Early season, pre-spawn bass action can be phenomenal — by far the best of the year. But it’s not always that way, so veteran Northeast Florida anglers follow a well-thought-out game plan to tip spring odds in their favor.
For example, small lakes, ponds and borrow pits are always the first to “turn on” for spring bass action simply because they warm quicker than larger lakes, deep reservoirs and broad rivers. But bass in big lakes and rivers are less impacted by spring cold fronts than fish in smaller waters because they usually have more deep water, which invariably are where bass retreat during unstable weather.
When conditions improve, big-water bass are quicker to move back into spawning shallows. Bigger, cooler, clearer waters also are better for bass in late spring, after small lakes and ponds have peaked for early bigmouths.
Prime times for catching pre-spawn bass vary from year to year, especially if weather and water conditions are unstable. In addition, “bedding” bass season in some places like the spring runs of Lake George near Welaka, may be in January. Whereas in the lower St. Johns River near Jacksonville, bass can be found spawning some years as late as April or even May.
The key is water temperature, which triggers spring bass into moving shallow when it hits 62 to 68 degrees. Even then, a sudden cold front – common in even Florida – can quickly drive bass out of the shallows, and make what was easy pickings for heavy fish into tougher-than-tough angling.
It doesn’t take long for water to warm just a few degrees and “trigger” bigmouths to swarm into shallows and start searching for spawning beds. So it’s imperative that anglers be poised to tap their favorite spots when conditions are just right. Unfortunately, many anglers wait too long to start their spring bass outings and therefore miss out on some of the best early-season, pre-spawn bassin’.
Many top First Coast bass anglers first look for spawning largemouths on the north shores of lakes and rivers because strong southern breezes (common in spring) heat those places faster than other areas, and such waters have the longest duration of direct sunlight during the course of a spring day. If, however, those areas have no actively spawning bigmouths, check other shoreline spots.
Excellent places to try first for early-spring bigmouths are rather steep, vertical waters near traditional bass spawning flats. A ledge or hump just out from a spawning bay or feeder creek that usually has bedding bass is a prime location to work. Canal mouths may be the easiest of all early pre-spawn hot spots to identify – and they abound in many waters, especially along the St. Johns and in its many rivers and lakes. On many of the best waters bigmouths swarm into shallow, hard-bottom canals for spawning. Invariably, those fish “stage” at canal mouth drop-offs just before moving into a canal to fan beds.
Rocky riprap, bridge abutments, deep brush piles, culverts, underwater islands, submerged points, sandbars, newly-emerging deep weed beds and similar structures near spawning flats in water 6 to 15 feet deep all are prime for early-season bigmouths.
Shallow bays, out-of-the-wind flats with newly-emerging weed beds and canals are prime places for pre-spawn bass. Usually the best spawning areas have hard bottom, and there is abundant cover, such as logs, stumps, brush, weeds, etc. In clear water, spawning sites for the biggest bass are deeper than in dark water. But dark water warms quicker in spring, and offer choice bass action sooner than clear water.
Be sure to check good-looking shallow spots through a day of fishing, because conditions change significantly and quickly, particularly if it’s warm and sunny, or slightly overcast with a warm wind blowing.
I remember fishing a couple ideal bass-spawning backwaters one March day on a small north Florida lake near Tallahassee.
A pal and I worked the backwaters in the morning and again around noon, and though we spotted a number of “clean” bass beds and saw a few small male bass, we never had a strike. Finally, late that sunny day, we returned to the backwaters, and found them full of fish. We caught a couple dozen bass, including two over 7 pounds.
During cold-front, pre-spawn conditions, small lures often work best, and fish ’em S-L-O-W – dragging along the bottom, not hopping. If bass are still tough to come by, and water temperature has dropped a few degrees, live bait (shiners or bullhead (Caledonia) minnows are hard to beat) may have to be used to tempt strikes from heavyweight pre-spawners. Trolling such baits is deadly, but at times stillfishing with bobbers is necessary because some spring bass don’t want to “chase” even a live bait far.
Soft-plastic jerk baits are outstanding for cold-front bass in spring. Fish frequently jam in the closest thick cover adjacent to spawning flats when the wind comes up and the temperature drops. Such fish only may strike a slow-falling lure, tantalizingly fished in front of their noses. A jerk bait or soft plastic tube lure is made to order, when allowed to slowly sink (without weight) in weeds or brush, near stump tangles and similar cover. Occasional slight twitches often draw strikes from cold-front bass holding in such spots.
Light line is in order for much spring fishing. Shallow water frequently is clear, and lighter-than-usual line may be needed to dupe big spring bass, plus it allows anglers to work little lures in a more tantalizing way. Braided line is great, since it’s fine in diameter per pound test, but be sure to use fluorocarbon leaders.
Finally, remember that spring, roe-laden largemouths are the future of bass fishing. Sportsmen release all such fish. Making a few photos of them, and perhaps having a replica mount are all that’s necessary to preserve an early-season fishing memory to last a lifetime.
