Wade's World Fishing: Most spinnerbaits are made in the safety-pin design, with one wire arm extending over the body and hook. This single arm typically has one or two spinning blades of various designs and sizes. These lures are deadly bass catchers in a variety of situations and settings.

Wade's World Fishing: A good old lure is still a good lure, and when anglers get away from using it, it reverts back to being a good new lure.

This is true for the Strike King Spence Scout, a 3/8-ounce shallow-running crankbait that is known for catching big bass from heavy cover. However, this classic bait is little-used today, meaning the fish don’t see it much and this imparts a “new bait” attraction.

Wade's World Fishing: The Heddon Zara Spook hit the fishing scene in 1939, and since then it continues to be a favorite topwater lure for bass. No question, most pro’s on the national tournament circuit have a selection of Zara Spooks in their tackle box and go to them when they need a “big bite.” Because of this lure’s strong appeal to bass, it was the first of Heddon Lures’ “million sellers.”

Wade's World Fishing: The Heddon Hellbender, introduced in the 1950s, gives up nothing to modern diving crankbaits. However, because the Hellbender is new to many younger anglers, it’s a great option for catching pressured bass that are more used to seeing standard minnow-imitating crankbaits.

Wade's World Fishing: The Berkley Powerbait Rigworm is a 6-inch soft plastic worm that is pre-rigged with a leader through the body and three small weedless hooks. The Rigworm comes ready to be clipped onto a small snap swivel and fished as-is right out of the package. This is how the first plastic worms were used – pre-rigged. Some pre-rigged worms had small propeller spinners at the head of the worm. Others, like the Powerbait Rigworm, came without additional “hardware.”

Wade's World Fishing: A jig worm is what its name describes: a jig rigged with a trailing plastic worm. More specifically, this is a regular lead-head jig in one of three popular styles – round, mushroom and stand-up – with a worm trailing on the hook. The worm may be rigged either with the hook exposed or weedless (hook point inserted in the worm body).

Wade's World Fishing: It’s the old debate: do bigger baits catch bigger bass? Ask pro anglers on the national bass circuits, and the unqualified answer would be “yes,” at least as far as plastic worms and fish holding on deep summer structure are concerned. One current trend that’s producing big results is using 10 and 12-inch plastic worms to probe deep ledges, points, roadbeds, ditches and other structure where oversized bass hang out during warm weather.