Even though I don’t do it much myself, I do pay attention to what’s going on in the bass-fishing world. When you’re into fishing as much as I am, it’s hard to ignore it when 80% (my guess) of published articles and fishing products revolve around catching bass. I would call myself a casual observer. Even to this casual observer though, I’ve noticed some huge fish getting taken as of late.
Fish behavior isn’t really that different when it comes to fresh vs. salt. Prior to a spawn, fish will congregate and feed aggressively. This behavior works for halibut (which I’ve been keeping a close eye on) and it works for largemouth bass. Either way, pre-spawn is a great time to fish. Here are some more reason to fish pre-spawn bass.
If you haven’t been under a rock, you’ve probably heard about a bunch of big bass from a bunch of different fisheries being caught right now. This isn’t anything new. It’s the folks that target early prespawn bass. Every year about the end of February to the first of May there seems to be a huge influx of giant bass and near record or record-breaking catches. The common denominator often presents as nothing more than the first wave of big females make themselves more susceptible to being caught by feeding and moving into more targeted zones.
This migration often has nothing to do with temperatures. It can have as much to do with length of days, sun, wind direction and sometimes even something simple like a warm rain causing warmer shallows.
This past month we’ve seen a new lake record on Grand Lake, a big 17 1/2-pound monster largemouth out of San Diego from Mike Gilbert, William Davis catching an 11 pounder on Pickwick on one day, only to go back out and catch the same 11-pounder the next day in a tournament. Tim Creighton busted a 12.14-pound largemouth on Guntersville just before the Everstart Series caught a bunch of ridiculous 25-pound plus limits. FLW Tour pro Andy Morgan fun fishing with Frank Flack on Chickamauga boated five that weighed 39.81 with two bass weighing more than 9 pounds. Throw in a 70-pound record striper from Alabama, and if that doesn’t convince one of the power of fishing the early prespawn period, nothing will.
Photos: Wired2Fish
