Best Baits for Bank Fishing: How to Be Efficient When Your Options Are Limited

While there are lots of anglers who like to hook their boat to the truck and head to their favorite lake for a day of fishing, there are plenty of people out there who really enjoy fishing from the bank instead. Bank fishing requires a lot less gear and still lets you get into some big fish of all different species. But what kinds of baits are going to work best?

It doesn’t matter if you’re going after bass, panfish, trout, or any other species while bank fishing; there are some challenges you’re going to encounter. One big one is how many spots you can actually try. It’s not like fishing on a boat, where if a spot isn’t working, you can just drop your motor and try the other side of the lake in 2 minutes. In bank fishing, you do a ton of walking to try these spots.

You’re also limited in the ways you can approach certain spots while bank fishing. Many times, you’ll see a great place to cast, but there’s a tree, dock, or something else in the way that you can’t cast over or through. Bank fishing usually limits the types of cover and structure you can fish as well. Unless you’re fishing an area with extreme drop-offs, chances are you’re going to be fishing shallow water with some light vegetation or other bottom composition.

Another challenge is just how accessible bank fishing is. At first, this sounds like a good thing. It shouldn’t be a bad thing that it’s easy to do, right? Well, if it’s easy for you to do, it’s easy for every other angler in the area, too. Because of this, the fish that hang out in these areas that you can bank fish are generally going to be much more highly pressured than what you’d find in open water.

With all the challenges listed above, it really drives home the point that you need to be efficient when bank fishing. 

You want to use baits that are going to require minimal retying, work in a ton of different situations, and can help you locate any fish in the area quickly, so you can decide to move on or not.

The most efficient presentations for bank fishing are going to be those that allow you to fish horizontally (vertical jigging is out), explore multiple depths through the water column, and maintain as much or as little movement as needed for the time of year you’re fishing. The faster you can figure out where the fish are and what they want to eat, the faster you can really hone in on them and start to catch a ton of fish while bank fishing.

With all of the challenges of bank fishing and requirements for baits in mind, here are some of the best baits you can start out with to figure out where the fish are and start catching them. 

Soft plastics are going to be one of the best options you can try 99% of the time you go out bank fishing. There is a wide variety available to match different forage types, and you can rig them in different ways to test different methods pretty easily. Some of the most common ways you’re going to rig a soft plastic while bank fishing are a texas rig or weightless.

The texas rig is going to be best when you want to work the bottom as much as possible, and can be rigged weedless to help reduce the amount of time you get hung up on the bottom. You can also pop them off the bottom to help cover some of the mid depths if fish are suspended. Weightless works well for the mid-depth or in super shallow water.

Spinnerbaits are one of the best options out there to cover a ton of water really fast while bank fishing. They work especially well when you know that the fish are actively feeding, as a spinner bait is an aggressive presentation. You can mix up your retrieve with them as well, mixing between fast, direct retrieves, slow rolling deep water, or pausing in areas where you can see cover. 

Another solid option is going to be jigs. These work especially well when you know there’s a lot of cover in the area that fish are holding tight to. One of the main reasons that a jig is an ideal choice is because of how far you can cast them. Casting distance is a critical component of bank fishing to help you cover as much water as possible. The weight of a jig lets it cast far and sink to the bottom quickly, which makes them ideal for working deeper structure if you can reach it. You can pair your jig with a variety of plastics as well, making it easy to switch things up depending on what the fish are feeding on while bank fishing. 

Lipless crankbaits are another great option to try when bank fishing. Just like a jig, a lipless crankbait is going to easily cast out a long way. However, these baits excel for helping you figure out where fish are if they are suspended throughout the water column. You can easily move them up or down for depth based on your retrieval speed. This can also help you identify how aggressive the fish are feeling, and match your presentation to how they are feeding on the day you’re fishing.