The Bassmaster Elite Series rolled into Lake Martin, Alabama, this past weekend, and the top 10 proved that finesse won the week, scope won the week, and we saw fuzzy dice baits break out in a big way. Lake Martin isn’t your typical heavyweight slugfest lake. It’s a deep, clear, spotted bass-dominant fishery where anglers predominantly found success in 10 feet of water or less, around rocks and stumps, or other early prespawn staging areas. This stop on the Elite Series also allowed anglers to use Forward Facing Sonar, unlike the previous trip to Guntersville, and anglers took full advantage.
Bass were plentiful, but the weights were light as many anglers struggled to break 10 pounds a day, but as we saw during the final, the top 10 anglers at this event leaned heavily into finesse soft plastics, minnows and jig head combos, jerkbaits, and the occasional jig or swimbait to pull in enough quality fish and cash a check.
Here’s every bait that mattered from the top 10 at Lake Martin — and what you can take from their playbooks and put to work on your home lake.
10. Caleb Hudson (10th Place; 45-9)
Zoom Thick Trick (Neko Rig) + SPRO McRip Jerkbait
Hudson split his time between a 5-inch Zoom Thick Trick on a Neko rig (1/0 Gamakatsu G-Finesse Stinger Hook) and a SPRO McRip jerkbait.
Why it worked: Trimming the Thick Trick down is a veteran move — it changes the fall rate and the action profile just enough to differentiate from the dozens of other Neko rigs in the field. The SPRO McRip as a secondary tool shows that even in a finesse-dominated event, there were windows where spotted bass grouped up and became catchable on reaction baits.
Shop the Zoom Thick Trick at Tackle Warehouse
9. Cody Meyer (9th Place; 45-14)
Yamamoto Senko (Wacky Rig), Daiwa Neko Fat
Meyer utilized a wacky-rigged 5-inch Senko on a No. 1 Owner Sniper Finesse Neko Hook as his primary, with a Daiwa Neko Fat on a 1/16-ounce Cipher Fishing Tungsten Nail Weight and a 3/8-ounce Evergreen IR-Jig with Yamamoto Yama Bug as alternatives.
Why it worked: The California native Meyer grew up fishing for pressured, clear water bass with finesse techniques, and his approach validated what the entire top 10 proved — Lake Martin’s prespawn spotted bass wanted slow, subtle, and natural. The wacky Senko and Neko Fat are two slightly different versions of the same philosophy: put a soft plastic in front of a fish’s face and let it sit there until they make a mistake.
Shop the Daiwa Neko Fat at Tackle Warehouse
8. Pake South (8th Place; 46-1)
Berkley Stunna +1 Jerkbait
South committed to a jerkbait as his primary approach, specifically the Berkley Stunna +1. On a clear, prespawn spotted bass lake, that’s a high-confidence play.
Why it worked: The Stunna’s tight wobble and subtle flash at a shallow running depth make it ideal for targeting spotted bass that are staging on the tops of points and rock transitions. A jerkbait’s stop-and-go cadence triggers the same reaction-strike instinct that makes prespawn fish so catchable — they’re not feeding aggressively, but they absolutely will kill something that pauses in front of them.
Shop the Berkley Stunna Jerkbait at Tackle Warehouse
7. Robert Gee (7th Place; 46-2)
Yamamoto Senko (5-inch)
Gee leaned on the 5-inch Yamamoto Senko with 1/48- and 1/32-ounce Ryugi Adjust Tungsten Nail Weights, plus a 1/4-ounce homemade jig head with a 3.5-inch Yamamoto Hinge Minnow as a secondary option.
Why it worked: The Senko is the Senko. It’s been winning tournaments for over two decades and it will keep winning them. The ultra-light nail weights Gee used tell you everything about the bite — these fish wanted something falling as slowly and naturally as possible. When you’re nail-weighting a Senko with 1/48-ounce tungsten, you’re fishing for fish that will reject anything that doesn’t look absolutely effortless.
Shop the Yamamoto Senko at Tackle Warehouse
6. Chris Zaldain (6th Place; 46-14)
Bass Mafia Daingerous Swimbait (Loaded & Unloaded)
Zaldain ran two versions of his own signature Bass Mafia Daingerous Swimbait — an unloaded version on a 7/0 hook with a 3/16-ounce inline weighted head for shallow largemouth in standing timber, and a loaded version with a heavier inline assembly for reaching spotted bass down to 25 feet.
Why it worked: Matching the depth of the fish with the same bait profile at two different weight configurations is elite-level efficiency. The Daingerous Swimbait’s action stays consistent whether it’s running at 3 feet or 25, which means Zaldain could target two entirely different species in two entirely different zones without switching up his cadence or confidence. And with a larger profile, Zaldain was looking to target some larger fish… the gamble paid off.
Shop the Bass Mafia Dangerous Swimbait at Tackle Warehouse
5. Joey Cifuentes III (5th Place; 48-11)
Unnamed Dice Bait on Berkley Fusion19 Weedless Wide Gap Wacky Hook
Cifuentes kept it painfully simple — a dice-style soft plastic on a Berkley Fusion19 Weedless Wide Gap Wacky Hook with a 3/32-ounce nail weight. And it got the job done.
Why it worked: Wacky rigs are arguably the single most effective prespawn finesse technique in existence on spotted bass fisheries. The slow, fluttering fall on a weighted wacky rig keeps the bait in the strike zone longer than almost any other presentation, and on a pressured lake like Martin during an Elite event, that patience is what separates a check from a long drive home. And the fuzzy dice bait is a different look than the standard wacky worm most bass are conditioned to seeing.
Shop the Berkley Fusion19 Wacky Hook at Tackle Warehouse
4. Easton Fothergill (4th Place; 50-11)
Strike King Final Copy Swimbait
Fothergill rotated between a swimbait and a jighead minnow, but the Strike King Final Copy Swimbait rigged with a No. 1 Ryugi Pierce TC Treble Hook was the bigger-fish bait. When he needed to finesse them, he switched to a Strike King 3X Baby Z-Too Soft Jerkbait on a 1/4-ounce Keitech Tungsten Super Round Jig Head.
Why it worked: A big treble-hooked swimbait is a lethal prespawn presentation on clear lakes because spotted bass are keying on shad but aren’t chasing aggressively. The slow, natural roll of the Final Copy at a steady retrieve speed triggers reaction strikes from bigger fish that won’t commit to a smaller, faster-moving bait.
Shop the Strike King Final Copy Swimbait at Tackle Warehouse
3. Emil Wagner (3rd Place; 50-11)
Berkley PowerBait MaxScent The General
Wagner ground it out on chunk rock points with soft plastics on Neko and shaky-head rigs. When he wasn’t throwing prototype Berkley baits that none of us can buy yet, he was fishing a Berkley PowerBait MaxScent The General stick bait on a 1/4-ounce shaky head. Simple… but effective.
Why it worked: I’mma big fan of the MaxScent formula and it clearly worked on these spotted bass. The scent dispersal keeps fish holding on longer, which matters enormously when you’re dragging a shaky head across rock and getting short, tentative bites from prespawn spots that aren’t fully committed.
Shop the Berkley MaxScent The General at Tackle Warehouse
2. Brock Mosley (2nd Place; 52-14)
Z-Man Tungsten ChatterBait EVO
Mosley went the opposite direction from most of the field and committed to shallow water all week with various power fishing techniques. He covered water with a squarebill, slowed it down and picked apart cover with a jig, but a 3/8-ounce Z-Man Tungsten ChatterBait EVO rigged with a Yamamoto Zako trailer was a primary bait, and rainy conditions on Championship Sunday played right into his hands.
Why it worked: Bladed jigs thrive in stained or low-light conditions, and with some of the cloud cover and rain, as well as in the dirtier water at the northern end of the lake, Mosley was able to deliver a package that shallow prespawn largemouths couldn’t ignore.
Shop the Z-Man ChatterBait EVO at Tackle Warehouse
1. Fisher Anaya (1st Place; 54-6)
Rapala CrushCity Freeloader
Opposite of Mosley, the Elite Series rookie parked himself on the south end of Lake Martin, targeting prespawn staging areas and really clear water. His fish were sitting on rockpiles in less than 10 feet and on stumps during Championship Sunday, some of which he could sight fish for with a fuzzy dice bait. But his primary weapon was a CrushCity Freeloader on a 1/4-ounce jighead, which he slow-rolled and dragged through the strike zone with surgical precision.
Why it worked: The Freeloader’s subtle action on a jighead is a perfect prespawn presentation — it mimics a baitfish holding near bottom structure without being aggressive enough to spook spotted bass that are staging but not fully committed to feeding.
Shop the CrushCity Freeloader at Tackle Warehouse
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The Pattern: What Lake Martin Taught Us
Soft plastics dominated. Eight of the top 10 anglers relied on some form of soft plastic as a primary or co-primary bait. Finesse techniques, primarily Neko rigs and wacky rigs, accounted for a good chunk of fish weighed across the event.
Light weights were non-negotiable. From Gee’s 1/48-ounce nail weights to Cifuentes’ 3/32-ounce wacky setup, the entire field was downsizing their weight to slow everything down. Prespawn spotted bass on clear lakes don’t want something crashing into the strike zone — they want something drifting into it.
Big swimbaits and jerkbaits were the changeup pitches. Zaldain, Fothergill, South, and Hudson all used bigger reaction baits to either cover water or capitalize on schooling windows, but none of them won on those baits alone. They were complementary tools, not primary programs. Anaya’s winning strategy centered on clearer water in south-end pockets, which tells you that water clarity was a deciding factor for big spots. With Mosley being more of an outlier in the top 10, clearer water rewarded more natural presentations, which further explains why the entire top 10 leaned finesse.
If you’re fishing a clear, deep, spotted-bass lake during the early prespawn this spring, this top 10 is your cheat sheet. Stock the Senkos. Downsize the weights. Slow everything down. And if you see them schooling on top, have a jerkbait ready — but don’t build your whole day around it.
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