Post Spawn Fishing Help!

[averagebass123]

At my local neighborhood pond i have been having lots of trouble. I have not caught a good sized bass for 4 weeks or so.

 

I think the bass are post spawn, but i am not too sure. Since it is a small pond, and exposed to sun alot, I figured that they cannot still be spawning cause the pond was at the 60 degrees spawning mark earlier.

 

Anyways, I have been using crankbaits, and alabama rigs and spinnerbaits for the last week with no success. I have probably cast 500 times each day with these, maybe 300 with the bama rig, but no success other than snagging a snapping turtle which was fun.

 

I cast in every direction (circle casting) but I can't seem to find them. I have tried the deepest part of the pond and some of the most shallow. The pond is about 2-2.5 square acres, and the max depth is about 6 feet. There is a fountain in the middle, and 10 feet south of the fountain is the deepest part of the lake, atleast i think.

[zip pow]

Try a senko cast parallel to the bank t- rig weightless work your way around the pond doing this and I'm sure you'll find one. Road warrior has a good article posted on here about this tactic search for senko related articles and I'm sure it will come up.l

[roadwarrior]

http://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-forums/topic/13845-guaranteed-to-catch-bass/

 

 

 

 

[JPascavage52]

Sounds to me like there are still bass that are spawning, but some are moving into post spawn mode/ summer mode, and this is a good time to be in. It's been my experience that bass will come up to spawn when the water temperature hits about 55, and fish will come and go to spawn as the water warms to as much as 70. 

 

For this reason, I would suggest you concentrate on both deeper and shallower structure and patterns. I would also suggest fishing slower, and putting the A Rig away for now, switching to some smaller plastics, and fish slower. As has already been suggested, a T rigged Senko is a great start, cast it to some structure, let it sit for awhile, give the rod tip a small tug, let it sit again, and the begin working it back towards you, raise the rod tip all the way up, reel the slack line up, count 5-7 seconds as it falls and sits, repeat.

 

Some other good plastics are tube baits, and lizards, T rigged or Drop Shotted. Make sure to alter the color to natural forage of the water you are fishing. For example, in the lake I fished the other night, I know that primary forage includes crawfish, brown lizards, dark brown frogs, shiners, fat heads, and stocked trout. I fish jigs, dark colored zoom lizards, and Senko in watermelon, anything with gold flake, and rainbow trout colors. 

 

Target shallow structure, shallow waters 1-6 feet deep for spawning bass, as well as deeper structure (especially curved grass/ weedlines, as these often indicate structure and/ or rapid depth dropoffs. 

[Paul Roberts]

If most are indeed in post-spawn, you'll need to slow down, as fishingood suggests. As more come into pre-summer, some speed can help. A lipless crank burned, or fished with accelerations and .. the bass will find YOU fast! But, as with all fishing, you must fish appropriate to conditions -visibility (sky, water) being critical.