here’s one favorite lure in every tackle box. It might be the first lure always tied on or one that stays tied on every fishing trip. Confidence baits are real. They could be a lure category, special color, or one lucky lure that never fails. In any case, there’s something magical about the lure that gives a fisherman confidence. Once it’s on the end of the line, it stays put until confidence is lost.
Twenty years ago, Robert Montgomery, author and long-time Senior Writer for BASS Publications, asked for my thoughts about confidence lures. Jokingly, I responded, one fish are biting. However, after recounting several guided trips, it was clear confidence was in the eye of the angler.
A guide client mentioned his proficiency with lizards. He wasn’t successful with my soft plastic choice which was working. We switched to lizards. Immediately he caught fish. He had a confidence bait. Many anglers accidentally discover their confidence bait. However, Montgomery says, to be a better bass angler, develop a couple of these baits.
Montgomery’s first book, Better Bass Fishing– Secrets from the Headwaters published in 2009 and still in print, reveals tips from pros and guides. Montgomery also delved into angler psyche.
“If you want to become a better angler, don’t just study bass behavior. Study your own.”
Enter the confidence bait concept.
Across the deck, pros to weekend anglers have a confidence bait or two ready, especially when the bite is slow. Montgomery theorizes a bait becomes an angler favorite because they grew up throwing it or because it was tried and produced on a day when fishing was tough.
But it’s the psychological boost a confidence bait produces when the bite is slow that’s important. Perhaps it heightens concentration making you more eager to fish. This confidence translates to more attentive casting and detecting subtle bites.
Montgomery says throwing a confidence bait makes you a better angler.
Occasionally, we choose the “right” bait to make a fish bite. Montgomery finds fish bite because they’re in an aggressive feeding mode, or because we’ve found a concentration of fish that stirs itself into a competitive frenzy when a lure passes through. Just about anything in your tacklebox might work.
To become better at bass fishing, pay attention to the conditions when confidence baits produce. Water depth, clarity, wind direction, and weather conditions will be cues for using them. Determining where bites occur in relation to cover, structure, and current can unravel angling mysteries. Montgomery says anglers should benefit from the “confidence” throwing a favorite bait provides but also be smart enough to realize bass probably aren’t biting because it’s your favorite or vastly superior to others.
“They’re biting because of a complex combination of favorable variables, of which the lure is just one.”
Montgomery authors fishing books to improve angling success for all experience levels and to confidently impart angling enjoyment to anglers of all ages. His recent piece, Cindy Sue and the Lunker Club is about family, fun, and fishing.
AUGUST 2026
Bass generally prefer grass to wood in the same area, but wood in grass is a primary target. Docks with grass best at high tides. At lower tides, bass move to grass. On sunniest days, get tight to cover. With clouds, fish use cover as a current break. Milfoil edges and boat channels around the front of docks are targets. Crank to 4-6 feet around the Fort Washington lighthouse, South Point, Spoils, the Wilson Bridge and barges, and other deeper areas. Make repeated casts to good-looking spots. Fish will tell you where they are positioned and on what type of cover.
Water temperatures range from 85 and up! Cooler mornings are best for topwaters, but hollow frog bite at low tides anytime! Replace worn feathered popper hooks with hand-tied with colorful feathers and reflective material adding light, flash, and action to topwaters and squarebill cranks. Feathers pull together when moving baits, then open while sitting to get the second chance bite after misses. The slightest movement gets feathers moving. Try red hooks, especially on the belly!
Topwater tips for the Potomac…smaller/faster in clear water…start small and work up in size with natural colors and then go darker. 4 categories of top water popping baits. Large/small. Dark or white. Small are the regular size popper/spitters for a subtle approach for clear water on calm days. Use lighter shad patterns. When the water has a bit of a chop or is a bit stained, go darker. More chop go to bigger baits. Make shorter casts when fishing muddy water and longer casts when water is calm and clear. Use 15-pound test GAMMA Torque braided line. Use a 7’ medium heavy action moderate fast tip graphite rod. For clear calm conditions, use a walking lure around grass or wood. Move to spinnerbaits and shallow crankbaits when topwater bite slows. Waker cranks in the larger size are perfect with enough water over grass!
If a fish misses topwaters, cast follow-up baits: watermelon and green pumpkin Mud Puppy Custom Lures 5” Jiggle Stick worms hooked wacky style with a 2/0 weedless wacky hook. I prefer the silicone rings to the o-rings. Run the hook through the center of the bait and ring. GAMMA EDGE fluorocarbon line allows baits to fall more naturally.
Chop on the water, stained water, or cloud cover at higher tides, willow/Colorado spinnerbait combination and a white skirt, burned around and near cover is producing hard strikes. A faster reel spooled with 14 or 16-pound GAMMA EDGE line and 6’6” medium heavy rod is best for targeting close cover, or a 7-footer to cover open areas. Bump cover and rip free. At the lowest tides, use 1/4-ounce spinnerbaits with gold blades in all but the clearest water. For clear water, use a nickel bladed double willow with firetiger skirts. Higher tides 3/8-ounce is easier to work deeper. No spinnerbait bite, go to shallow crankbaits, at lower tides work short casts around cover and grass clumps. Vary your retrieve. Here, you need a 7-foot medium action graphite rod with backbone to rip free from grass.
Fish pad edges and punch through grass mat canopies, especially on sunny days. Get reaction strikes with 1-to-1.25-ounce tungsten weights. A bobber stopper will keep weights fixed to Mud Puppy 3” Mad Craws. A 3/0 hook and GAMMA TORQUE braid 60-pound test braided line with a flipping stick along with a strong reel will get big ones out!
Otherwise, you have to create commotion to get them to come up. Hollow Frogs are perfect for this. Try replacing rubber skirts with rabbit fur and a drop of Pro’s Soft Bait Glue! Insert 2 round 10mm glass rattles!
Mud Puppy Boogie Buzz buzzbaits with stinger hooks work well over grass and wood. TORQUE braid helps hook-sets! I also like toads in white, black, green pumpkin, and watermelon, depending on water clarity and chop. Swimbait hooks work very well for toads! A bayonet keeper and 60-degree bend make it a perfect fit! They also work in the middle of the day! Spool 50-pound GAMMA TORQUE not only for no stretch on long casts and strength, but also the bigger diameter makes it easier for casting gear.
Swimbaits are great in fairly clear water and can be fished horizontally and vertically. Pitch into grass clumps or swim over and drop. 16-pound test GAMMA EDGE Fluorocarbon line is best! Med/Heavy rod for good hooksets. I’m also using weighted swimbait hooks, 7/0 with 1/4 oz. built-in adjustable weight hold very well in a swimbait…white/blue back. The weight is movable to get the correct balance with any bait and allows you to cover more depths and speeds.
The most unique and effective chatter jig is one I build with a spinner below creates a thump and scatter movement! Thread a Mud Puppy Jerkshad trailer and this is a big fish bait! Swim or skim white or green pumpkin jigs with white or white/chartreuse trailer. Swim 5.5-inch Mizmo tubes Texas rigged with a 5/0 swimbait hook! Stuff a piece of plastic worm into the bait to provide a better grip for the keeper. Swim baits and rip free from grass and drop into grass holes. Watch for bites on the fall.
I have been using Mizmo’s green-pumpkin/orange 4-inch tubes. In stained water, darker colors are best. In heaviest cover Texas rig 3/0 hooks with 1/8 or 3/16 BULLSHOT.
Don’t forget to try dropshots, just beef up the line. With casting gear, 16-pound test Gamma Edge fluorocarbon or 20-pound Torque braid with a 12-pound test leader for spinning gear.
JULY 2026
Water is clearer and grass well established in the southern part of the river, basically south of Pohick. The wrecks and concrete in Spoils, Fox Ferry, the point known as North Point on Smoot Bay (National Harbor) and South Point are hard cover targets. Groups of bass are on docks in Dogue Creek, Broad Creek, Mount Vernon, and Swan. Otherwise, fish grass patterns. Go to main river grass early before big boats come through. Look for clear water. All Virginia boaters must have a boater safety certification!
Focus on scattered grass away from hard grass edges. Pitch green pumpkin tubes Texas rigged on a 3/0 hooks and 3/16-ounce weights on GAMMA Edge 16-pound fluorocarbon. Shake slowly, watching line, feeling for weight. Hard cover: docks, laydowns, riprap etc. are also good targets. Stop for long periods…five seconds or more…fish have been hitting when sitting still…or when coming over cover. As baits drop, get ready for bites. Skip tubes under docks and over shallow cover.
Crank hard cover drops on 10-pound test GAMMA CoPoly. Split shot rigs work in the same deeper areas with 3/16-ounce Water Gremlin BullShot bullet–shaped split shot weights that come through cover. GAMMA Edge Fluorocarbon leader tied to Torque braid help you feel bites and get baits down faster. Rig Mud Puppy Custom Lures 5” Jiggle Stick worms on 3/0 hooks. Slowly drag and stop! When you hit cover, leave as long as you can! Use on bare banks or in front of grass lines at low tide, or inside grass at higher tides.
Work black/blue or black/brown jigs in stained water and green pumpkin where water is clearer. For trailers, use Black/Blue or green pumpkin orange. Swim and bladed jigs and 5-inch tubes in white, black/blue, black/brown at various depths, just below the surface to out of sight on grass edges and drop. 3/0 swimbait hooks are great for swimming tubes. But swimbaits in shad/white patterns are awesome big fish baits when paired with weighted swimbait hooks. Use 1/8-ounce weighted hooks…slide the weight to achieve the proper balance. Use heavier weights if needed.
Target pads and wood in creeks with dark colors in stained water. Fish are drawn to edges of cover like pads and wood on outgoing tides. But some pads are dry at low tide! Fish them only at high tide. Follow tides, moving up and over cover at high and out on edges when tides fall. Longer casts at higher tides to cover water. At lower tides make accurate short casts with shallow crankbaits. Vary retrieves. Chop or cloud cover favor spinnerbaits. At higher tides with clear water, try double willow nickel/gold with firetiger skirts…faster retrieve. White skirts in stained and white/chartreuse in clearer water. Colorado/Indiana tandem gold blades in stained, nickel and gold or both nickel in clearer water. Go faster and deeper with Colorado/willow when water is nearly clear. Make shorter casts at lower tides, targeting individual clumps of milfoil and longer casts to cover water at higher tides.
The topwater bite is strong around grass and wood: four baits/two sizes/ two color patterns. Small: one light pattern and one dark pattern. Same for larger baits. Use topwaters with low water, clear water, or low light conditions. Clear/calm: small baits in natural patterns. Work faster. If water is a bit stained, go to black/gold patterns. Clear choppy water; go to natural patterns in larger sizes. If water is stained and choppy, go to larger baits in black/gold pattern. When fish miss, use the reel to move baits to allow feathers to contract and open when sitting still. Shorter casts in muddy water and longer casts when water is calm and clear. Let fish tell you the speed…in general, clearer water, work baits faster…slow down ALL presentations in stained water. Use a 6 1/2-7-foot medium action graphite rod to avoid losing fish. The rear hook, use a feathered treble. Belly hooks get RED round bend trebles. Use Mud Puppy Custom Lures 5” Jiggle Stick worms weightless and on a weedless red wacky hook as a follow up.
Walking baits are great when water is clear, and you have cloud cover. Mud Puppy Boogie Buzz buzzbaits with black skirts have been working when water is lower over grass and around shallow wood and rock cover. Try 1/4-ounce size with a clacker to bring up bigger fish. Add a 2/0 or 3/0 stinger hook. The hollow frog bite, on 50-pound Gamma Torque braid, is awesome whenever water is low.
Mud Puppy Custom Lures 5” Jiggle Stick worms produce over grass beds in high tides, pitch when tides are lower. Green pumpkin worms in stained water, watermelon in clearer water…rigged Texas on 3/0 Mustad Ultra Point Mega Bite worm hooks, Wacky rigged with a red 2/0 weedless wacky rig hook or octopus hook 2/0, or on a NEKO rig. Toss and drop…no other action required. Let it sit on the bottom, gently twitch. Pull to the surface and drop again…repeat back to the boat, if in the strike zone…otherwise, cast again. Let stickworms sit about 2 seconds for every foot deep you’re fishing. Also try soft plastic jerkbaits, varying the speed.
Punch through grass with a tungsten ¾ -1-ounce weight on 50-pound test GAMMA Torque braid and a stout 7’6” rod that has power to pull them out. Look for floating grass and trash held in place by docks or milfoil stalks. Pitch, shake and let drop. Most fish hit on the drop. Mud Puppy 3” Mad Craws stay on the hook with a drop of PRO’S Soft Bait glue and secures the tungsten weights to the bait, so I don’t have to peg. Works best on sunny calm days!
