It's that time of year, the window of the year that many consider to be the best fishing of the year: the pre-spawn period. It's when many of the biggest bass of the lake are accessible as they prepare to spawn, and they can be aggressive as ever, making them slightly easier to catch than the rest of the year. It's also a good time to go fishing as the bulk of the fish population will be shallow and looking to spawn, so locating bass can be much faster than at other times of the year, and the shallows will be alive with activity.
With that being said, there are some things to keep in mind to keep the odds in your favor for catching more and bigger bass during this great time to go bass fishing.
Not All Bass Spawn at Once
As the spawn approaches and anglers start to see water temperatures rise, they naturally get excited about the annual ritual. While many consider the magical water range around 62 degrees to be when it all goes down, that's not always the case. Most marine electronics only gauge the surface temperature, and the water below can be much cooler.
There are also sections of the lake that take much longer to warm up, whether from current, depth, sun exposure, or other factors. This means that some bass can be completely done spawning, and some haven't even moved shallow to start. Because of this, the pre-spawn period can last for weeks and even months on a body of water.
Generally, areas with more direct sunlight and those on the northern side of bodies of water warm up faster, since they receive more sunlight from the south and are protected from northern winds. These areas, as well as shallow bays and those protected from wind and current, will warm up faster and stay that way. These areas are where you can start your prespawn search before expanding it to the rest of your lake or river as springtime approaches.
Where to Start
Once you decide on an area to fish, some key areas work well for pre-spawn bass. Bass often seek out protected areas to spawn, places that are out of the way and less affected by weather. This could include coves, backwaters on rivers, and other areas that give them everything they need to spawn.
Moving backwards, you can find places that the bass will use as they get close to spawning. This is easy to find out if you are familiar with a body of water and where you caught spawning bass last season, work out towards deeper water.
Bass will often use secondary points, laydowns, standing timber, and deeper docks that are just outside of these spawning areas. They are all high-percentage areas that will produce during the pre-spawn and should all be targets for you to cast to. There are also key bottom composition areas that will hold bass as they move from winter to pre-spawn and eventually the spawn.
Any areas where the rock or bottom changes are telltale signs of a place to start casting. It could be where rock sizes change to smaller rock, where clay turns into sand, or any number of combinations where the bottom changes; that will give you a good place to start.
Pre-Spawn Must-Have Lures
With the fishing being pretty good this time of year, many different lures can produce. It's a period when you can do just about anything you want and have a chance to catch fish, but certain lures shine and will make you more efficient. The pre-spawn is a great time to throw moving baits, as you can cover ground and take advantage of the willingness of bass to chase as they eat as much as they can before the spawn.
One of the best lures for fishing this time of year is a vibrating jig, either a Z-Man ChatterBait EVO or Strike King Thunder Cricket. Both baits are excellent in many different seasons, but they really shine right before bass spawn, and they put off a ton of vibration as you reel them through the water. One of the best colors this time of year is red, such as fire craw, and there are many matching trailers, like the Z-Man Chatter Spike or Yamamoto Zako, that work well on the back of these baits.
Crankbaits are another tried-and-true pre-spawn bait that has worked for decades and will still catch fish this season. Shallow divers are some of the best baits you can use this time of year, whether it's a Strike King 1.5 square bill or a slightly deeper diver like a Rapala DT6 or Berkley Dime 6. Like vibrating jigs, red and crawfish colors really do well this time of year.
Another excellent tool to catch pre-spawn bass is a jig. A ½-ounce jig with a crawfish imitating profile is a perfect bait to flip and pitch to shallow cover like laydowns, docks, and seawalls, which can all be excellent this time of year. Some of the best jig trailers are double-tail grubs like those from Yamamoto, chunk-style plastics like the Zoom Super Chunk Jr., and Missile Mini D Chunk. Each of them will make your jig stand out and help to round out the crawfish-imitating presentation.
One more to consider, which may seem out of the ordinary, is topwater baits like frogs and buzzbaits. While the water is still cool, prespawn bass will absolutely attack a topwater bait, and you can get in on the action before everyone else is throwing them. Bass this time of year tend to be very territorial, and a topwater bait will catch fish and give you a chance for a big prespawn female.
Fishing early in the year during the pre-spawn can be some of the best fishing of the year, and you always have a shot at your biggest bass of the year. With the right approach to lure selection and knowing what to look for, you have all of the ingredients for some excellent pre-spawn bass fishing.
