The formula for springtime bass fishing success, if we're to accept most of what we read, see on TV and hear in tackle shop bull sessions, amounts to little more than SHALLOW COVE + BUSH + SPINNERBAIT + CAST = SET HOOK.
The assumption that bass will be shallow and aggressive just because it's springtime can get us in a whole lot of trouble. Fact is, the only assumption we can safely make regarding the whereabouts and activity of bass in the springtime is that sometime during the period, they will be in their spawning areas.
Bass anglers are familiar with the terms Pre-Spawn, Spawn & Post Spawn, which describe the three distinct behavior patterns that make up the overall spawning cycle. But in establishing contact with the fish after being off the water for the winter, it's important to realize that the whole spawn related period those terms apply to may be preceded by early spring patterns that are not spawn related. You might think of these periods as winter-wane and pre-pre-spawn.
Shallow water fishing possibilities start when more than a stray bass or two shows up in the shallows in the spring, but the earliest of these movements are usually have more to do with feeding than with the urge to spawn. The timing of the shift from those early spring patterns into spawn related patterns isn't unilateral. It's a rare situation in which all, or even most of the bass in any specific body of water (or section of a body of water) spawn at or about the same time. On any given day, the best fishing option might involve several of the possible activity states that bass may be in during the spring. Heavy spring catches are as likely to come from 10, 15, even 20 feet of water as they are from 3 or 4 feet, and the bass are as likely to ignore a high-impact presentation like a flashy spinnerbait as they are to jump all over it.
It's great when a spinnerbait or topwater plug worked around flooded willows in the back end of some shallow cove gets annihilated every few minutes — but it doesn't happen often enough to justify the amount of time we're tempted to spend searching for it. To eliminate wasted effort, (and to be confident in deciding when that effort wouldn't be wasted) it's best to avoid the common springtime mistake of running from one spawning area to another in search of easy bass.
A far better option is to select one area of the lake and check all the possibilities in a systematic manner, to get a handle on what stage of the spring cycle most of the fish in that area are in, rather than to hop around looking for those that may or may not have reached the stage where they're easier and/or more fun to fish for. Check out the accompanying diagram.
Looking over our lake map, there are several areas that appear like they'll have enough of a variety of water types available ... deep channels, side creeks, coves, shallower flats, etc. ... in a confined area to pretty much ensure that bass will use them regardless of what stage of the spring cycle they are in. I chose the split arm of the lake shown in the exploded detail for the simple reason that it had two areas that appeared to be flatter coves, related to the inside bend of a channel, with good exposure to the sun in the southern sky. (A & B in the inset) Aside from shallow, flat coves that are totally isolated from the heat sink effect of deeper water, these are the types of areas that warm the fastest, and are prime examples of places that will see heavy use by the first shallow meandering bass of the winter-wane period and if bottom conditions are favorable there, spawning bass as well.
The area around the back of the big island in mid-lake might be equally as good or better, and it adjoins what looks to be an isolated backwater. But until I've established contact with the fish and have some kind of feel for how far along they may be in their springtime cycles, I rarely invest time getting into those really isolated areas, and the circled area looks (to my eye anyway) like it offers more variety. That area might be the first place I check once I get a reading on what to expect from my starting area though.
The flatter areas at A and B are where I'll head first when checking this lake in the springtime. The bass' propensity to use cover when in shallow water should help us strain the area for catchable bass pretty quickly. In checking areas less than ten feet deep, I favor a three option approach designed to appeal to aggressive, neutral and down-right passive bass.
Active/aggressive bass are likely to respond to a lure moving on a relatively horizontal plane, and will often dart out away from cover to strike. Depending on the cover present, and the wind and water conditions, along with a dose of experience and personal preference I might choose a spinnerbait, a small crankbait or a jerk bait as (ital)Option 1(end_ital) during this part of the attack. For this approach to gain my confidence, the fish have to be pretty darned active, which should mean they're not too fussy.
(ital)Option 2(end_ital) involves a jig type lure to drop into or next to cover, and hopefully appeal to bass that aren't in a chasing mood. My (ital)Option 2(end_ital) choice in shallow water will almost invariably be a black 1/4 or 3/8 oz. living rubber jig with a brown, #11 pork frog.
Maybe it's the ever increasing fishing pressure they live with, but it seems to me that these days, I find spring bass to be awfully finicky an awful lot of the time. That's why I don't consider a shallow cove "checked" until I've at least given any bass that may be there an opportunity to react to (ital)Option 3 (end_ital) ... a "drift bait". By a drift bait, I mean a lure that just sort of drifts down through the water column. I might opt for fat bodied grub on a 1/16 ounce jig head, but if conditions (most notably wind) allow, my first choice is usually a 4" Fin-S-Fish, rigged weightless. I'll cast this bait near, but not necessarily into cover, and let it softly settle to the bottom before giving it a gentle nudge or two and letting it settle some more. The slow motion approach with a small offering will usually draw some kind of response if there's anything there, even when other presentation options are going untouched.
Any action at all in the cove I start in is usually cause to work the cove again, but with a few adjustments in presentation, until I hit on a style that I'm comfortable with and get a feel for where the fish are positioned. On the other hand, if a fairly quick circuit around the cove, hitting the obvious cover, docks, bank changes, mini-points and cuts with the appropriate techniques doesn't produce anything, I feel I have no choice but to start searching for fish that aren't quite in classic, springtime position yet, or fish that may have been there and have dropped back for one reason or another.
Often, a log, stump, rock pile or even just a patch of hardpan located seemingly "out in the middle of nowhere" in 10 to 20 feet of water, not directly related to the shoreline shelf holds a motherlode of springtime bass. It's a moot point whether these fish are staging on their way into the cove or they've piled up there when forced off the banks by some quirk of weather conditions or the excessive pressure they receive along the banks in larger waters where tournaments are common. Fan casting with a magnum sized, deep diving crankbait is often the easiest way to find such spots, but once they're located, it's usually more productive to fish them with a jig.
The next move takes us to the points at the mouth of the bay, and eventually out to the first drop-off. While the obvious move is to start working towards the main lake from the shallow cove we started in, I find an awful lot of fish ... especially in the pre-spawn period, using whatever shoreline cover exists just UP the creek arm from a side cove that should serve as a spawning site.
While the banks of the creek arm we're looking at here may appear to be barren and featureless, few banks in nature really are. Looking at the second detail inset, you'll note that the "straight" banks are actually a series of indentations and protrusions. Coves and points, on a very subdued scale. That's the way most banks in nature really are. Manmade construction may feature straight lines and smooth curves, but nature likes things uneven.
One of the least appreciated quirks of bass behavior is that the less active and aggressive a bass is, the more likely it is to take up a position in a concave structural configuration (in this case, the minor indentations in that "featureless" bank) and the more aggressive it is, the more likely it is to relate to a convex configuration or point. You can use this factor to increase your efficiency while in search mode. Use your (ital)Option 2(end_ital) lure choice to check the back ends of the little one or two foot depression in the bank, and the (ital)Option 1 (end_ital) choice to check the protrusions or points. And pay attention to which type of bend (inside or outside) any action you get comes from. Most anglers would consider it a presentation clue when it's far more valuable in helping you narrow down the types of targets to concentrate on, and where to place your casts.
That oversimplified formula for springtime fishing we started with at the beginning of this article is now a whole lot more complicated ... and more accurate. SPRING CYCLE STAGE + LOCATION + APPROPRIATE PRESENTATION = SPRINGTIME BASS SUCCESS.
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