Spring means one thing to me… bedding bass! This is that magical time of the year when giant bass come to the shallows to procreate.
Depending on where you fish, the first waves of bedding bass could show up in February or earlier, and in some places the spawn stretches through the spring and into summer. Their movement is affected by moon phases somewhat, but more so by water temperature. Once it’s in the 60-degree range, start combing the shallows for white spots where they’ve fanned out a bed with their tails.
Once you’ve located them, it is important to understand that they’ve located you. Bass are extremely aware of their surroundings. This makes it difficult at times to trigger a fish to take a lure. I like to run through an area with the trolling motor on high and put a 6-foot tomato stake right smack in the middle of the bed that’s holding the fish I intend to catch. Then I leave the area and allow the fish to calm down.
During this waiting period, I might spend an hour doing the same thing in another area or probe the deeper areas surrounding the flat looking for pre- or post-spawn fish. Fish will be in all three spawning stages throughout spring, and any shallows that hold fish will have fish in the deeper water nearby.
After an hour or so, sneak back quietly into the area you’ve staked out. Pole in, let the wind blow you in or troll in at a very low speed. Remember, you must be quiet, which means no banging around. Have everything you need on the deck of the boat. This is when a shallow-water anchoring system is worth its weight in gold. Minn Kota Talons and Power Poles are the premier systems available. Other less costly ways to anchor a boat are available as well, like Boatsticks at boatsticks.com.
You’ll want to position your boat far enough from the bed to not spook the fish, but close enough to cast several yards beyond the target. You need two Texas-rigged baits—a Z-Man Grass KickerZ and a Punch CrawZ. These baits float in the upright position, which tells a bass that something is feeding on her eggs.
Swim the Grass Kicker over the bed several times. This will get the fish fired up. Then hop it right into the bed and stop it. Give it a pulsating action. If this doesn’t provoke the fish to eat, try hopping the Punch CrawZ on the bed. Sometimes you have to go back and forth with those baits to entice a strike, but often you will get them to eat right away.
When you do this enough, you’ll learn to understand the fish’s behavior. If a fish runs big circles away from the bed and is slow to come back, it might not be catchable. If she displays aggression and stays close to the bed, that’s a catchable fish.