Spring on Pickwick Lake
One big difference anglers will immediately notice while fishing this Lake this spring is the lake at low water pool. Pickwick Lake was down 4-5 feet as of the first week of March. It will be down throughout the entire month of March. After the first week of April, the lake will slowly be returned to full pool until next fall. Navigation is very hazardous during this low water period, boaters should use extreme caution when navigating Pickwick Lake in March.
Fishing, on the other hand is tremendous, as waters warm and smallmouth bass and largemouth bass head for the shallows to spawn. As most anglers will discover there is more to fishing Pickwick Lake than just fishing the lakes headwaters below Wilson Lake dam, the rock bluffs and many rock piles and islands anglers usually target in the lakes upper reaches.
There are plenty of creeks, flats and backwaters just down the lake that will produce some of the lakes biggest bass during April and May this spring. There are usually many ways to catch bass and most anglers will discover some great places to fish, especially when the lake is returned to full pool flooding the shallows again in April.
If they do their homework prior to the lake returning to full pool in April, many anglers will be one step ahead of anglers that have not seen this lake down. With water down as much as 6 feet during March anglers scanning the high and dry shallows will be unknowingly logging it in their memory banks for fishing in April and May. This is when loads of male and female bass are found in water less than 5 feet deep. But as the lake is returned to full pool, a second wave of bass will move even further up in the lakes newly flooded shallows.
By April, Pickwick Lake takes on a new appearance. The lake is returned to full pool and new growing aquatic weeds will be visible in the shallows by the end of April. Around mid April, with a full moon nearby most largemouth bass will head for the newly prepared beds made by the smaller male bass, usually in water 1-4 feet deep.
Smallmouth bass traditionally bed earlier on Pickwick Lake than largemouth bass and smallmouths usually bed in a little bit deeper water than largemouth bass. But on occasions even smallmouth beds can be seen in areas with good water clarity, in small pebble bottoms or sandy bottom in 1-4 feet of water, and often right next to bedding largemouth bass as well.
Targeting these bedding bass takes certain kinds of tackle, stealth and lots of patience. Its all up to each individual angler. Does that angler want to spend as much as an hour attempting to get maybe a 5 pound or bigger bedding bass to bite? Or cast the shallows and hope to find a school of bass not bedding at the same time?
May is when bass come off the beds on Pickwick Lake. They are hungry and topwater lures can be the best choice for getting these bass to bite. By the end of May most bass have bed on Pickwick Lake. Before they group up and head back to deeper water this can be a great 2-3 week period for lots of shallow water action, fishing with a number of different types of lures.
Give Pickwick Lake a try this spring and discover a few hidden holes of your own. This is the best time for fooling both largemouth bass and smallmouth bass in the shallows. Often some of the years biggest bass are taken, that is by the angler fortunate enough to land these hearty bass of Pickwick Lake.
Here is an article I found while trying to get ready. Topwater anyone? Sounds good to me at this point...
