Fishing tip of the week

Fishing Tip of the Week

Tuesday, 21 March 2023 10:05

Locations for pre-spawn bass
The best of the year is near, and locating pre-spawn bass quickly will be the key to having successful days on the water. Most weekend anglers spend the first few hours on the water, finding where the bass have moved, and that can take time. However, there are a few ways to cut down the time it takes to locate fish during the pre-spawn. The best way to accomplish this is to target their most common locations for this time of year. There are several general categories that can be targeted, and in most cases, will help you locate fish.

The first location is areas where the water funnels down, like near water run-offs, i.e. pipes coming out under a road for water run-off or bridges that narrow the river for water flow from one side of a causeway to the other. These areas are natural locations for pre-spawn bass.

Next are what have been commonly known as primary points. Primary points are easy to locate and have a very distinct thread; that being they are located where the shallow point dumps into the deeper water near the main body of the lake. They are ideal gathering places for bass to ambush bait, and they provide safety for bass when they have deep water nearby. These areas act as natural stopping areas as the bass migrate back to the spawning grounds. It’s important to realize that primary points can be different in every lake. As a shallow lake has drops to deep water that are a couple of feet of water, a deep lake’s drops can be a 20-foot drop.

Another area to target is what has been known as secondary points. These are points that stick out within a creek. They are generally smaller but hold bass as they migrate to the spawning areas. An advantage of a secondary point is they become go-to spots for the early spawn during cold fronts, as bass will migrate in and out of the spawning areas to the secondary point to hold when a front comes through in early spring.

Lastly are ditches inside the main lake flats. Bass use ditches to travel to the spawning areas, and they become highways for them to move.

Target these areas in early spring!

-Captain Mike Gerry