Got My Hat Handed To Me Today

[BassmanDan]

It was a beautiful pre-spawn day to fish in Raleigh today. Long story short I fished all day with jigs and bottom baits and only caught two. There were only a few boats on the lake but when I left some guys came in with a five-fish limit of 26 pounds...all caught on reaction baits. It seems there are days, especially this time of year when you are crazy not to be throwing moving baits. Anybody else notice this in early spring?

 

P.S. All of their fish were caught on spinnerbaits, shad-raps and cranks.

[ColdSVT]

I almost always throw moving baits in spring

Jerks, and cranks mostly and the venerable spinnerbait!

[WIGuide]

Fish are moving up and actively feeding this time of year  so reaction baits rule. 

[Grizzn N Bassin]

Cant wait! Good luck on your next outting

[papajoe222]

What I've noticed (and this dosen't apply to just springtime) is that if you stick to a game plan or notion of where the fish are and what they'll bite and it isn't working you'll fail more often than not.

I wore my arms off a few years ago burning a lipless crank as fast as I could in 45 degree water in the spring. Why? because the bass were hammering it and it was the only presentation that was working,  It took over five hours of not catching for that lesson to get through my thick skull.

[Lund Explorer]

What I've noticed (and this dosen't apply to just springtime) is that if you stick to a game plan or notion of where the fish are and what they'll bite and it isn't working you'll fail more often than not.

I wore my arms off a few years ago burning a lipless crank as fast as I could in 45 degree water in the spring. Why? because the bass were hammering it and it was the only presentation that was working,  It took over five hours of not catching for that lesson to get through my thick skull.

 

In other words, the guy who is handing us that hat is ourselves?

 

Agreed!

[Bankbeater]

Around here, moving baits work better during the pre spawn.  I usually use lipless baits, spinnerbaits, and crankbaits until the spawn starts then I slowly switch over to fishing more plastics and jigs.

[tommiller76]

I tend to be one those guys that has to be doing something, sitting there counting in my head has never really been my strong suit. I do use jigs and C-rigs because sometimes that's just what they want. Luckily though there are enough fish in the waters I fish that are willing to move some so reaction baits work quite well for me. Think about it if you spend all day doing the same thing with the same results it cannot hurt to try something different. Einstien said it's insanity to do the same thing over and over and expecting the same results, hell if he believed it then who am I to argue?

Good luck and be safe...