Video transcript:
Alex Epperson:
Top five. I mean, do you know how hard it is to think of just top five? Oh, MONSTERBASS. Let's go. What's up guys. Welcome back to the MONSTERBASS channel. I am Oklahoma's worst angler. Happy to be here. Happy to be back and talking about, again, something that's really hard for me to talk about, is trying to decide what are my five favorite springtime baits.
Alex Epperson:
Pre-spawn, spawn, all the good, all the goodies of spring and the weather heating up and the fish getting freaking active. They're getting active, they're getting fired up. This is some of the most fun fishing during the spring time. I love it. I absolutely love it. You can catch some of the biggest bass of your life in the spring time, and you're going to get some of the most fired up bass in the springtime too.
Alex Epperson:
These fish have been waiting to eat. They're about to spawn. They have got so much fire in their veins. Now's the time to get out and go catch them. So the reason that this is so tough for me is because I love such a wide variety and assortment of baits, but I wanted to narrow it down to my top five, especially to help you guys out and to showcase, in particular, baits that have come in the MONSTERBASS boxes or the MONSTERBASS bag of the past and present. So we're going to jump right into it.
Alex Epperson:
And the first thing that we're going to showcase here actually came in the tournament winning bag this month of March. And this is the casting jig. So the casting jig, or a flipping jig, these are some of my absolute favorite baits to use, my favorite style of jig in particular. Now sometimes I will put a craw trailer on there. Sometimes I'll put a creature trailer on there, depending on what I'm doing, what I'm flipping.
Alex Epperson:
If it's going to be rock, I'm going to flip more of a craw. If it's going to be more grass, I like a little bit of a creature. Most of the time, you're going to have a little more longer skinnier appendages on a creature style bait, which is going to come through that grass just a little bit easier than, say, the wide pinchers of a craw style bait. But the casting jig or the flipping jig? The jig is versatile all year round. The jig will get bit. Jig catches big. Okay. Remember that. Jigs equals bigs.
Alex Epperson:
So casting jig, flipping jig, the jig is extremely versatile. Like I said, pitch this around wood, pitch this around rock, pitching it through grass, sand, anything like that. The jig is going to come through, but the jig, all year round, especially springtime. Do not sleep on a jig. If you're not comfortable with a jig, get out there and throw one. There's only one way to figure it out. You got to get out there and you got to throw it and you got to experiment. Try different trailers, try different colors.
Alex Epperson:
Okay. I like to throw different colors too, because a lot of time during the spring, even though they're really keyed up on red, they're going to be seeing a lot of red lures. So I like to go with kind of a Bluegill profile or color, not profile, but color. I like to go with a little more Bluegill stuff, especially here in Oklahoma. We've got a lot of Bluegill. We got a lot of Panfish. I like to give them something that's going to really irritate those bass and make them want to put this in their mouth and move it somewhere else.
Alex Epperson:
So reds, bluegills, jigs. Sticking in the family of jigs, the vibrating jig or the chatter bait. This one right here, like I was just talking about, Bluegill. We've got the almighty thunder cricket from Strike King. Now you can get these on the MONSTERBASS website. These have come in our MONSTERBASS boxes and bags of past, but the Strike King thunder cricket chatter bait. This is a vibrating jig. This is something that is extremely versatile in grass and in open water.
Alex Epperson:
This is going to put off a lot of vibration. It's going to have a lot of flare from the skirt. And depending on the trailer that you put on there, you can use a paddletail. You can use a craw, you can use a rage bug. You could use a rage tail menace. There's a lot of things that you can do and put on these guys to give them different kinds of action. Me personally, in the grass, I like to use a paddletail. That's what I like to use on these. I used to be really big on using the twin tail grubs, putting vertical. I've since switched over to using paddle tails, get a lot of success with it.
Alex Epperson:
But the vibrating jig, especially in grass, a little bit of tip for you on this guy right here, when you're fishing shallower water and you're fishing grass, so you're fishing from the bank, one of my tips to you guys with a vibrating jig is to keep your rod tip up, but keep your retrieve speeds low. The reason you want to keep your rod tip up, if you start hitting that grass, all you got to do is take that rod up.
Alex Epperson:
It's going to tick up over that grass and it's not going to rip down and rip through it. If you had that rod tip down, you're keeping that down like this right here, you start getting into grass and you pull to the side like this, what you're going to deal with there is that exposed hook catching on grass. Sometimes it will rip out and sometimes it can ruin a retrieve completely, because you're going to have grass all stuck on that. So me personally, that's one of my tips for you guys.
Alex Epperson:
Keep that rod tip up, keep that retrieve speed low, start hitting grass, take it up, take it up like that. Because a lot of the time when you take that up and it starts to fall back down on that retrieve, that's when you're going to get that reaction bite, and that's when you can catch a big freaking fish. So vibrating jig.
Alex Epperson:
The next bait is the almighty squarebill. Okay. Squarebill is the workhorse of the hard baits. I mean... It's like the most generic, widely used, not generic, widely used hard bait that's out there, is a squarebill. These guys are going to run anywhere from two to six foot depths, depending on your line diameter, depending on the model that you've got as well. There are loud ones. There are silent ones as well. That's the line tie, just so you know, it's really silent. This is the KVD 1.5 in ghost craw.
Alex Epperson:
This also came in the tournament winning bag for March from MONSTERBASS, but the KVD ghost craw 1.5. squarebills are meant to be covering water and power fished. I mean, turn and burn, bombed that thing out there and burn that thing back. If you're running with some shallow water, burn this thing and just get really cranking through that grass, cranking through that gravel, let this thing bang off any kind of structure or anything like that.
Alex Epperson:
Now, if you're dealing with very thick grass, kind of the same concept that I just gave you with the vibrating jig, keep your rod tip up. It's not going to dive as deep. When it starts taking that grass, all you got to do, raise that rod tip up and this guy's just going to come right over. Okay. Or the thing about squarebills, especially the 1.5. It's got a great float. Now what I mean by that is, say you're running into some structure and you're running into rip rap or timber. Okay.
Alex Epperson:
Bang that down in there. And then it gets hung up. Instead of immediately setting that hook, just stop for a second. Just stop because what this is going to do, it's going to bang up against that. And then it's going to back out. It doesn't float straight up, they back out. So it's going to get out of there and you can get right back to it. Don't always be so hasty to set the hook on a crank bait. These have got these trebles, these super sticky trebles on there, that a lot of times when that fish hits that, as long as you just lean into them or raise that rod tip up, kind of sweep, move with them, let your rod absorb a lot of that hook set, you're not going to rip these hooks out.
Alex Epperson:
And that fish is going to hook itself. Squarebill. I like silent. I like silent ones because you think about it. A lot of people are throwing loud baits. I like to throw something a little bit different. I want to try and maximize my chances at getting a fish's attention who has seen multiple squarebills come past its face. Maybe, if I can throw in something that's just a little bit quieter, it might get their attention a little bit more because they're getting the vibration from it.
Alex Epperson:
They're seeing it. And they're like, "Wait, that's a little bit different. That thing's not screaming at me. Let's go eat that." That's why I like the silent ones. Next. Now this is one that I was not very comfortable with, but I have developed so much confidence in and that is the almighty lipless crankbait. The lipless. Now the reason that I say this is one of my favorite baits for springtime is because we had a little bit of spring and then we had a crazy freeze. And now we're back to spring again.
Alex Epperson:
Okay. So it's like we had our second winter is what we had here, but I've developed so much confidence in the lipless crankbait. The lipless crankbait is an absolute workhorse. This is one that you use to cover water. This is one that you can straight out cast, retrieve, burn it back. You can yo-yo it. Okay? Meaning when you bomb that thing out there, let your line just free spool for a little bit. And the reason I say free spool for a little bit, what you'll see me do sometimes is when I'm casting out there, I'm going to raise my rod tip up and just let that line kind of spool out. Because if you were to cast this out, so you cast it and then you stop that line as soon as it hits the water, it stops that line. This bait is going to go like this.
Alex Epperson:
So you may not, even though you've got to the point where you want to cast, it's not going to go straight down on that strike zone that you were aiming for. It's going to sink back this way. It's going to pendulum back because there's no room. There's no slack in that line for it to go down. So if you're going to yo-yo it, do that, bomb that thing out there. Raise that rod tip back, leave your spool still open. Let it sink straight down.
Alex Epperson:
Yo-yoing is very easy. It doesn't mean to do it fast. You got to figure out your cadence. I like to sit there, pull it up slow, reel it back, pull it up slow, reel it back. Now come like real springtime like we've had lately, I'm going to be burning this thing. I'm going to be burning this, taking this across grass. Same concept, same tips that I gave with the squarebill, with the bladed jig. Keep these guys moving. You're going to get the reaction bites. A lot of the time though, when you're yo-yoing it, when you start having that pause, when it starts to fall back down, that's when that fish is going to hit. And that's when you're going to catch a good one.
Alex Epperson:
So, lipless crankbait. Absolute workhorse. One of my favorites. Now, when it comes down to the last one, number five, I couldn't pick just one. I'm sorry guys. I'm sorry. I know. You can say I lied to you. Well, it's for the betterment of all of us. Okay. Top water, top water. And how do you choose between a walking style bait and a frog? How do you do that? I can't do it. I can't do it. I guess I kind of can.
Alex Epperson:
My favorite is the frog. I absolutely love frogging, but there's some of you guys out there that are not comfortable with frogs, or there's no reason for you to throw frogs because you've got a ton of open water. You don't have a lot of cover. You can still throw frogs in open water, but a lot of the time in the open water, those walking style baits, and those poppers, are going to do you a lot better.
Alex Epperson:
Now this is the Cotton Cordell pencil popper. This is the Hendrix frog that we've gotten in MONSTERBASS bags and boxes in the past. So the frog is obviously going to excel in that heavier cover. You've got those hooks that are well-protected by the body, got keel-shaped bodies. Now all frogs, I mean there's different keel-shaped bodies. There's popping style frogs. But the main thing is those hooks are weedless. So you can throw these frogs back in the thickest of stuff. And I'm a firm believer that the big girls really like to hide back in that heavy cover, where they feel safe and they've got great ambush points.
Alex Epperson:
That's why I really prefer the frog. However, while the frog is probably the most exhilarating top water bite, in my opinion, there is something about an open water bite on a popper or a spook-style bait where they just come out of nowhere and they destroy these things. Now here's something that I want to tell you guys, especially when it comes to your spook-style, your popper-style baits in open water.
Alex Epperson:
A lot of the time, if you go from fishing a frog to fishing this guy, what you're going to see yourself doing is setting that hook extremely hard, just like you were fishing the frog. You're going to be ripping those trebles out. Okay. When those fish come up and they hit this thing, sweep. Sweep your rod, sweep your rod to the side and just go with it. Let that rod get that parabolic bend. It will load. And those hooks will stick straight in that fish's mouth.
Alex Epperson:
A lot of the time though, if you're setting too hard, that's where you're going to find yourself missing those strikes on open water with treble hook baits. So, when they hit that, they hit, sweep. Sit. I can almost guarantee you that your hookup ratio is going to go through the roof. If we're over on my channel, I would guarantee you because then you can yell at me, but I can almost guarantee on here because I don't want you to yell at MONSTERBASS. You want to yell at somebody, go yell at me. Go yell at me on my channel. I'll put a link down here in the description for you.
Alex Epperson:
But top water in spring. Honestly, if I could top water all year round, I would be a very, very happy man. I'm a very happy man anyways, but I'd be a lot happier. Florida guys, guys down South, they can fish open water, top water all year round. Tip my hat to you. I'm jealous of you. But guys, those are my top five favorite baits for springtime fishing. I hope this video helped you out. I hope you guys enjoyed it. Again, I'll leave a link for my channel down in the description. If you're not already subscribed to MONSTERBASS, hit the subscribe button. It's just right down there. Give this video a thumbs up, drop a comment down below. Let us know what you think about it. And I will catch you guys next time we're on the water.
Top five. I mean, do you know how hard it is to think of just top five? Oh, MONSTERBASS. Let's go. What's up guys. Welcome back to the MONSTERBASS channel. I am Oklahoma's worst angler. Happy to be here. Happy to be back and talking about, again, something that's really hard for me to talk about, is trying to decide what are my five favorite springtime baits.
Alex Epperson:
Pre-spawn, spawn, all the good, all the goodies of spring and the weather heating up and the fish getting freaking active. They're getting active, they're getting fired up. This is some of the most fun fishing during the spring time. I love it. I absolutely love it. You can catch some of the biggest bass of your life in the spring time, and you're going to get some of the most fired up bass in the springtime too.
Alex Epperson:
These fish have been waiting to eat. They're about to spawn. They have got so much fire in their veins. Now's the time to get out and go catch them. So the reason that this is so tough for me is because I love such a wide variety and assortment of baits, but I wanted to narrow it down to my top five, especially to help you guys out and to showcase, in particular, baits that have come in the MONSTERBASS boxes or the MONSTERBASS bag of the past and present. So we're going to jump right into it.
Alex Epperson:
And the first thing that we're going to showcase here actually came in the tournament winning bag this month of March. And this is the casting jig. So the casting jig, or a flipping jig, these are some of my absolute favorite baits to use, my favorite style of jig in particular. Now sometimes I will put a craw trailer on there. Sometimes I'll put a creature trailer on there, depending on what I'm doing, what I'm flipping.
Alex Epperson:
If it's going to be rock, I'm going to flip more of a craw. If it's going to be more grass, I like a little bit of a creature. Most of the time, you're going to have a little more longer skinnier appendages on a creature style bait, which is going to come through that grass just a little bit easier than, say, the wide pinchers of a craw style bait. But the casting jig or the flipping jig? The jig is versatile all year round. The jig will get bit. Jig catches big. Okay. Remember that. Jigs equals bigs.
Alex Epperson:
So casting jig, flipping jig, the jig is extremely versatile. Like I said, pitch this around wood, pitch this around rock, pitching it through grass, sand, anything like that. The jig is going to come through, but the jig, all year round, especially springtime. Do not sleep on a jig. If you're not comfortable with a jig, get out there and throw one. There's only one way to figure it out. You got to get out there and you got to throw it and you got to experiment. Try different trailers, try different colors.
Alex Epperson:
Okay. I like to throw different colors too, because a lot of time during the spring, even though they're really keyed up on red, they're going to be seeing a lot of red lures. So I like to go with kind of a Bluegill profile or color, not profile, but color. I like to go with a little more Bluegill stuff, especially here in Oklahoma. We've got a lot of Bluegill. We got a lot of Panfish. I like to give them something that's going to really irritate those bass and make them want to put this in their mouth and move it somewhere else.
Alex Epperson:
So reds, bluegills, jigs. Sticking in the family of jigs, the vibrating jig or the chatter bait. This one right here, like I was just talking about, Bluegill. We've got the almighty thunder cricket from Strike King. Now you can get these on the MONSTERBASS website. These have come in our MONSTERBASS boxes and bags of past, but the Strike King thunder cricket chatter bait. This is a vibrating jig. This is something that is extremely versatile in grass and in open water.
Alex Epperson:
This is going to put off a lot of vibration. It's going to have a lot of flare from the skirt. And depending on the trailer that you put on there, you can use a paddletail. You can use a craw, you can use a rage bug. You could use a rage tail menace. There's a lot of things that you can do and put on these guys to give them different kinds of action. Me personally, in the grass, I like to use a paddletail. That's what I like to use on these. I used to be really big on using the twin tail grubs, putting vertical. I've since switched over to using paddle tails, get a lot of success with it.
Alex Epperson:
But the vibrating jig, especially in grass, a little bit of tip for you on this guy right here, when you're fishing shallower water and you're fishing grass, so you're fishing from the bank, one of my tips to you guys with a vibrating jig is to keep your rod tip up, but keep your retrieve speeds low. The reason you want to keep your rod tip up, if you start hitting that grass, all you got to do is take that rod up.
Alex Epperson:
It's going to tick up over that grass and it's not going to rip down and rip through it. If you had that rod tip down, you're keeping that down like this right here, you start getting into grass and you pull to the side like this, what you're going to deal with there is that exposed hook catching on grass. Sometimes it will rip out and sometimes it can ruin a retrieve completely, because you're going to have grass all stuck on that. So me personally, that's one of my tips for you guys.
Alex Epperson:
Keep that rod tip up, keep that retrieve speed low, start hitting grass, take it up, take it up like that. Because a lot of the time when you take that up and it starts to fall back down on that retrieve, that's when you're going to get that reaction bite, and that's when you can catch a big freaking fish. So vibrating jig.
Alex Epperson:
The next bait is the almighty squarebill. Okay. Squarebill is the workhorse of the hard baits. I mean... It's like the most generic, widely used, not generic, widely used hard bait that's out there, is a squarebill. These guys are going to run anywhere from two to six foot depths, depending on your line diameter, depending on the model that you've got as well. There are loud ones. There are silent ones as well. That's the line tie, just so you know, it's really silent. This is the KVD 1.5 in ghost craw.
Alex Epperson:
This also came in the tournament winning bag for March from MONSTERBASS, but the KVD ghost craw 1.5. squarebills are meant to be covering water and power fished. I mean, turn and burn, bombed that thing out there and burn that thing back. If you're running with some shallow water, burn this thing and just get really cranking through that grass, cranking through that gravel, let this thing bang off any kind of structure or anything like that.
Alex Epperson:
Now, if you're dealing with very thick grass, kind of the same concept that I just gave you with the vibrating jig, keep your rod tip up. It's not going to dive as deep. When it starts taking that grass, all you got to do, raise that rod tip up and this guy's just going to come right over. Okay. Or the thing about squarebills, especially the 1.5. It's got a great float. Now what I mean by that is, say you're running into some structure and you're running into rip rap or timber. Okay.
Alex Epperson:
Bang that down in there. And then it gets hung up. Instead of immediately setting that hook, just stop for a second. Just stop because what this is going to do, it's going to bang up against that. And then it's going to back out. It doesn't float straight up, they back out. So it's going to get out of there and you can get right back to it. Don't always be so hasty to set the hook on a crank bait. These have got these trebles, these super sticky trebles on there, that a lot of times when that fish hits that, as long as you just lean into them or raise that rod tip up, kind of sweep, move with them, let your rod absorb a lot of that hook set, you're not going to rip these hooks out.
Alex Epperson:
And that fish is going to hook itself. Squarebill. I like silent. I like silent ones because you think about it. A lot of people are throwing loud baits. I like to throw something a little bit different. I want to try and maximize my chances at getting a fish's attention who has seen multiple squarebills come past its face. Maybe, if I can throw in something that's just a little bit quieter, it might get their attention a little bit more because they're getting the vibration from it.
Alex Epperson:
They're seeing it. And they're like, "Wait, that's a little bit different. That thing's not screaming at me. Let's go eat that." That's why I like the silent ones. Next. Now this is one that I was not very comfortable with, but I have developed so much confidence in and that is the almighty lipless crankbait. The lipless. Now the reason that I say this is one of my favorite baits for springtime is because we had a little bit of spring and then we had a crazy freeze. And now we're back to spring again.
Alex Epperson:
Okay. So it's like we had our second winter is what we had here, but I've developed so much confidence in the lipless crankbait. The lipless crankbait is an absolute workhorse. This is one that you use to cover water. This is one that you can straight out cast, retrieve, burn it back. You can yo-yo it. Okay? Meaning when you bomb that thing out there, let your line just free spool for a little bit. And the reason I say free spool for a little bit, what you'll see me do sometimes is when I'm casting out there, I'm going to raise my rod tip up and just let that line kind of spool out. Because if you were to cast this out, so you cast it and then you stop that line as soon as it hits the water, it stops that line. This bait is going to go like this.
Alex Epperson:
So you may not, even though you've got to the point where you want to cast, it's not going to go straight down on that strike zone that you were aiming for. It's going to sink back this way. It's going to pendulum back because there's no room. There's no slack in that line for it to go down. So if you're going to yo-yo it, do that, bomb that thing out there. Raise that rod tip back, leave your spool still open. Let it sink straight down.
Alex Epperson:
Yo-yoing is very easy. It doesn't mean to do it fast. You got to figure out your cadence. I like to sit there, pull it up slow, reel it back, pull it up slow, reel it back. Now come like real springtime like we've had lately, I'm going to be burning this thing. I'm going to be burning this, taking this across grass. Same concept, same tips that I gave with the squarebill, with the bladed jig. Keep these guys moving. You're going to get the reaction bites. A lot of the time though, when you're yo-yoing it, when you start having that pause, when it starts to fall back down, that's when that fish is going to hit. And that's when you're going to catch a good one.
Alex Epperson:
So, lipless crankbait. Absolute workhorse. One of my favorites. Now, when it comes down to the last one, number five, I couldn't pick just one. I'm sorry guys. I'm sorry. I know. You can say I lied to you. Well, it's for the betterment of all of us. Okay. Top water, top water. And how do you choose between a walking style bait and a frog? How do you do that? I can't do it. I can't do it. I guess I kind of can.
Alex Epperson:
My favorite is the frog. I absolutely love frogging, but there's some of you guys out there that are not comfortable with frogs, or there's no reason for you to throw frogs because you've got a ton of open water. You don't have a lot of cover. You can still throw frogs in open water, but a lot of the time in the open water, those walking style baits, and those poppers, are going to do you a lot better.
Alex Epperson:
Now this is the Cotton Cordell pencil popper. This is the Hendrix frog that we've gotten in MONSTERBASS bags and boxes in the past. So the frog is obviously going to excel in that heavier cover. You've got those hooks that are well-protected by the body, got keel-shaped bodies. Now all frogs, I mean there's different keel-shaped bodies. There's popping style frogs. But the main thing is those hooks are weedless. So you can throw these frogs back in the thickest of stuff. And I'm a firm believer that the big girls really like to hide back in that heavy cover, where they feel safe and they've got great ambush points.
Alex Epperson:
That's why I really prefer the frog. However, while the frog is probably the most exhilarating top water bite, in my opinion, there is something about an open water bite on a popper or a spook-style bait where they just come out of nowhere and they destroy these things. Now here's something that I want to tell you guys, especially when it comes to your spook-style, your popper-style baits in open water.
Alex Epperson:
A lot of the time, if you go from fishing a frog to fishing this guy, what you're going to see yourself doing is setting that hook extremely hard, just like you were fishing the frog. You're going to be ripping those trebles out. Okay. When those fish come up and they hit this thing, sweep. Sweep your rod, sweep your rod to the side and just go with it. Let that rod get that parabolic bend. It will load. And those hooks will stick straight in that fish's mouth.
Alex Epperson:
A lot of the time though, if you're setting too hard, that's where you're going to find yourself missing those strikes on open water with treble hook baits. So, when they hit that, they hit, sweep. Sit. I can almost guarantee you that your hookup ratio is going to go through the roof. If we're over on my channel, I would guarantee you because then you can yell at me, but I can almost guarantee on here because I don't want you to yell at MONSTERBASS. You want to yell at somebody, go yell at me. Go yell at me on my channel. I'll put a link down here in the description for you.
Alex Epperson:
But top water in spring. Honestly, if I could top water all year round, I would be a very, very happy man. I'm a very happy man anyways, but I'd be a lot happier. Florida guys, guys down South, they can fish open water, top water all year round. Tip my hat to you. I'm jealous of you. But guys, those are my top five favorite baits for springtime fishing. I hope this video helped you out. I hope you guys enjoyed it. Again, I'll leave a link for my channel down in the description. If you're not already subscribed to MONSTERBASS, hit the subscribe button. It's just right down there. Give this video a thumbs up, drop a comment down below. Let us know what you think about it. And I will catch you guys next time we're on the water.
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