Hey, BassResource. John Crews here, and April is one of my absolute favorite months to catch bass out there on any lake, stream, pond, reservoir, wherever you're fishing. And it is because the bass are coming up, they're either spawning, getting ready to spawn, or they've just finished spawning. So, those fish are gonna be shallow, for the most part.
So, I'm gonna give you my five best baits for the month of April. And I'll just have to say, we'll start with the spinning rods, and then we'll go to more of the heavy-duty stuff. But there's two spinning rods, and they really complement each other. They're kind of similar rigs, but they're different. Now one is a wacky worm and the other is a Neko worm. And I'm gonna use the same worm a lot of times in this month. And really they complement each other.
I'm gonna start with the wacky worm, and this rig, and the setup, and when I'm gonna be using it. The wacky worm, I'm gonna use the Missile Baits Magic Worm. I'm just gonna take a Gamakatsu octopus hook. That's a number one or one aught, either one. And I'm gonna just hook it right in the middle of the worm. That's all you've gotta do. I'm gonna have the straight braid. I'm gonna use the 16-pound Sunline Overwatch. This is for when the bass are higher in the water column.
Maybe your lake is slowly rising, water temperatures are going up. This is not for when your water temperatures are going down, not for when it's cold, not for when it's real cloudy. Not for when things are kind of "Going the wrong direction." This is for when fish are starting to rise, more of that after they spawn, during the spawn, not as much on the pre-spawn.
And then I'm just gonna have it on a regular 7'3" medium action, medium fast action, Cashion ICON rod. But something I can make a long-distance cast. And I really like the straight braid. It helps keep that bait up in the water column. So, I'm gonna be throwing this out there, and when I fish it, I'm gonna throw it, give it a few seconds to settle, and then I'm just gonna make real light twitches with the rod.
Keeping that bait within, probably about 3 feet of the surface, for the most part, the fish are gonna be coming up. They're looking up, sitting up, and they're gonna be coming up to eat that bait. So, that's really the number one first way to start it. Like I said, amazing in ponds, really good in lakes, and can work around those spawning areas on rivers as well.
So, the good compliment to that is the Neko rig in April. So, the Neko rig is just a Missile Baits Magic Worm, 6-inch Magic Worm. And I've got a one 30-second ounce weight, a little nail weight right in the one end of it. So, you're gonna rig it. You can rig it with the same hook if you want, any kind of a short, little octopus style. This is the TGW octopus, the Tournament Grade Wire octopus hooked in the middle. And so this is gonna go out and sink a little bit faster. Even with this one 20-second ounce, I can fish this all the way down to 20 and 25 feet, if I wanted to.
But when I go to the Neko rig, I have had just a better experience putting a fluorocarbon leader on there. If I'm throwing a round cover shallower, I'm gonna probably have an 8-pound Sunline Sniper as my leader. And if I'm gonna be fishing more, like on points in places like that, I'm gonna probably drop down to 7, 7-pound on that leader, 12-pound the AMZ Sunline braid, and then just a regular Daiwa high-speed reel. I got that on a Cashion, 7'4" drop shot rod. It's counterbalanced. It's really good for the Neko rig because you're gonna throw it out there. The Neko rig falls down.
So, when the fish are not wanting to come up in the water column to get that wacky worm, you can throw that Neko rig and it'll go down to them slowly. But yet, you can still have that little twitch, that little slow twitch so you can get that wacky rig style action when you're throwing, you know, around areas where you think fish may be spawning, when you think fish may be getting ready to spawn.
So, if you're throwing at fish on beds and you want something to get down to them, this little combo can be phenomenal. If you're fishing areas near spawning, they can be great. Post spawn, when the fish are guarding fry, that Neko rig is really, really good. You can throw it out there, let's say around a dock pole or, you know, just an isolated piece of stump, or something like that. You throw it out near there, just kind of shake it a little bit, shake it a little bit to get that worm to quiver like that. And it's lights out.
Again, one of my favorite ones. If you're fishing in those spawning areas, so you get a little front come through or you get something to where, like, the temperature drops overnight a little bit, maybe they're not coming up to eat that wacky worm. That's when I'm going to the Neko rig. So, that's why those two complement each other.
But we're not done. It's still April, there's still plenty of other ways to catch fish. I will say that in April, a lot of times a ChatterBait can be really, really good, especially once you start to see brim swimming around the bank. When you get those brims swimming around the bank and you're looking up, maybe you're looking for fish on beds, maybe you're just looking to see what's going on in the bank and you see those brims swimming around the bank, that's when you pick up a green-pumpkin colored ChatterBait, depending on your depth.
Probably a half-ounce is what I fish more often. I'm gonna have a 4.5-inch green pumpkin Missile Baits Spunk Shad on the back. And I'm gonna throw that, typically on a Daiwa Zillion SV TW 7.1:1. Eighteen-pound Sunline Shooter, that's kind of the line that I've really, you know, fished the most. And then a Cashion, it's called a Chattergrass rod, really good for ChatterBaits.
But this is what I'm gonna be fishing when I'm... Maybe you have conditions where you see those brim, you've got some wind or you've got some grass edges that you're trying to cover water on, and you're not really picking it apart. You're trying to find those areas where you might get a bite or two, that ChatterBait can be really good.
It's just one of those... Starting in about April, that's when I'm gonna go over to those brim colors or a green-pumpkin color ChatterBait, and have that in my hand for probably the next month or so. But let's say we wanna catch some big fish, right? We all wanna catch big fish. Well, you need to throw big baits for big fish. So, my next April bait is definitely gonna be the Megalojohn from SPRO. This is a, it's a harness style, 6-inch fat, hard thumping bait, and it is really good.
Once those shads start spawning in April, you see shad, herring, those types of fish, once they start spawning up around the banks at night and early in the mornings, you're gonna be able to have bass focused in on looking for bigger baits like this. This is really, really good around shallow points, around any kind of laydowns that you see along the bank. Boat docks, really, really, really good. Little indentations like little cut banks, zip that along, throw that along the edge of that cut bank.
Hold on. That's all I'm saying, hold on. You got a lot of those fish that are either moving up to spawn or those fish that are coming off from spawning, those little cut banks or maybe those little isolated docks, like you're going into or coming out of those spawning pockets. This type of swim bait can be really good. Any type of swim bait that you're fishing, even this time of year, a little bit of wind or a little bit of stained water can be a big, big friend of yours.
If you're fishing it in too clear of water, a lot of times they just get too good of a look at it and they might run out there and look at it, and then they go back. That can be a good and bad thing. You can use that wacky worm or a Neko rig. Once you see that fish and then you see them go back to kind of where they are, give that fish a few minutes and then you can come back and fish for them. That's a little pro tip right there.
But the setup is kind of basic, but more for bigger baits. This is a Cashion Big Bait Rod. You need something that can handle a bigger bait like that, not necessarily a flipping stick. A flipping stick is just too fast of an action, too much power. And then we've got 18 pounds. Sunline Shooter is the line that's really, you know, the same as the ChatterBait, same line. And I like having a bigger heavy-duty reel that can handle that bait. And this is the Daiwa Zillion HD 7.3:1.
So, last but not least, the fifth bait is arguably my favorite. And this is the Missile Baits D Stroyer. It's a big creature bait. Green pumpkin flash is my absolute favorite color. I'm using a half-ounce tungsten sinker here. Heavy duty, 5/0 Gamakatsu, heavy cover worm hook, 25-pound Sunline Shooter. This is a heavy-duty setup right here because I have caught a ton of big bass in April on this exact setup right here.
Fish that are either spawning or you're fishing through spawning areas. So, you may even be catching spawning bass that you just visually can't see, or you've spotted that 5, 6, 7 pounder that you...it's the fish of a lifetime, the fish of a spring, the fish of the year. You see that fish around that bed. This is gonna be the first thing I'm throwing.
You might have a buck bass, you might have other fish in the area. That big bass is gonna be territorial to the bigger baits that you throw in there. So, this is a great, great bait, to start with. And so we're throwing it on heavy-duty equipment. It's a 7'6" heavy action flipping stick from Cashion, high-speed Daiwa Tatula, pitching and flipping reel. You know, you got the heavy-duty handle, all this heavy duty because we're 25-pound test and we are putting wood to that 6 or 7-pounder that we're scoping out, looking at, pitching to.
So, once you throw that bait in there, that half-ounce weight gets down to the bottom, hits the bottom, makes a noise. A lot of times that is a trigger. So, you're just gonna kind of shake that bait just a little bit, shake that bait. With all these appendages, you're gonna get all kind of action just with a little bit of movement from your line. You don't have to overwork that bait.
And then once you shake it a few times, you know, don't move it too fast. Reel it up, pitch it into the next place that looks like it's gonna be an area where bass is gonna be spawning. If you've got grass in the area, maybe it's where an opening is in the grass. If you've got stumps, maybe you're throwing right next to that stump, could be thrown right next to a dock piling that looks like where one should be betting.
Those are the type of areas that you're gonna be targeting with that Missile Baits D Stroyer right there. Like I said, I have caught so many big bass on this bait right here. It is absolutely crazy. Come April, this is probably my money maker for catching the most big bass from Lake Guntersville to ponds, you know, you name it. I've caught just a lot of big bass on that right there. So get out there. During the month of April, take my best favorite five baits and go out there and catch some big, old bass.
