I've told the story of being a kid unwilling to wait for warmth to begin bass fishing and riding my bike in the snow with my brothers to try and catch bass. That lesson stuck with me, so I waited until I was 66 years old to fish early again, nudged by watching all you southern fishers post your big fish through the winter and early spring. Here's what I learned:

 

1. Spring fishing can be hard. I was never skunked, but four times I caught only one bass.

 

2. Spring fishing is dangerous. Being a solitary paddler, I stuck close to shores whenever possible, lest I tip and die. I did wear neoprene through early spring.

 

3. Spring fishing doesn't deliver hot bites in Maine...at least for me. If I caught 15 bass, i was doing relatively great, but I oftentimes settled for three fish. I never got close to my 35-57-bass mornings of late summer/fall 2023.

 

4. Spring fishing meant more sub-surface fishing. My best sub-surface lure was a Rage Swimmer with a shaft-weighted hook.

 

5. Spring fishing also means catching big bass on the surface. My love of surface fishing had me pitching surface lures sooner than conventional wisdom suggests and they worked. Two of the three fish below were caught on a Whopper Plopper.

 

5. Spring fishing is confusing. Three times, I sat in the middle of berserk bass and couldn't coax a single hit. The last time, I didn't move. I just watched. And I had bass swirling and thrashing RIGHT BESIDE MY CANOE. If I'd tried, I could have touched them.

 

6. Spring fishing ponies up fat bass. I didn't post any of my ten or so four-pounders, just the five-pound-class-bass:

 

Spring fishing is weird. I wore a puffy jacket yesterday.  Then six hours later…shorts.   In the evening, puffy jacket with shorts.  Haha. 
 

im confused.    our local bass are freaked.  

Those are some studs! I’d think a couple largemouth in one year like that with how far north you are is quite an accomplishment!

 

Rage swimmer is always a good choice, have one tied on pretty much year round.

Maybe worth trying in the future, I’ve always found rattle traps and flukes to be the most effective lures on schooling bass.

Just got back from Michigan.  38 degrees in the morning for a 70mph, 20 mile run across the lake.  Hard to tell the difference between sunburn and windburn but we caught the snot out of them.??

Spring doesn’t mean much to bass as it runs 20 March to 21 June covering the most of the spawn cycle and early summer transition where I fish. Pre Spawn is usually sometime between. Early January to early March or the very beginning of the Spring calendar.

Fishing  is usually good during the Spring Calendar period except this year will the high volume of rain and run off. Some of the higher elevation lakes in California are just now ice free, very late seasonal year in 2023.

Tom

what is this spring you talk about........in Florida we have summer and mild summer.....LOL.....

Spring fishing, to me, is over once the spawn hits. Post spawn is summer fishing. I am currently in a late spawn to post spawn pattern. 

 

I love spring fishing - nothing is better.

Where I live spring fishing is............over.

I really committed myself to winter and very early spring this year and I caught a lot of giant fish including my 9.1 lb personal best largemouth and a slew of 8 lb class fish.  I'm a believer in fishing in Coldwater and I cannot wait for the summer to be over lol.

 

I'm having fun catching lots of post-spawn fish though.  Nothing wrong with that!

 

The numbers definitely get better as the water gets warmer but their bellies get skinnier.

@ol'crickety Sweet looking bass for Maine. I love spring fishing because it's prespawn smallie bite on Lake Erie. 

14 minutes ago, Dwight Hottle said:

Sweet looking bass for Maine.

 

Thanks, Dwight, and I know that they don't compare to fish that feed year-round. I recently read that a Florida bass in perfect conditions can reach SEVEN POUNDS in two years. A seven-pounder in Maine would have age spots, hearing aids, and a walker.