I know it may be a little early for this, but where I live the lakes have about a foot of ice on them so I gots to start preparing myself, taking a few notes, and come up with a game plan for next year. I was curiuos to know what lures, retrieves, water temps, depths and area of the lake(back bays, emergent weeds,etc.etc) you fellas use to catch bass during the pre-spawn.   Any tips or helpful hints would be awsome. Thanks a ton.

Must be nice fishing open water year round. Lucky Buggers.

Flukes, sluggos, senkos. If we are talking 60+ degree water, that's it. From late winter to then I throw a pointer, staysee, and jig.

What part of the prespawn Boondocks. The 48-58 degree range ( early ) or the 58-65 range? If you are talking early for largemouth fish the main lake points and drop offs with a jig, 4" ringworm or a Zoom trickworm in between 10 and 30 feet of water. Sharp drops work best. Don't be in a hurry, fish slow. If you are talking later on in the later temps I gave, fish mid to upper lake in the creek channels and their drop offs and at the mouth of the coves and anywhere you see a gravel or sandy flat with emergent grass or grass patches. with deep water beside it. Fish in 2'-15' of water. Senkos,jigs, Zoom Trick Worms, Zoom Centipedes, Sweet Beavers,Super Flukes are a good start. I start speeding things up during this time and tend to start using a search bait as well like a spinnerbait or Husky Jerk or maybe a Roque. Goodness knows this is not gospel, just a reference point.

Wacky rigging a Trick or finesse worm anytime the water is not hard. I've caught around 3 dozen bass total for two trips this week in 45-48 degree water with that technique.

Here in my neck of the woods. If that water temp. gets any where near 40 degrees the cray fish start to move ,and therfore so do the bass. Jig and pig, plastic craws work well, but a deepdiving crankbait is simply deadly. Crank it down and let it dig in the bottom and hang on, I've Caught most of my bigger  bass in Feb. march. This past feb. caught a 5.5lber on a deep diver,water temp. 39 degrees.

up here it is a jig for me

I don't like fishing plastics till I've tried the hardbaits first.  I find that prespawners in my florida home lake respond really well to jerkbaits, like rogues and suspending jerk baits like pointers.

First choice would be Sunami's wacky rigged(not senkos) Second would be smithwick rougues, I start as soon as the ice is off the water. 40 degrees usually starts thegood bite.

Rob

I've had luck fishin a texas rigged tube with the sinker pegged ! Also a jig n pig works well for me both fished S L O W . Try a buzzbait i've heard of people throwing a buzzbait ( actually i think there is an article in the latest BASSMASTER about it !!  

Excellent advice. Once again thanks alot fellas.  So when do topwaters come into play in the spring. I understand that nothing is written in stone when it comes to fishing. Just looking for maybe a water temp when they start producing a little better. 8-)

Excellent advice. Once again thanks alot fellas. So when do topwaters come into play in the spring. I understand that nothing is written in stone when it comes to fishing. Just looking for maybe a water temp when they start producing a little better. 8-)

Once the water hits 50, it's time to consider some topwater.

Hard jerkbaits and finesse jigs worked for me this year in March.

Allen

Jig

Jerkbait

Suspending crankbait

As suggested above. Slooowwww jig in deeper water at the dropoffs. That's the ticket.

Ronnie

I'll start early pre-spawn in a couple of weeks and the #1 pattern will be main lake point with Spinner Bait, Rat-L-Traps, or Carolina Rigs. By mid January I'll move onto secondary points and mouths of feeder creeks with the same lures and adding Texas Rigged lizards.    

On my lake from ice out till water gets to be in the low-mid 50's I like huskey jerks and jigs..........fish them on deep weed edges next to/near spawning flats. After the fish start to move up it's a real game......some days they want jigs...other days senkos.....trickworms.........flukes and so on. Once they begin to lock onto beds and get in the spawning mode, it gets a little easier, jigs,senkos,fluke all do the trick with seemingly no difference in results.

i also will c-rig a 3x lizard in the prespawn.