Cold water bassin

[Skeeter1]

Guys I need some  help. Scenario is early spring, Water temp around 45 and water very stained.  Whats your thoughts on how to fish this? Jigs,jerkbaits,cranks. Lake has a lot of riprap also. I just plain ol bite in these conditions. I think I fish to fast.  Any suggestions

[Craw]

Pig-n-jig and t-rigged soft plastics. Plastic craws and lizards are good choices, as well as tubes. Don't neglect the all mighty senko either!

For all that riprap, I'd suggest a #7 Rapala Shad Rap(firetiger). This crank is legendary for early spring.

[Catt]

If you think you're fishing to fast you probably are   :

Search baits to locate the bass and the slow down with Jigs or Plastic

[roadwarrior]

If you want to fish fast, Rat-L-Traps and jerkbaits might work, but if you want to CATCH fish, I think you will do better slowing down with soft plastics and jigs. I have been fishing a variety of lures, per member suggestions, without much luck the past several weeks. Saturday I went back to my old standby, a 6" Senko and finally hooked up with a pig. Unfortunately this big girl came unbuttoned, but not before showing herself!

I'll probably stick with the Senko until the water warms up.

[ejtaylor822]

I had some recent luck in cooler weather using some YUM crawbugs.  The air temp was in the 50's for a few days, not sure what the water temp was.  Saw a Bill Dance show earlier and tried the technique he recommended - walking them (crawbugs) across the bottom when the water is cooler and the fish go deep.  Worked pretty good as I did not get a strike on anything else.

Eddie

[wormfishin]

Pig-n-jig and t-rigged soft plastics. Plastic craws and lizards are good choices, as well as tubes. Don't neglect the all mighty senko either!

For all that riprap, I'd suggest a #7 Rapala Shad Rap(firetiger). This crank is legendary for early spring.

That would be my picks as well..

[dizzy5868]

Try 5" senkos wacky rigged in red shad or bkack n blue. Don't work the bait back to the boat though. Toss it to specific targets and let it fall and sit for a good 30 sec, give it a small lift and drop it again for another 10 sec. Then recast. Stained water is easier to fish than you think. It puts the odds in your favor. The fish are easier to locate and are most likley shallow. Trust me the fish can see very well in stained water.

[northgabassfisher]

i would fish a t-rig or a pig and jig and fish it slow you might even want to use a drop shot, or a spoon to get a reaction strike

[dink]

My favorite "honeyhole" is a very stained lake wtih no vegetation and LOTS of wood. This last spring (late winter), I started fishing there when the water temps hit 40. Only one to two feet of visibility was to be had everywhere on the lake. Big spinnerbaits with big blades and Texas rigged creature baits such as Beavers and Brush Hogs, served me quite well all Spring. Just make sure you throw it into the junk and fish them slow!

[CSB]

Black jig, blue pig. Pitch and flip it,  fish it slow. Pumpkin/red pepper Senko's, and plastic worms on a jighead work well too. The main things are to fish slow and get in the strike zone every cast.

[MALTESE FALCON]

In cold water, i've had more success using a small jerkbait with painfully long pauses. This past spring I had some luck with 4" Senkos.

In cold water, I think the key word is SLOW.

Falcon

[Low_Budget_Hooker]

We have 1 particular pattern that we stumbled on a few yrs back and now we look forward to it and it's predictability like it was Christmas again.

We have a very shallow (1-3 ft) back cove.  Immediately after ice out, we get in that cove and fish jigs non-stop.  The fish come in waves, all day.  Well, not all day but for the 4-5 hrs of peak warming.  They come in size class batches.  When we first get back there, there may be 2-10 fish back there and we quickly fish them out.  NOW DON'T MOVE!!  THIS IS THE KEY!!

Hang tight and another class will be arriving shortly.  They may be bigger than the last group or they may be smaller but they will all be similar to the others in their group.

I have never tried another lure back there other than the 1/8 oz jig.  We end up swimming it because of the depth but there is no presentation they don't like, including ripping that jig across 2 ft of water.  Crazy stuff.  We thought we got lucky the 1st time we accidently noticed these fish.  Now, we cruise the lake in the truck constantly looking for that first path through the ice that can get us to that cove.  Once we can get in, a nice sunny day and those fish are there,....waiting it would seem, to get hooked.

Once that sun reaches it's pinnacle and starts making it's way down, the bite stops cold.  We are convinced that the skinny water heats up a good 2-3 degrees warmer than anywhere on the lake.  We ASSUME that is the ticket.

[hi_steel_basser]

In water that is deeply stained, don't waste time throwing a jerkbait. The jig is the ultimate cold, stained water lure, along with a senko. If you absolutely have to fish fast, try a wiggle wart on the rip-rap. Use suspend-dots to make it rise SLO-O-W-LY, and let it pause about 5 seconds between short gentle pulls back to the bottom. If you aren't bumping bottom, you are wasting your time. MY two cents.

[BassMaster_1]

I had some recent luck in cooler weather using some YUM crawbugs. The air temp was in the 50's for a few days, not sure what the water temp was. Saw a Bill Dance show earlier and tried the technique he recommended - walking them (crawbugs) across the bottom when the water is cooler and the fish go deep. Worked pretty good as I did not get a strike on anything else.

Eddie

Crawbugs.... I first tried these after thaw on some private water(April), because I like the look and never really seen any bait fish.  I lost track of how many I got that day, they couldn't resist it!  Long hops across the bottom like the craw was fleeing, I had some bass hit is so fast I couldn't catch up to hook them.  I have one tied on my rod year round and at all times now.  Its one of my go to baits now.

[mudcatwilly]

If it's prespawn, I like to look for shallow ledges with quick access to deep water.  The bass like to stack up around those ledges, waiting for the water to warm up.  I'd toss a jig and work it slowly from the ledge, down the face of the embankment.  I also like to fish a suspending ripbait parallel to the break.  It can draw the big bass from deep water up to the break.