Your Choice ! North Country Lure Selection For Early Season Bass

[silvercliff_46]

Maybe I'm full of beans, but I think Pre-Spawn, Spawn, happen in a much more compact period then in the south. I'm not sure, but the post spawn may take longer because of frequent cold fronts and over all cooler temps. I know it takes me longer to heal in the cold

I read Summer Peak is when the water gets nice for swimming. I guarantee you will get blue lips in my lakes in August. Last year my warmest surface temp. was 77f (in the sunny shallows). So what would be your lure selection and strategies in Cold Country.

[brgbassmaster]

I am from northern michigan early in the yr prespawn we would use crankbaits in the back of coves with any wood or grass and catch fish. also senkos worked really well also. spinnerbaits medium speed fished through laydowns and grass also.

[kms399]

over here in minneapolis i have seen water temps of up to 85 in the shallows. I use alot of shallow cranks, baby -1, sub warts, and rapala dt 4's also for plastics lizards, senko's, and 6-8" worms. most fishing is between 1 and 10 feet until about august but that's just me and i am far from pro.

[silvercliff_46]

over here in minneapolis i have seen water temps of up to 85 in the shallows. I use alot of shallow cranks, baby -1, sub warts, and rapala dt 4's also for plastics lizards, senko's, and 6-8" worms. most fishing is between 1 and 10 feet until about august but that's just me and i am far from pro.

You don't have to be a pro, I'm just interested in opinions. 8-)

[FunnyFish]

whats up fellow cheesehead. Im from south east Wisconsin and it

takes a while to get up in the temps here as well. I use cranks in the

shallow flats by docks. Jointed shad, DT 4. Also I use a lot of Jigs with

Chiggercraw berkly powerbait. Evolution Jig black and blue PB & J

everywhere on the lake. Mainly by 2 to 10ft by rock shores where it

meets sand but have had luck on drop offs to 14ft in the weeds.

[Low_Budget_Hooker]

I would think that the speed of your presentation would be more important than any particular bait.

or color

[MALTESE FALCON]

Here in S.E. Michigan, of the 118 bass I've caught this Spring, the three most productive baits have been, crankbaits, spinnerbaits, and soft swimbaits. The water temps are between 45-55*.

Falcon

[Crestliner2008]

Here in MA, the water temps are still in the mid-upper 50's, so I'm still throwing hard (and soft) jerkbaits, Senkos and some drop shotting. I'm less of a power-fisherman however. Never enjoyed running & gunning sore of approach. However, I do enjoy sneaking up on them and finessing them into hitting.  

[silvercliff_46]

I would think that the speed of your presentation would be more important than any particular bait.

or color

I know what I do, but if I just do what I do, I don't learn anything.

I start with Rapala's, and cranks, I figure what else, but minnows do they have to feed on. When I see worms and crawlers in my yard, I'll start with worms. When the frogs start to sing, I start to use frogs. When the lilacs bud and bloom that usually coincides with bedding time. I use lizards because they go after bass eggs and bass hate them. I'll use a spinner-bait anytime, sometimes like a jig and bottom bounce it, to burning it.

I've never been much for color, except when water color dictates what I need to use, subdued in clear, brighter in stained. I am partial to black and darker colors, because that's what I see in nature, but that doesn't stop me from using a silver and white spinner-bait with a bubblegum trailer.

I agree with your speed statement. When I am stymied; is when to use buzz-baits, why and how. Another question is: If they are going to hit a buzz-bait, wouldn't they hit a bulging spinner-bait the same way?

So that's me, I would still like to hear other opinions, and how you feel about mine.

[Paul Roberts]

Maybe I'm full of beans, but I think Pre-Spawn, Spawn, happen in a much more compact period then in the south. I'm not sure, but the post spawn may take longer because of frequent cold fronts and over all cooler temps. I know it takes me longer to heal in the cold

I read Summer Peak is when the water gets nice for swimming. I guarantee you will get blue lips in my lakes in August. Last year my warmest surface temp. was 77f (in the sunny shallows). So what would be your lure selection and strategies in Cold Country.

Great post: an ecological perspective 8-). Here's more than you asked for, but yer talkin' my language. Hopefully it'll get us all thinking:

I've only fished extensively in two areas: NY and CO -both close latitudinally. But I think this is true, from all the reading and listening in I've done. The south just doesn't get as cold or get such low sun angles so the warm up period is less intense.

Where I fish we start with ice (about 6 to 12 inches of it). I break it into heat-up, pre-spawn, spawn, post spawn/early summer, summer peak, mid-summer, initial cool down, fall re-heat windows, cool down, winter.

In the north, heat up is a long period, stalled and restarted with each passing cold front. Pre-spawn (real short per water body), spawn, and post-spawn duration is short but the entire window varies with water body size and volume.

Early summer is the heat up into mid-summer, when water temps in my waters reach the ceiling for bass activity in most waters (>80F).

Summer Peak is an InFisherman term, that I hold onto bc it's notable in healthy diverse systems. It's the time when most spawns are finished, waters are chocked with YOY (food), vegetation beds are flourishing, and water temps are at great growing temps for many fish. Biological activity (of the right kind food chain construction for the year) is at its peak.

It seems the south doesn't really get the intense heat up period it's a long drawn out and more subtle affair. It's very intense in the north. Mid-summer in my shallow waters, with the high water temps, knock down daytime bass activity. But I do have some ponds that are spring fed and bass remain aggressive.

The far northerners I've talked with don't get excessive water temps and say the bass fishing peaks in mid-summer maybe akin to the IF summer peak. And then fall shuts down pretty fast as the sun drains away south likely with a good re-heat period (?). My falls are fairly long in duration here in nCO, starting with temps falling into a range more suitable for bass activity, then a short window of re-heating, then sliding into coldwater and winter.

OK....hope that stimulates some thought...As to early season lures:

I think we are similar in that in early season the vegetation has not yet re-grown and so weedless stuff isn't a pre-requisite. I drop down in line weights (8# a lot) and more free swingin' hooks.

I like:

Hair jigs (often with pork strip trailer)

Slow rolled SBs

Skirted jigs, and creature baits.

Slow-rolled crankbaits

Suspending jerkbaits

Shad style grubs on a jighead

Rapala #11 (shallow jerk and surface twitchbait)

Mepps Aglia #3

I've also liked soft jerks and tubes but just never seem to get around to em with all the other options.

I adjust speed and erratic-ness (is that a word?) to conditions, and the lure to needed speed some are better than others. I try not to take no for an answer.