Fishing Gear, Baits & Lures
30 baits, lures, and tackle items — learn what works for each species, how to rig them, and when to use them.
Live Bait & Natural
Worms, minnows, leeches, and other natural baits that fish can't resist.
Chicken Liver
A cheap, readily available catfish bait, chicken liver delivers strong blood scent that channel catfish and blue catfish find irresistible in warm water.
Crickets
Live crickets are a classic panfish bait, delivering surface commotion and natural movement that bluegill, redear sunfish, and rock bass find impossible to ignore.
Cut Bait
Chunks or fillets of fresh fish used as bait, cut bait releases oils and blood into the water to attract catfish, striped bass, and other scent-feeding predators.
Leeches
Ribbon leeches are a top live bait for walleye and smallmouth bass, delivering irresistible undulating action that triggers strikes in warm-water conditions.
Minnows
Live minnows are the premier bait for predatory gamefish, offering natural swimming action and flash that triggers strikes from walleye, pike, bass, and crappie year-round.
Nightcrawlers
The most versatile live bait in freshwater fishing, nightcrawlers appeal to nearly every species thanks to their natural scent, movement, and availability.
Spawn Sacs
Mesh-wrapped clusters of cured salmon or trout eggs, spawn sacs are the go-to bait for steelhead, trout, and salmon in rivers and tributaries.
Wax Worms
Soft-bodied, high-fat grubs that are the top choice for ice fishing panfish and an excellent year-round option for bluegill, crappie, and perch.
Jigs
Versatile jigs for every species and season — from ice fishing to summer bass.
Hair Jigs
Natural-looking jigs tied with animal hair or synthetic fibers that mimic crawfish and baitfish with subtle, lifelike movement.
Ice Jigs
Specialized compact jigs designed for vertical presentation through the ice, featuring glow finishes and tungsten construction for precise depth control.
Marabou Jigs
Jigs dressed with soft marabou feathers that pulse and breathe in the water, producing a natural swimming action irresistible to crappie and bass.
Micro Jigs
Ultra-light jigs in the 1/100 to 1/64 oz range designed specifically for targeting sunfish and other small panfish on finesse tackle.
Small Jigs
Lightweight jig heads from 1/64 to 1/8 oz, tipped with live bait or soft plastics, that are essential for panfish and light-tackle fishing.
Tube Jigs
Hollow-bodied soft plastic tubes rigged on internal jig heads that imitate crawfish and gobies with an erratic spiraling fall.
Hard Baits
Crankbaits, jerkbaits, blade baits, and other hard-body lures.
Blade Baits
Thin metal vibrating lures that produce tight shimmying action on the lift and fall, excelling for walleye and bass in cold deep water.
Crankbaits
Diving hard-bodied lures with a lip that deflects off cover and triggers reaction strikes from bass, walleye, and panfish.
Jerkbaits
Slender, minnow-shaped hard baits worked with snap-pause rod action to imitate dying baitfish and trigger strikes in cold or clear water.
Lipless Crankbaits
Sinking hard baits with no diving lip that produce a tight rattling vibration, excelling as search baits over grass flats and shallow structure.
Topwater Lures
Surface-fished hard baits that provoke explosive strikes from bass, pike, and muskie by imitating struggling prey on top of the water.
Spoons & Spinners
Flash and vibration that trigger reaction strikes.
Casting Spoons
A curved metal lure designed for long casts and a wobbling retrieve, imitating a fleeing baitfish and drawing strikes from pike, muskie, trout, and salmon.
Inline Spinners
A wire-shaft lure with a freely rotating blade that produces flash and vibration, effective on trout, panfish, and bass in streams and lakes alike.
Jigging Spoons
A heavy, compact metal lure designed for vertical jigging over deep structure, imitating a dying baitfish with an erratic flutter on the fall.
Spinnerbaits
A safety-pin-style lure with one or more spinning blades on an upper arm and a skirted jighead on the lower arm, built to run through cover without snagging.
Trolling Spoons
Lightweight, thin-gauge metal spoons designed to be pulled behind a boat at controlled depths, primarily targeting salmon, trout, and walleye in open water.
Soft Plastics
Worms, tubes, swimbaits, and other soft-body lures.
Plastic Worms
The most fundamental soft plastic lure in bass fishing, available in countless shapes and rigging options for probing cover, structure, and open water.
Swimbaits
Soft plastic lures with a paddle or boot tail that produce a lifelike swimming action, imitating baitfish from small shad to trophy-class forage.
Tubes
A hollow-bodied soft plastic with a tentacle skirt that imitates crawfish and gobies, excelling on rocky bottoms for smallmouth, largemouth, and walleye.
Rigs & Setups
Proven rig configurations for presenting bait effectively.
Drop Shot Rigs
A finesse bottom-contact rig that suspends soft plastics above the sinker for precise, subtle presentations on pressured fish.
Slip Bobber Rigs
A versatile suspended-bait presentation that lets you fish at any depth with a natural, drift-friendly setup.
Flies
Fly patterns for trout, panfish, and warmwater species.
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