Spring Bass Fishing with a Neko Rig Brian Schmitt's Seasonal Strategy

All right, guys, Brian Schmitt here with bassresource.com. We're going to talk about springtime Neko fishing now. So how we approach the springtime, what we're looking for, what we believe the fish are doing, kind of how to follow them in the spring and how to apply the Neko rig in the bait and everything like that.

So in the spring of the year, guys, I 100% I'm thinking about finding the warmest water. So are the bass. They've been confined in some colder water all winter, everything starts to think about the warmth, you know, and a lot of times your farthest up river, uplake kind of coves, your flatter areas will warm up a little bit quicker.

I'm looking for big flats adjacent to main creek channels or main river channels. That is a big thing. I'm looking for main flats. Preferably a channel swing that kind of sweeps in on a flat that has a little bit of hard spot or some grass on it. Just some quick stopping point for fish to get shallow coming out of deep water is a big thing to start in the spring.

So you know, let's just say you kind of establish a pattern that's going on. Or it could even be in the spring of the year—your first dock leading into a cove or your last dock. That's something I want to stress. In the spring of the year, sometimes you pull into a cove. Don't fish every dock. Fish the first one and the last one. A lot of times it's going to tell you all you need to know. You can skip over a lot of dead water.

But you know, Neko rigging in the spring, guys, I'm looking for something a group of fish could relate to as they stage to spawn and then transition into the spawn. OK, so like we talked about, big flat—a stopping point on the edge of the flat is the first place springtime fish will get and hopefully you can follow them all the way up onto the flat, a cove area or a protected area where they can potentially spawn.

So my Neko rig choice a lot of times for that time of year is the Quiver—Missile Baits Quiver Worm in the 6 1/2 inch model. This is a green pumpkin. I use a 1/32nd nail weight in it this time of year. Reason being, the lighter nail allows me to go super shallow if need be. What's crazy about the spring is they move a lot. Yesterday they were staging out a little bit on the edge of the flat. It warmed up. The next day you go, there's nothing there. You go all the way to the bank—there they are, they're spawning.

So things can happen so quick in the spring. The lighter weight allows me to transition with the fish very quickly. I can still let this get down to that staging springtime spot. It takes a little bit, but sometimes that slow fall is what makes the Neko so deadly. But I could go straight to the bank too.

10 LB fluorocarbon—P-Line fluorocarbon—long leader on this, guys. I like a good eight to 10 foot leader. Mainly main line is 10 LB braid—P-Line braid. But this is a Spin Muscle Guard hook from Hayabusa. This is an excellent wacky Neko rig hook. It has a unique bend to it. It really catches the meat of the mouth, guys. It's just a different style hook. I've had excellent hookup ratios with this.

A lot of times, man, you know when you're finesse fishing, you're letting something sink for a while. You'll start to look around and, oh wait—oh my line’s slack. And you kind of reel up and you never feel like you get a really good hook set. When you hook them all the time with that kind of scenario, you know you got a good hook. That's what proved it to me with this hook.

So 7'2" medium heavy Versa from Fitzgerald. It's a pretty light medium heavy. This is a 3000 series reel from SPRO spinning reel. And we're just going to really target that staging deal right out of wintertime—where can they stop into the spawn—that whole sector. And that can be a lot, but what you got to remember is we've eliminated.

Once we get in the spring, I'm eliminating the main creek channels, the deep basins. I know somewhere on the fishery in the spring there is a group of fish that are moving up, ganged up, ready to come up and spawn—and that's what I'm going to hunt.

A cool scenario is a creek channel that swings in onto a flat that has some timber on that edge, or a ditch that runs through a flat is a really cool scenario. You know, the early spring they're laying in the ditch, then mid-spring they kind of get to the side of the ditch, and by the spawn they follow the ditch right to the bank. Man, if you can find one of those lined with grass of some sort, that is an excellent, excellent place.

Florida—how I can say in Florida what I'm looking for? I'm looking for shell beds right next to the grass is a big thing for the first stop, especially if it's right outside of a spawning cove. You know, area that has a lot of lily pads. Lily pads—I associate with calm water. Lily pads, calm water. I also associate that with spawning habitat. Anywhere lily pads grow, fish can spawn.

So that's my thought process. That is my thinking, that is my line, bait, my whole idea of Neko rig fishing in the spring. I'm hoping you can apply this where you're from and I hope it pays off for you.