Bass – What has been working so far this spring.

I’m off to a really rough start ( Probably the worst in a ling time ) to Bass fishing so far this Spring ( if you can even call this spring ). Last weekend we ran around to 4 different lakes and found the water High and dirty at all of them. Bite was poor to say the least. Got out Sat. on a local lake where we usually do real well with stick worms fished in and around the Reeds, Not much to show for it. With the cold temps the night prior ( Mid 30’s ) Thought back shallow bays would be the ticket, No such luck. Water temps were much lower than I expected with it being from 56 main lake to around 59 in shallow bays. I think I can attribute both bad weekends to unexpected poor weather conditions. Hopefully we can get some dry stable weather conditions soon. Anyone else finding any early season success ???

Hit or miss.

Crankbaits and jigs on some lakes where the coontail is at 7-10′

Other days, drop down a camera and I see I see the smallmouth sitting at 20′ not wanting to bite.

The weather hasn’t been helping it has been hit or miss. All I know is that I am very sick of the wind this spring.

I’ve only been out once on opener for a few hours. I did pretty good locally. A bluegill colored jerk bait was the best producer at the time. I’ve been in the moving process since so haven’t had any time to fish.

I know that Mahtofire did pretty well last weekend with a neko. Check out the other thread about spring bass tactics.

I was off to a really bad start until my tournament on Saturday. In four trips out before that, I hadn’t gotten a sniff on a moving bait. It was really odd. Had a couple dock bites, couple shoreline structure bites. Then my tournament rolled around and I threw chatterbaits and a jerk around for the first two hours. Nothing. Then went to my confidence, the Neko, and absolutely hammered them on points. Even though it was earlier than I have ever caught them on a neko, I think they wanted a smaller, slower moving bait.

Also caught some on shorelines pitching to new growing bullrush or grass, the green stuff. Wherever it was green there were bass. I’ll have a video of my tourney up in a day or two. I’ll post it here so people can see what I was throwing if interested.

Downsizing/ being subtle was key for me yesterday, mainly due to the cool weather/ rising pressure I’d assume.
A 3.5″ paddle tail on a 1/4 oz jig got the most bites, a 5″ paddle tail got the biggest fish of the day though. A 1/4oz Rugby jig with a craw caught a few, and a light tube jig caught a few too.
Tried larger skirted jigs, chatterbaits, and Texas rigged worms without any bites.
Emerging weeds on flats and hard bottom areas on flats were best, but we did pull a few small fish from the shoreline too.

grubson wrote:

Downsizing/ being subtle was key for me yesterday, mainly due to the cool weather/ rising pressure I’d assume.
A 3.5″ paddle tail on a 1/4 oz jig got the most bites, a 5″ paddle tail got the biggest fish of the day though. A 1/4oz Rugby jig with a craw caught a few, and a light tube jig caught a few too.
Tried larger skirted jigs, chatterbaits, and Texas rigged worms without any bites.
Emerging weeds on flats and hard bottom areas on flats were best, but we did pull a few small fish from the shoreline too.

The lake is heavily pressured lately with back to back tournaments,on Saturday and again sunday. I guess the bass master elite is the new thing around home and every one hosts tourneys now. but I’m going to say if we put our 5 best yesterday out there we would have been in the money.
The bass around here are getting beat up pretty hard, so a little change up was key. Light and slow. Even my big swim bait I was working pretty dang slow

Bearcat89 wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>grubson wrote:</div>
Downsizing/ being subtle was key for me yesterday, mainly due to the cool weather/ rising pressure I’d assume.
A 3.5″ paddle tail on a 1/4 oz jig got the most bites, a 5″ paddle tail got the biggest fish of the day though. A 1/4oz Rugby jig with a craw caught a few, and a light tube jig caught a few too.
Tried larger skirted jigs, chatterbaits, and Texas rigged worms without any bites.
Emerging weeds on flats and hard bottom areas on flats were best, but we did pull a few small fish from the shoreline too.

The lake is heavily pressured lately with back to back tournaments,on Saturday and again sunday. I guess the <em class=”ido-tag-em”>bass master elite is the new thing around home and every one hosts tourneys now. but I’m going to say if we put our 5 best yesterday out there we would have been in the money.

It was kind of crazy to see another tournament go off an hour after we did. The guy that runs our league makes sure he doesn’t schedule on the same lakes as other tourneys but apparently some of the others dont. I heard it got pounded this weekend.

It was kind of crazy to see another tournament go off an hour after we did. The guy that runs our league makes sure he doesn’t schedule on the same lakes as other tourneys but apparently some of the others dont. I heard it got pounded this weekend.
[/quote]

2 tourneys on Saturday and another Sunday. It’s hard on the small lakes. But I’m glad no one was able to cull fish, It would be even harder.
We did still successfully pull in some hogs, and had some fancy bass boats giving us the stink eye as well.

Bearcat89 wrote:

We did still successfully pull in some hogs, and had some fancy bass boats giving us the stink eye as well.

Kind of a requirement of owning a bass boat. Any deep v gets the stink eye!

mahtofire14 wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Bearcat89 wrote:</div>
We did still successfully pull in some hogs, and had some fancy bass boats giving us the stink eye as well.

Kind of a requirement of owning a bass boat. Any deep v gets the stink eye!

I seen a phenoix yesterday out there. I think he had 4 32 inch LG tvs on board. That’s pretty dang impressive

Pink x rap. Jerk jerk pause fish.

ssaamm wrote:

Pink x rap. Jerk jerk pause fish.

What are your water temps up there sam?

I have had a good start to the year got out sat and sun both weekends. I have struggled to find fish over 3 pounds. With the amount of 1-2 pounders, I have caught I have not gotten as much good fish as I would like. Weightless wacky worms and flipping reed mats. Mostly sight fishing which is always fun. They are just getting up on docks on White Bear and I bagged my biggest of the year so far at a little over 4 lbs on a shallow dock. Gonna switch up the patterns and chase some bigger fish once I get back from my Rainy lakr trip this weekend.

Magdraft and jackhammer worked on opener, but ever since then it’s all been the jig show. 3/8oz tungsten is what I’ve been catching them on. Also gotten some on topwater. There’s a couple guys I know that are on an insane topwater bite right now

Well it sounds like its just me ( Most likely ) Or just the weather related issues in this area that is causing the poor fishing. My fishing buddy was out yesterday and did say the water has went down some on the horseshoe chain and the water clarity was MUCH better. He did manage some fish, so it sounds like the bite is improving some in our area. I’m sure a few warmer stable days will help greatly. Hope to get back out one evening this week and plan to hit it hard next weekend. Hopefully my success will improve. Its not like it can be much worse

brandmoney wrote:

There’s a couple guys I know that are on an insane topwater bite right now

More details please. Topwater fishing is awesome and yet its been almost completely non-existent for me the last several years.

Aboxy17 wrote:

They are just getting up on docks on White Bear and I bagged my biggest of the year so far at a little over 4 lbs on a shallow dock.

That’s a gem on White Bear!

brandmoney wrote:

There’s a couple guys I know that are on an insane topwater bite right now

Conditions are right for it.

56 on Sunday by Longville.

ssaamm wrote:

56 on Sunday by Longville.

Prime jerkbait temps!

gimruis wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>brandmoney wrote:</div>
There’s a couple guys I know that are on an insane topwater bite right now

More details please. Topwater fishing is awesome and yet its been almost completely non-existent for me the last several years.

They’ve had luck on big topwater rats and wake baits (think 5″ plus) as well as some action on frogs. I’ve thrown the popper around and have done fairly well.