Pre-Spawn for Bass. Where are they and What can we use to catch them?

[Don House]

Pre-spawn fishing for Bass

Pre-spawn bass fishing when winter gives way to early spring and the trees are ready to bud, grass is turning green from a burnt brown color and my favorite mushrooms are popping up and dogwoods are ready to turn white. This is the season for the bass to move from there deep winter holes and move into there staging areas to prepare for the spawn. This time of year we call pre-spawn. A time of year that will even make the seasoned professional bass angler shake in his boots with excitement with the hopes for a big female bass to move up from her deep haunts and feed on the bait they have offered. Well here is a stab at some information for the pre-spawn big bass of a life time.

When and Why?

During the winter cycle bass spend there time in deep winter haunts in a lethargic state, were there body tells them to slow there own metabolism to conserve energy for the long winter months. Once Mother Nature allows the seasons to change from Winter into the early spring (March – April) and to begin to warm and the lakes temps rise from the cold 40’s into the mid 50’s and then to the 60’s degree range this will trigger the bass to begin move from deep to shallow and start the feeding cycle for the spawn to come. Bass will move into these pre-spawn areas where they can feel secure and have access to all types of food such as schools shad and crawfish to fatten themselves up and to gain that much needed energy to spawn.

Creek Channels highways for the Bass:

Bass will begin the migration from deep to shallow with the use of creek channels kind of a road map to the to the spawning areas. During the Late February – Mid March time frame bass will follow the channels to the bluff ends and start the feeding on large groups of shad and crawfish in the area, then as the water warms even more (Late March to Mid April) the bass will start the migration deeper into the creek channels and find areas around primary and secondary points with deep trees, rock piles and ledges even closer to there spawning areas to stage themselves and prepare for the magic water temp to spawn. At this time of year I like to look for areas where the creek channels swings in close to the primary and secondary points with access to the deeper water close by with depths from 15 – 40 feet of water. I always start on the north facing banks with chunk rock first, these north facing banks get the sun first and longer and warm much faster than others. A good 45 degree chunk rock bank close to the channel with structure will get my attention and my bait first. Secondary points with a nice stair step ledges that run from 10’ to 40 feet seems to hold a lot of fish this time of year. Bluff banks with little ledges and drop offs other ledges then deeper drops to structure like trees will also hold a lot of fish. All of these have one thing in common they are close to the migration routes and spawning flats and coves.

What baits works the best?

Jigs:

When the water temps are in the upper 40”s to mid 50”s my go to bait is time of year will these baits, first a small jig with a matching craw trailer with a very slow dragging presentation. The colors for this type of bait on Table Rock will be any of the following, Green Pumpkin, Brown, PB&J or Missouri Craw Colors with matching craws in the 4” size range. A trick I found is to trim with jig skirt even with the jig hook gives the jig more movement and a better flash or flaring motion and makes the craw look more real. Next the crawfish that time of year are much smaller, so I will trim the back tail down about 1” and then place the craw on the jig. Makes for a very realistic looking jig for the bass.

Stickbaits:

One of the other baits that I love to get the attention of a very large bass and when the water temp is in the high 40”s to the mid 50”s the stick bait or rouge type bait. This baits come in many colors such as black and chrome, blue and chrome, table rock shad (chartreuse and purple), clown colored ( red, orange yellow and silver) and all white and sizes from 4”,6”, and 8” versions with models that float or suspend. The suspending model just about all I use, this allows the bait to stay in the strike zone for a loner amount of time and gives the fish more time to watch it to see if it is real before they strike it. I fish the stick bait in many different ways. Some days I fish it with many fast jerks with no pause in-between each jerk and some days I will jerk and wait sometimes as long as 15 – 30 second pauses in-between jerks, I let the fish tell me how they want it fast or slow.

Crankbaits:

Another great go to bait I love to throw when the wind pickups up on those same chunk rock banks is a wiggle wart crankbait. These baits act like a crawfish moving around in the water with a very wide wobble. Colors for these types of baits I use are brown craw, green craw. I fish these types of baits parallel to the banks with a very slow return to the boat. Most of the bites are right off the bank in less than 10 feet of water or right around structure like stand trees or rock piles.

When the water warms even more into the upper 50”s to Mid 60”s my go to bait is the Deep running DD-22 crankbaits. This is a very large crankbait that I use to search for deep structure and bounce the bait off of it, this cause the fish to give a reaction bite and usually a very big bite I might add. Colors for these I use are Lavender Shad (Purple and White), Tennessee Shad and All White. A slow bouncing off the bottom or structure presentation is needed for this type of bait.

Plastic:

And last when the water temp is in the Mid 60”s my go to bait is small plastic worms or grubs. Plastic 4” French fry’s used with a split shot rig or a shakey jig with a 4” zoom trick worm. Colors are always watermelon green with red, purple or cotton candy flakes for both seems to work the best for me. Presentation that works best with these is a dragging style and a must to keep contact with the bottom at all times. Light line and tackle is a must for this type of presentation. Shakey jig is best used with a throw out and bounce off the bottom type presentation but when the bait is on the bottom you shake the jig for a few minutes and then move it a little more back to the boat. Swimming grubs are used when the wind really pick’s up and makes it too hard to feel the bite of the small plastic type baits, colors are the same with a 3/8 ounce jig head and the same presentation as the rest.

All of these baits work really well for me and there is a lot of playing around with all of these types of baits until you can find the right combination that will give you the success on Table Rock that I’m sure you are looking for. That really covers a lot of information on this time of year, the time of year which can be rewarding or really disappointing. I have seen days where 24 pounds wins the paycheck and the boat in 17th place has over 16 pounds and misses out on everything and then the next day where 12 pounds wins the whole thing. Weather changes everything cold fronts come and go and so do the fish, just remember this time of year you need to fish slow, very slow and just keep moving along search for that next pre-spawn area.

Good Luck and Good Fishing.

[Don House]

To everyone on this site.

If you have read the article that I posted on pre-spawn bass, well here is what I did, and of course it was very stupid on my part. Took parts of someone else article added and change it around to make it mine to save time instead of writing it in my own words, all just to save some time. What a very big mistake on my part! A very embarrassing and stupid thing to do on my part. And for this I'm here to apologize to everyone on this form and ask for you to forgive my stupid actions. I would like to keep writing for this form if the group will allow me to do so. If not I understand and will fade into the woodwork. Now I have rewritten my article in my own words and I hope you like it and hope you forgive my mistake. You really don't realize how bad something is until it is too late. My mistake and I do Apologize.

Thanks for your time

Don

[denjac]

Don,

We all have been guilty of this type of writing. I personally don't see the big deal but know that some take offense. Like you said take somebody else'e idea and make it your own. Thats how things get tweaked to perfection. Keep on writing!