Been thinking about fishing the prespawn once the ice melts where I am at. The prespawn has always been a difficult season for me. What are people’s top 3 lures/presentations for the prespawn and how do you fish them during the pre-spawn? 

Spinnerbait, jig, jerkbaits. I like throwing the first 2 near wood or deep structure. Havent had a lot of experience with a jerkbaits but the few iltrips ive thrown them the results have been good. 

8 minutes ago, CroakHunter said:

Spinnerbait, jig, jerkbaits. I like throwing the first 2 near wood or deep structure. Havent had a lot of experience with a jerkbaits but the few iltrips ive thrown them the results have been good. 

How do you retrieve the spinnerbaits for prespawn?

Early spring – I’m looking in the N section of the lake first – want the sun on it – perhaps dark(er) bottom color to absorb the sunlight and warm up faster.  Doesn’t necessarily need to be a colored bottom but the smallies I'm usually hunting, stick out like a sore thumb over sand sometimes so the colored bottom seems to help with that.  

 Locations, could be the E side or the W – but S is the Last place I’m going.  Any ‘inlets’ – or little creeks could influence my choice – fish like to hang out in front of them early.

 

Jerkbaits & Crankbaits - worked deep to shallow.

Small Swimbait - crawled on the bottom - worked deep to shallow

Jigs - Including Hair - worked deep to shallow.

Did I mention I like to work from deep to shallow ?

A-Jay

 

Jigs, worms and swimbaits where I fish.

Bass are moving up from deeper water towards spawning areas and feeding. 

You need to focus on deeper water areas near spawning areas known as staging where abundant prey is available. The bass are moving so you need to present lures at all angles uphill, paralell and downhill until you find them grouped up.

As A-Jay mentioned spring up (uphill).

Tom

Early pre-spawn I will cast it out along structure (road beds, drops, points, humps) and retrieve it just fast enough where the blades turn but can still remain in contact with the bottom. The closer we get to spawn the shallower and faster I will go with spinnerbaits. Tossing them around wood or grasslines has produced well for me in the past. I always use a 3.5-5 inch trailer and prefer silver or white double willow. 1/2 ounce. 

Lipless crankbaits, spinnerbaits, jerkbaits, and crankbaits is what I start out with.  Usually where I fish the bass want something moving.

For me it's jig, chatterbait, spinnerbait w/single colorado blade. As for retrieve I'm just up shallow around any cover I can find wood weeds etc.just cast and winding.

Don't under estimate the ned rig for pre spawn. Here in Michigan I caught them in February, March and April on that. Drop offs near flats with some sort of rocks on the north end of the lake late in the afternoon(highest temp of the day)

Jerks, CB, hair jigs, spinners......usually in that order

1) Squarebills/Chatterbaits (tied)

2) Ned Rig

3) Grubs either on darterheads or underspins

2 hours ago, nascar2428 said:

Don't under estimate the ned rig for pre spawn. Here in Michigan I caught them in February, March and April on that. Drop offs near flats with some sort of rocks on the north end of the lake late in the afternoon(highest temp of the day)

This^^^. Here way far south, in Arizona, they definitely work like magic here too during those times

1. Jerkbaits

2. Jerkbaits

3. Jerkbaits

i will use jerkbaits as searchbaits, and wacky riged senkos once i find some bass. but you really cant go wrong with just jerkbaits. jigs arent bad either.

Fish them along the approaches to the spawning beds.

12 hours ago, Bankbeater said:

Lipless crankbaits, spinnerbaits, jerkbaits, and crankbaits is what I start out with.  Usually where I fish the bass want something moving.

 

5 hours ago, Harold Scoggins said:

Fish them along the approaches to the spawning beds.

Surprised so many recommendations of moving baits. I’ll have to try them more this spring. Do you try to fish them pretty slow for the prespawn or do you still fish them at a pretty standard pace? 

6 hours ago, FCPhil said:

 

Surprised so many recommendations of moving baits. I’ll have to try them more this spring. Do you try to fish them pretty slow for the prespawn or do you still fish them at a pretty standard pace? 

Moving baits work because as has been said, the bass are feeding up before their spawn.  Although they are feeding, the water is still chilly in most places and that slows their metabolism down and you need to slow your presentation down as much as possible.  That's why you hear so many say that the pause inbetween jerks on a jerkbait may need to be painfully long.  

Down south it's Redneck Bubba Bass Fishing!

 

Big rods, big line, big fish ?

 

Texas Rigs, Jig-n-Craw, Spinnerbaits, & Traps!

 

Spinnerbaits , crankbaits ,Texas rigs . 

Texas rigs, jigs,lipless cranks,flat sided cranks,spinnerbaits. 

Alabama Rig, T-rigged and jerkbaits

 

On 2/6/2019 at 5:09 AM, TOXIC said:

Moving baits work because as has been said, the bass are feeding up before their spawn.  Although they are feeding, the water is still chilly in most places and that slows their metabolism down and you need to slow your presentation down as much as possible.  That's why you hear so many say that the pause inbetween jerks on a jerkbait may need to be painfully long.  

When you talk about really long pauses with a jerkbait, how do you make sure you don’t miss strikes during the pause, just watching the line?

 

I always feel like I’m going to be missing strikes but maybe I just need to commit to the longer pauses. 

No set answer.  The fish will tell you how long to pause, you just need to pay attention to what you were doing.  It also depends on what type of jerkbait you are throwing, floating, suspending or sinking.  

8 minutes ago, TOXIC said:

No set answer.  

Pretty much. If you notice, pretty much every presentation that's used all year round (minus topwater) has been mentioned in this thread.  

1. floating worm 2. 1/4 oz. spinnerbait 3. storm chug bug

 

good fishing .... 

In Midwest lakes, what temps do you see the bass moving up from deep water to mid-depths to shallow, e.g, from 20 feet to 10 and from 10 to 5 or less?