Lakes, rivers, and the edges fish use.

Worms, creature baits, and swimbaits

The most useful tray in freshwater. A Texas-rigged worm goes through grass and wood. A wacky or Ned rig fishes slowly on pressured bass. Creature baits and craws pair with a jig. Swimbaits imitate baitfish when fish are chasing.

Start with green pumpkin and a natural shad. Rig weedless when cover is thick.

Bass jigs, football jigs, and panfish jigs

A jig is a head, a skirt or plastic, and a hook that comes through cover. Flip a flipping jig into wood. Drag a football jig on rock. Tiny 1/16–1/8 oz jigs with a grub catch crappie, perch, and trout along the first break.

Crankbaits, jerkbaits, and lipless

Search baits. A squarebill bangs wood in shallow water. A medium diver tracks along a break. A jerkbait pauses in cold or clear water. Lipless cranks rip through grass. Match bill size to the depth you marked — change depth before color.

Spinnerbaits, chatterbaits, and spoons

Flash and vibration when water is stained or wind is up. A spinnerbait runs through wood. A chatterbait (bladed jig) thumps along grass edges. Spoons jig vertically for walleye and trout, or flutter through a school.

Topwater: poppers, walkers, and frogs

Low light, warm water, and cover. A walking bait works points and open banks. A popper is slower and louder in calm pockets. A hollow frog slides over pads and slop; wait to set until you feel the fish.

Live bait, dough bait, and catfish rigs

Minnows, nightcrawlers, and leeches under a float or on a jig catch panfish, walleye, and trout. Catfish want cut bait, stink bait, or dough on a circle hook in a hole or current break. Keep bait legal for the water you are on.

Steady retrieve

Reel at one speed and keep the rod at a constant angle. The lure’s built-in action does the work — crankbait wobble, spinnerbait thump, swimbait tail. Count the lure down, then crank. If you feel nothing, you are above the fish or the lure is fouled. Change retrieve speed in small steps before you change baits.

Use it for: crankbaits, spinnerbaits, inline spinners, swimbaits.

Stop-and-go

Reel, pause, reel. The pause is the strike window — a dying baitfish hangs and then kicks. On a crankbait, kill it when it ticks a stump. On a jerkbait, the pause can last two seconds in warm water or ten in the cold. Keep a bow in the line so you still feel the fish when the lure is sitting.

Use it for: crankbaits, jerkbaits, lipless cranks, some swimbaits. Jerkbait cadences are spelled out in twitching rhythms.

Walk-the-dog and pop

Walk-the-dog: rod tip low, short twitches of the wrist, slack between twitches so a walking bait slides left-right-left. Pop: snap the rod tip to spit water with a popper, then wait until the rings die. With a frog, walk or crawl it across pads; when the blow-up happens, drop the rod, feel the weight, then sweep.

Use it for: walking baits, poppers, frogs, buzzbaits (steady and ugly on the buzzbait — do not pause a buzzbait long).

Drag, hop, and swim

Drag: keep the bait in contact with mud or rock and crawl it. You feel every pebble; so does the fish. Hop: lift the rod a few inches and let the jig fall on slack or semi-slack line — most bites come on the drop. Swim: lift the rod and reel just enough that a worm or swimbait stays off the bottom and glides. If you lose feel, you have too much slack or too light a head.

Use it for: jigs, Texas rigs, Carolina rigs, Ned rigs, spoons.

Rip, yo-yo, and slow-roll

Rip: pull a lipless crank or spoon free of grass with a sharp lift, then let it fall. Fish often eat it as it breaks out. Yo-yo: lift and fall a spoon or jig through a marked school without cranking much line. Slow-roll: crawl a spinnerbait or chatterbait just fast enough for the blade to turn, often a foot above the grass or the bottom. When in doubt, slower than you think.

Use it for: lipless cranks, spoons, spinnerbaits, chatterbaits.