Top 5 Bass Lures – June 2025

It’s June and that means one thing for a lot of bass anglers…. topwater.

One of the cool things about bass fishing, whether it’s largemouth, smallmouth, or spotted bass, is that there are a lot of ways to catch fish. And sure, when it comes to tournament fishing and the technological advances of forward facing sonar, it seems like everyone is shaking a minnow, and Neko rigs and crankbaits have been REALLY popular this year, but overall, you can throw 10 anglers on a lake with 10 different techniques, and they’ll probably be able to put some bass in the boat.

For me, I like dropping the trolling motor, picking up that flipping stick, and tossing a Texas-rigged creature bait or craw around shallow cover. Beating the bank, old school fishing, just picking apart the cover with my eyes and cracking them. I love it. But… there is one thing that a lot of bass fisherman can agree on… there is NOTHING quite like topwater. You’re just working that frog or that walking bait across the surface and BOOM… water explodes, fish on, get ’em in the boat. It’s just so much fun. Dragging a frog across a grass mat? Come on with it.

And June seems to be when that starts to really heat up across most of the country. Down south, you may have been doing some topwater for the past couple months, but it’s still playing now, and for folks like me up in the north, it’s just beginning.

So without further ado, here’s 5 bass baits for the month of June, that should play across a majority of the middle 75% of the country… if you’re way north, maybe go back a month and check out May’s list, and if you’re on the deep south, maybe check out last year’s July post.

1. Topwater

I mostly covered topwater fishing in the intro, but a topwater walking bait (or possibly even a popper during the mayfly hatch if you have that going on) can be great for bedding bass up north, but it’s particularly effective in the post spawn, as well as the shad and bluegill spawn. Like I said before, there’s nothing like a big bass blowing up on a topwater walking bait. Tough to go wrong with bone and/or chrome colors. If you’re further south, you definitely want to get up early for that topwater bite, but it doesn’t seem to matter as much up north… I seem to catch the most fish in the late afternoon here in Wisconsin.

Evergreen SB Topwater Plug – $18.99

Colors: Bone, Full Metal, Natural Gill

Storm Arashi Cover Pop – $9.99

Colors: Green Gill, Ghost Pearl Shad

Rapala PXR Jowler 127 – $21.79

Colors: Broken Bone, Pure Chrome, Ayu

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2. Frog

Frog fishing is my absolute favorite way to fish. And one of the things about it is that you can kind of just look around and see where it will work. Lily pads, topped out vegetation, wind blown pockets where loose grass and plants mat up… and then you just drag that bad boy across it. When it comes to colors, less is more… I like black. I like white (or silver). And then I like some kind of bluegill pattern that has an orange or yellow spot on the belly. Living in Wisconsin, I’ll usually pick up the gill patterns, but generally you want to throw something darker in cloudy, more overcast weather, and then on the other hand, something white on bright, sunny days. But feel free to play around with different colors and figure out what works… there’s no hard rule. Oh, and we’re talking about the belly of the frog… that’s what the fish see (duh).

Toad Thumper Swamper Frog – $9.99

Colors: Bad Bone, Black, Bad Gill

SPRO Dean Rojas Bronzeye Frog 65 – $11.99

Colors: Midnight Walker, Killer Gill, Albino

Berkley Swamp Lord – $10.99

Colors: MF Bluegill, Maverick, Bone

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3. Drop Shot

A drop shot is one of the most versatile and one of the most effective techniques that you can honestly probably use every month of the year. I have one tied on pretty much year around, and it’s really become a confidence bait for me over the years. When I need a bite, pick up the drop shot. If you’re on the bank, it’s great. If you’re fishing around shallow flats or near docks, it’s great. If you’re fishing deep rock way offshore… still great.

If you’re not fishing around any grass or wood, you can nose hook your soft plastic on a drop shot hook, but if so, opt for a 2/0 finesse Neko hook and you can tex-pose that hook point so it’ll come through that cover without hanging up.

Roboworm Straight Tail Worm – $3.97 – $4.99

Colors: Aaron’s Magic, Margarita Mutilator, Morning Dawn

Berkley Powerbait Maxscent Flat Worm – $4.98 – $9.99

Colors: Goby, Smelt, Gobyashi

Great Lakes Finesse Drop Worm – $6.99

Colors: Morning Dawn, Green Pumpkin Purple, Matte Black

4. Swimbait/Minnow

I’m going to lump these into one category since the overall concept is kind of the same… swimming a bait in the water column. I really like an underspin this time of year, but a paddle tail swimbait is a confidence bait for me as well. Throw a jig head on there and you can drag it near the bottom for the lethargic fish sticking tight to cover, or swim it in the middle of the water column for suspended fish. If you have forward facing sonar, it’s tough to beat “shaking a minnow” right now, and you can really utilize that technique in the same areas.

Great Lakes Finesse Drop Minnow

Colors: Watermelon Pearl, Green Pumpkin, Crush Shad

Rapala Crush City Mooch Minnow

Colors: Green Pumpkin Disco, Electric Shad, Perch

Storm Largo Shad 3″

Color: Pro Blue Red Pearl, Arkansas Glow,

Keitech Swing Impact Fat – 3.3″

Colors: Pro Blue Red Pearl, Bluegill Flash

VMC Hybrid Swimbait Jig Head

Size: 3/16, 1/4 oz

Great Lakes Finesse Sneaky Underspin

Size: 3/14

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5. Texas Rig

For me, flipping and pitching around shallow cover is always gonna play, whether we’re talking about pre-spawn fish, bedding bass or even post-spawners. It’s just the way I love to fish and it will catch you fish year around. Fish will generally go deep in the summer months, especially down south, but there’s always a population that stays shallow, and those are who we’re looking for here. Here in Wisconsin, I generally don’t start flipping until the water hits about 50 degrees, and then I’ll usually start with a jig, but once they get close to the spawn, and after, it just seems like a soft plastic performs better. If you want fewer bites but the chance at bigger fish (at least on average), maybe try a flipping jig.

If you haven’t found a favorite yet, here’s a few I really had a lot of success with last year, as well as a new offering from Berkley that I just broke out last week and had some success on.

Rapala Crush City Bronco Bug – $6.99

Colors: Black & Blue Flake, Green Pumpkin Blue, Candy Bug

Berkley Powerbait Maxscent Stank Bug – $8.99

Colors: Green Pumpkin, Black Blue Fleck, Green Pumpkin Blue

Rapala Crush City Cleanup Craw – $6.99

Colors: Tilapia Magic, Green Pumpkin Blue, Bama Craw

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And for a more detailed bait recommendation, specific to your exact location and waterbody, check out the Bass Forecast Bait Advisor. Just input your ZIP code or share your location, and Bass Forecast will give you 5 bait recommendations, a bite rating, and suggestions for peak feeding times.

Bass Forecast Bait Advisor

What is Bass Bait AI – Powered by Bass Forecast

Our advanced bass fishing algorithms analyze over 11,000 factors, including weather shifts and bass behavior, to predict what baits will give you the best chance at success for any GPS location. Just enter your location, and it does the calculating for you. Giving you the complete bait breakdown for major and minor Bass feeding times in any bass fishing location. Click HERE to learn more.