“As the water warms, I’ll start to use lures that I can straight reel, like spinner baits, swimbaits, underspins, spybaits, etc.”
Around shallow vegetation, soft plastic swimmers like the Reaction Innovations Skinny Dipper, Strike King Rage Swimmer and the YUM Pulse — rigged on light swimbait heads for open water, or wide gap hooks for thicker habitat — are tough to beat. Bites are preferred, but even boils and misses will help you dial in the productive zones.
Another favorite — hollow body frogs; amphibian impostors that’ll deliver some of your most entertaining pre spawn action. Case in point, I recall watching Jimmy Reese frogging a Delta tule berm
when 20-feet ahead of his
last cast, a fired-up pre
spawner’s attempt to
bump a real frog off
the raft of dead tules painted a big, red X on that little pocket.
Reese’s first shot drew and immediate swing and a miss. The second connected with plump fish.
Buzzbaits also hold hog-charming powers and Elite standout Ish Monroe’s fond of fanning likely areas with a River2Sea Double Plopper. Built with two counter-rotating Plopper blades and designed to float, this bona fide commotion maker affords fast or slow retrieves; even dead stops for taunting followers.
SIZE MATTERS
Early pre spawners still shaking off winter’s chill may not be in their feistiest mood of the year, but that rumble in their belly pulses like a war drum with an ever increasing tempo. Moreover, VanDam makes an insightful point relevant to ambitious lure selection.
SPRING 2017
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