My favorite time of year to fish is spring. Sight fishing is a very proficient way of catching springtime fish. When the spring time bass spawn is over, many anglers face a time of uncertainty. Bass can be extremely difficult to pattern in this time of year, with the spring cold fronts…
My favorite time of year to fish is spring. Sight fishing is a very proficient way of catching springtime fish. When the spring time bass spawn is over, many anglers face a time of uncertainty. Bass can be extremely difficult to pattern in this time of year, with the spring cold fronts blowing through and the spawn being over bass fishing at this time of year can be challenging to say the least.
During the spawn bass can be found on the banks or close to them, but where do the bass go after the spawn is over? Bass will be in transition and start to head out to deeper water. You can target shallow flats early in the morning with a topwater, frog bait, shallow crankbait, or spinnerbait. The morning is a good time to catch post spawn fish.
If you are like most anglers, you like to fish longer than a few hours in the morning and a few hours in the evening. I like to fish all day if given the opportunity. In order to be successful at this time of year the angler must adjust. Bass will be in two different groups during this time of year, shallow water and deep water. Approximately 20% of the bass population will be shallow, while 80% prefer the comfort and security of the deeper water. The thing that both of these groups have in common is the need to replenish themselves after the spawn.
I continue to fish for them during the spawn, the Bream spawn. Late April and May bream will be moving onto the beds, bass will be targeting the bream as a forage species as they are congregated and an easier prey than at other times of the year. Remember the Largemouth Bass is an opportunistic predator.
To locate bream beds, use good polarized glasses and look for honey cone circles along the bank. The beds will extend out from the shore line in a semi circle. The best beds will be the ones that are next to deeper water, however some bream beds can be found in water as deep as ten feet. If you are having trouble locating bream beds you can tie on the Johnson Beetle Spin and fish it along the bottom.
Once you have located the bream beds it is time to match the hatch. Use bream colored crankbaits, jigs, flukes, or spinnerbaits. Remember that the bass is a predator and uses cover to ambush its prey so if you find bream beds next to deeper water and have some cover there, hang on!
When the spring spawn is over and you are having trouble finding bass. You may just want to go sight fishing again but this time for bream.
Garry A. McCollum (aka iClass)
