Top Smallmouth Bass Baits of 2020

By Andrew Ragas

At the end of every season, I reveal the secret baits that caught the most fish for customers and I. Our 2020 season concluded in mid October. A very belated post, we finally glance back at the dominating baits and presentations that screamed success for big fish this year. Revisiting the old, consistent standbys from each of the previous years, and revealing some new.

We can collectively agree 2020 was weird. And it sucked more than was good. The fishing was satisfactory to okay. Virus life, fish confusion, insane angling pressure (Blame Canada!) and bad weather all collaborated into one messy bowl of salad this year.

I have to be on the top of my game daily, and my only requirement in all fishing lures is they better catch fish for my guests and I, providing we are skilled at using them and manipulating their every movement and action! At any given time, I keep up to 10 assorted St. Croix Rods Mojo Bass and Legend Tournament Rods rigged and ready with an assortment of fish catchers at my Ranger’s front deck….. along with another 20 or so below in its rod locker. Overkill, yes. But here’s my logic: A diversified lure selection like this will help not only make you a more versatile bass angler, but allow you to catch more fish and be prepared for the called upon presentation at any given time. 

Prime patterns and favorite lures can be revisited each year, especially as the environment and behaviors of smallmouth bass dictate their locations and influence their feeding habits. Each year a few annual constants remain, but new discoveries and techniques succeed in the underwater world below me.

As any observant and scientific-minded angler can conclude, the success you have with your favorite lures and technique-specific methods depends on weather and water conditions, fish locations, and habitats.

On the lakes and rivers you fished throughout 2020, what were some of your favorite and most productive methods to catch big fish throughout the year?

Here are this season’s winners, in no specific order. 2020 was the first season my boat could barely catch squat with a hair jig or topwater.

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Strike King Caffeine Shad w/ Trokar EWG MagWorm

Equally effective for smallmouths, and sometimes even better depending on fish activity levels, soft jerkbaits in the fluke style like the Strike King Caffeine Shad can be fished with the same cadence as a hard jerkbait to draw strikes. In times when bass are conditioned or turning away, a soft minnowbait will outfish a hardbait. It draws strikes from aggressive fish, but also triggers reluctant strikes from wary and conditioned fish. Soft jerkbaits like this will produce when the hardbait won’t. It’s important to work a soft jerkbait with the same cadence and long pauses as you would a hard jerkbait.

These past few seasons, I’ve been supplied with, and experimenting with a variety of brands. Most soft minnows are molded and poured the same, containing durable yet stiff plastic formulas that impede and prevent the bait from achieving its action to entice a smallmouth’s interest. Contrary to these styles, the Caffeine Shad breaks traditional jerk minnow boundaries with its soft and salty texture and elongated sickle tail. This bait is far from durable with my rigging method (below), lasting only a few fish per bait, but it catches and hooks into the most fish.

Rigged weightless with a 3/0 Eagle Claw Trokar MagWorm with plastic barb keeper, which keeps it honest and gives it a slow sink, I make sure to pop the bait with a few upwards jerks and let it hang and glide slowly down a few feet in the water column. Smallmouths often slurp it and strike aggressively on the pause, and slow flutter downward. When it’s their time to be used, soft jerkbaits offer a greater hang time in strike zones and will always sink at a slow minimal rate. Additionally, they will offer livelier finesse action which I believe is what tempts conditioned fish and big and old experienced bronzebacks to strike. The soft jerkbait will often catch smallmouths from the same spots where the hardbait blew past them moments earlier, and will generate new strikes on conditioned fish. Beyond this reciprocation, they serve well as quickly fished search lures on calm lifeless days, and also when dragged on Carolina rigs.

Fishing with minnows is a visual experience. Because the majority of my bites occur on slack line while the softbait is on the glide downward, I always keep my eyes fixated on the top six inches of my rod throughout the entire retrieve. Regardless of light penetration and weather, it’s important to keep a watch on your line and the rod tip. I fish the setup with 10 lb. Seaguar Red Label. Many anglers favor some other kind of fluorocarbon line.

St. Croix Rod used: Avid-X AXC68MXF

 

 

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Rapala X-Rap sizes 08 and 10 – Hot Head and Pink

It’s timeless, simple, and slimmed down compared to other suspending jerks and slashbaits I throw. Often the best baits are those that remain unchanged, and continue to produce year after year.

The size 08 and 10 Hot Head X-rap was a go-to for customers and I throughout the spring and summer seasons when smallmouth were on a baitfish feed. If they weren’t hitting a hot head, PINK was the next best color, and it scored big.

I am now a believer in pink. See the impressive fish caught, below.

Size 08 is applicable on spinning gear, and fared best in low wind conditions, and also when fish had a smaller forage preference.

Size 10 meanwhile is often a big fish target. In May 2020, we had many cold and windy days in which the slower retrieve and bulkier profile of size 10 was in favor and the only bait smallmouth’s would slash at.

The Hot Head color is perfect for northwoods smallmouth. It contrasts best on my tannic brown waters, and can be seen by fish from miles away on the clearest waters. It is the only color one ever needs.

Due to its slender profile and strong construction, the X-Rap is built for accurate, long distance casting. What separates this suspending jerk from others is I can fish the size 08 comfortably with my favorite 7ft med. heavy St. Croix Avid-X spinning rod with high-speed Quantum Smoke 30 Speed Freak reel. Meanwhile the size 10 can be fished with any St. Croix jerkbait model casting rod – typically of 6ft 8″ medium extra-fast length and action.

The X-Rap incorporates a long-cast design, enabling weights to shift during the cast. Its weight-forward design is a benefit because it allows anglers to cover vast amounts of water quickly, making it an effective search bait. The key characteristic of the X-Rap is that it can be fished in any type of manner and according to the moods and feeding patterns of the fish. This correlates with the retrieve of the X-Rap and the way it is fished as it involves a lot of mixing and matching according to the behavior of the fish.

The X-Rap family of baits comes with a pair of razor-sharp VMC trebles, but I recommend swapping them in favor of Trokar Tk300 round bend treble hooks.

St. Croix Rod used: Avid-X AXC68MXF / Avid-X AXS7MHF

 

 

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AR’s Supersize Ned Rig

The Ned rig came onto the bass fishing scene during the last decade when Ned Kehde concocted this jig worm. Since then, the entire bass fishing world has gone mad and fallen in love with it. It excels in difficult fishing conditions, on pressured waters, and is one of the best finesse fishing options to consider.

2018 was my personal introduction to the Ned, and many eye-opening experiences followed. Since then, I’ve kept it tied onto a rod ever since and our results in 2019 through 2020 were no different.

It’s a numbers presentation, but it’s one that targets some of the largest bass living in the most pressured lake systems. It’s also the bait to use when smallmouth don’t show interest in tubes or other bottom-dwelling jigging methods.

Traditionally a small profile, the Ned Rig is typically fished with a 1/16 to 1/8 oz. mushroom style jig head, and tipped with a 2 to 3 inch tail segment of a stick worm. The flat mushroom style jig head allows a stick bait to stand and be presented upright. This is an angle bass are new to.

Even though many anglers fishing the rig are scoring gargantuan numbers of bass and experiencing 50 to 100 fish days with it as a finesse option, the Ned Rig is my solution for big smallmouth when they’re fixated on leech patterns – typically from mid June through August.

Rather than use the most common Ned Rig sizes and styles, I have taken the approach to a different level and modifying it for my big bass. I fish it with a 5/16 oz. mushroom head. Then, rather than use a small piece of worm on the business end, I will rig an entire 5 inch full bodied stick. This weeds out all of the dinks. The modified AR ned is a trophy producing jig worm.

I bomb cast it for long distances, and hop and dead stick it along the bottom in order to imitate a leech. Always keep pressure on the line in order to detect the most subtle bites. An immediate hook set will result in the bass connecting with hook in the roof of the jaw, 99% of the time.

Black colors only. Any worm manufacturer is fine. As long as it’s solid black or smoke color to represent a leech. I have friends (Execution Lures) custom pour me stiffer worms so I can catch up to 10 fish per 1 bait. I also turn to Kalin’s Fishing Wacko Worms, and Bizz Baits, too.

3 years of supersize worm, and our test subjects aren’t yet conditioned to it.

St. Croix Rod used: Legend Elite ES70MHF / Mojo Bass Plastics MJS71MF

 

 

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6″ Megabass Magdraft

I’m late to this party by about 4 years. This is the biggest secret I was withholding in 2020, and wasn’t going to spill the beans during guiding season. In summer and fall of 2020, the smallmouth bass of northern Wisconsin enjoyed themselves a dinner party with the 6″ Megabass Magdraft.

About a year ago, I went against my tackle shopping philosophies, and broke down, buying my first ever Megabass product. Noted for their overpriced cost (Losing a $25 jerkbait is hilarious when a 12″ pike bites it off) and witness to durability issues (spark shads have lasted 1-2 fish apiece for my customers), I have always been against ever acquiring a Megabass product for these exact observations. I figured that since I religiously spend $40 or more on musky baits and $8 a pop for suckers to chase those trophies, what could possibly go wrong with a 6″ swimbait meant for supersize bass that costs just a few dollars extra? I know they can be rather durable if you keep them away from pesky northern pike, and store them with care.

Lasting an average of 20 fish per body, durability is pretty good. A Magdraft will last even longer if you refrain from fishing it around weeds and pike infested waters. The tail and fins can rip easily, thus deeming the bait worthless as it will no longer swim upright.

I treat the Magdraft as a big fish search bait. It became my secret weapon during August and September fishing months. To maximize its life, I only fish it on clear smallmouth waters, as these fisheries don’t tend to carry the annoying pesky pike. Unless there is an attachable weight harness that I don’t yet know about, I can only work the Magdraft in depths of 8 ft. or shallower. My next tinkering for 2021 will be attaching some weights to use for open water and suspended situations.

When it swims upright and straight, it’s a great bait. Don’t rely on the hook magnet. After a few big fish or bad casts, it’ll suddenly vanish, requiring to then peg a hook point into the body to properly re-tune. Likewise, don’t trust in the hook it comes with. I went through about 10 missed strikes on my first run before I swapped it in favor of replacing with a larger 2/0 VMC musky treble. A larger hook will let the bait swim a tad deeper, and you will then connect with a much higher percentage. The internal harness can frequently bend, making the Magdraft swim out of tune. This will require reshaping and maintenance throughout the day.

Despite the aforementioned above, it is a monster fish catcher. It’ll draw the attention of big bass that most other baits fail to accomplish, possessed with otherworldly enticing magic. Word of caution, you will also lose a lot of big fish too.

When you buy, buy spares. You can lose lots of Magdrafts mid-cast if poorly equipped with the wrong line or improper rod. I favor a 7ft 6″ med heavy fast flipping stick, a size 300 casting reel with 30 lb. main line, and a 5ft. section of 20 lb. fluorocarbon leader attached.

 

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A jig and paddletail remains a simple and effective fish-finder for me. I’m sure it will play well on your favorite clear water smallmouth fisheries too. Take a paddletail, and rig it on a favorite swimming style jig head. Easy and engaging fishing!

It’s the perfect strategy for covering water on windy days, bomb-casting the open water amid cisco schools, and targeting big fish.

We fish with three jig and paddletail combinations.

 

Strike King Rage Swimmer with Trokar Boxing Glove Jig

 

 

5″ Big Bite Baits Suicide Shad with 1/2 oz. Trokar Boxing Glove Jig

Fish bigger baits for bigger fish. That’s the best way to describe the 5-inch Big Bite Baits Suicide Shad when paired with a 1/2 oz. Trokar Boxing Glove Jig. When big smallmouth are favoring a slightly larger profile in spring and summer, this combo is unbeatable.

The suicide shad was the best big fish producer on cisco fisheries again in 2020. The larger profile of the suicide shad in AYU and HERRING pattern is one of the best representations of the most common size of ciscoes.

Lifelike with lively tail and available in many translucent colors. It’s also durable to withstand multiple bites while being hooked to the collar of a swimbait jig. Even when the nose gets worn and ripped off, cut down the bait and continue using it. It will still produce just as well as a 4.5″ model, and downsized 4″ model. This is the bait’s best attribute.

St. Croix Rod used: Mojo Bass Swim Frog MJC75MHXF

 

 

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Storm Arashi Spin Bait

If 2020 was a weird year for fishing, it was a weird year too in the tackle selection department. From the back end of the boat, I tinkered more than ever to quickly find bites while customers up front were throwing all the proven fish catchers.

I have a theme of arriving to parties late. Spin baits are no exception either.

When nothing else works, tie on a spin bait.

You will quickly learn there is no wrong way in fishing these babies.

The three prong blades do majority of the work for you. Also, depending on your cadence and retrieve, you can fish them like a jerkbait, or a slow hanging glide bait, and even snap jig them. When snap jigging, it produces a powerful vibration. Let it sink towards bottom, it has a steady glide with just enough hang time.

Worked thru shallow water, suspended mid-column, and out in the open water abyss, you’ll quickly learn spin baits can often be a solution to catching fish and when nothing else works. The ideal situation for me is flat calm, sunny days and roaming spooky fish.

I’m still learning to work these babies, but on day-1 first time out of the package during a May 2020 trip, I scored a 21 incher 5 minutes into the experiment. I then made my customer join me in catching.

Retailing for about $8, the Storm Arashi is most affordable and widely available, working just as well as its more expensive overseas counterparts.

 

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Chompers 5″ Hula Grub with Trokar Pro-V Nut Buster Jig

For the past decade, the skirted twin tail grub, regarded as “hula grub,” has put more big smallmouth bass in my boat than anything else besides most of the aforementioned baits on this list. Best fished with a 3/16 oz. Owner bullet head weedless hook in rivers, or a football head such as the reliable and durable and no longer in existence Northland Tackle Draggin Butthead Craw Jigs on lakes with depth and minimum snags, it is a deadly bait that represents bottom scurrying crayfish.

Back in 2017, Trokar released a series of jig heads, with the Trokar HD Shell Buster in 1/4 oz to 1/2 oz. sizes made a formidable combination with my favorite hula grub. I fish the combo in all depths, from shallow rock bars and flats in summer, to the deep rock and wintering locations in fall.

Nowadays, there are a lot of soft plastics brands that produce their own versions of the hula grub. Without question, my favorite is the Chompers skirted twin tail. They are durable, overloaded with scented garlic goodness, and reek so bad that smallmouth laugh at us by how bad they smell to us.

Favorite colors; Orange Marmalade, Root Beer Green Flake, Cinnamon Purple Flake.

Cinnamon Purple Flake, or PBJ as we call it, did the most damage in 2020. Ask the honorable Ron Bacza how he enjoyed his 28 lb. sack smallmouth day in mid September.

St. Croix Rod used: Mojo Bass Power Spin MJS71MHF / Legend Tournament LBS71MHF

 

 

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Bizz Baits Baby Bizz Bug

If you’re ever buying new product directly from the company owner, ALWAYS LISTEN to whatever ideas, tips and tricks he shares with you about its abilities and purposes. Because what he describes could lead to your boat’s success.

Bizz Baits has been a Northwoods Bass friend and partner for the past few seasons. They specialize in high quality plastics, but IMO their bread and butter is in the craws, creatures, and jig trailers game. They manufacture the best in the biz.

Owner, Brian Souza, who himself fishes our same northwoods waters, once confided to me in trying the Baby Bizz Bug as a standalone lure on crayfish infested waters. Simply rigging it onto a mini football head, and a flat mushroom head to achieve an upright ned-head style profile. 2 colors are suggested for this: Alabama Craw for brown waters and ones with rusty crays, and Magic Craw for clear water and sandy bottoms.

Fishing was challenging and difficult in 2020. We had many days of light bites and poor(er) conditions. During these trying times, a simple mini craw fished NAKED without anything else was all the fish wanted.

Less is more.

St. Croix Rod used: Legend Elite ES70MHF / Mojo Bass Plastics MJS71MF

 

 

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Kalin’s 5″ Lunker Grub with Northland Tackle Slurp! Jig

This May and June, the only baits I’ve really needed for anywhere was my box of Kalin’s Fishing 5” lunker grubs. They’re my fish finders and fish catchers on most smallmouth waters. You see the colors I have in the image below; I also have a lot of colors from 5-10 yrs ago that aren’t even made now.

When fishing cold water like we did this spring (middle to upper 40’s), slow rolling a heavy swimming grub will produce when not much else will. You can often get a nice flurry of bites along the first breaks in 10-15ft depth. A 5” Lunker Grub rigged with a 1/4 oz. Northland Tackle Slurp Jig will get the smallmouth to slurp.

Bomb cast along the breaks, and run your swimmer thru the lower water column. Turning your reel 1x every second will maintain it at these depths where fish are gingerly migrating up from the deep along these contours.

Another tip I want to share is about learning to fish new, unfamiliar waters. These same baits have always been my search lures and fish finders when exploring and learning new lakes. You can cover lots of water with them. Growing up, I learned to fish many lakes with aid of a Kalin’s grub. Simple and deadly fishing. If you river fish, no problem either. The swimming grub / twister tail soft plastic is tailor made for flowing waters and river environments.

I rig on an assortment of jigs depending on how and where I’m fishing. Ned heads and football heads for bottom dragging. Owner ultra heads for all purpose scenarios. Northland Slurp minnow heads, and Trokar boxing glove jigs for slow swimming and hitting smbs all throughout the water column.

The 5″ Lunker Grub is one of the best early season fish catchers, and is a must have for every smallmouth angler.

St. Croix Rod used: Mojo Bass Power Shake MJS73MHF

 

 

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Strike King Coffee Tube with Freedom Tackle Zodiac Jig

The Strike King Coffee Tube is my favorite tube of all time. I fish my tube jigs utilizing one of two methods: Rigged with a swinging jig head, and a tube jig insert. As far as rigging the tube with swinging jig, the ability to swap out original factory hooks in favor of using a favorite brand and style is where the Freedom Lures Zodiac Jig wins me over. This is a concept many smallmouth bass anglers look for. While the chemically sharpened hooks available in original packaging with the jig are rightfully sharp, I modify the jig to my specifications, making it sharper and stronger to better withstand rocks and snags, by swapping out factory hooks in favor of my preferred Trokar 2/0 EWG’s. I then take further steps, matching hook type and size according to the soft plastics smallmouths want. When hooked, smallmouths are not able to use this tube jig as leverage when trying to shake free, thus more fish are landed.

Despite crappy weather, horrid bites, and declining rusty crayfish populations throughout Vilas couty, 2020 was the resurgence of a tube jig. The simple tube jig was the most reliable, effective, and biggest fish producer in my boat for leisure fishing, and guide trips. I hosted several guide trips in which fish wouldn’t care to grab anything else but a slowly-dragged tube along the bottom. I dealt with a lot of coldfronts and adverse conditions throughout the year, so that’s my theory why the tube reigned for customers and I.

When smallmouths aren’t chasing moving baits, or won’t clobber another type of jig, the trusty tube often saves the day. Despite being one of the most popular smallmouth lures of all time, smallmouths remain to be unconditioned to its seductiveness and effectiveness.

No other specific bait or rigging combination accounted for more numbers of smallmouth bass in 2020 than the coffee tube paired with the Freedom Tackle Zodiac, or simply rigged with a Trokar Tube Jig insert. The only colors I use: Magic Goby / Crazy Craw / KVD Kick.

St. Croix Rod used: Mojo Bass Power Spin MJS71MHF / Legend Tournament LBS71MHF

 

Get Bit Baits 3.5″ DD Tube

For honorable mention, you will accomplish the same, and get more life out of a Get Bit Baits 3.5″ DD Tube. Double-dipped for enhanced durability, they last much longer than our beloved coffee’s. Another bonus, it’s another Wisconsin company I’ve started supporting. Owner, Dan Elsner can quit pestering me to try. Glad I did, because they work great on both an exposed insert, and with my preferred Freedom head rigging method above.

Preferred colors: Brown Craw & Molten Craw

St. Croix Rod used: Legend-X XLS70MHF

 

 

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If you’ve located the fish, try these smallmouth bass baits and tactics for next year. These all highlighted our season of excellent catches despite how weird the fishing went. A diversified lure selection will not only make you a more versatile angler, but allow you to catch more fish. Prime patterns and favorite lures can be revisited each year, especially as the environment and behaviors of smallmouth bass dictate their locations and influence their feeding habits.

Chasing trophy smallmouth bass year round requires a good lure selection of fish catchers like this. Be diverse, and not one-dimensional. Don’t live by and die by one strategy, or prioritize the bling. And remember, sometimes less is more.

What were your best of 2020? Feel free to comment in the space below!