some nasty stuff. So the frog is definitely it. I got this on a 7'3" heavy from Fitzgerald, 50 LB P-Line braid. OK. 8.1:1 reel for frogging from SPRO. So I want a little bit faster reel for a lot of reasons. A lot of times a frog bite for me is the first 5 feet of the—you know—the reel in. You know, from the entry, 5 feet out. There's a lot of wasted time, I believe, where the frog's not getting in quick. Not to mention, one hits it in real shallow water. They don't swim up or down, they swim side to side or at you. You got to be able to catch up. Catch up quick. So faster reel for sure.
Lastly, I got a punch rod. Any fishery I'm going to in the month of May—and I'm gonna be quite honest with you—a lot of times of year, but especially in May, those big fish, guys—they love getting underneath something. So if a fishery has grass, I am making sure there is no mats. Like I wanna know if there's any mats around. Fisheries—highland reservoirs, trash mats, guys—anywhere there's a little bit of debris that's blown in. You know, the water levels coming up, coming down, sometimes you'll get some debris mats. But anything topped out—you need a punch setup. You can catch some really monster fish. You might not get a lot of numbers, but just running around looking for topped out stuff. So that's my deal. That's my thought process with that.
So this is a Missile Baits Chunky D, bruiser flash. Ounce and a half Reins tungsten weight. Ounce and a half is pretty much my standard. I'll go up or down depending on the cover, but just to determine that bite is there—an ounce and a half will get me started. 50 LB P-Line braid. This is a 4/0 Hayabusa FPP Straight. This excellent flipping hook, guys. I got this on a 7'3" extra heavy Fitzgerald all-purpose rod, and a 7.3:1 reel.
Get after it. Find a few mats. Flip this in. So we gave you options to fish—you know—pretty much from the bank out as far as you want to go. The Neko provides that. But we gave you baits to cover water. We gave you baits to get in the heavy cover. We gave you baits to trick very finicky fish.
These are my core baits for May. I hope you can apply these where you're at or some variation of this and use this thought process. Help you catch a lot more fish. And Glenn May's the—Glenn May's the man.
