Bass fishing and the weather are heating up here and throughout Florida in the month of March. Bass fishing has been great recently, with some more consistent weather and with water temperatures being more stable.
The bass are still spawning, but a great post-spawn bite is starting to form. The bluegill are also starting to spawn, from what I saw on our last trip. This is calling for the bass to get into their post-spawn phase. To find these post spawners, look around and out from spawning areas with structures like brush piles, vegetation, contour changes and hard bottom areas like shell bars. These fish will start to get focused on eating, as they are looking to replenish the exerted energy they use spawning. Also, be on the lookout for a shad spawn in the morning on hard cover and vegetation areas. To find shad spawns, the biggest indications are diving birds and flickering shad on top of the water. This bite doesn’t last long, but it can call for some insane mornings of fishing.
Some of the main baits I use to target post spawners are a lipless crankbait, a deep diving crankbait, chatter bait, dropshot or a jerk bait. For those shad spawns, I like to throw soft plastic flukes, swim jigs, soft plastic swimbaits and spooks.
Be sure to cover a lot of water during this time of year with these lures, as the bass will be grouped up in schools. There can be a lot of dead water around. The best way to find some of the grouped-up fish on hard bottom is to use the side scan as a tool to mark schools, and use mapping to turn around and properly line up on them. You can also make use of forward-facing sonar to properly line up.