Spring LM Bass Fishing

[striperman13]

Went to my favorite bass hole yesterday with by buddy Bob. This place never fails to produce. We landed 10 bass in 2.5 hrs, all on black spinner baits. I think the fish were post spawn. I attached photos of the 3 biggest fish. 4, 4.5 and 6.5 lbs+-

[capemike88]

Nice fish, that last ones a BIG fish for our ponds around here

[Markymark]

It's too early for "post spawn". it's more like "pre-spawn",or they took their fur coats off for one day. Anyways ...Nice fish!

[teflon_jones]

I landed a 4.5 lb'er on a black spinnerbait last week, and my father-in-law landed a 5.5 on one Tues night. Definitely a hot bait for BIG bass!

[striperman13]

"It's too early for "post spawn". "

Since I only LM Bass fish once or twice a year, in the spring, befor striper season, my knowledge on spawning habits is limited. While we were fishing we noticed many spawning beds. The fish also seemed thin and a bit beat up (agressive spawning behavior?)keep in mind that where we were fishing the max depth is 3-4 feet with a very dark bottom so the water warms up very fast. It was probably getting near 60 the day we were there. Also none of the fish had fat egg filled bellies, Perhaps they could have been all males guarding freshley built nests??? they were very aggressive. AT waht water temp do bass generally spawn??

[fishingdan]

"It's too early for "post spawn". "

AT waht water temp do bass generally spawn??

LM Bass tend to spawn in water temps between 65 and 70. During pre-spawn, the males and females will agressively eat.

[e-sea-e]

definately not post spawn bass. the nest you saw were probably nests from sunfish, which will spawn b4 the bass. 60 degrees should trigger them to get in a full blown prespawn, with the occasional nest being built as well.

nice fish, whatever pattern they were on. try a black buzzbait next time you go out and it's overcast and windy.

e-sea-e

[teflon_jones]

definately not post spawn bass. the nest you saw were probably nests from sunfish, which will spawn b4 the bass. 60 degrees should trigger them to get in a full blown prespawn, with the occasional nest being built as well.

nice fish, whatever pattern they were on. try a black buzzbait next time you go out and it's overcast and windy.

e-sea-e

I've been tempted to pull out the buzzbait, but I wasn't sure if it was too early in the season. You really need active fish to go after them since the lure is always moving, but the water is still a bit cold and the fish are a little sluggish IMHO. I tried a Rapala skitter pop last week but I didn't have any luck. The only surface action I've seen is panfish hitting hatching bugs, and a small LMB hit my Rapala while it was sitting on the surface next to the canoe the other day.

[e-sea-e]

teflon: Once the water hits 60 degrees, the bass are as active as they will be for the rest of the year. the real mark for activity is 48 degrees- at that temps you can start to throw spinnerbaits. Once you get to the mid fifties, buzzbaits and other fast moving baits are good to go as well. But....

the real trick to a buzzbait is too know when to throw it. like a spinnerbait, you need some chop in the water- the bigger the better. the cloudier the water the better.also, overcast days are a help as well. but the main factor is wind.

where to throw it- seems obvious but its not. first, visible weeds- lilpads, ect. throw it all the way back to the shore and start your retrieve before it hits the water, keepeing your rodtip high, in the 1:00 position. this will allow you to keep the buzzbait on top of the pads durring the retrive. try to go as slow as possible while ontop of the weeds, but dont be afriad to literally bounce the thing across the weeds. once you hit the edge, keep the tip high and reel as slow as humanly possible. bass will follow it from under the weedds and slam it within a foot or two.

second, throw them over submerged structure in shallow water- 2-10 feet. by structure i mean rocks, submergred weeds, and my favorite, stump fields. slowly retrive the buzzbait and fish will leave these areas to strike it. keep in mind they are impulse baits that trigger an impulse strike. fish will travel to get them once theier urge to strike is triggered.

classic buzzbait area/day:

youve had two or three days of steady warm weather, a cold front is coming, and the sky today is cloudy with a 20 mmph wind, but the temp hasn t dropped yet. you are on a pond with large areas of pads that cover a large area, some in the middle of the pond, some up against the shore. this is the classic buzzbait day- wind, clouds, an appaoching cold front that hasnt made the temp drop, but HAS started the barometer falling. DING DING DING DING DING. thtas the dinner bell!! :brow

hammer the pads and hang on.

best day with a buzzbait- lake attitash 4 years ago around 10 fish, smallest one 5/1/2 pounds, biggest 7 12 ounces, with two others over seven pounds. I was fishing in a summer long tourney and was waiting for a buzzbait day so I could go and win the tourney. 7 lb 12 oz did it. I had a digital scale with me to weight the fish and got acurate weigths on all of them.

also, if people have not used buzzbaits on a certain pond, the bass arent used to seeing it and it will produce big time.

best colors: Black black and black. if there are perch or frogs in the pond, put a green 3 inch grub on as a teaser. 3" calin's work for me.

best ones to use- any of the "double buzz" types with two blades- the bvigger the best- my all time favorite- blue fox 1/2 ounce double buzz. or, the biggest single blade you can find

biggest mistake made by those fishing a buzzbait- premature hookset. when a 5 pound or larger bass hits a buzzbait, it is a pretty awesome sight. but resist the urge to set the hook until you feel pressure /wieght on your line. I have showed alot people how to fish a buzzbait, and almost always they get hit in the face by their bait at least once. try to fish w/o looking at the bait- wait to for the weight!! them set the hook.

try it out and let me know. if you pick the rifght day and the right area you wont be disapointed.

e-sea-e

[striperman13]

Original post "the nest you saw were probably nests from sunfish"

The nests were fairly spread out, 3 feet in diameter, in about 3 feet of water, generaly 20 or so yards from shore. Most sunfish beds I have seen are shallower and smaller and tend to hug the shoreline in clusters. I could be wrong, but I think I saw bass beds. ?????

[e-sea-e]

they could have been bass beds, the warm weather may have started a false spawn, which happens now and then when the water temps shoot up due to a couple days of really warm weather. I was on vacation in mexico last weeks, but I heard it was like 90 up here. that could have triggered a false spawn.

your description sounds like bass beds, but big bluegills will also make beds like that far out from shore, but they are usally clusters.

also, with water near or just over 60 degrees, you could have a few fish already starting to spawn. or they could be last year's beds now being used by sunfish.

I'm just saying we are a long way off from post spawn. It's april dude! As I said, nice fish no matter what pattern they are in. post spawn fish are stoned and sluggish and tend to hang in groups near or just below the first major drop off in a lake/pond.

if you want to find out for sure, go fish them again and target the beds with a grub or lizard. largemouth on eggs will act just like smallies and remove anything in the nest. if that happens, you have some early spawners in that pond. if the fish wont touch the baits in the nest, you have a false spawn, where a few males made some beds because of a sharp rise in water temp. you seem to have caught the larger fish, which may indicate they were females. the females would be in this area as well, but following a prespawn pattern of moving into the spawning areas to feed rather than spawn.

also, were the tails and anus fins of the fish you caught worn or bloody? If so, they were big males making nests. the worn out areas are where they used their body to make the nest.

another thing- where are you fishing? Not the specific pond but the area- southern mass, rhode island, etc. if you are south of boston, the water might be warmer than you think and the fish may be spawning. 62 or so will get 'em going. none of the ponds I fish around the greater boston area are in the 60's yet and there is no sign of spawing activity. most lakes around here are around 58 or so. a little further south, and yeah, they may be spawing. or it coulkd be a false spawn.

e-sea-e

[teflon_jones]

I've been fishing for the bucketmouths for a few weeks now in my area, and I haven't seen any sign of spawning activity. I'm fishing a very shallow, dark-bottomed lake that's probably as warm or warmer than anything else in the area. Even during the sunny weeks we had, the water still didn't get super warm. The ground temp is still too low, so even though the sun may warm the water a bit, the cold night time temps drop it right back down. Until the ground temp gets a little warmer I don't think we're going to see any good spawning activity.

I think that we've passed an important point though. Last night's fishing was different than any I've seen so far. I've been using a Rapala shallow shad rap a ton this year because it just keeps producing fish, and a lot of big ones. Up until now, my catches were about 70% pickerel, 20% bass, and 5% others (perch, calico bass, etc). Last night my tally was 4 pickerel, 2 LMB, 2 perch, 1 calico, and 2 bluegills. The assortment tells me the panfish are really starting to heat up, which means spawning time is very near on this lake. The two bluegills were decent sized, but there was no way they could have fit the shad rap into their mouth. I just had to shake my head! One of the pickerel ran 24" and about 3 pounds, and he had my drag screaming a couple of times! --127-3-

[fishingdan]

What size shad-rap are you throwing? Are you referring to the ones with the funky shapped lip??

[teflon_jones]

What size shad-rap are you throwing? Are you referring to the ones with the funky shapped lip??

I'm using the (original?) mid-sized one that has a ~4" long body. I think there's three sizes, small, medium (the original I think), and the new super shad rap. And yes, it's got a funny lip, kind of like a lazy capital L. It dives to 1-2 feet and has a slow rise. So far this year I've caught everything from an 8" pickerel to a 5.5 lb bass on the same lure.