With spring in full bloom, the bass are looking to move shallow and spawn. Pre-spawn fishing tends to leave many of us scratching our heads. Largemouth bass become very sensitive with the spring weather changing day by day.
To help with the confusion we have put together a list of the top five techniques that will put fish in your boat during all stages of the spawn.
Kicking off the pre-spawn stage, males will pull up out of the deeper water and begin to roam looking for areas to spawn and begin to feed heavily. The most effective bait to throw for the fish in this stage would be reaction baits. More specifically, a crankbait or a spinnerbait. What sets these two apart is the fact that a crankbait has treble hooks. Treble hooks will raise your hook up ratio when the fish are having a hard time fully committing. The spinnerbait, on the other hand, has one single hook with the option to fish with a trailer hook. Therefore, making the bait weedless, giving it the ability to be fished thoroughly through the grass without balling up with weeds
Another great bait to help you catch the more lethargic fish during the pre-spawn stage is a jig. With this technique, you have the ability to fish slow and at almost any depth of water, on any structure, with just a change of weight. The basic presentation of a jig will imitate a crawdad or a bluegill skimming along the bottom making an easy meal for a bass
Now one of the most basic and simple baits to fish, not only during the spawn, but year round, is the senko. Senkos are most effective when fished in 7ft of water or less. The best structure to fish with a senko is around grass and tules. Being able to fish specific patches of grass thoroughly, allows you to find fish that you might have passed over with a reaction bait.
The next technique is a delta fisherman’s “must have” year round bait: Punching. It might seem a bit odd being that the majority of the fish are deeper in the water column. The breed of fish on the delta are very aggressive and some fish do stay shallow. The water hyacinth and other floating vegetation have become a predominant location to find fish year round. The punch rig itself consists of a 1 to 1.5oz tungsten weight pegged with a bobber stop. The hook needed for this technique must be a 3/0, 4/0, or 5/0 heavy or extra heavy straight shank flipping hook. Now as for the bait, most guys flip a Reaction Innovations beaver, but any craw or creature type profile will work fine. Target depths between 3 to 5ft and thoroughly dissect the floating mats.
This next bait might bring up questions, just trust me on this one! With males up shallow, and females waiting for the right time to move up, fish tend to become very aggressive. With the Delta having vast amounts of grass and shallow water cover, it never hurts to throw a frog. The true shallow delta fisherman, AKA delta rats, begin to fish top water right around the end of January and the first part of February. As soon as the first warming trend hits, pick up a Zara spook or a hollow body frog, and fish them slower than you ever have before. You won’t get very many bites, but the ones that will commit will be your larger sized fish.
The five techniques we discussed should help solve your pre-spawn troubles. If you have any other questions feel free to call the shop (925) 625-2441 or stop by 7 days a week and we will be happy to help.
For more information, visit the staff at Hook, Line & Sinker in Oakley located at 3100 Main Street. You may also visit www.hookproshop.com
Information and tips provided by Hook Line & Sinker
