post spawn help

[hipster_dufus]

ok i have tried everything in my tacklebox. any ideas on what to use  post spawn?i have been skunked too many times in the last few weeks. too windy too cold.help

[bassackwards]

ah, my friend.  me TOO!  except, lately I've at least caught 1 bass the 2 times I went out.

try a 5 - 10 ft off the shore.  thats about all my experience can tell u.  

make sure ur fishing good colors for ur environment.  

from what I understand, this is a color scale u can go by...

solid colors for muddy water to transparent colors for clear water.

also, bright colors for muddy water to natural colors for clear water.

[roadwarrior]

All bass do not spawn at exactly the same time and therefore all the bass are not going to fit the mold. That said, post spawn is a tough period. It seems to me that the reaction bite is about all you can expect and that usually means you nearly have to hit 'em in the head to get a strike.

Last weekend I faced the worst possible conditions and on top of that, the fish in my ponds are generally in post spawn.

Here's what worked for me:

Top water, spinnerbaits and surprisingly, soft plastics. I felt like I was getting a feeding bite on the Fat Ika, not a soft tap, but an aggressive strike. The top water action was mostly a swirle that sometimes hooked up, no smashing, killing hits. And the spinnerbaits? Hard to know, but I caught three big fish Saturday and Sunday morning on spinners.

Bottom line: For post spawn I suggest you move into your summer pattern in choosing lures and location.

[Guest silver_thread]

try to find some offshore ledges and fish em with a finesse worm also try a jerkbait and in the morning and night run a topwater over a flat.

[bassin4life]

Flukes,spinnerbaits,worms.....sumtimes topwater like buzzbait

[BassMaster]

in my opinion, it's about 10 times harder to catch bass during the first few weeks of post spawn than it is in 100 degree weather.  about this time of the year, the grass that normally will grow in lakes and ponds has just now started growing, and in the summer time when the grass is fully grown, the bass have somewhere to hide from the hot sun and still have food close by.  i've been out of luck the past few times i've gone fishing, other than the little runts about the size of your hand... but no big bass... i've seen a couple big ones making beds, but i haven't been able to trigger any bites from them.

[Gatorbassman]

Hip,

 Have you been fishing Varner or CE. I have had tons of luck on both with a finess worm on a stand-up jig. I've been finding them in 5-8ft of water on points of land and of cover. When the sun gets high I head for the brush and the shade. I flip to every thick peice of cover I can find. Shoot me an E-mail and I'll see if I can get down there. I am prefishing for the Easter Seals Tourny on Clark Hill all week but I'll be free the next week.

[lookin4lunkers]

Here in central Ar. the bite has picked up. My brother and I went this last week end (pond hopping) I caught three 5 pounders, one 4 pounder and several 1 to 1-1/2 My three baits were white spinner bait with orange and char blades, black and blue jig, and white super fluke. All in All we caught about 30 pounds of fish.

[lookin4lunkers]

OH Yea I was going to say it was about 50/50 fish with eggs to fish without.

[GobbleDog]

From what I've read over the years:

Post spawn = sluggish bass who mostly feed on new born fishies.

Therefore, the trick is to use smaller baits and work em slower than normal.

[hipster_dufus]

i have not fished varner this year yet,always too windy when i hae a chance to go, i will go fishing monday, either varner[or fox at cewc. it depends on the wind.i really guess i have to slow way down

[Will]

Their is a good article in the latest B.A.S.S. Times issue talking about spider grubs for post spawn. Rigging them on a football style head and dragging them through the deeper water.

[KU_Bassmaster.]

Bass paterned Flukes.  Seems like in any tough conditions, a soft plastic jerkbait will get me a few bites.

[lunker_city]

all i can say is pigin' jiggin', Usually works well early in the season aswell as after spaw. just use a jig with a weighted head and hook on a porkrind.

[hipster_dufus]

ok went to varner today, all kinds of bass on the bed.75 degree water.i know i saw bass on the bed in the first two weeks of april. caught a couple of nice ones on a worm and fluke.when will this spawn/post spawn end?

[Chris]

If you can see fry use a wacky rigged senko and pitch it in the middle of the fry. Target the fry and fish slow with baits that are easy to catch or on the flip side reaction bite with a jerkbait or burn a spinnerbait or speed trap. Both work depending on the mood. If both of these tactics don't work move off a little deeper and use a suspending crankbait and target the first depth change next to the spawning areas.

[5bass]

drop shot (12"above weight)

8-15 ft deep

[bassackwards]

I've been noticing these changes in fish.  especially at the small lake I sometimes fish.

I fished about 3 -4 hours with black bleeding tubes and junebug/chart trick worm.  and a violet/purple brushhog.

nada.

bassin4life and bassmaster.  what things are workin for you?

[Gatorbassman]

bassin4life and bassmaster. what things are workin for you?

Great,  now I'm really interested. Can't wait to read what they have to say. :

[Phishn_Phool]

Down here in Fl where the water temp is between 81 to 86...I have been fishing early and late and catching a few on a double fluke rig and a scum frog, but the best bait has been a topwater Devilhorse.  I caught one Thursday evening about 7lbs and this morning I hooked 6 but only put 3 in the boat the biggest was about 3lbs, but this morning the biggest hit a frog and 1 jump and 1 hook, he threw back at me..fun though.. ;DCPR

[bassackwards]

Great, now I'm really interested. Can't wait to read what they have to say. :

hm.  how nice of you to comment.

I'd like to know what other people in my area are catchin on and where it is they are catching.  so I'm pretty interested myself.

[CRS]

Obviously Post Spawn can be very tricky in dealing with finicky tired bass. I like to cover a lot of water, fishing reaction baits. Time is limited, whether you are a tournament angler or just out for fun, sooner rather than later out time on the water will be over for the day. So I like to fish top water or jerkbaits and cover as much water as I can to get the reaction strike or feeding fish strike, spending time trying to finesse a fish is very time consuming so cover water and put your bait in front of as many fish as you can

[Chris]

I just fished a tournament that might help. Water temp was 61 degrees with a major cold front and winds 20mph. The fish where post spawn with heavy stained water. I fished tight to the shore grass with a jig. Most of the fish where tight to cover and I had to make perfect pitches in the thick stuff. Fish where deep in the weeds and in any good clump of grass. Early morning fish where not busting the surface so I skipped topwater. My first fish was caught 6:30 am second 7:30 am on a 1/2 oz jig deep in the salad. 7:45 lost a keeper on a jig. 1pm caught my 3rd keeper on a spinnerbait running it on the outside edge of the weeds. At 1:45 caught my 4th keeper on a spinnerbait on the outside edge. End of the tournament 12lb 6oz took first place and big bass with a 4.78 which was the second fish I caught at 7:30. The tournament was last Sunday.

[Phishn_Phool]

Chris...The fish were "postspawn" with 61 degree water???  Maybe you meant prespawn???

[Chris]

Nope these fish where post spawn for the last 3 weeks the air temp was in the 80's most of the female bass that where caught where caught off the bed (not on beds)with bloody tails. During this tournament we had a cold front that dropped the air temp and the surface temp also. A week ago the water temp was 74 degree.