Last year I had this question - https://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-forums/topic/264975-early-prespawn-and-prespawn-favorite-lures-for-pb-size-fish/ and really probably wasn't the best question to ask. Everyone thinks pre-spawn and thinks shallow and I guess for the most part at some point that is true but we have had some crazy weather last few weeks. Very warm days and nights and it has warmed the waters up pretty quickly. I have been out a couple of times and focused on shallow and they just haven't moved up for the most part so I am trying to figure out where to look in regards to staging areas.

I have read that lmb will move up in stages to points, secondary points etc. when the water starts warming up. Most articles refer to highland reservoirs and talk about creek channels etc. The lakes I fish are small shallow lakes more like lowland reservoirs. They are man made and pretty shallow for the most part and brush piles are the main under water feature, not a lot of rock except close to the bank. I am just trying to learn under these type of lakes where are the lmb most like to be staging. Where should I start first and with what lures. I assume they must be relating to some brush piles in deeper water but I know last couple of times, moving baits in shallow were not producing and I should have tried other areas deeper but just not sure I understand where they are likely to be staging.

Thanks in advance....:)

You got it.

Points - secondary points - ledges - depth changes - brush - rock - vegetation. A lot of times they spawn where they stage - it’s just early spawning areas.

32 minutes ago, Pat Brown said:

You got it.

Points - secondary points - ledges - depth changes - brush - rock - vegetation. A lot of times they spawn where they stage - it’s just early spawning areas.

Yeah just these lakes really do not have points, they have something but they are not pronounced...ugh I don't think im ever going to figure out offshore stuff, lol ..just need to keep looking and trying stuff.

Think subtle.

Just one spot where the bank juts out a little bit.

Also think about the ditches leading into the lake.

Each side of the ditch has a depth change and a point and usually hard bottom.

When there isn’t much obvious stuff to work with - just think smaller and less obvious versions of the stuff that they want.

You said rock near the bank?

I’d focus on those places for sure - target the bank - the drop and the places rock transitions to other stuff on the bottom and fish any brush or good grass along that edge/ on the bank/ on those drops.

You’d be surprised how many bass will group up on those little hot spots!

Be open to sun and shade/steeper and flatter/cleaner and dirtier/colder and warmer water - you won’t know where they want to be til you find them so junk fishing isn’t a bad move and that’s the other thing - move a lot til you start getting hit - this time of year if you’re around them - they let you know fast!

I'm not convinced any LMB in my lake really 'stage' anywhere. Most are still just following bait (low to mid 50s surface temp here). Ten days ago it seemed that every feeding bass in the lake was in the very backs of the creeks. Had to go back until trolling motor hit bottom and then hope to be able to cast to the entire back. Last two days, they are back out in channels. On Saturday, probably 2/3 of the bass fishermen were in the middle of the creeks and main lake with spinning rods looking like they were all having seizures.

If you're using a fish finder to gauge the temp, remember that you're just reading the surface temp. It is easy to raise the surface water temp by 5 degrees in just a couple hours and you think you've hit paydirt. But if you just stick your hand a little lower or catch a fish out of more than 3' of water you see that only the surface has warmed. Keep that in mind when you're trying to decide where they might be.

if you know where they are going to bed and they aren't there, start working backwards to the next deeper water until you find some structure or cover that is going to hold them. They are working their way from their winter depths up to spawning depths. If you were able to catch them or find them in the winter then all the better. Draw a straight lin from winter hole to spawning grounds and fish along the line.

The key word in your question is lowland. I don't think we spend enough time discussing the differences between the different types of fisheries. We just offer up the lessons we've learned from our favorite fishery without stopping to think that a canyon reservoir is a very different habitat than a swamp.

It's an interesting question. Do you focus on what subtle structure is present or do you focus more on cover? Buck Perry talked about structure situations where what might be called cover functions as structure. I have very little experience fishing a true lowland reservoir so I don't have much to offer but it's a very interesting topic and I'll be following the discussion.

I'm sure I will get some negative comments about this advice, but I'm willing to take the heat. Are there many other bass anglers fishing the lake. If there are ,watch where they are fishing. I'm not saying steal their spots, but you can determine what kind of structure others are fishing. A pair of binoculars has saved my day before, and I'm not ashamed to admit it. Every tool in the box can be used ethically, if you are a considerate angler.

If there are not many other bass anglers, or the ones there seem to struggle, observing others may not tell you where the fish are, but it sure can tell you where they are not.

If there are no other anglers, fish any structure change near wind protected shallow water flats, or other possible spawning habitat. If no success, there may be a reason there are no other anglers.

@king fisher - you know, I used to worry about other anglers. "They are fishing my best spot". And sure, angling pressure has an effect on fish. But not seeing other anglers catching fish in a spot doesn't tell me anything other than 'that guy isn't catching fish there right now'. Doesn't mean the fish aren't there though, or that he doesn't know how to catch fish. Or that he does. Do you know how bad the average angler is? Now consider that half of the anglers are worse than that. And a lot aren't much better. That kinda puts things in perspective for me. Of course the corolary is true though- if you seeing someone catching fish then they are clearly doing something right.

6 hours ago, Choporoz said:

I'm not convinced any LMB in my lake really 'stage' anywhere. Most are still just following bait (low to mid 50s surface temp here). Ten days ago it seemed that every feeding bass in the lake was in the very backs of the creeks. Had to go back until trolling motor hit bottom and then hope to be able to cast to the entire back. Last two days, they are back out in channels. On Saturday, probably 2/3 of the bass fishermen were in the middle of the creeks and main lake with spinning rods looking like they were all having seizures.

Yeah thats my problem, i can't seem to find them...I caught 2 dibks on a jerkbait and fish anlot of places with a lot of stuff and thats all I can muster. There was a pretty good breeze, tried chatterbaits, spinnerbaits, couple of different crankbaits. Not sure what I need to learn to look for, I saw lots of bait but couldn't find any pattern. These are small lakes, the one today is only 60 acres, water temp at the dam end was 54 and at the other end was 56. I probably should have tried a bottom bait but the lake has all this slime algae growing everywhere and bottom lures get coated. I would think the bass would be feeding more with warmer temps but man I seem to struggle...I still have so much to learn, lol.

4 hours ago, Tennessee Boy said:

The key word in your question is lowland. I don't think we spend enough time discussing the differences between the different types of fisheries. We just offer up the lessons we've learned from our favorite fishery without stopping to think that a canyon reservoir is a very different habitat than a swamp.

It's an interesting question. Do you focus on what subtle structure is present or do you focus more on cover? Buck Perry talked about structure situations where what might be called cover functions as structure. I have very little experience fishing a true lowland reservoir so I don't have much to offer but it's a very interesting topic and I'll be following the discussion.

Yeah when I say lowland thats probably the closest thing to what these are. They are small man made lakes with mud bottoms and not very deep. The smaller lake I was fishing is around 60 acres and while it has some depper sections towards the dam (deeper spots are 25-30ft) the majority of the lake is pretty shallow. I fished mid lake to the upper ends where its pretty shallow and I guess I should have stayed near deeper water. Only rock is along the banks for erosion, most houses have sea walls and docks. No real rock offshore, just lots of Christmas tree brush piles. My guess they are chasing the shad but I don't have FFS to really see whats going on. I just need to figure out additional strategies that can help me find the fish and then figure out what to throw....

On 3/24/2026 at 3:33 PM, bishoptf said:

Yeah when I say lowland thats probably the closest thing to what these are. They are small man made lakes with mud bottoms and not very deep. The smaller lake I was fishing is around 60 acres and while it has some depper sections towards the dam (deeper spots are 25-30ft) the majority of the lake is pretty shallow. I fished mid lake to the upper ends where its pretty shallow and I guess I should have stayed near deeper water. Only rock is along the banks for erosion, most houses have sea walls and docks. No real rock offshore, just lots of Christmas tree brush piles. My guess they are chasing the shad but I don't have FFS to really see whats going on. I just need to figure out additional strategies that can help me find the fish and then figure out what to throw....

This is all really good info, and sounds a lot like the many dinky ponds/small lakes I fish when I don't want to go on big water. I actually hear a lot of juicy stuff when you're describing this, and my advice honestly would be don't overthink it and go back to the basics. Use your favorite confidence search baits whether its a spinnerbait, bladed jig, crankbait, glide bait, evening wake bait, whatever, and move around. Chuck and wind, start at the shallow end and work your way down to the deeper sections, try to hit the top and middle of the water column as you go by speeding or slowing your retrieve. At the right time that rock on the bank might become a pin point, if youre on the bank cast right up against it, if you're in a boat scoot right in and try to pull that bait like its escaping into the rocks.

If you're really not buying a bite banging around shallow, then its time to grab that jig, drop-shot, or t-rig and start poking around off the bank. All it takes is finding that Christmas tree brushpile that happens to sit 1ft deeper or shallower than the others for the fish to use it as a waypoint/feeding zone, etc. If you see the slightest divet or protrusion on the bank cast and follow that "structure" out to see if theres anything to bump into.

Theres been times I'm fishing a mud pit lake that gets overrun with weeds in the Summer, I'll go out into like 15-20ft of water no electronics and just drag a dropshot and get bit, To me it's no man's land but more than likely theres a bottom composition change or depth change I just can't see.

Most lakes also have some sort of water supply natural or manmade. Identify the tiniest creeks running into the lake and start there where they pour into the lake. That's what I do half the time since I don't have electronics, but creeks bring nutrients, change bottom compositions, and create depth changes, they are fish magnets.

Any grass in the lake?

55 minutes ago, RenzokukenFisher said:

This is all really good info, and sounds a lot like the many dinky ponds/small lakes I fish when I don't want to go on big water. I actually hear a lot of juicy stuff when you're describing this, and my advice honestly would be don't overthink it and go back to the basics. Use your favorite confidence search baits whether its a spinnerbait, bladed jig, crankbait, glide bait, evening wake bait, whatever, and move around. Chuck and wind, start at the shallow end and work your way down to the deeper sections, try to hit the top and middle of the water column as you go by speeding or slowing your retrieve. At the right time that rock on the bank might become a pin point, if youre on the bank cast right up against it, if you're in a boat scoot right in and try to pull that bait like its escaping into the rocks.

If you're really not buying a bite banging around shallow, then its time to grab that jig, drop-shot, or t-rig and start poking around off the bank. All it takes is finding that Christmas tree brushpile that happens to sit 1ft deeper or shallower than the others for the fish to use it as a waypoint/feeding zone, etc. If you see the slightest divet or protrusion on the bank cast and follow that "structure" out to see if theres anything to bump into.

Theres been times I'm fishing a mud pit lake that gets overrun with weeds in the Summer, I'll go out into like 15-20ft of water no electronics and just drag a dropshot and get bit, To me it's no man's land but more than likely theres a bottom composition change or depth change I just can't see.

Most lakes also have some sort of water supply natural or manmade. Identify the tiniest creeks running into the lake and start there where they pour into the lake. That's what I do half the time since I don't have electronics, but creeks bring nutrients, change bottom compositions, and create depth changes, they are fish magnets.

Any grass in the lake?

No grass to speak of since its a big water sport lake sking, tubes etc so any weeds get killed pretty fast. There are some shore lines that have water willow which can be a bear to fish around since if you get snagged its goodbye to whatever your using...i need to get better at trying all of the water column. The other day I couldn't get a bite on moving baits and I should have tried a bottom bait, just harder to cover water with a bottom contact bait at least for me.

If you’ve got water willow in a lake that doesn’t have grass otherwise, I know where I’d be fishing. Water willow will pull bass even in lakes with other grasses. When it’s the only thing going? Game on. Depending how thick it is where you’re fishing, you can run a spinner bait or swim jig through it pretty decently most of the time. Thicker than that and a Texas rig or pitching jig will get in and out of it and a frog over the top if they are looking up.

@bishoptf, I lived just above the bootheel area of Missouri up until my mid-twenties. That area is full of the type of lakes you describe. In the far south of the state these are flat, muddy-bottomed lakes with a maximum depth of 7 to 8 feet and very little to speak of in the way of humps, ridges, ditches, etc. I would catch bass on them if I was there at the right time in spring, but finding the bass at other times was tough unless they had some vegetation.

I didn't know then what I know now about bass fishing but those lakes are still tough. However, it is like any other lake in one respect. You have to fish it often and learn what little it does have on bottom and what the bass are feeding on. They just take longer to learn. Hopefully, you have electronics so that you can find slight structure, underwater cover, and fish. Additionally, with the lakes being so shallow, you are probably going to spook a lot of fish with your electronics, trolling motor, and boat when you are learning the lake. That means you may not be catching many fish while you are mapping out the lake. Once you know what is there being extremely stealthy and using long casts is key to catching fish. One thing you have going for you is most of these lakes are less than 100 acres.

Have you tried dragging a Carolina rig with a trick worm on a 3 ft leader around that brush and on flats and harder areas?

Here in central NC - very much lowland environments - that technique catches fish. Deadsticking it and slowly dragging it you can really milk a good spot and catch some big ones. It’s slow fishing but when you find em it can get busy.

1 hour ago, Pat Brown said:

Have you tried dragging a Carolina rig with a trick worm on a 3 ft leader around that brush and on flats and harder areas?

Here in central NC - very much lowland environments - that technique catches fish. Deadsticking it and slowly dragging it you can really milk a good spot and catch some big ones. It’s slow fishing but when you find em it can get busy.

Yeah thats one of my problems I need to get better at figuring out which brush piles are the ones to fish, the one thing the lake has is lots of docks and lots of brush piles. I just need to figure out how to be more efficient figuring out what and where. I have electronics but there are so many trash fish that I'm not good enough to know what I am looking at etc....I should be a lot better at this given my age but I'm not, lol..watch and read a lot of stuff and I can do just about all the techniques its just figuring out the where and what at this point again I just need to figure out how to be more efficient with trying a higher water column, middle water column and bottom column bait and then where. I have tended to do more moving baits so I can cover water and need to find a bottom bait that I can still use quicker to cover water. The other day I thought I would try the upper end that was more muddy, water temps are cooler, upper 50's just to see if anything was going on up there and spent a good amount of time trying things but nothing. Talked to a guy that had fished the lower end, still stained but better and had been catching fish, not a great number but still better than what I was doing. Again I just need to move on from something quicker if not working and have several baits that I cycle through. Any suggestions for a bottom bait that can be fished quicker than normal I am all ears.

Good thing I like just being on the water on the boat, maybe one of these days things will click, lol...;)

The c rig is very fast and very slow - it’s a 1 oz weight generally so you can just reel it in ticking rocks like a crankbait or you can slow it down or stop it. The football jig and wobble head are similar as is the shaky head. All work very well around here.

A wobble head if you have rocks like Pat said. I carry them up to 3/4 oz and that weight with a rage bug will sort you out down to almost 20' at a decent speed (deeper than you normally would be throwing one to cover water). Fish them like a crankbait.

A texas rigged rage bug will cover water. Vary the weight for depth but a 3/8 oz is good for 10' fished modestly fast. Bump to a half if you need to get down to 15'. Cast it out, let it hit bottom with a couple second pause (fish will follow it down a lot to inspect it), give it a short hop of a couple inches, give it a pause, and then work it back with the "hop, hop, stop" where each hop is a foot or so and the stop is a half second pause. A cast can take 30s to a minute. You don't have to cast every 4' down the bank when you're trying to cover water- just hit the most likely looking spots until you find a few fish and figure out what they are doing. Then when you realize the fish are tight to cover or in a particular depth range you can target that more thoroughly.

On 3/24/2026 at 9:54 AM, bishoptf said:

The lakes I fish are small shallow lakes more like lowland reservoirs.

This is 95% of what I fish here. I'll assume because you mentioned "lakes" you're bopping around to different spots. If that's in fact the case, may I suggest that you concentrate on one body of water for a season and try to decode it. This is what I finally needed to do when I moved from my childhood home of deep glacial lakes to where I live now with these shallow millponds and reservoirs. It was different world and I suffered for months. Mojo was gone. But I put in the work, absorbed what was happening when it happened, then everything clicked.

While it's true that what you learn in that one spot if you do happen to crack the code might not quickly translate to success elsewhere, but the bigger thing that'll happen is that you'll get dialed in. It a headspace thing. When you're finally focused, you'll see things faster in different places, and your newly developed instinct will simply operate and put you where you need to be. Just like achieving balance, it's something you need to feel for yourself. Words on a page won't teach it. You need to be mission driven, and focusing on one spot will allow you to process information, success and failure, more efficiently.

So far, you've gotten nothing but good advice regarding tactics and strategy, and they matter for sure, but that's only a small part of the equation, IMO.

In my neighborhood I fish a small 28 acre lake that is the bottom of three ponds and a creek runs out of it. It is kind of similar to what you describe, really not much structure other than some shallow docks, shallow rocks in limited spots, and overhanging brush and bushes and trees. I have had a lot of success skipping under the trees and the small docks(they are not big just little wood docks) in the warmer months. In the cold months I have struggled to catch fish there just because there isn’t any deep structure I’m aware of and the deepest part is probably 15 feet. In late fall and prespawn I have had some success just winding a bladed jig until I find fish. I caught a 4, and a 3 pounder last prespawn doing that. In the later fall I have caught fish on a 1/4 finesse jig on what look like the steepest banks. My most productive spot on the lake is the beaver dam, probably have caught 50 bass there in the year and a half that I have fished this lake. The water clarity is stained 2 feet visibility.

8 hours ago, casts_by_fly said:

A wobble head if you have rocks like Pat said. I carry them up to 3/4 oz and that weight with a rage bug will sort you out down to almost 20' at a decent speed (deeper than you normally would be throwing one to cover water). Fish them like a crankbait.

A texas rigged rage bug will cover water. Vary the weight for depth but a 3/8 oz is good for 10' fished modestly fast. Bump to a half if you need to get down to 15'. Cast it out, let it hit bottom with a couple second pause (fish will follow it down a lot to inspect it), give it a short hop of a couple inches, give it a pause, and then work it back with the "hop, hop, stop" where each hop is a foot or so and the stop is a half second pause. A cast can take 30s to a minute. You don't have to cast every 4' down the bank when you're trying to cover water- just hit the most likely looking spots until you find a few fish and figure out what they are doing. Then when you realize the fish are tight to cover or in a particular depth range you can target that more thoroughly.

I have a 3/8 football wobble head tied on right now with a meance grub. I didnt fish it today but did on monday, more like slow rolling along the bottom. I have some 1/2oz also, just no takers on monday.

Today caugh one keeper 2lb and a bunch of dinks probably over 10. Really windy today and caught most on rocco and a flat side strike king 1.5, caught another on a jerkbait but they were all small, really small. Not aure where the bigger fish are staging or where to start or what. All of the small ones and the one keeper were shallow. I should also say I threw multiple different chatterbaits, couple different swimjigs and a spinnerbait. Was catching some fish on the cranks so I fished them the most.

What frustrates me is there was a tournament couple sundays ago and top 2 weights were 19 and 20lbs but the water has cooled and we got a good bit of rain but the lake can fish good if you can figure something out. One more thing this is the bigger of the 2 lakes, 600 acres.

From my experience a lot depends on water clarity. Bass stay deeper in shallow lakes with cold clear water. If it is man made there could be stumps in deeper water. Boulders, weed edges, transition areas, subtle depth changes are additional places to look in deep, clear water. I find bass will spawn earlier than what the experts say.

If the water is more stained i find them shallower more often this time of year.

Depends on where you are on the lake, upper end is chocolate milk from the rain, lower end of the lake has about 2ft of visibility.

Heard from a guy that fished finnese jigs yesterday and caught plenty so I guess like I have said I need to cover all the water column and start throwing more jigs and plastics....

A lot of the places I fish are small ponds or like you said, shallow lakes. Many of them do have points and typical drop offs you might expect them to hang near before jumping up on the spawning flats but it can be subtle. One place I love to fish in the spring has these huge expansive flats in 2-3ft of water. In the summer they're choked with lilypads but in the spring they'll spawn in these areas. Now the hard part is the "channel" that leads from the main lake to these flats is only like 3.5-4ft deep. So unless you already know where those weedlines set up in the summer it's hard to find that channel, but that's typically where they are moving through. And fishing the edge of the flats is usually pretty good.

Every pond has some sort of inflow or old channel somewhere you just have to find it. Think ahead to the summer, where are those weedlines setting up? Even if they aren't there yet the subtle changes that allow the weeds to grow or not grow are significant enough for the bass to set up on, even if that ends up just being a "color line".

It can definitely be a struggle. Like you said the typical explanation for the spawning transition is a diagram of a large creek arm coming off a reservoir where you have obvious main lake and secondary points to slowly work our way up until you find fish but there are zero of those kind of lakes around me.