spawn spring bass fishing ohio lures tips help Fishing in the spawn

[Jlord36]

What would be some good lures to throw on or by beds during the spawn and when is the best time to fish the spawn?

[FloridaFishinFool]

Spawn is at different times of the year in different locations. Bass will spawn in South Florida before they will spawn in north Florida, but usually in March it begins.

Throw anything that will tick them off! Bluegill looking lures work good. When bass are protecting the bed they do not want anything alive in there that could eat their eggs so they get real defensive towards something moving into the bed and will pick it up to move it out of the bed and that is when you can "snag" them.

I don't really consider bed fishing as bass fishing because it is just too easy. I like going after big bass after spawn when they are hungry and feeding and in summer time and fall when feeding. To me, that is what bass fishing is all about. Trying to fool a big old feeding bass. I like looking for feeding activity and move in to give them a lure to get interested in when I see big old bass actively feeding or schooling bass, or search them out in cover.

But for bedding bass it can come down to this easy... park your car alongside a lake, pond or canal. Grab your big wormin' rod or a frogging rod, even a flipping stick rigged with a bluegill swimbait. Walk down to the water. See a big fish sitting on a bed. Flip out past the bass on the bed and work your lure into the bed and hook her when she grabs the lure to get it out of her bed.

Boom! In less than 5 minutes you got a 10 pounder hanging off your line. Is that really bass fishing?

To me it is taking advantage of the bass in a time of vulnerability. I know it is legal in most places. I know people do it all the time. Professionals like Chris Lane win tournaments doing it. But is it really bass fishing? Or, is it bass snagging???

Rig up a weighted treble hook and just snag them off the beds. It is about the same thing to me.

Real bass fishing to me is giving the fish a fair chance to fool me. Real bass fishing to me is for me to create a life like food lure presented in the right way, at the right time and hoping they will bite it. I guess what I am trying to say is what makes bass fishing so enjoyable to me is that it is a challenge of me against the fish. And I just don't see bed fishing as much of a challenge. It is an unfair fight targeting a stationary fish trying to reproduce so we can have bass in the future. I just don't like messing with monster bass on the beds and now I avoid doing it. But if others choose to do it then hey more power to them.

In the past I have used a variety of lures from bluegill swimbaits, frogs, rubber worms, other swimbaits, just about anything that moves she will look at it, turn towards it and if it ticks her off too much she can't resist getting it out of the middle of her bed. Just pure sight fishing. So easy a kid can do it.

I remember messing with a big old girl on the bed years ago. I had a rubber worm on the rod at the time and was walking down the shoreline and saw her sitting on her bed not 7 feet from shore. I actually reached out and tapped her on the head with my rod tip and she just stayed right there so I decided to toss my rubber worm into her bed and caught her and let her go and she went right back to her bed so I did it again, and caught her again and let her go and she went right back to her bed. But the third time I tried to wiggle my worm around in there she seemed to have smartened up and would not take it the third time so I left her alone and moved on. That experience I guess has made me feel guilty about bed fishing ever since and today I let them be. Do your thing old girl and I will try and catch you after spawn when you get hungry! Let's level out the playing field...

[Hurricane]

Live worm on a bobber. .. Seriously. .

[WRB]

I am a believer in seasonal periods, the "spawn" makes up 3 separate seasonal periods.

Based on water warming after the cold water period, the majority of the bass population depending on stable water temperatures.

 Pre Spawn, water temperature at the depth the bass are holding in 58-62

Spawn, the nest building / egg laying time; water temperature 62- 67

Post Spawn, water temperature after the bass are finished egg laying / nest guarding 67-70

The Pre Spawn is a good seasonal period to catch the biggest each year.

Location of pre spawn bass is usually the first deep water break near where the bass spawn; points, channel ledge, hump or any structure that has a good supply of prey for the bass to fatten up on before they stop eating to spawn. Think up hill presentations, the bass are moving from deeper cold to warmer shallower water during this cycle.

Bass tend to "spawn" in waves, not all bass spawn at the same time and nearly every female will lay eggs more than ounce, males build 1 nest, gaurd that nest until the fry hatch and then leave. The bigger females move in and out of the nest site areas and lay eggs a few times.

No reason to target visual beds unless that's something you like to do. Fishing the staging areas near the breaks or fan casting deep to shallow works without "bed fishing".

Post Spawn, the bass are weakened and take a week or so to recover before they start to feed again, slower lure presentation at the same staging areas as pre spawn is a good place to start

Tom

 

[primetime]

I never really bed Fish on purpose, but the guys I know who do it, say a drop shot on the right spot is best way once the male is off the bed. I don't enjoy messing with bedding fish if I see them personally but I am sure it is ok if you don't gut hook them.