Turing Practice Info To Toun. Results...a Little Help.

[200racing]

after alot of reading on here about general spring patterns and all thing spawn. i picked up some great info.

one thing that really stuck with me was a quote about where to fish acording to the season. para-phrasing "summer and winter fish the main lake,sping and fall fish the creeks that feed the main lake"

i practiced last saturday. got on the water about 8:45am. i headed way up a big finger of the lake to a creek fed area. i knew it was shallow in this area and got deeper towards the main lake so i planned to fish my way out and i would find them some where.

saturday the lake is very clear by nature but in the back where i started it was chocolate milk.

i put on a double CO. blade 1/4oz white spinnerbait. it had chartues in the skirt and the blades were bigger gold and smaller silver.

we started on the shaded bank in 57deg water. i quickly took the boat to the sunny side almost a degree warmer

in about 75yds i caught 2 and my dad 1 on a t-rigged watermelon w/chartues tail lizard. 1 male and 2 prespawn females,out of about 18in of water. all the bites were soft but my 2 fish were hooked on the main hook not the trailer making me think they really liked it.

i felt like a had figured out a pattern and it was time to try something else.

changed to a white green and orange shallow jerk bait and . back to the shadey now getting a little sunny. i caught one more on it.

now i felt a needed to try somewhere to see it held up.

WE DIDNT GET BIT FOR THE REST OF THE DAY!!!.

tried tried shallow clear,shallow murky,

from deep points all throught the slew till 6'' of water.

the water got around 60 everywhere,but did se any bedding anywhere.

tried several other baits beside the fish catchers.

my game plan for saturday is haed straight there and camp out for awhile.

1st.early- buzzbait,zara spook,jitterbug,popper

2nd.as it warms-spinnerbait,chatterbait,shallow crank,jerk bait

3rd. break out the soft plastics.

does this sound like a plan?

am i right asuming it was a mornig bite that turned off?

i picked up some black spinnerbaits w/ CO. blade after reading they are better for nasty water.would you fish the bait that produced or go black?

i would be greatfull for anything that you are willing to share.

tight lines

[Catt]

2 bass on a spinner bait, 1 on a lizard, & 1 on a jerk bait is not a pattern. From your discription the bass are in "early" pre-spawn, I would for area where the off-colored water meets the clear water.

[Crestliner2008]

I agree with Catt - you may have run into some stragglers, but I don't believe you've got 'em nailed down quite yet. Find the divide between heavily stained & clear water, then look for structure along that. Odds are you'll increase your hook up percentages. Not sure I'd be using a top water for searching just yet - except for the buzzbait. Give the hard jerks a good work out in those areas and I think you will connect. Just an opinion.

[Lund Explorer]

If there is any time of the year where pre-fishing has never done me any good, its during this crazy pre -to- post spawn period. Trying to establish a pattern a week in advance just doesn't work for me when the fish can move so far and change so fast.

That said, I think the original poster was on the right track. With the advice given on seeking the color line in that creek I'm sure more fish could have been caught. Assuming that the OP is now 24 hours from his tournament, many things could have changed, but the base idea is still there. Somewhere up that creek the bass will be found at some stage of the spawn.

If I were in that situation, I'd start just like the previous trip. Throwing search baits to cover lots of water, and the slowing down with jigs or plastics when either fish are found or when key areas (color line, secondary points, decent cover) are found. Of course there is always the fall back pattern of fishing structure/cover near the weigh in site of last week's tournament.

[200racing]

If there is any time of the year where pre-fishing has never done me any good, its during this crazy pre -to- post spawn period. Trying to establish a pattern a week in advance just doesn't work for me when the fish can move so far and change so fast..

boy did this statement come true.....

the slew i pre-fished was pretty dead.caught a few dinks and a 7lb striper up the creek. moved to a clear, clean creek. a few more dinks. i saw one male guarding a bed and caught him . rode and looked for the last hour. my partner lost a nice fish. 1 legal dink and my fish came to 3.5