i dont bed fish. i have nothing against it, just doesnt appeal to me. im sure ive caught fish off beds with a wacky rig but i didnt see them.our lakes arent usually big enough to have a lot of pre and post at the same time as spawners. although there are some.i will try to catch prespawn fish. if i cant find them ill crappie fish or go to a smaller lake and catch post spwaners.

For me its either drop swim or carolina rig Lizard and 3 inch swimbaits slow rolled at the bottom..

If it's a big body of water with numerous tributaries, I'll look for pre spawners before fishing the beds.  If it's a big, natural lake I'll do the same.

On smaller lakes, I've found that the majority of fish will spawn on the same moon phase and searching out that 10%-15% of fish that aren't is tougher than fishing for the ones on beds. I normally avoid fishing those lakes at that time of year.