No reasonable person doesn’t adjust their tactics based on conditions but if you needed to commit to one lure? What would it be and how would it be rigged?

I go full retard far too often using a weightless 5” senko. Full disclosure.

Usually a spinner bait. Or a TX rigged plastic worm.
Tough choice for me.

If I had to catch a bass or nothing else was working I'll agree with you on the Senko but I'll try topwaters or crank baits first.

Creature / crawfish type plastic texas rigged.

I catch more bass on 5" Senko's than anything else. Sure wouldn't like giving up the Booyah pad crasher frogs and spinner baits though.

3inch watermelon tube. powdr

A watermelon "Wacky" worm.

When I was a kid it was the black licorice worms with the built-in 3 hooks. Cleaned up many a farm pond/lake with those things. Nowadays the main go to is a Zoom 8" lizard in Junebug.

Wacky rigged 4” Senko in most darker colors.

Does anyone still use Slug-Gos?

How many of y’all remember the Original Creme brand plastic worms ?

They had a weed less hook and a little propeller type spinner rigged on them. Caught a lot of fish with them as a kid.

Shaky head rigged worm...

I remember the Cream worm you describe very well. My high school fishing buddy of mine were fishing ponds at his local country club and I asked him to borrow the Cream worm still in the package in his tackle box which I did. I caught so many fish on that purple cream worm he asked for the worm back in short order.

I remember the Creme worms (not the rigged ones) as being very stiff.

Right after spawn, floating rapala twitched. If that doesnt work, a leech on a plain hook or jig head

Jerk bait. I catch 85% of my bass on the silver #6 Rapala X-rap. I fish a Western impoundment in Az with lots of shad. This lure will get reaction strikes when other lures won't work. 6 lb fireline with a lightweight 6' rod and the Pflueger arbor reel make for a setup that minimizes fatigue.

The silver #3 countdown reeled in slowly with no action, with either 4 lb or 6 lb fireline, is another lure that catches them when other lures fail.

6" Purple plastic worm, Texas rigged.

I've never fished a plastic worm, but reading here it sure looks like the go to choice. A buddy caught one of the nicer bass that I'd seen come out of our lake up north using a plastic worm. We have something like 100 water retention ponds in our Florida community that only a few guys fish and I've seen pictures of ten pounders coming out of those. I've only used an orange floating #9 Rapala and it is like taking a census of the bass in there. Got two on the same cast on the front and back hook of that Rapala last time out.

I was telling a guy at work last week that I could do all my bass fishing with green lizards, purple worms, baby bass senkos and a top water of some kind, probably a spook or something like that.

If I had to pick just one I would probably go with the green lizard, 1/4oz bullet weight, and a 4/0 worm hook Texas rig.

Senko... You can rig it so many ways. A 5" Senko can be rigged weightless, nailed or Carolina rigged and go from the surface to the bottom year round. Tough to best that kind of versatility in one single bait.