Bass fishermen sometimes pose the question, "If you could fish with only one lure, what would it be?"

Many Oklahoma anglers make a good case for the plastic worm. A good ol' Texas-rigged worm is, indeed, a lure that pays dividends. But worms are less effective when the water is cooler in the winter months.

High on many veteran anglers' lists, though, is the spinnerbait. It may be the most versatile lure in your tackle box.

Two of Oklahoma's most successful professional bass fishermen fished their way to the big leagues with the help of spinnerbaits. Although both Jimmy Houston of Cookson, and Ken Cook, who lives near Lawton, are versatile pros who can use a variety of lures well, both earned their reputations early on as proficient spinnerbait fishermen. Cook even helped a couple of lure makers design a line of spinnerbaits.

Spinnerbaits can be fished throughout the year, especially in the southern two-thirds of the state, and they can be fished successfully in open water, in thick cover, in deep water or shallow. They catch big bass and small.

They can be quickly and easily customized to fit the situation at hand. You can change skirts and trailers quickly and blades can be switched if necessary.

And at certain times of the year, they seem to be the best lure you can throw.

The post-spawn period is one of those times.

In this part of the country, rainfall is usually plentiful in March, April and May. That means that many of our large reservoirs are above normal levels and the water floods lakeside willow thickets and other areas that contain lots of brush.

Bass move into those flooded shallows and can be caught with plastic worms and jigs. But one of the most effective baits in such conditions is the spinnerbait, which can be used to cover a lot of water quickly.

In coming weeks, in many northeast Oklahoma lakes, lots of bass will be caught on spinnerbaits. So, for now, let's look at some of the lakes where you can put a spin on post-spawn largemouths.

Probably my favorite springtime bass lake is Grand Lake up in the northeast corner of the state. It gathers water from Kansas and Missouri rivers and its 46,500 surface-acres spread out into many willow thickets and bottomlands when springtime rains are heavy.

When the water is above normal levels at Grand, it is a great lake for "bumping the stump" with spinnerbaits. That is, you can throw a spinnerbait directly against the trunk of a tree that is standing in water, then let it fall straight down the side of the tree before raising your rod tip and starting to reel. Of course, if you are using a baitcasting reel, you have to keep your thumb ready to stop that spool from turning when the spinnerbait hits the tree and stops moving. Otherwise, you'll end up with a lot of backlashes.

I don't know why this technique so often produces strikes, but I have seen it happen many times over many years. My partner and I finished near the top of the field in a large tournament at Grand with this technique.

More often, spinnerbaiting in the shallows is just a matter of casting beyond the standing tree trunks and buttonbushes and laydowns and retrieving the bait back past the cover. But crashing the bait directly against the cover can sometimes yield strikes that occur as the bait slides down the side of the tree or other object.

When I am throwing past the cover, I often pause slightly when retrieving the bait and it passes a log or tree trunk. Strikes often occur just as you pause and allow the bait to fall adjacent to the cover.