®
Spring 2025
T
he spawn can be a confusing term for anglers.
When this term is used to refer to the seasonal
pattern of a bass, it can be further dissected into three phases: pre-spawn, spawn, and post spawn.
During the pre-spawn phase, bass want to be in prime position to move into their spawning areas as soon as the time is right. They also want to be in areas that allow them to feed up prior to the big event of spawning.
These transition locations are typically found between the bass’ spawning area and the wintering or late fall stomping grounds. The location’s cover or structure can be many different things; the key is the location. Many pre-spawn bass will stop on secondary points just on the outside of spawning bays or possibly the first steep break on a shoreline that has good spawning cover in the shallows.
PRE-SPAWN FISHING TIPS
Since many of these areas may litter your favorite lake or river, determining the key pre-spawn locations takes some time to locate. I’ll begin doing this when I’m off the water, with the One-Boat Network App and examine the lake or river map via LakeMaster VX maps.
I’m able to manipulate the map with aerial overlays, depth highlights and 2D shaded relief, all of which will help me start eliminating unproductive sections of the lake and clue myself in on potential areas that I want to check out once I put my boat in water.
Once my boat is in the water and I’m idling around a point or down a shoreline that I want to fish, I will pay close attention to my Humminbird MEGA Side-Imaging to locate hard bottom spots or isolated pieces of structure, these are areas that will congregate bass.
When it comes time wet to a line, there are a few key lures that allow an angler to cover water quickly and probe structure. The two ways I like to target pre-spawn bass is either with a crankbait or a Carolina-rig. Both lures can be adapted to fish at any depth, and both allow anglers to cover water quickly.
For crankbaits, the depth of water will dictate what type of bait to use and how deep it should dive, but a few good crankbait options include:
• Bill Lewis Hammer Trap: The depth and speed the
bait is fished can be varied. When the Hammer Trap
stops, the bait will fall with a fish-enticing, fluttering
action
• Northland Fishing Tackle Elite Pro Sunny B: Larger-
sized balsa bait, that has a tighter action for cold
water. The sturdy square lip allows the bait to
deflect off cover.
• Northland Fishing Tackle Elite Shallow
Sunny B: When fish are pre-spawn, but holding on a
shallower point, this bait dives 2- to 4-feet and has
tighter action than other balsa crankbaits.
When Carolina-rigging, I’ll use a weight anywhere in size from 3/8-ounce, all the way up to a 3/4-ounce weight,
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