You know, I tried to come up with some good answer but I have no reason for why I change. I just go with whatever I think will catch them where I'm fishing. I guess depth is what I consider first because I want the bait in the zone I think the fish are in. Then action, you put a bait in front of a bass and move it right, they will eat it. I dont get to worried about color. I just kind of go with what matches the water color or forage I want to match. I used to over think it until I watched all those elite events won on crankbaits that were basic colors, regular color worms, just the same ole stuff we can buy. The thing was those guys found fish. That's the hardest part. So instead of worrying so much about my baits, I just want to know I'm around fish. When I know I'm around fish I know I can catch them

From my log Circa 1998 Cedar Bluff Res Ks.
April 14
Air temp 47
Water temp 52 4-6 ft
Overcast 50%
Wind N/NW 10 mph
Water clarity 2'

Fished: 4" GP/black flake tube, single glass rattle, 1/4" dipped in chart dye, 1/4 oz bullet shallow rocks after sun up for 1 hour caught 3, moved out to standing wood 12-18' caught 3 more rotated to the shade side after noon caught 3 more.
1:00 T-rigged GP Power Craw dipped claws 1/2 oz. pitched on the hard wood lay downs 4-6' couple of bites and misses.
3-5:00 Fished a Mojo Rapala jerkbait combo on road bed caught 3 around 3 lbs ea.
My logs & topo maps are my valued treasures of experiences... what's old becomes new over time. Last weekend the same tube caught fish at Falcon same scenarios rocks and trees.

There has been some really good advice and engagement here! I’m glad to see it, keep it coming! Shall we transition into opinions on soft baits vs. hard baits as your go to? I can tell you that until recently, I was always a rattletrap(or something in that realm) to start and now, as I think I mentioned earlier, I am donking around with Texas rigged curly tails lol.

I think, as your confidence level begins to increase, most will start with a soft plastic fished next to cover. It is a more predictable way to catch fish, and very effective. It’s when the lipless and billed cranks come out that the mind starts to drift from confidence to “maybe they need a reaction bite”. It’s after the “reaction bite” fails to produce that I get lost. I start “graphing” and staring at a screen with a drop shot trying to convince myself that the fish “just don’t wanna eat”.

Truth is, I likely should have just kept working the soft plastic around cover. Haha

[/quote]
I think, as your confidence level begins to increase, most will start with a soft plastic fished next to cover. It is a more predictable way to catch fish, and very effective. It’s when the lipless and billed cranks come out that the mind starts to drift from confidence to “maybe they need a reaction bite”. It’s after the “reaction bite” fails to produce that I get lost. I start “graphing” and staring at a screen with a drop shot trying to convince myself that the fish “just don’t wanna eat”.

Truth is, I likely should have just kept working the soft plastic around cover. Haha[/quote]

I’ve been through this same scenario many times also...

I'm opposite, I'm starting with reaction baits and then will go to plastics. I will spend half a day trying to force feed them some moving bait before I slow down.

The biggest questions/factors to me are always in this order:

1) Am I in an area that is holding fish (with new equipment now many times I can see them)
2) Are the fish feeding actively in that area (that one usually gets answered pretty quickly)
3) Right bait? (If they're choking a bait, I'm pretty confident I've got all the factors (bait, color, and speed correct. Especially if I'm catching good numbers.)
4) Right speed? The first time I ever caught a bass swimming a jig was an accident. Fishing from the back of my buddy's boat and he's got trolling motor on high to get to the next dock on Cedar Creek. I just let my jig/pig trail along the edge of the dock we were leaving and caught a 4 pounder. Hmmm. Maybe speed has something to do with it.
5) Right color? Same friend fishing a hump on Fork. We were Carolina rigging Zoom french fries in water melon green when that color first came out. He was catching 3 to 1. When he pulled in a fish I noticed a little "red" sparkle on his bait. WTH??? First time I ever saw watermelon red.

The biggest problem for me is ALWAYS deciding which factor am I missing on the equation if I'm not getting bit. Move or change one of 3,4, or 5.