20 Best Late Summer Bass Baits (2023 Updated)

Berkley choppo is nice. I alternate between the Choppo and River2sea. Choppo is slightly more affordable, especially when the stubborn Pike like to take souvenirs. Close to cover is where to fish these.

Have had strikes on a pause, a constant retrieve and just at the moment of touchdown. Nothing like a topwater strike to get the early AM or late evening cobwebs out! Both smallies and Largemouth, as well as Pike lov ethese babies!.

Best top water bait to come out in years. But has one major issue; the hooks are very weak and need to be changed before you use. Had a 6lb. 9oz largemouth blow up on one in a tournament. Fishing with light line due to ultra clear water.

Fish jumped like a smallmouth. When we got it in the net, it had 4 of the 6 hooks in its mouth and side. 3 of the hooks were bent 45 degrees toward straight. If it had come loose, it would have cost me big fish and $1500.

Overall a great competitor to the Whopper Plopper. I don’t notice any difference in bite ratio between the two. However color options are more limited with the Choppo, and the prop / tail is less durable.

But otherwise a great all round topwater bait. Highly recommended.

I had someone tell me they were using one of these lures the past week here in north eastern NC and caught 8 large mouth in a hour. Typically this time of year im throwing spinner baits and creature baits for pre and spawning bass.

Well I got a torpedo at Walmart and gave it a try after all my normal baits were not producing after 3 hours of fishing. Ten minutes into using the Heddon Torpedo I hate a blow up like I’ve never seen, got the fish to the bank and was shocked.

I caught my new PB 7lb 7ounces thanks to this lure.

This are excellent lures for small fish, Bluegill, Sunfish and small Bass. Every once in a while a larger fish will take them. The “Frog”and “Bass” color schemes have worked best for me. Pair the Teeny Torpedo with a light spinning outfit, light line and go find a farm pond.

You will not disappointed.

Those of you who hear that these a really good at catching fishes, I am telling you, they are great! I never leave the house without one of these tied to one of my lines. These catch me more fish than using plastic lures.

I used to fish with plastic worms with great results, but nothing beats fishing top water. Lots of action! Now this all does depends on the body of water, location, and weather. I’ve fished in the same area during mid day and barely caught one Large Mouth Bass.

These lures work best early morning or late evening. If you fish on an overcast day, it works all day long. It is true that the hooks aren’t that great. I haven’t gotten around to changing any of mine out.

They work just find for me. Eventually I will change them to see if there is a difference. The propeller needs to be adjust accordingly. Not all of them work out of the box. They need to be tweaked a little to get working right.

I’ve had some propellers bend from Basses hitting the lure hard. I bought a variety of colors. Usually the brighter colors work best at most conditions. During a overcast day, I tried 3 different colors and caught fish equally on all 3 lures.

If you buy these lures in a 3 pack, you save a little!.

I love fishing Zoom Super Flukes, especially shallow. It sinks slowly and is very flexible. The tail kicks nicely when worked as a jerkbait. I catch a ton of bass on these, and the pickerel like them, too (which for me is a bonus because taking a pickerel home for dinner is a great treat after a day bass fishing.

) I rig it weightless Texas style on a wide gap hook and it works great. My favorite colors for clear, highly pressured water are: watermelon red and bluegill.

Love the flukes. They are cheap and very effective way to catch some nice bass. Had to try the lemon shad color for my river since chartreuse is a top producer. I think these actually do better with the added pearl color.

Love the action. Can’t beat the flukes from Zoom!!.

First started using flukes because of a tiktok video I saw of some dude cathching everything with these. Landed my PB off of a white pearl. Just when I thought it couldn’t get any better I tried the WATERMELON RED since I saw so many people commenting about this color.

First time using this color yesterday and landed 3 fish in a matter of 30 minutes. THEY ATTACK IT! Favorite lure to use and I can use it all day.

Have bought over 100 bags in assorted colors over time. Quality durable product however, over last 2-4 years the plastic quality has gone down & quantity of smaller senkos has gone down while price stayed same or higher.

Actually now, the Yum dinger falls & shimmeys better than Yamamoto senko w/better action in head to head comparison with same rod reel line & hook on weightless wacky rig. Done comparison on 2 Abu Garcia Med act spin.

rod, revo reel 10lb smack down hi vis braid & 8 lb gold label leader vmc finesse wacky hook 2nd Abu med act spin rod revo reel 8lb invisX same VMC finesse hook. Other was 6’10” Med light bait casting rod, Abu revo SX reel 10lb sunline sniper(diff line manuf to test line differences) VMC finesse wacky hook.

Then decided to use all set ups the same as were except changed hook to 1/16th and 1/8 oz weighted Berkeley wacky worm hooks. In each trial spinning & bait casting weighted & weightless the Yum dinger came out on top.

The closest one was the weighted hook & possibly the senko was tops or the same. Not a Yum fan, consist buyer or part of usual plastics arsenal. Typically use SK ocho for Tex rig & X-Zone true center sticks.

But the Yamato beat the xzone & ocho in all trials. I don’t think the difference in the two on Tex rig is enough to make a big difference to change companies. The colors of senko imo are better than dinger and below or equivalent of strike king.

Wish Yamamoto would go back to old or original plastics recipe, manuf process, salt content, plastics supplier, or curing process. For the price it’s hard to stick with senko when continue to be more expensive & growing than SK and esp yum while the quality goes down & quantity stays same or less the dinger comes in 30 pack for $9.

99 @ local shop while small ind pack of senko is $7. 99 for now will stick with ocho for overall salt content, action/shimmy on fall, colors, durability, cost efficiency, and quality.

This is actually my first rifle since the 80’s so I wanted to start with a. 22 before I move on to larger calibres. Obviously, this gun has a faux-tactical cool factor but aside from that, it seems well made and it shoots consistently.

The red dot site is quite nice although I had to look up a tutorial on youtube to understand how to use it. I had no idea a red-dot isn’t a regular scope – that you keep both eyes open as you look through it and focus downrange.

Super cool! My only complaint is that the (exterior) metal plates on the bolt and the BL# were both a bit rusty when I got the gun and I think they should have been protected with oil or something. The bolt was a bit sticky and I think that it was probably from friction between the bolt and the chassis.

I was able to clean and lightly oil both parts. I also love that there’s apparently no limit on. 22 magazine capacity. Less reloading.

This bait is awesome, it has a tight wobble but yet it will flat out catchem in any season. I always have one of these tied at all times. This bait, like I said catches them year around becuase of there wide range to cover water depths.

The only down fall I have with this bait is that it’s fragile. It’s great that it’s made of wood and it does rise back up but they need to work on the connection point, from the crank baits bill to the bait it’s self.

Stronger glue or screws or something.

Its a good lure, well made but the hooks will not last up in saltwater. Recommend changing the trebble hooks as this is a super lure in saltwater. Not to be used around heavy cover and snags but works well from a kayak or small boat for inshore pelagics and even some grouper.

Recommend you create a burley trail when running the lure.

This is a fish catching crankbait. As soon as it was hitting the water I was pulling fish after fish. I’ve used a color similar from another brand but it caught fish but most of the time I had to deal with it twisting around the hooks often.

As soon as I saw this color online I knew I had to have it because I knew it would catch fish and I mean big fish. I’m in love with Rapala because their crankbaits are one of the best one made. Keep up the great work and I can’t wait to see what color or colors are next.

Outperformed the major name brand of stick bait 2:1 recently. Green Pumpkin Candy is a great color for clearish or very slightly stained water. Caught bigger than average size for the lake I was on this past weekend with this bait.

For the price of the 30 pack these can’t be beat. Glad I ordered 2 bags!.

Had never fished stick worms like this before and had a buddy who constantly told me to try them. Had a few bucks left on a giftcard so I burned it on a pack of these. The 5 inchers in Junebug. Had probably used two at a local lake that doesn’t produce a whole lot of fish and didn’t think much of em.

Fast forward to this week when I went on a trip to Toledo Bend, post flooding. First day we couldn’t catch more than a couple fish. Second day. Water was terribly murky, we had 30 mph winds and couldn’t cross the main lake.

Stayed in the cove our cabin was on. Had a hunch to throw the Ochos, texas rigged after we tried a bit of everything again. Sure enough, within a couple casts we caught a 4 pounder. Kept fishing and my girlfriend hooked what was easily a double digit bass that spit the hook when it jumped into the air right next to the boat.

We lit em up on these for a day and a half til we had to go home. We REAALLY had to be careful with them though cause they are a very soft plastic. One fish and they nearly bust in half. Other than that, I am hooked.

I’m back to order more in every color. I will definitely keep these in my boat and bring a lot on my next trip to the bend!.

I have several colors of these Strike King worms. Sweet Tater Pie is absolutely my favorite. These honestly catch fish when others will not. They are very durable. I fish them on a Neko Rig and can catch several fish with one worm.

The fish choke these.

There are several reasons why. This bait is. first of all, it can be used in pretty much all different situations, right? You can Carolina rig it, you can Texas rig it, you can put it on a split shot, on a drop shot, wacky rigging is a very, very popular way of doing it.

Simply just weightless, just rig it on a 2/0 or 3/0 hook, and just let it fall on itself. It just does this nice, undulating action as it falls. It’s wonderful. The thing about the YUM bait though, what I like about it is, first of all, the plastic that it has, it’s a stronger plastic so it lasts longer.

It doesn’t tear as easy. So you catch a lot more fish on a single bait without having to get tore up, and you lose a bunch of baits and just blast through a whole bunch of baits. That’s an expensive way of fishing.

So these baits actually last a lot longer.

The Yum Dinger is perfect for Wacky Rigging when searching for both largemouth and smallmouth bass. I have great success when using a dinger with a wacky rig when Texas, Carolina and Ned rigs are not producing.

The most productive colors for me are Green Pumpkin, Watermelon/Red Flake and Motor Oil. I prefer to rig the 3″, 4″, and 5″ Yum Dinger weightless on Gamakatsu Finesse Wide Gap Hooks 1/0, 2/0, and 3/0 respectively.

This combination sinks slowly and will entice bites when other presentations fail. A very slight twitch as the dinger is falling often get an immediate strike.

My go to stick Bait Worms are Yum Dingers or Big Bite Bait. I have been fishing these plastic Worms for about 14 years. I fish them every way I can think of. The Colors, Sizes, Price, & Availability are a huge help plus the quality is good enough.

These 2 brands have earned their keep in my boats. I’ve been sucked into buying the pricey brands and they have proven to be just that Pricey but no better.

Overall, I’m fairly pleased with the GS Bandito Bug. I have some of the full size and some of the Jr size. Make a great trailer on jigs, spinners and the like. Good for Texas rigs as well. Great action.

My only complaint is that they tear a little too easily due to what seems like maybe a little too much salt? Combined with the fact that they’re a bit more expensive per individual lure compared to some other brands, that can make using them all the time a little bit of a stretch for me.

Maybe if they were in packs of 10 or more for the same price that would be more feasible. I do pick them up in bulk whenever they’re on sale or a BOGO because I do enjoy them. All in all not a bad buy and worth a try for anyone.

The ponds where I live in central Illinois have always had thick mats of grass and pads in the summer. The last 4-5 years I have tried as many different creatures baits as I can while punching and flipping these mats.

When I got a hold of the Bandito Bug I immediately got excited! This bait has continued to be a go-to ever since! What I love about this bait is how it is effective year round. Yes, it is great when flipping, pitching, and punching mats and grass.

But, it is also great as a trailer on multiple different jigs and baits. But, this year it has been killer for me in the late winter. The wide range of colors this bait comes in is also key to making it so great year round and in different applications.

I love using Junebug and Black and Blue Flake in cold water conditions early in the year. I then transition to Green Pumpkin, Summer Craw, Okeechobee Craw, and Blue Baby for the rest of the year. Junebug and Black and Blue Flake still get used depending on the situation.

Black and Blue Flake is also great for muddy water conditions year round. You won’t regret buying this awesome bait!!.

Googan baits has,set the standard for an all around flipping bait, carolina rog bait, jig trailer and topwater trailer with the bandito bug, this bait is hands down the best bait on the market. I fish 20 tournaments a year and have made this bait my almost all around go to.

The feel and scent of this bait is unbelievable. The lifelike action is amazing. If you have not gotten on the googan baits bus yet, you are sincerely missing out. Now with the Bandito bug jr. in the 3.

3 version, they have covered the bases.

This is an outstanding product and an outstanding color. Zoom is a really great company and they take great pride in their products. I prefer Mag II worms but I like this color. Academy has them at the right price.

It’s amazing that the little ‘nothing special’ looking super soft stick bait catches so well. The elaztech material from Z-man is different than conventional soft plastics – super stretchy and close to floating.

Other sellers charge too much for the exact same product. Caution: keep these in a separate bag than other soft plastics. If in the same bag you’ll wind up with a partially dissolved gooey mess. I usually rig these on drop shot.

The bottoms of my area ponds have so much gloppy mud/weeds that pulling on the bottom doesn’t catch fish for me. I have also caught smallmouth in clear rivers with these with a 1/32 oz bullet weight.

A tiny nail weight could work, but the elaztech resists pressing in or screwing in a weight.

Buy some TRD’s and you will NOT be disappointed. Simply stated, they CATCH fish! I love fishing them weedless around structure and in thick cover. I have found the mushroom head jigs will snag pretty frequently in obstacles.

No worries. Make sure you get some Z-Man BULLET Z jigs (1/5 or 1/6). voila–problem solved! My experience is the bullet jigs get hung up much LESS compared to the mushroom head. The only thing you have to lose is the FISH you would have caught.

I don’t think color is super important. I’ve caught countless smallies on yoga pants, green pumpkin, green pumpkin goby, and canada craw. Lastly, as numerous other reviews have stated the z-man elaztech baits LAST ALL DAY! It truly is a no brainer.

When the fishing gets tough, my go to lure is the zman finesse trd. The action is supreme the durability is superb and the fish can’t resist. It has amazing hoping action and unlike other plastics that sink when you put them on a trd hook, the zman finesse trd floats hence standing up perfectly strait.

Its great for all predatory species, from large to smallmouth bass to snakeheads and Mayans this lure works amazingly for beginner anglers and anglers who’ve been fishing their whole life this lure catches fish no matter what.

In pressured water or your private pond this lure is always what their eating. It catches fish of all sizes from dinks to trophy sized fish. This lure never has and I dont think it ever will let me down.

I’ve always used the cheaper paddle tail/jig head combos so I was reluctant to buy one for the first time. Now I have a dozen + in my tackle box. These things catch the snot out of smallmouth and are also great for big LMB.

The weedless/weight-down design makes these perfect for fishing like a jig in heavy cover or on snaggy bottoms. Any color seems to work as well as the next unless you’re fishing murky water in which case the BY and chartreuse patterns work best.

I fish the 1/2oz 90% of the time unless I’m fishing deep or in heavy current where I’ll size up to the 1oz. Do yourself a favor and tie one of these on.

At first glance I was a little skeptical about the bait since it looks like a fish you would see in the ocean, and not like any fresh water fish. This lure is perfectly balanced. I did some simple drag adjustments on the bait caster to avoid bird nests tangles on the reel.

If you are shore fishing you will be able to cast this thing out a country mile to help get to the deeper cooler water were fish might be hanging out at. You can even cast down the shore line so long distance to avoid spooking Bass hovering close to the shore.

The way this bait swims is awesome!! It is a multi role swim bait with out the hassle of changing hooks or jig heads to make the swim bait do what you want. Simply reel in fast to keep it above the weeds, or bounce it off the bottom reeling in slow.

I found the best method for me here in AZ is to real slow and let the lure do the work. The hook in the dorsal fin is fairly weed resistant and doesn’t snag much. Every once in a while give it a couple of upward pops with the pole.

Especially if you think you might have hade a bite. Stop and pop it a couple of times before continuing to real it in. The only reason why I did not give it a 5 star rating is after on day of use the eye balls fell off.

They appeared to be glued on.

I have caught a lot of fish with it while fishing off the bottom in depths from 5 ft to 30 ft. I also got snagged a lot on rocky bottoms and lost several lures. I honestly believe it is still worth getting! I was also catching fish with it when no other lures worked especially in the warmer summer months! DO IT!.

Open any bass lovers tackle box and chances are that you’ll see a variation of this bait, it’s a classic. I’ve caught more fish on this lure than I can remember, and it’s always fun to tie one of these on and watch it pop and churn out on the surface of the water.

It isn’t just for bass either, I’ve caught everything from huge pike and tiger muskie all the way down to crappie and yellow perch on these. Earlier today we went out to a local pond and the bite was slow.

I tied on a baby torpedo and an hour later I had boated 6 fish and missed 2, including a 3 foot pike and a 7 pound largemouth. My favorite color is fluorescent green crawdad, which is a firetiger version of the brown crawdad pattern.

The bullfrog and regular brown crawdad pattern also work well, but you really cant go wrong since the action gets the strikes more than the color most of the time. Cast it out, let it float for a bit, then give it a pop and let it sit again.

Repeat that back to the boat and always keep and eye out for strikes or your plug suddenly vanishing. If they want a more aggressive presentation you can pop it faster or reel it back steadily and let the blades churn the surface, it’s a very versatile lure.

It’s also surprisingly durable, I had a plug catch over 100 fish before being taken by a toothy pike and the only real damage was some nicks and scratches and a treble hook that had to be replaced. In my opinion this is a must have that deserves a place in any anglers tackle box, pick one up and use it when the top water bite is good and hold on.

I’m not sure if mine is defective but this lure doesn’t seem to have any retrieve action that I can see. The prop on the back doesn’t work in the water. The lure just turns on it’s side and get’s dragged in.

I could get a similar effect by tying a hook to a twig and casting that out.

The Rapala DT series consists of excellent crank baits for large mouth bass fishing. They have high quality hooks and split rings, dive to the depths advertised, and, altogether, cover a wide range of depths from 4 feet to 16 feet.

The series comes in a wide variety of color patterns that allow you to mimic virtually every type of forage bass feed upon. They are made of high quality balsa so they float up over obstructions when you pause the retrieve, especially if you tie them on using buoyant, nylon mono-filament fishing line.

I have found the DT 06 and DT 10 to be the two most productive sizes, in either the original bluegill pattern in clearer water or the original shad color in stained water. I use them in lakes where the primary bait fish forage consists of bluegills and red ear sunfish, where the lures’ deep bodied profile does a good job of imitating the shape of the bass’s prey.

I used the sweet beaver on el Novillo lake in Mexico last week and they worked very well. Funny thing, in 2 trips there and putting numerous fish in the live well on multiple days, not one crayfish was coughed up.

The other boats that went and have gone to Novillo for over 20 years said that they have never seen a crayfish in their live wells. so it is safe to say that the general thinking is that their are not crayfish on this lake.

That said, it does not matter these baits still worked very well. I used the watermelon red flake and the donkey punch my self and gave the green pumpkin to another boat that was there, they all worked well with the watermelon red flake working the best it seemed.

I used both a 1/8 and a 1/4oz texas rigged style with a 3/0 Gamakatsu EWG hook, all hook ups were 100% with no dropped fish. I think the colors mentioned above worked well because of the blue gills and Talapia that the lake has in it.

I will try the new football heads on a swivel on my next trip down there that I have been seeing. Bottom line. these baits work! A New Jersey guy now living in Arizona. Yankee Dan.

As a custom jig builder, I push the boundaries on every jig I create. I recently created a color scheme that was hands down the best I have ever made or used for that matter. Without a trailer, this color combination was producing double the fish of the most popular colors.

PROBLEM, couldn’t find a trailer that matched. Just happened to swing by my local Dicks, and while browsing, I found my “miracle color” in a Reaction Inovations bait. YEESSSSS!!!!!!This bait is soft, yet extremely durable.

The scent is noticeable and seems to be incorporated into the plastic instead of dumped into the bag. The action on this particular bait is fantastic and letting it sit, still produces strikes. Did I mention they were extremely durable.

I have used these with a jig and without, and have yet to be disappointed. I have used several other products by this manufacturer and have been pleased with them all. It’s time to think outside of the corporate “hype-box” mentality when it comes to lure/plastic selection and use what works, not what marketing and “wow this brand makes every color under the sun” displays.

I will gladly put Reaction Inovations plastics up against any other brand out there and know othet what I’m using will produce. Sorry but I’m not going to say the color, just that it’s good.

No bluegill can resist the “beaver”. I soak them in my own homemade flavoring overnight and toss them into the heavy weeds with a 2-1/2 ounce bullet weight. The gills can’t resist them.

I was very hyped about this spinner and looking forward to putting it to work. Unfortunately the spinner snapped in half withing the first 30 minutes of using it. Very disappointed, I could understand if it happened after catching tons of fish or old but brand new and it snapped in half after only catching 1 small fish.

And I was very careful of not dangling the fish or anything that would put stress on the spinner. Maybe mine was defective I don’t want to say that their products are bad or anything but definitely discouraging.

I’d like to try again but don’t want to spend money on it again after my experience.

The zinger is the best fall time lure especially with wind blown pockets on main creek beds on your local river. The sunrise craw is the best color and the next best is the white zinger. Sends great vibrations through the water column and also imitates a school of baitfish.

So far my favorite spinnerbait in the bass lure industry. Best on 15lb googan flourocarbon.

bought this pack a week ago and already caught so many bass in them. Been fishing them on shallow water drops on a wacky rig. The smell is very great and unique. Really recommend