Hey Fellas! Need Some Pointers For Pre-Spawn..spawn?

[Wild Idaho]

Hey guys,hoping you guys could give me a little advice or direction... I fish on a river and over the last 7 days the water temps get up around 51 and drops 48-49 degrees at night. Prior to last 7 days the water was low to mid 40's. I would say water visibility would be 2-3 feet max.

I am new to fishing spawn or prespawn,not sure if they have started spawning or not. So on my days off I fished the last 2 days & I have thrown flukes,tubes,crawdads,grubs,senkos and other plastics in a variety of colors and have only caught 1 smallie. I've tried fishing slow,dragging,twitching,hopping,whacky rig in weeds and stumps..Tried just driftings plastics with not much luck... So Today when I went out after going through the plastics again,even breaking down throwing a pink tube bait haha and not having any luck I tied on a strike king KVD square bill "blue gill" and started fishing slow...10 minutes & Not a d**n thing..so I decided to speed up the retrieve and just let that square bill get to work on the bottom and my fishing day completely changed. I had 7 smallies on in an hour and missed a handful that didn't strike but took a look. I could retrieve that crankbait as fast as I could reel it and was getting fish...Biggest fish was maybe 1-2lbs.

So my question is,what should be my gameplan from here for catching a lunker? I know I can find fish with this kvd...do I still throw plastics after I get in an area where they are hitting that crankbait and hope to catch a lunker coming in from the shallow or...??? I read during spawning or prespawn everything was a slower retireve but in this case they were attacking a fast retrieve and chasing.

Hope I didn't make this confusing,but was hoping you guys could give me some pointers or maybe what your gameplan would be with what I posted above.

Thanks guys

[roadwarrior]

Square bill is working, so stick with that. Otherwise try jerbaits, Bandit 200, small swimbaits and

a swim jig.

[Scott F]

With water temps just barely at 50, I'd say you are doing well. As the water warms, you'll do even better. when the bass actually get on the beds and start spawning, they won't be feeding and things will get tougher again. All bass don't spawn so it won't be impossible. In the meantime, keep checking eddys and slower water just off the main current which is where they will make beds and where they will be found during prespawn. Fishing the breaklines between the fast and slow water will always produce.

[Wild Idaho]

hey thanks for the replies guys. I tend to read into to much and make things complicated. For now I will keep banging that square bill and see what I can pull out.

This site is really helpful and the members seem great. Hope to share some fish stories! Good luck fishing!

[Wild Idaho]

ha so on my return to the river today,water temp is back down to mid 48 at best. River is way up from yesterday and current is ripping on spots I was able to fish yesterday. Threw a handful of cranks and only had 1 bass take a look but totaly skunked. Tried throwing plastics out and no luck. I for surely need more weight to stay on bottom and with the water moving so fast it was hard to get the crank baits down there and stay down. Im bank fishing.Tough day but the next couple days its supposed to be colder, water temp will drop few degrees give me a couple days to come up with a game plan. Fishing the ripping current is a challenge for me for sure..

[Backwoodsbasser]

Most bass won't be in that faster current anyways especially not in that cold of water. Find te sunnier spots, any rip rap banks or protruding rocks warm faster so fish their eddys. Also if you can find some fallen trees from the bank ino te water wood will hold some fish on cooler days. Just have to crack the code

[Backwoodsbasser]

Up here in the northeast our winter melt has got the rivers up a good 10 feet which has flooded all sorts of new shoreline trees that te bass will go investigate for cover an insects so high water can be A blessing. Be super careful though if you get too close shell pull you in and water that cold and fast is a death sentence

[Danarchy]

X-Raps or Husky Jerks - you can catch them on other stuff but they really key on bait fish this time of year. Look for sand or gravel flats with a drop off or deep hole near by in slack water, behind a current break, or an area with backwards slower current.

Rip the bait a few times then just kill it for up to 10-15 seconds. Then rip again. I love this time of year, once you find the bass hold on tight!

[ragetail1061]

I have found that light colored or even white jerkbaits fished very slow work best for me. Dont have rivers where I live but maybe a keel weighted hook would get it down to or keep it where you need to be in some current? Good luck and remember if you think you are fishing slow enough fish slower!

[Wild Idaho]

Hey fellas,thanks for the advice. This site is awesome. Dig through the forums,lots of greta info and everyone just loves to fish haha,good stuff..Anyways, River temp has been down 47-49 deegrees,hasn't hit 50 degrees all week and the weather has been crappy. Raining,windy,low to mid 50s. River is pretty high,since my last post went out on the river a few times and found some fish. That KVD BlueGill crank was killer but after going through my arsenal of crank baits I was able to pull some fish in with other cranks. I still couldn't catch much throwing plastics so just sticking to cranks on tommorows trip. The river is pretty stained right now and after going through some different colors my red cranks seem to work really well but so far the lure that is producing the most fish for me is the Rapala x rap countdown in clown color. When the bite it slow I can get fish to hit the clown count down. Thanks for the advive guys,this site rules!

Happy fishing

[Wild Idaho]

Weather is a lot warmer last 2 days. Yesterday water temp spiked to 54 or d**n close to it. Fishing was unreal. I'm stuck on the bank and hiking through weeds,trees and steep rocky banks to get places I think would hold fish. Yesterday I throw on my rapala countdown clown color and fish one side on a current break casting with the current for 15 minutes and not a bite. I walk the rocky hillside through weeds 200 feet up river and have another small bend,current seam and now casting straight at the ripping river..fish on! My arms were burning within an hour of fishing. I ended up loosing 4 crank baits but the fish would eat anything. Any plastic I threw. Smallies were extremely aggressive and attacking anything in site. Had an absolute blast. Only downside to my trip was forgot camera in truck and when I list my first crank bait I went to grab my Plano box from back pack and realized I left it sitting on coffee table at home haha but luckily fish were willing to eat anything I was throwing. Going out today and will for surely have camera and most importantly my missing Plano box of cranks ha. Biggest fish yesterday was close to 4lbs,bunch of 2s and 3s. Lost count but I caught at least 30 fish..crazy how a few degrees can change fishing that fast...

Later fellas,happy fishing

[Crestliner2008]

Try casting close to the bank with a 5/8 oz. weighted, hollow bellied swimbait. Get gaudy colors and larger 5" sizes. Such as this Shadalicious:

 

 

I find that this time of the year, with river temps hovering close to 50 degrees and higher, that tossing this lure close to bank will hook you up with lots of smallmouths, as well as striped bass. This combo worked exceptionally well for me last spring. Very weedless, so you can put it into the toughest log jams with no probelm.

[rvolkers]

NOTHING LIKE a mepps in-line spinner GOLD or a Phoebe any color - in new england rivers this time of year TROUT - SMALLIES - SALMON all love these "GO FOR THE GRAND SLAM"

[BuckMaxx]

Everything you have said screams JERKBAIT!