Three baits that I like for early spring are:
1/16oz white Northland spinnerbait with a 1" grub trailer. Let it lift and fall or fish it around shallow wood or floating bogs.
#8-12 Husky Jerk. An erratic retrieve with long pauses works best for me.
Small lipless crankbaits fished on the dropoffs and pinchpoints at the entrances to backwaters.
We still have ice on the water here in MN but these three are my favorite rigs for early bass. That little spinnerbait especially.

Live bait has been and will always be the best "bait" to attract a hungry piscivore. Determining what the fish are eating in a given place and at a given time will tell you what type of lure that is needed to closely imitate their diet. But in the case of bass, more are caught just defending their territory than feeding. In the case of defending territory, just about anything that will get the bass's attention as a threat will get attacked. I like to use a Heddon Vamp Spook as a top water lure because it seems to work on bass, specks, reds, and many other species I fish for. Next for bass, I like a Snagless Sally with a pork frog trailer. It is an inline spinner with a gold blade. I prefer gold spinners because the gold color works great in both muddy water and in clear water. I no longer use soft plastics because I have learned over the years that natural pork rind works just as good or even better for me. The natural pork rind is a renewable resource and will biodegrade much faster than plastisols which are petrochemicals. The up side to lets say a natural pork rind worm over a soft plastic worm, is that it is more durable and just one can be used to catch several hundred fish providing it does not get hung up and lost. After a fishing trip, I just take the natural pork rind worm off the hook and put it back into the jar for the next trip. Just one jar of #147 Uncle Josh natural pork rind worm in black, Texas rigged, lasted me longer than five pounds of soft plastic worms would have.