What Are the Different Types of Fishing Lures, and Which One Should You Tie On?
Recommended picks
Spinnerbaits: The Reaction-Bite Workhorse
Picture a bank lined with brush where bass are holding tight to cover. A skirted spinnerbait with a safety-pin frame lets you bump that cover without hanging up, since the wire arm rides the blade above the hook point. The Strike PB38CW-12 uses exactly that safety pin setup at 0.375 oz, built for bass and largemouth. Prices in this category run from budget picks like the Strike MC-76 at $3.18 up past $20 for kits with multiple blade styles. Review volume tends to reward the simplest, most established shapes, the BOOYAH BYPM has racked up 6,633 reviews at 4.6 stars, which points to a design anglers keep reordering rather than a passing trend.
Inline Spinners: Small Water, Trout and Panfish
Now picture a narrow trout stream instead of a bass lake. That is where inline spinners like the Mepps and Blue Fox Vibrax lines take over from bulkier spinnerbaits. These run a single blade on a straight wire shaft rather than an arm and skirt, which keeps the profile slim enough for clear, shallow water. The Mepps K1 Trouter Kit ships six lures in one size for $23.98, a format aimed at anglers who want several blade colors on hand rather than committing to one. Sizes like 1/16 and 1/8 ounce dominate this group, since matching the hatch on small water usually means going lighter, not heavier.
Crankbaits: Covering a Specific Depth Column
A crankbait earns its name from the retrieve, you cast it out and crank it back, letting the lip dig the bait down to a set depth range. Anglers reach for these when fish are suspended at a known depth rather than pinned to visible cover, since the lip does the depth work automatically on a steady retrieve. The tradeoff is less finesse than a soft plastic and a wider price range depending on lip material and hook grade. If you are new to depth-specific fishing, start with a shallow to medium diver before stepping up to deep-diving models that need heavier line and a stouter rod to control.
Soft Plastics: Finesse for Pressured Fish
When fish have seen a lot of hard lures on a heavily fished lake, a soft plastic worm or creature bait rigged weightless or on a light jighead often draws bites that spinnerbaits and crankbaits will not. The slower fall and subtler action mimic real forage more closely, which matters most in clear water or after a cold front. These baits are technique-dependent, a Texas rig, wacky rig, or drop shot all change how the plastic behaves, so the rigging choice matters as much as the plastic itself. Expect to lose more of these to snags and fish teeth than metal or hard baits, which is normal and part of the cost of fishing them.
Jigs: Bottom Contact and Structure Fishing
A jig is built to get to the bottom and stay there, a lead or tungsten head paired with a skirt, hook, and often a trailer. This is the lure to reach for when fish are holding on rock piles, ledges, or deep brush rather than suspended in open water. Feeling the jig tick across structure is the whole point of the technique, so line sensitivity and rod choice matter more here than with reaction baits. Weight selection follows depth and current, heavier heads for deep or moving water, lighter heads for shallow, calm conditions where a slow fall keeps the bait in the strike zone longer.
Spoons: Simple Metal, Serious Flash
Strip away the skirt, blade arm, and trailer and you get a spoon, a single curved piece of metal that wobbles and flashes on the fall or the retrieve. Spoons shine in cold water when fish want a slower, subtler presentation, or in open water for species like trout and panfish that key on flash over action. The rating patterns on trout-focused spoon and hard metal lures in this category tend to cluster at 4.4 to 4.6 stars, suggesting consistent performance across a wide range of price points rather than one standout design. Multi-packs are common here since spoons are easy to lose to snags on rocky bottoms.
Topwater Lures: Reading Surface Activity
Early morning, calm water, and fish visibly busting bait on the surface is the classic setup for a topwater lure. Poppers, walking baits, and buzzbaits all stay on top of the water column, which means the strike happens where you can see it, a different kind of feedback than a bait working underwater. Topwater fishing rewards patience with the retrieve cadence more than speed, a pause between twitches often draws the strike rather than constant motion. It is also the most weather-dependent category, wind and chop shut down topwater bites faster than almost any other lure type.
Matching Lure Type to Target Species
The specs on a lure listing usually name a target species for a reason, a spinnerbait built for trout with a size 1/8 oz and treble hook is not the same tool as one built for bass at 1/2 oz with a J hook. Species listed across this lure family include bass, trout, walleye, crappie, panfish, pike, and salmon, and the technique field, whether that is treble hook, weedless hook, or needle point, is often a better predictor of what water that lure fishes than the marketing name. When a listing names multiple species, it is usually a general-purpose design rather than a specialist tool, which is fine for a starter tackle box but worth knowing before you buy.
Pack Size and Price Per Lure
Lure pricing spans a wide range once you compare per-unit cost instead of sticker price. A single Mepps C3M runs $15.59, while a 322-piece FONMANG kit runs $29.99, a fraction of the per-lure cost but with far less consistency in quality control across that many pieces. Multi-packs make sense for lures you expect to lose regularly to snags, like spoons and crankbaits fished around structure. Single, higher-priced lures make more sense for techniques where you are fishing one bait carefully rather than churning through colors and sizes. Bought-last-month figures in this category range from single digits up past 4,000, which tracks with how replaceable or how specialized a given lure is.
Common mistakes to avoid
- Buying by color and blade shape alone without checking the technique field, which tells you the hook style and what cover the lure is actually built to fish
- Using a bass-weight spinnerbait or crankbait on light trout tackle, or the reverse, which mismatches the lure's action to the rod and line it needs
- Ignoring pack size math and paying more per lure in a small pack than a bulk kit would cost, when the fishing situation calls for lures you will lose often
- Assuming a high review count on one lure size means every size and color variant performs the same, when hook grade and blade weight can shift between variants
- Skipping soft plastics and jigs on pressured water and sticking only to reaction baits, which leaves finesse presentations untried when fish stop reacting
- Overlooking target species listed in the specs and fishing a trout-sized inline spinner where the water actually holds bass or pike
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between a spinnerbait and an inline spinner?
A spinnerbait uses a bent wire frame with a blade on one arm and a skirted hook on the other, riding weedless through cover. An inline spinner, like a Mepps or Rooster Tail, runs the blade directly on a straight shaft in front of the hook, which fishes cleaner in open or clear water but snags more easily in brush.
Which lure type is best for a beginner tackle box?
A mix of a skirted spinnerbait, a soft plastic worm on a jighead, and a small inline spinner covers the most water types and techniques without requiring specialized gear. Established, high-review models like the BOOYAH BYPM or Strike MK-93G give a beginner a proven starting point at a low per-lure cost.
Do treble hooks or single hooks work better for lure fishing?
Treble hooks, common on crankbaits and many spinners, hook more surface area but snag cover more easily and are harder to remove safely. Single or J hooks, common on weedless spinnerbaits and jigs, sacrifice some hookup ratio for the ability to fish through brush and grass without constantly hanging up.
Why do some lures come in packs of 10, 12, or more?
Bulk packs are common for lures that get lost often, spoons, small spinners, and crankbaits fished around rocks or wood. Pricing per lure drops sharply in bulk kits, but review patterns show more variation in finish and hook quality across large packs than in single, higher-priced lures from established brands.
How does target species change which lure type to pick?
Species listed in a lure's specs point to expected size and water type, trout and panfish lures run lighter, smaller profiles like 1/16 to 1/8 oz, while bass, pike, and muskie lures run 3/8 oz and up with heavier hooks. Matching that weight to your target keeps the lure's action correct for the fish you are after.