Man there are some bummer threads out there, yeah I'm talking to you @AlabamaSpothunter with the impalement thread..I can't stop thinking about it...but going to try to keep this purely fishing and blood free. I am trying to get better at figuring out what, where and how when I get to the lake. I have 2 fairly small community lakes and you would think it wouldn't be that difficult to figure out where they are and what they prefer but still have so much to learn. Right now were are in pre-spawn and spawn conditions, lakes have warmed up to around 62 degrees.

 

The question for these current conditions what is your favorite lure/bait for covering water and to help figure out what and where they are located on any given day. I had four rods on the deck today, spinnerbait, bladed jig, and 2 different frittside's. The only thing that I had some luck was with the spinnerbait but keep thinking that I need to try something else since I think I should be catching more fish. Lets here some suggestions as to what else you can use that covers water and helps find them.

 

 

White 1/2oz spinnerbait

20 minutes ago, Rockhopper said:

White 1/2oz spinnerbait

Thats what I have been throwing lately just not a lot of takers today, wednesday it was pretty good today not so much. I feel like I should have some additional things that I can continue to cover water at a decent pace, thats why I was asking.

Glidebait

Trolling motor

6 hours ago, bishoptf said:

Man there are some bummer threads out there, yeah I'm talking to you @AlabamaSpothunter with the impalement thread..I can't stop thinking about it...but going to try to keep this purely fishing and blood free. I am trying to get better at figuring out what, where and how when I get to the lake. I have 2 fairly small community lakes and you would think it wouldn't be that difficult to figure out where they are and what they prefer but still have so much to learn. Right now were are in pre-spawn and spawn conditions, lakes have warmed up to around 62 degrees.

 

The question for these current conditions what is your favorite lure/bait for covering water and to help figure out what and where they are located on any given day. I had four rods on the deck today, spinnerbait, bladed jig, and 2 different frittside's. The only thing that I had some luck was with the spinnerbait but keep thinking that I need to try something else since I think I should be catching more fish. Lets here some suggestions as to what else you can use that covers water and helps find them.

 

 

@TnRiver46: "Where was your worm rod?"

 

Maybe you found them in six different spots, but they wanted to eat off the bottom?

I had 62* surface temps last couple days, also.  

Thursday, you had to cast into 2 inches of water, drag out to 6 inches...and wait.  Yesterday, the active bite had moved out to 10-16 FOW - but only on windward side.   

   I don't ever think in terms of search bait.  Just doesn't work for me.  If I commit to a certain search bait or baits, I have immediately limited my chances of finding out what the active fish want to eat that day. 

3/4oz Spinnerbait is my number one search bait. My number one bait period. 
 

I’ll throw it into brush, thick milfoil or hydrilla, or right through lily pads. I use a 3/4oz because it’s a lot easier to keep down towards the bottom where I want it. 

Searching for LMB is probably 90% of what I do when I'm bass fishing 😉😂

 

I search with all the same stuff I usually end up catching with.

 

Jigs, plastics, topwater, spinnerbait, lipless etc.

 

What I'm searching with is usually determined by the depth and type of cover im finding them in on any given day.

I feel like a he question is more like what moving bait do you to fish quickly and cover water because you have no idea what to do. There's a couple baits I like for this: spinnerbait and a lipless. You can control depth through weight and retrieve speed and figure out where the players are. You can keep doing that after some catches, or if you think you have a bead on the players and want to pick it apart, pick a bait that is slower in that same zone. 

14 minutes ago, J Francho said:

I feel like a he question is more like what moving bait do you to fish quickly and cover water because you have no idea what to do. There's a couple baits I like for this: spinnerbait and a lipless. You can control depth through weight and retrieve speed and figure out where the players are. You can keep doing that after some catches, or if you think you have a bead on the players and want to pick it apart, pick a bait that is slower in that same zone. 

 

 

My answer is still the same. Sometimes I'm searching with moving baits and sometimes I'm not. It just depends on the mood of the fish.  🙂

 

If the bass are in the mood for a moving date, I like a lipless crank bit or a swim jig or a spinnerbait or a buzzbait or a fluke or a frog or a swimming, worm etc etc. It just kind of depends on the type of cover they're in and the water clarity and the mood they're in etc etc

 

Sometimes I'm searching next to trees all day with my search baits and that's when I'm searching with the Texas rig LOL. 

 

Point being I search with everything that I'm catching with.

 

I'm not going to search the lily pads with the same bait that I search a ledge with.

 

I'm not going to search a saddle in 14 ft of water with the same bait i'm going to search shade lines with.

 

Just offering a perspective on the matter.

37 minutes ago, J Francho said:

I feel like a he question is more like what moving bait do you to fish quickly and cover water because you have no idea what to do. There's a couple baits I like for this: spinnerbait and a lipless. You can control depth through weight and retrieve speed and figure out where the players are. You can keep doing that after some catches, or if you think you have a bead on the players and want to pick it apart, pick a bait that is slower in that same zone. 

This^^^

 

one if the lakes that I fish at is on 60 acres, maybe some might even say its a pond, lol. Just trying to get better at figuring things out so I can catch more fish. I tried deeper brush piles with cranks and shallow with spinnerbaits but never could really figure things out. Some appear to be starting to spawn at least I have seen a couple on beds which I chose not to target. I know whacky rigs are popular but feel like i have to slow down to fish it.

 

Still have so much to learn about how to figure things out.

Swim jig, spinnerbait, crankbait, lipless crankbait, or topwater.

Depending on the depth, wind, cover, and structure of where I am fishing

30 minutes ago, Pat Brown said:

 

 

My answer is still the same. Sometimes I'm searching with moving baits and sometimes I'm not. It just depends on the mood of the fish.  🙂

 

If the bass are in the mood for a moving date, I like a lipless crank bit or a swim jig or a spinnerbait or a buzzbait or a fluke or a frog or a swimming, worm etc etc. It just kind of depends on the type of cover they're in and the water clarity and the mood they're in etc etc

 

Sometimes I'm searching next to trees all day with my search baits and that's when I'm searching with the Texas rig LOL. 

 

Point being I search with everything that I'm catching with.

 

I'm not going to search the lily pads with the same bait that I search a ledge with.

 

I'm not going to search a saddle in 14 ft of water with the same bait i'm going to search shade lines with.

 

Just offering a perspective on the matter.

Yeah I get and I guess why I still struggle. Lake is pretty clear, 4ft if visibility, no grass per say but in the spring gets algae growing on everything which I think keeps the lake clear. When the water warms up the algae burns away. It does have water willow which is dead right now and lots of brush piles.

 

Couple weeks ago I guess they were staging in the brush piles since i caught a bunch there but not catching any in the deeper brush piles. 

 

You list some other things to try, I need to get better at keep trying other things, fluke, swimbait, buzz bait etc. it was over cast and windy yesterday and maybe a buzz bait would have been something to try.

 

Thanks for the info...

1 hour ago, bishoptf said:

Yeah I get and I guess why I still struggle. Lake is pretty clear, 4ft if visibility, no grass per say but in the spring gets algae growing on everything which I think keeps the lake clear. When the water warms up the algae burns away. It does have water willow which is dead right now and lots of brush piles.

 

Couple weeks ago I guess they were staging in the brush piles since i caught a bunch there but not catching any in the deeper brush piles. 

 

You list some other things to try, I need to get better at keep trying other things, fluke, swimbait, buzz bait etc. it was over cast and windy yesterday and maybe a buzz bait would have been something to try.

 

Thanks for the info...

 

 

For deep brush - try a heavy jig or heavy t rig.  Fish it slow and in the cover very deliberately - if you suspect the cover is where they are - this is deadly and often much more efficient than using a moving bait.  I also really like flipping a heavy t rig next to water willow/pad stems this time of year and picking those areas apart.

 

Fluke + shallow clear water with algae = deadly!

I don't believe that the mood of all fish is the same. That is, unless they are ignoring me and my baits all day. 

13 minutes ago, Pat Brown said:

 

 

For deep brush - try a heavy jig or heavy t rig.  Fish it slow and in the cover very deliberately - if you suspect the cover is where they are - this is deadly and often much more efficient than using a moving bait.  I also really like flipping a heavy t rig next to water willow/pad stems this time of year and picking those areas apart.

 

Fluke + shallow clear water with algae = deadly!

I need to fish a fluke more often but have more questions if you don't mind. First question is do you fish it un-weighted or with a very light weight? What kind of conditions does it seem to be most effective, like yesterday was overcast and gusting to 20 so on the wind blown side it was pretty rough. More that I think about it, I probably should be fishing a fluke much more than I am which is 0 right now.

I like to fish them nose hooked and near the surface, no weights. 

4 minutes ago, bishoptf said:

I need to fish a fluke more often but have more questions if you don't mind. First question is do you fish it un-weighted or with a very light weight? What kind of conditions does it seem to be most effective, like yesterday was overcast and gusting to 20 so on the wind blown side it was pretty rough. More that I think about it, I probably should be fishing a fluke much more than I am which is 0 right now.

 

 

For efficiently searching cover in heavy winds for large bass I like a pegged 3/8 oz or greater and a 3/0 offset worm hook and some kind of appropriately sized worm or beaver or creature bait.  I've had a lot of success with the 10.5" power worm, Missile Baits D Bomb and the Zoom Mag Speed Worm/Craw.

 

7/16 oz is probably my favorite weight in general for deeper brush.

Can't beat airmailing a lipless.

bladed jig and lipless get it done here in Florida. Love a carolina/mojo rig too on those tough days. 

9 minutes ago, Bass Rutten said:

bladed jig and lipless get it here in Florida. Love a carolina/mojo rig too on those tough days. 

Threw a bladed jig mini yesterday along with the spinnerbait and flatside and the spinnerbait was the only one I caught fish on.

I'm going to agree with @thediscochef on a walking bait. I can cast my 13 Fishing Dual Pitch Pencil a long ways. When I'm searching for bass, distance is paramount. Plus, it's so noisy that it draws bass from a distance.

 

My other favorite search bait is an underspin. I like it because it lands more softly than a spinnerbait, which matters in shallow water, and it can be used throughout the water column. It's also nearly weedless and a great trolling bait when I'm paddling from spot to spot.