Essential Gear: The Guide to Bait & Tackle

ESSENTIAL GEAR:
THE GUIDE TO BAIT & TACKLE

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Welcome to Karl's Fishing 101 Bait and Tackle breakdown. Here we'll simplify what you need to know about the essential fishing tackle in bass fishing. Learn about baits, rigs, and tackle accessories to help prepare you for the next fishing adventure.

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HARDBAITS

Hard Baits in fishing are hard lures made from wood, plastic, or metal. Hard baits are artificial imitations of what fish commonly eat. Hard Baits can represent minnows, bugs, crawfish, or other creatures. When worked correctly, each hard bait will provide a unique action designed to trick fish into biting the lure.

Unlike live bait, you always keep a hard bait moving when fishing, Fishing with hard baits requires you to cast and retrieve continually.

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CRANKBAITS

A crankbait is a hard-bodied floating crankbait typically made from wood or hardened plastic. Designed in the shape of minnows and small fish, crankbaits are built with an attached angled lip or bill positioned in the front of the bait. When a crankbait is retrieved, the angled bill helps them dive into the water and reach their intended diving depth. Crankbaits help anglers mimic the action of baitfish, crawfish, and bugs.

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JERKBAITS

Jerkbaits are minnow style hard baits that are retrieved using a ripping or jerking motion. Jerkbaits either suspend or float, their slender profile and the small bill allows jerkbaits to slash and dart throughout your retrieve. Jerkbaits typically come with two or three treble hooks while helping anglers mimic the action and look of small fish.

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BLADE BAITS & SPOONS

Blade baits are hard metal sinking lures built with one or two treble hooks. Blade baits fall fast and are worked near the bottom of the water column. As blade baits fall and rise, they wobble and vibrate tightly which help draw strikes from predatory fish. Blade baits are commonly fished in deep and cool water.

Fishing spoons are one of the oldest and most versatile fishing lures of all time. Made of metal and equipped with treble hooks, spoons provide a fluttering action at pretty much any point during retrieval. This means you can swim, jerk, jig and quickly retrieve a spoon based on the conditions. Fishing spoons come in various sizes and weights which help anglers target different species and depths.

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TOPWATER LURES

Topwater Lures are any fishing baits that are retrieved across the surface of the water. Topwater baits help anglers represent fish, frogs, birds, and bugs. Topwater lures work best in warmer water when fish are actively feeding near the surface. Topwater lures are an effective and fun way for anglers to target a variety of fish.

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SOFTBAITS

Softbaits in the fishing world basically mean any bait made from soft moldable plastic. Plastic baits are designed to represent virtually all creatures that swim, helping anglers fish effectively without the need of natural baits.

Most soft plastics are less durable but much cheaper when compared to hard fishing baits.

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CREATURES & CRAWS

Creature and craw soft plastics are built to look and swim like crawfish and baitfish. Bass, Trout, Walleye, Northern Pike and other species are known to feed on crawfish throughout their lives. Anglers use soft plastic craws with a variety of rigging techniques and usually fish these baits near the bottom.

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GRUB BAITS

Soft Plastic Grubs are one of the original and most used soft plastic baits on the market. Designed with a slender body that transitions into a curly-cue tail, anglers use grubs to mimic both baitfish, crawfish, and bugs. Available in multiple sizes and popular among a ton of species categories, grubs are a fun and effective way to catch fish. Rig grubs on a jig, drop shot, or Texas Rig.

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SOFT SWIMBAITS & MINNOWS

Soft plastic swimbaits and minnows are soft plastic moving baits that mimic the action of baitfish. Soft Plastic Swimbaits and Minnows come in sizes ranging from 1’’-10’’ and help anglers target virtually any fish that actively eats other fish. The term ‘swimbait’ means a lure that performs best when it’s constantly moving in the water or swimming.

Minnow style baits are any soft plastic baits that represent a minnow. You can rig minnow style baits using almost any technique and fish them throughout the year. Always think about what the fish you are trying to catch are actually eating, then use minnow style baits to represent those fish.

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PLASTIC WORMS & STICK BAITS

Plastic worms and stickbaits are soft plastic baits that represent a worm of some sort. While many fish are not commonly eating worms, soft plastic worm baits continually help anglers catch all types of fish, but, especially bass.

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FISHING JIGS

Fishing jigs are fishing hooks with a metal weight permanently attached to the hook. The fishing jigs sink rate and casting ability are determined by how heavy of weight is attached to the hook. Fishing jigs commonly have attached rubber skirts made to enhance their action and look more natural.

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FLIPPING & PITCHING JIGS

Flipping and Pitching jigs are used by bass anglers to make precise casts to fishing targets that they think a bass may be swimming near. Instead of a long bombing cast, anglers use short underhand fips and pitches to get their baits to their targets a short distance away. Flipping jigs are built with a narrow head design built for slipping and sliding out of cover. They also have a skirted jig and protective ‘weed guard’ which are small nylon bristles attached to the jig. This helps prevent anglers from getting their lure snagged during their casts.

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FOOTBALL JIGS

Football jigs are built with a mold that leaves their jigheads with a football-shaped jighead. The football shape helps the jigs wobble and wiggle between rocks and snags when anglers fish near the bottom. Football jigs are usually used in deeper water with rocks or structure on the bottom.

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CASTING JIGS

Casting Jigs are used by bass anglers when they need to make long casts in order to find and catch bass. Casting jigs are built with a versatile molded head design that lets anglers use them in a variety of scenarios.

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BLADED JIGS

Bladed jigs, also known as a "vibrating jig," or a "Chatterbait", features a distinctive design consisting of a single blade directly fused to the head using a split-ring attachment. Unlike the adjacent blades of a spinnerbait, this single hexagonal blade creates a unique action. When retrieved, the blade on a Chatterbait produces a rapid and consistent churn, generating a humming vibration beneath the water's surface, in contrast to the pronounced thumping sound of a spinnerbait.

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SPINNERBAITS & BUZZBAITS

Spinnerbaits and buzzbaits are different types of fishing lures, but they are grouped together because of their unique design style. Both buzzbaits and spinnerbaits have spinning metal blades built around a hard wireframe.

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SPINNERBAITS

Spinnerbaits are fishing lures with an attached metal blade that rotates and spins during the retrieval. In fishing, there are Inline Spinner Baits and Wired or Close Pin Spinnerbaits. Each bait style helps anglers catch different species of fish using different techniques.

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BUZZBAITS

Buzzbaits are a sinking lure that works on the surface of the water. Once the buzzbait hits the water, you want to immediately begin your retrieve to help keep the sinking bait on the surface. As you reel in, the spinning propeller blade will continually spin; this creates a loud buzzing sound and distinctive water disturbance.

Fish buzzbaits near sparse vegetation, shaded areas, or places you see fish feeding near the surface.

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TERMINAL TACKLE

Terminal Tackle is an umbrella term used for fishing tackle either slid or tied directly to the line. Terminal tackle can consist of fishing hooks, swivels, weights, beads, bobbers, wire leaders, and more. Terminal tackle can be made from plastic, wood, lead, tin, or tungsten, and it can not be fished on its own. You need to pair a terminal tackle with either artificial or natural bait to complete a fishing rig.

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