More often than not, you’re better off trying to match up your lure to the main forage that bass are feeding on at a particular time and place in a lake. By that I mean matching the size, color and general shape of the forage. That’s especially true wherever you have some clarity to the water.

In the 2011 Forrest Wood Cup, my bass were feeding on young-of-the-year bluegills along the shoreline, and I was successful with a propbait called a Brian’s Bees Prop Bee that had the same shape and color of a small bream. At Kentucky Lake big swimbaits or big crankbaits mimic gizzard shad and mature threadfins that the bigger bass like to feed on. In the Ozark lakes like Table Rock where big crawdads are important forage, big jigs work.

One exception to the match-the-forage rule is when you’re fishing really dirty water in the spring and you want something big and bright enough to get their attention and help them find the bait. Most of the time, though, determining what the main forage is right then, and matching it, is the best approach.

— EverStart pro Randall Tharp of Gardendale, Ala.