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As fishing has advanced beyond a simple wooden pole and string, so have lures evolved to match. While some anglers choose to stick with live bait, there are endless benefits to the choice, selection, and customization that comes with synthetic lures.
Today, hard bait lures have come a long way. The evolution of plastics have given way to an extensive variety of choice when it comes to lures. Thus, it’s of no surprise that fishermen using hard bait lures find themselves many times becoming confused with the choices available.
This guide aims to simplify the choice process based on a variety of factors including environmental, preferential, and target specifications. With over 20,000 fishing items in our inventory, Outdoor Shopping has the most extensive lineup of fishing equipment online today! Shop our inventory of hard bait lures at Outdoor Shopping.
Spoons
As one of the oldest types of lures, spoons resemble the concave shape of a spoon. This shape causes the lure to wobble side-to-side upon retrieval, drawing fish to their movements. Smaller spoons are best for trout and panfish, while larger spoons are best for bass, pike, walleye, and other large fish. Keep in mind that most spoons are designed to be fished below the surface.
Flies
One of the simplest types of hard lures is the fly which includes a single hook with either a hair or feather skirt. There are five main types of flies (all of which are suited for trout fishing):
Type of Fly | Guidelines |
Dry | Designed to float and are typically attached to a floating line to mimic the type of insect they’re imitating. |
Wet | Designed to sink and simulate drowning or diving insects. They can be fished with floating, sinking, or sinking-tip lines, according to how deep you want to fish the fly. |
Nymphs | Wet flies that simulate young insects or other aquatic life. |
Streamers | Intended to simulate minnows or other small fish. |
Bugs | Dry flies designed to suggest large insects, amphibians, mice, or injured minnows. |
Crankbaits
Known also as ‘plugs’, crankbaits get their name from their design benefits for casting and retrieval. These types of hard bait lures are typically not ideal for use around weeds or heavy cover. There are several varieties of crankbaits to keep in mind:
Crankbait Type | Subtypes | Guidelines |
Topwater | Poppers | These feature a vertical concave surface that makes a popping noise when jerked with the rod tip. |
Wobblers | These feature plates that move side-to-side upon retrieval. | |
Stick Baits | With no special action, these baits are thin and at the command of the fishermen's actions. | |
Thin Minnow | Shaped and colored like minnows, these feature a small lip at the front. They can be fished at the surface or below the surface of the water. | |
Swimming | Also known as Swim Baits, these move side-to-side as they move in the water, mimicking a swimming live bait. | |
Diving | With a larger lip than thin minnow baits, these baits can dive deeper with trolling. The larger the lip and the faster it’s retrieved, the deeper it dives! |
Spinnerbaits and Buzzbaits
Also known as ‘safety pin baits’ because of their iconic shape resembling an open safety pin, these baits feature a weighted end with a single hook and skirt and an end with 1 or more spinners. The blades can reflect light and can be drug on fast retrievals for more action or dropped vertically. There are two main categories of blades to look for:
Propeller-Shaped Blades : Characteristic of buzzbait lures.
Teardrop-Shaped Blades: Characteristic of spinnerbait lures, these can come in three further subsets:
Willow-Leaf: Narrow and pointed on both ends
The Indiana: A rounded-end version of the willow-leaf
The Colorado: Broad and rounded at 1 end and comes to a rounded point at the other
The inline spinner - ideal for rocky areas or streams to attract trout smallmouth bass, and walleye more than largemouth bass - is related and features the following:
Tubular metal body
Willow-leaf or Indiana blade spinner ahead of the body
Treble hook with a feather skirt behind the body
Jigs
Jigs are a type of hard bait lure with distinctive features and characteristic including a:
Hook
Weighted head: These are typically round but can also be triangular or flat head to keep the hook up and out of weeds.
Hair or feather skirt or a plastic grub
Stiff brush or wire guards (not on all jigs but keeps them weedless)
Typically, jigs are retrieved in an up-and-down motion and can be fished in warm or cold water situations, usually by slowing the retrieve as the water gets colder. There are many ways, though, that one can fish with a jig:
Flipped or pitched short distances (good for bass fishing)
Retrieved with lift-and-drop motion
Straight Retrieval: With this, the rod is kept at a 10 o'clock position to impart a swimming motion to the lure.
The best places to fish jigs are usually those places where they can get hung up, near weeds, brush, or rocks.
Color Selections
Plastics allow for endless varieties of color choices, and while it may seem easy to simply pick the flashiest color, the fact of the matter is that there’s a method to the madness when selecting the right color for your hard bait lure. Here are some details to keep in mind when selecting color:
Light Penetration: Clear waters and bright skies call for more translucent lures. With darker conditions like murky waters or cloudy days, it’s best to stick to darker black and purple colors.
Conditions | Visibility Distance | Lure Colorings |
Poor Visibility (muddy waters, cloudy days) | 1-2 feet |
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Medium Visibility | 3-15 feet |
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High Visibility (clear water, sunny days) | 15-25 feet or more |
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Target Species: Many bass, for instance, will spook at highly unnatural colors, so even the brightest days call for natural or translucent hard bait lures. Even red colored lures tend to just be the accent colors with the primary coloring a natural pigment.
If you find yourself in extremely dark conditions or muddy waters, be sure to utilize other lure additions like scents to attract fish without looking unnatural. Glow-in-the-dark lures are best served for Crappie fishing during dawn or dusk.
With over 20,000 fishing items in our inventory, Outdoor Shopping has the most extensive lineup of fishing equipment online today! Shop our inventory of hard bait lures at Outdoor Shopping.
