As of March 21, it was officially Spring. Longer days and warmer weather can only mean one thing. The Bass are in full Spawn!!! I get more excited about sight fishing than I do at Christmas! It is truly the most wonderful time of the year. (Just kidding Jesus).
I’ve had people tell me over the years that they just don’t like plucking Bass off their beds. I get that and I agree to disagree. So we are going to talk about how to not sight fish. The truth of the matter is, if you are fishing during the Spawn, you are still likely catching a bedding fish. But if makes you feel better to not sight fish, you be you.
The basics of “not sight fishing” is to head north where the biggest concentration of Bass will be. The northern banks are warmer due to longer sunlight. Girls and boys alike are moving up for the Spawn. The females are close to hard bottom banks, dock pilings, and brush or blowdowns. The male (bucks) are swimming close by to protect the beds from predators or if mama should swim off for a snack or break.
Your best bet for catching a buck is to stay about a cast length AWAY from the bank. This will lessen the likelihood of catching a female. During this time, I like to use light line, light tackle. My favorite technique is to rig a Bizz Bait, Sassy Stick weightless and let it do it’s job. The trick is to let it slowly fall while keeping your line under control to stay in contact with the bait. A mistake often made is to let the bait fall on slack line. By not keeping in contact, a fish will possibly, bite, swim off, realize this ain’t right, and drop it without the fisherman even noticing. While crawling the Sassy Stick back to the boat, it’s ideal to give it a few pops and pauses to achieve a reaction bite. If you prefer a wacky rigged Sassy stick, you can absolutely use that technique with great success. Small twitches and pauses can be very productive. If you like to drag and feel the lakes bottom you can rig a Bizz Bait Killer Kraw on a WOO! ⅛ oz Shakey head. This is a perfect bait because it mimics a crawfish and as springtime bonus, they are spawning as well.
I like to rig any of these on a Johnny Morris Carbonltie spinning rod with a Bass Pro Shops Signatures Series spinning reel. I stay between 8 to 10 lb test Flourocarbon line. If you MUST use a baitcaster, you can’t go wrong with medium action Johnny Morris Carbonltie rod paired with a Carbonlite reel.
I hope you enjoy your Spring. Now go “not sight fishing” and catch a fish!
