I have only caught a few of these, and I'm wondering what are some favorite baits and techniques for these fish. They seem to bite better during this time of year.

Randy

I fish the Tennessee river chain and Table Rock a little.The number one lure and presentation I use is a finesse worm on a dropshot.This works good when they are suspended around structure.Gitzits original 3 3/4 in. tube rigged with a slide in jighead,works good on the bottom.A shakey worm rigged on the shakey worm jighead is a good one too.

If your fishing them in rivers and creeks I catch a lot of them on a crankbait, small jigs, and small 1/4 oz spinnerbait. In deep lakes I catch them on a verity of stuff from a dropshot cuttail, tube, jigging spoon, 4" lizards, noodling a worm, wacky rig senko, and a 5" paddletail worm.

I love to fish deep diving crank baits in slack waters just off the main current. I look loooking for eddies and so on. Current is the biggest factor in my spot fishing. Craw fish patterrns in the spring, bream in the summer, and shad patterns in the fall. Spots are the easiest to catch in the early sprinf like you said. That's just my opinion though.

Peter

We catch a bunch in the rivers around here on small H & H spinnerbaits in white or chartreuse.A really small river I fish on(so small it's called a creek) the # 1 bait is a 4" finese worm in white.

Triton_Mike guides for spots, ReelMech hunts for the Kansas State Record. I'm sure they will have some very good advice when they SPOT this post.

I rarely target Kentucky bass, but I catch a lot of them on standard bass lures. Smallmouth, largemouth and spots are all attracted to soft plastics, jerkbaits, crankbaits and blades. I don't recall catching them on topwater except when the are up chasing shad and then I think they would hit anything. Often you will find them schooled in deep water and vertical spooning, Silver Buddy, Little George and white jigs are very effective.

Oh! Did I mention shiners? Spotted bass like them a lot, too.

As someone who has never fished for or even seen a spotted bass, from reading the posts it sounds like they are pretty much like a largemouth when it comes to successful techniques.

Basically yes, with a couple of significant differences: 1. Spots are almost always in schools, catch one and there are many more in the same area; 2. They are often found in open water, unlike their lazy largemouth cousins, they will follow schools of shad all over the lake; 3. Schools of Kentucky sometimes stage in very deep water, 50-65' is not uncommon during certain times of the year. A recent report I read from Bull Shoals said Kentucky bass were being caught vertically jigging spoons off primary points at 65'; 4. When schools come up chasing shad they will sometimes mix with white bass, move back down deep, then resurface for hours, sometimes all day. If you are ever lucky enough to be there at the right time, man it is a feeding frenzy!

I don't know how spotted bass stack up around the rest of the country, but I think they are the predominate bass in terms of numbers in the Tennessee River system and the White River system. In the early 60's, when Table Rock was brand new and purple worms were today's Senko, my brother, my dad and I caught what we thought were largemouth drifting worms with the wind on a split shot rig. It was the first "Greatest Day Fishing" of my life.

AHbasser,  Pointer 128's, Pointer 100's, 3/4 oz spinnerbaits,  Sammy 128's, Sammy 100's and Senkos.  Sounds like who's who of Largemouth baits.  All of those baits are PRIME TIME Spotted bass baits.  The ONLY thing you should change when targeting spots vs largemouth is the location where you are fishing.  Spots PREFER rocks and current if you have it.  Not to say you won't catch them off wood because you will but Spots like rocks like Largemouth like wood.  Don't think for a second that you need to downsize your bait for spots.  A 3lb spot will kill a Real California swimbait

T Mike

I catch loads of 'em in the Pamunky River on LC Pointer 78's, Slender Pointer 95's, and Norman Little N crankbaits. For the river I only use Table rock shad, Mat Pumpkin, and Peacock for the LC baits. For the Norman Little N I only use Chart./white. And I fish both of the LC baits on Light casting rigs with 10lb. fluorocarbon and I use a Medium Spinning rig with 8lb. fluorocarbon with the Norman.

Amen on the rocks.