Fishing Lures: The Six Types, How Each Works and When to Throw It
Jigs, chatterbaits, crankbaits, topwater, spinnerbaits and soft plastics: what each fishing lure does in the water, the depth it covers, and when it wins.
Fishing lures imitate something a fish eats, or provoke a fish into striking something it cannot identify. That is the whole theory; the practice is knowing which of the six lure families to tie on for the depth, cover, water clarity and season in front of you. Each family has a page here: how the lure moves, what it imitates, the depth it covers, the rod and line that suit it, and the tournament and guide evidence for when it works. The pages are written from bass fishing, where nearly all of these lures were designed and where the tournament data comes from; the same crankbaits, jigs and topwaters catch pike, walleye, stripers and redfish, and the species pages say where the sizes and colours differ.
Start here
- Jigs and rigs — the bottom-contact family: football, flipping, swim and finesse jigs, plus the Texas, Carolina, Ned and drop-shot rigs.
- Chatterbaits — the bladed jig, on sale since 2004 and winning tournaments since 2006.
- Crankbaits — squarebills, deep divers, lipless baits and jerkbaits, sorted by the depth they run.
- Topwater lures — walkers, poppers, prop baits, frogs and buzzbaits for the surface bite.
- Spinnerbaits — blades, buzzbaits and the inline spinners trout anglers use.
- Soft plastics — worms, craws, flukes, swimbaits and glide baits, and how to rig them.
The six families at a glance
| Family | What it does | Depth zone | Best season (bass) | Rod and line |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jigs and rigs | Crawls or hops a craw or worm along the bottom | Bottom, any depth | Year-round; jigs shine in cold water and heavy cover | 7 ft 1 in to 7 ft 4 in (2.2 m) medium-heavy fast; 15–20 lb fluorocarbon or braid |
| Chatterbaits | A hex blade on a jig head vibrates and hunts side to side | 1–8 ft (0.3–2.4 m), over and through grass | Pre-spawn and spawn, stained water, wind | 7 ft to 7 ft 3 in (2.1–2.2 m) medium-heavy, moderate-fast; 15–20 lb fluorocarbon |
| Crankbaits | A lip makes the bait dive and wobble; lipless baits sink and shimmy | 0–5 ft (0–1.5 m) squarebill, 6–12 medium, 12–25 deep | Pre-spawn and fall on cranks; winter on jerkbaits | Glass or composite, moderate action; 10–14 lb mono or 12 lb fluorocarbon |
| Topwater | Walks, pops, plops or buzzes on the surface | Surface | Post-spawn through fall, 65–85 °F (18–29 °C) water, low light | Medium to heavy; mono or braid, never fluorocarbon |
| Spinnerbaits | Spinning blades flash and thump on a safety-pin wire | 1–10 ft (0.3–3 m), slow-rolled deeper | Pre-spawn, fall, dirty water and wind | 7 ft (2.1 m) medium-heavy; 15–20 lb fluorocarbon or braid |
| Soft plastics | Plastisol bodies rigged on hooks and jig heads | Any, by the rig | Year-round; weightless and finesse rigs peak around the spawn | Spinning for finesse, casting for Texas rigs and swimbaits |
What the tournament data says
The lure industry runs on marketing, so these pages lean on results instead. Bassmaster publishes the winning and top-ten baits after every Elite Series event. In 2025 a Texas-rigged soft plastic was used by six of the final ten at Lake Tenkiller, the half-ounce Z-Man JackHammer chatterbait recurred at the St. Johns River and Okeechobee, and Okeechobee was won on a deep crankbait. Those per-event results are the basis for the season tables on the lure pages, and they are refreshed each season.
The lures have histories
Almost every lure family has a named inventor and a date, which the retail pages never mention. Lauri Rapala carved the first floating minnow from cork in 1936. Nick and Cosma Creme cooked the first plastic worm in an Akron basement in 1949. Bill Lewis built the first lipless crankbait in Louisiana around 1970. Ron Davis’s ChatterBait first went on sale on 10 March 2004 and became the generic name for every bladed jig after Bryan Thrift’s 2006 wins on it. Ned Kehde’s 109-bass afternoon on 12 October 2006 turned a mushroom-head jig into the Ned rig. Knowing who made a lure and why tells you what it was designed to do.
Where to go next
Match the lure to the tackle on the gear pages: the rod page explains why crankbaits want a slower rod and jigs a fast one, the line page why topwater and fluorocarbon do not mix. Then take the lure to the fish on the species pages, starting with bass, the species most of these lures were designed for, and catfish, where a few of them work and most do not.