Before I get started here, it’s important for me to address the controversies surrounding sight fishing for spawning bass. Hands down, it is widely known to be the single best time to target big females from 5lbs on up as well as the single best time to catch multiple giants on the same day. Experts agree unanimously that it is the only window of opportunity to catch potential world record size fish tat will not fall for anything artificial during the entire year. Here in California sight fishing for spawning bass has produced an unofficial but weight certified world record fish that tipped the scales at a jaw dropping 25 lbs 5oz and a handful of 18-20 pounders.

The controversy enters the picture when it was learned that even though all females from 3 lbs. up spawn each year but that the survival rate of hatched fry is close to zero and even fish in the 5-8 lb range have significantly low survival rate. It turns out that those giant females provide close to 90% of the surviving fry for each given year, much more than previously thought. That means that if a giant spawner is killed or becomes too traumatized to return to its nest then a huge percentage of fry is simply lost. And in a small and pressured body of water like Lake Dixon, Lake Hodges, or Lake Phoenix that could mean a reduction in juveniles for that given year by between 5 and 20 % and those are huge numbers.

So, keeping that in mind please try to treat these like you’d treat your 8 months pregnant wife. Bring them up slower (CA bass often spawn in much deeper waters than their cousins in the south east), be prepared to “pop” the fish if need be, minimize the amount of time when the fish is out of the water, and when you lip them be sure to support the fish with your other hand and never let the full weight of the fish hang on the fishes jaw alone.

Okay then…let’s get down to the fun part; the baits:

#10. The Buzzbait
I know that sounds kind of left field but when faced with a large flat and no sun on the water, blind casting over and through spawning flats can be a great way to trigger a territorial strike or at least betray the location of a bedding bass. This is a great way to use the time first thing in the morning until the sun gets up on the water.

#9. Texas-rigged Soft Plastic Craw Tube in White w/ Black Flake
I love this bait because it’s so easy to see and the craw profile is so pronounced.

#8. 4” Texas-rigged Tube in White or Pink w/ a 1/32 oz. Weight
Again, easy to see and with the light sinker the tube spirals and the tentacles of the tube tease with just the slightest tick of the rod tip.

#7. Suspending Rattletrap
This one is also slightly left field but it’s incredibly effective and is not seen by the fish as much as other stuff. I’m not sure this bait is still in production because it is less of a money earner even though it is a hell of a fish catcher so if you find some, stock up. I like to use it like a normal lipless making long casts across big spawning flats and ripping it through the grass looking for that reaction bite, but when I discover a bed with a fish on it I cast past it and then crank it slowly until I know the bait is above the bed and then I stop, count to 10 and then tick it and sooner or later that noisy bait sitting there will be too much for the fish to take. When they decide to hit it they crush it. They don’t try to pick it up and move it like a tube or a worm they just crush it.  This is probably the most deadly way to fish beds that are 20-40 feet away from the deepest water you can get your boat into. And if they are out of the reach of bass boats then you know they have probably been passed on by everyone else and I love that.

#6. Texas-rigged Swim Worm
I like the Zoom Swim Worm or the 8” Shaker Worm by Maverick Lures. This is the best rig you can throw when you know big fish are on their beds but the wind is keeping you from seeing them. Just peg a 3/16-3/8 bullet sinker to a 5/0 straight worm hook or a 5/0 EWG worm hook and throw over the area., let it sink to the bottom and then slow roll it with your rod tip down just like a spinner bait, feeling the bottom composition as you go and when you feel a change in the composition, like if it goes from soft mush to grainy hard sand, or the “thunk” of some tulle roots, stop your bait and fish it slowly like a worm instead of like a spinnerbait.

#5. Small 3-4” Brightly Colored Finesse Worms rigged on a Small Round Leadhead
My favorite worm is actually a steelhead worm. It’s 3.5” long, hot pink, and has a flat tail. I use an Owner 1/8 oz. round leadhead and it’s important to note that this is not a shaky head. This is a regular lead head jig. This bait is my favorite for deeper cleaner waters that are under a lot of pressure, and I also us 6# flouro-invisy only.

#4) Plastic Lizard
If there are newt or water dogs present the soft plastic lizard is known by bass as the hated egg eater and a threat to their spawn. The ways this bait can be rigged are endless but it’s at its best either pitching it to a bedding fish on a 1/8-3/16 pegged Texas rig or being slung across large spawning flats on a 3/8-1 oz Carolina rig with a leader length of 18”-3’ depending on the depth and activity lever. And, just like with the swim worms the Carolina rigged lizard can be thrown across at a moderate pace until a change in bottom composition is detected at which point you can stop and work the bait slowly. Great in wind and dirty water.

#3) Swimbaits
Yes, swimbaits. These baits originated with the San Diego record chasers during the 1980’s. They were all trout imitations ant they were only used during the trout planting season during the winter and early spring. Things have changed since then and swimbaits have been made to imitate everything out here like Buegills, Hitch, Shad, Crappy, Baby Bass etc. and the Bluegill imitations like Matt Lures, Baitsmith Madgills, Castaic Platinum Sunfish and Basstrix Fry Series Bluegill, are probably the only baits that big bedding fish hat more than the lizards. Because the Bluegills eat bass eggs and fry more than anything else and once a pod of bluegill destroy the bass’s spawn, they take it over and use it for spawning themselves. Best trick to me is dead sticking the Castaic Platinum as it is one of the only baits that doesn’t fall over when it hits the bottom and with a tick of your rod tip the bait appears to be pecking at eggs in the nest. Oh! And don’t forget to use a stinger hook as the fish often grab the tail instead of the head.

#2) The Jig
Hands down this is one of the most versatile and powerful tools at your disposal, and has been #1 up until the last few years. The larges bass ever weighed by a certified scale at 25 lb 5 oz was caught off a nest in 15’ of water using a White football head jig with no trailer, but natural colored jigs with matching trailers like green pumpkin or watermelon have caught 100’s of fish over 10 lbs here in CA and have also produced awesome catches everywhere from Clearlake CA to Darwindale Dam in Banket District Zimbabwe. I think it works so well because the skirt strands can be shaken and shivered without moving the jig off the bed and/or because of the jig’s crawfish like profile. Either way I really don’t care how it works so long as it continues to work as it has for the last 30 years.

#1 The Trixie Sweet Beaver
Either pegged on a 3/16 oz Texas rig, as a jig trailer, or on a bass and glass rig, the Trixie Sweet Beaver is my number one. 90% of the time I use the “White Trash” color because I can see it really well and fish seem to hate it a little more that the other colors available. That said, the rest of the time I fish this bait in colors like Black/Blue, Sprayed Grass, or Late Oxblood. I use Sprayed Grass or Oxblood when I’m pitching to super spooks fish in shallow crystal clear water under immense pressure. I use the Black/Blue “Hematoma” color when flipping blind into grassy dirty water always watching for a disruption in the natural pattern of vegetation like a weed bed where each tulle is between 2”-10” apart and I see a spot where the tulles are 24” apart and in the shape of a round hole.

If some of you disagree with the exclusion of a certain bait that didn’t make the list or the list isn’t in the order that you think is correct, remember these are preferences and therefore not set in stone. I know I covered this earlier, but please be a good steward of the resource because these 10 baits are extremely powerful tools and they come with responsibility. Oh yeah, and don’t forget to wear good polarized sunglasses and a hat with a bill to counteract back glare or you may as well not fish.