Favorite Method to Find Bass During The Spawn

[Mike Boitnott]

What is everyone's favorite method to find bass during the spawn?  Many different stages of the spawn and it all doesn't happen at once.  Weather is a huge factor when your trying to figure out what stage the majority of the fish are in and the heavy rains and dirty water doesn't help any. I know personally that I try to follow the fish and study my map all season long.  I am fortunate to not only work at a Marina part time but also as a retired Marine I get to spend lots of time on the water. 

[scaleface]

Being the water here is to dirty for sight fishing I just hit the spawning coves and see what happens .They will spawn in May and early June here . I dont target spawners but fish where they likely are .

[jbsoonerfan]

I treat the bass spawn the same way I do the deer rut. My favorite part of both is the first stage. I would call the first stage the feeding/moving phase for bass and the seeking/searching phase for deer. Bass are feeding and moving into shallow water getting ready to spawn while deer are on the move looking for other deer who are getting ready to breed. During the second stage the bass are on beds and harder to catch as they are pretty well locked down on doing their job. Same thing with deer. They are locked down and breeding and not moving as much. The third stage is the replenishment stage. Bass and deer alike will be feeding and moving and getting back to their normal routine. Depending on ones experience with bass or deer you know where to be, when to be there and what to do during these phases. Success can be accomplished at any point in time during these stages, it's up to the angler/hunter to make it happen. 

[GreenPig]

I don't target bedding fish. I'll typically head to wind blown points and fish my way into coves/pockets with topwater, spinnerbait, and flukes. Once I figure out where the bulk of the feeding fish are I head straight to same distance/depth in the next cove. I believe that we have prespawn, spawning, and post spawn fish now. I've been catching them coming and going. Been four times this week and caught four species of bass every trip.

[Bluebasser86]

I either look for prespawn or postspawn fish. Fish on beds are a pain to target if everyone can see them. If i can't see them, I'll drag plastics around likely spawning areas.

[lo n slo]

7 minutes ago, Bluebasser86 said:

I either look for prespawn or postspawn fish. Fish on beds are a pain to target if everyone can see them. If i can't see them, I'll drag plastics around likely spawning areas.

same for me, in fact, we’ve got swt’s in the upper 60’s right now on my home lake and it’s my opinion that the majority of the fish are spawning. we have been wearing them out recently but the bite was way off this past Thursday. so i will be putting my garden in this coming week and leave the fish to do their thing.