There are plenty of anglers who do well Fishing for bass without ever touching a hard bait, and quite a few who do just as well without ever putting down their cranking rod to pick up their worm rig. Which would you choose if you were limited to only one? I'm a soft-bait guy at the core, but more national bass tournaments have been won by hard baits than by soft baits.

Fortunately, we're not forced to make that choice. All-season anglers will do better if they have gear suited to handle both rigs aboard and can play them like a set of instruments in a symphony to bring out the prettiest tunes in fishing - a big bass cavorting on the end of a line.

Hard baits are mostly lipped baits, of course, plus the Rat-L-Trap and spot-type vibrating lures. Topwaters are also mostly hard baits, but when most anglers talk hard baits, they're talking crankbaits. That's the definition we'll use here.

Hard baits are a big plus in any tackle box because they are high-speed lures, allowing you to sort through lots of water fast when you're scouting for bass on a particular Saturday morning. It's possible to effectively fish three to six casts with crankbaits in the time it takes to effectively bump a single cast with a worm or tube down a deep shore. That gives you a much better chance of finding the mother lode when you're prospecting - advantage hard baits... Read Full Article