Pre Spawn Bass Fishing

I have been asked, "What is your favorite time of year to get out and hit the Bass?",
more times than I can remember. The answer for me at this stage of the game is, Pre-Spawn.
Now this term can mean different things to different people. To me it means when the water
begins to warm up in March in my neck of the woods until they actually spawn.

So what's going on at this time that makes it better for me? Well, all winter the bass
have been holding deep. The cold weather forced the shad and other bait fish to move shallow
in the fall and winter months. The bass follow and that is where they staged through most of
the winter. Deep. The shad and other bait fish school up as normal at this time of year and
the bass don't have to do much work since things don't move much in this cold water, around
here the water is in they low forties, 41 degrees, or so......

Now at the end of February or mid March the days are getting longer and we should start to
get a warm up. The water temps will start to tick up, and all it takes for the bass in these
lakes, ponds and streams, to get moving is this upward water temp change of just a few degrees.
They will at this point, begin to stage in other areas for some heavy feeding. You have to think
they have been laying low the last few months and are a bit hungry at this point.They are
gonna chase the bait fish up into the shallows were the water has warmed, probably sit on a
shelf of some kind. Now when then move to this staging area, they will have another option to
feed on, and that would be the crayfish....

So when they are in this stage I like to use a crank bait and I am really into jigs. A jig
and pig combo always works this time of year, just think slow presentation. I have also been
using a lot of creature baits lately. I love all the new soft baits they have been coming up with
recently.

This is a very simple way of looking at what is going on in the pre spawn stage. But it is the
beginning of some good action and for me I seem to always hit my big ones pre spawn. Before
the females lay their eggs and go deep to get some rest. I say get out there now, go fish.