How to Find and Catch Pre-Spawn Bass
By: Casey Reed
WHAT IS “PRE-SPAWN” FISHING?
Pre-Spawn is the time of year before bass move up onto their beds. It’s usually late winter or early spring, but really depends on weather patterns in your part of the country. Generally, you’ll start seeing bass in “pre-spawn” mode when the water temperatures start to rise from the mid 40’s into the 50’s. Most of the time, people are late on realizing what the fish are doing, so if you think it’s almost time for pre-spawn, it’s probably already started.
The fish are working their way up to shallower water for the spawn. They will be feeding heavily to regain weight lost during the winter and to prepare for the time and energy they will spend laying and protecting eggs.
LOCATING PRE-SPAWN AREAS
Fish are always on the move during pre-spawn. They are transitioning from their deeper winter hangouts to their shallow spawning areas. The best way to locate a good pre-spawn area is to start looking for areas such as shallow pockets and flats in the back of a creek.
Once you’ve located a good spawning area, you can work your way to a nearby creek channel, ditch, point, or even brushpile. Docks are great places to find these pre-spawners as well. Any mixture of these types of areas are even better. These are staging areas and bass will set up in these deeper areas close by their spawning areas to wait for conditions to be prime for the spawn.
On clear water lakes these staging areas could be as deep as 20ft to 30ft. On other lakes with less clear water, you’ll be looking around the 5 to 15ft. range.
CHANGING WITH THE WEATHER
Fish this time are changing on a daily basis. Weather has a major role in what they’re doing that day. Bass utilize staging areas due to easy access from shallow water to deep water. They need easy access to shallow water for feeding and if the weather turns cold, they can slip back into deeper, more stable water. As the days get longer and the water temperatures rise, the fish instinctively know the time is right to spawn, and they continue their move towards the spawning areas. Cloudy, warm days can really get the fish in a feeding frenzy. That’s when your power fishing presentations will be the ticket. When there is a high sky, you’ll be better off with finesse fishing. So now let’s talk about some bait selections.
PRE-SPAWN BAITS
As I dive into bait selection, I’ll start by talking about the slower, cold water, finesse presentations. You’ll want to utilize these at the very beginning of the pre-spawn or perhaps when a cold front comes through causing the fish to be inactive. Or maybe you’ve found fish using power techniques but they become finicky after catching a few. Then I’ll move into the faster retrieved baits that you’ll start using later in the day when the water temperature starts warming and the fish start roaming shallow water and start actively feeding.
JIGS
You hear it all the time, a jig is a big fish bait. During the pre-spawn is no different, even when using a smaller profile, finesse style jig. The Missile Baits Mini Flip Jig is what I’m reaching for when I want to tie on a jig.. I like to let it sit a lot without a ton of movement. Keeping contact with the bottom, and slowly dragging it around is the best presentation.
SHAKEY HEAD
Similar to the jig, you’re going to want to fish a shakey head slowly, shaking your rod tip just enough to keep the tail of your worm moving. Drag it and repeat. The Zoom Trick Worm on a 1/8th or 3/16 oz jig head is a fish catcher.
STICKBAIT
Next up is the Yamamoto Senko. This bait can be rigged up any number of ways and fished in shallow to deep water. My favorite way to rig the senko is weightless texas rigged. You can fish this in deeper water but it takes some patience to let it get down to the bottom. This is a killer presentation for those finicky fish.
JERKBAIT
A jerkbait is a great lure to use early on during the pre-spawn if you’re fishing clearer water. The Megabass Vision 110 comes in many different versions that dive to different depths. My favorite is the Vision 110+1 in a natural shad color.
SPINNERBAIT
A spinnerbait should be fished slower during the pre-spawn, bumping into stumps, laydowns or any other types of cover in the area you’re fishing. There are a lot of different types of spinnerbait combinations so having a few on hand to change up depending on what the fish want. I generally start with a Booyah Baits Covert Willow Colorado Spinnerbait. The small colorado blade, paired with the bigger willow style blade is a great combination.
FLUKE
The Zoom Fluke is another bait that can be rigged and fished many ways. My favorite is weightless texas rigged, fished in shallow water. It's a great presentation to fish shallow around grass, docks and laydowns.
CRANKBAIT
My favorite crankbait is the Spro Mike McClellendi RkCrawler 55. This bait dives from 9-14 ft and is great when those bass are positioned in deeper water. Another great choice is some of the flat sided crank baits from Rapala such as the Rapala DT series.
LIPLESS CRANKBAIT
A lipless crankbait, commonly referred to as a rattletrap, is a great bait that can be fished a few different ways and at different depths. My go to retrieve with this bait is a Yo-Yo presentation. To do this, you’ll cast out, let it sink to the bottom, then using your rod, you’ll lift the bait off the bottom and then reel in the slack line and then once you feel your bait hit the bottom again, just repeat. The Booyah One Knocker is an excellent choice for a lipless.
BLADED JIG
A bladed jig is a staple in most people's tackleboxes today. It seems like every year more and more people are throwing one, and every year it wins tournaments. There are a lot of choices for a good bladed jig, but the most popular one is the Z-man Chattrbait Jackhammer. This bait seems to be the go to for bait for a lot of anglers. It can be fished with any kind of retrieve you can imagine. You have to play with it to find out which retrieve the fish are looking for on any given day. The trailer can make a huge difference so if you’re not getting bit, just a small change in the action of a trailer can make the difference.