You know, finding and catching more and more pre-spawn bass really comes down to timing and location. And if you get either one of those wrong, you're going to miss out on some of the best fishing of the year. So let's talk about how we can find and catch more pre-spawn bass, starting with, well, figuring out where to start. This is really the critical component of it, is trying to locate where they are at somewhere during the pre-spawn. What I mean by that is, first of all, let's just take your lake. There's a couple things you need to break this into. First of all is figure out where they're going to be. Where are they going to spawn? Is that, you know, this could be the back of a cove, going to be at a protected bay, big flats, you know, areas that have hard bottom or harder bottom, places that have like reeds, for example, reeds grow on harder bottom, things like that. That's where the bass are going to spawn. So find those first.
Second is find where are the bass going to be during the wintertime. That's going to be relatively deeper water. What I mean by relative is, hey, if you're in a Florida lake and it's only four-foot deep, well, then you're talking four to three-foot deep. Whereas if you're in a western reservoir that's over 100-foot deep, then maybe the bass hang out in that 45 to 55 range during the wintertime. Whatever that may be for your lake, figure that out. Where are they going to be in the wintertime? Where are they going to go for spawn? Now figure out the migration routes. What I mean by migration routes are what are the areas that they're going to use structure-wise as they move from deeper to shallower water? That could be points, could be creek channels, that could be drop-offs, ledges, weed lines, those type of things. What can they use, you know, along the migration paths and also like in those migration areas, where are they going to stop? The little bus stops. It could be a hump, it could be a steep bank that's got a transition from boulders to muddy, you know, muddy bottoms, whatever it may be. Figure out how they're going to get from deep to shallow water. Understand that as you get closer to the spawn, the bass are going to fan out in those shallow areas, in those bays, in those coves and whatnot. So those migration routes are more critical earlier in the spawn as they're moving from deep water to shallow than they are later in the pre-spawn when they're now more scattered and scoping out and finding those areas where they're going to spawn. So that's important to keep in mind. Where are you at? You know, where in that pre-spawn period are you at as far as time of year and where are those bass going to be in relation to that?
A lot of people think that the spawn happens when the water temperature is in the low 60s, 62, 63 degrees. And there's good reason for that. But I'll get to that in a second. I think as the longer I've been fishing, the decades have gone by, it's really more about length of day that determines when the bass spawn en masse. So what I mean by that is as you get closer to spring, the days are getting longer, the temperatures, air temperatures are warming up as a result, and the lake temperatures are warming up. And when you get to that inflection point where the days have reached that length of time when the bass say, okay, it's go time, that happens to be when the water temperature usually is in the low 60s and upper 50s. So a lot of guys think, okay, that's the temperature we're targeting. I've seen bass where they've been up shallow and spawning in mid and even low 50-degree water and I've seen them all up shallow and spawning when it's been in the 70s. Why? Well, because the temperature isn't what drives it. It's the length of day. That's the critical component. We have a hard time as bass anglers judging how long a length of day is. So the best way to do it is what I do is I look at the trees and if you see buds on the trees, you can bet the bass are spawning. Dogwood trees blooming, yeah, the bass are there. They're already spawning. They're done almost. So pay attention to the foliage in the trees and they react to length of day, not temperature. So that's your best litmus test to figure out, okay, where are we in terms of the pre-spawn process? Are we really close to where they're spawning or are we long ways off? Then you look back at those migration routes and those areas that the bass will use, those holding areas that the bass will use along those routes and that's your starting point. Now you can say, okay, we're mid-spawn or whatever it may be. That's your starting point. Cool.
Okay, now that we have that established, what you want to do is make some adjustments based upon the current conditions. I'm talking weather here. Cold fronts during the spring can really mess around with the pre-spawn process of the bass. Earlier in the pre-spawn, the fronts typically are stronger, the water temperature is colder and that tends to reset the bass. They may start their migration process. They may start heading towards the shallows and then a big major front comes through and it shuts them down and they start over again once that passes. Later on in the pre-spawn, as the temperatures warm up, the days get longer, you'll note that the fronts have, they're not as strong and they're typically shorter. Whereas earlier in the pre-spawn, it's like a week long of bad weather, now you get a couple days and it's a weaker front and it doesn't affect the bass as much. One of the big mistakes a lot of guys do is during the spring and pre-spawn period, a front comes through and they think, oh, bass are gone. They're now way deep and they vacated the shallows. Not so true. As you get closer to the spawn, the fish may move out a little bit deeper or they may move into cover. It depends. If you've got a lot of thick cover, places in thick weeds, for example, where they can bury into, or timber, or brush, they may just hunker down into that until the front goes by and conditions improve. Or if you're in an area, you're catching them four to six feet deep and then a front goes by, they may just drift out to 8 to 10 feet deep. That next little drop, it could be only a one-foot contour drop or an outside weed line, just that next deepest area that they just may drift to that. They're not going to go a quarter mile, a half mile away down the lake every time a front comes through. Keep in mind, where are you again in that pre-spawn phase and how strong was that front during that time? That's going to give you an idea of where those fish are going to be during that day based upon their current weather conditions.
Then finally, what you do is you've got to find exactly where they are. If they're on a point, exactly what depth are they on at that point? Are they on an outside or inside weed line? Are they hanging on stumps, or laydowns, or is there scattered boulders? Are they on the windward side or leeward side? Is it the sunny side or shady side of docks? Are they buried in the weeds or are they on the outside edges of weeds? The way to find them is to use search baits. I know a lot of guys, they start bass fishing, they start the day off with slow moving like jigs and Texas rig plastics and they do all right. For me, my style of fishing is I got to figure out what structure and what cover are they using that day and how are they positioned. What's their disposition? Are they aggressively feeding? Are they in a neutral feeding mode, or you know, got lockjaw and the bite is tough? To do that, I use fast-moving baits. I call them search baits. These are horizontal presentations, spinnerbaits, crankbaits, square bells, lipless crankbaits, chatterbaits, those type of things. You can use that. The cool thing about a lot of those baits is you can vary the speed of retrieve. Don't think necessarily fast, but try different speeds of retrieves and different types of retrieves. Look in my videos. I go into deep depth on how to use each of these baits. You can determine where the bass are situated and what the bite is. A lot of times what I do is I go down a bank, not get a whole lot of bites, then I start picking up bites, figuring out what that presentation they want. Then I get down that bank and I stop, turn around, I go back down that bank with a slower presentation and I pick up even more bass. You got to use these type of search baits to figure out exactly what they're doing. Using the seasonal approach, then adjusting based upon current conditions and then using the right baits to find the bass, you're going to find and catch more pre-spawn bass this spring. Hope that helps. For more tips and tricks like this, visit BassResource.com.
