Pre-spawn question

I live in SW Illinois and last couple of years I have done poorly in my pre-spawn attempts on my fav. lakes nearby.

Weedlines are almost non-existent (dormant, stick looking), water cold (under 45 degrees)

I have "thrown the tacklebox at them" in the last couple of years with poor results.

Question: What do you guys use as your fav. approach in these types of conditions?

Thanks in advance.

Suthern

PS

Gettin the boat ready soon...I'm itchin to get out after being cooped up all winter.

Last year I did really good throwing senkos weightless to tulies sticking out of the water with edge depths of 4-6 feet. Caught a lot of young buck bass in the 1.3 to 1.5 range I had a couple of 40-50 fish days doing that. You could see them come out of the tulies and look at the bait. Then when their gills flared you knoew you had him.

My next choice was to find 4-6 feet in stable or rising conditions and look for isolated cover or structure, and lee side of points in windy weather.

If conditions are constantly chaning or if you are getting fronts every 4-5 days like we have been this year then all bets are off. If you get lucky you get to fish as the front is coming in or during the storm. My luck has been that I have to hit them as the front is rolling out. WE al;reayd have fish on beds, but all the fronts we have had keep pulling them off the beds so I have had better luck cranking the 6-10 foot depth, with 10 being our deepest water in most areas. One note... unlike winter fishing where I tend to fish the deeper water near the steeper banks, at this time of year I am starting shallow and working out to deeper water near the shallower banks. Also, in coves and back waters I am finding more fish on the north and west sides where the sun hits first in the morning rather than on the south and east sides where it tends to be better in the summer during the mornings. Thes are of course very loose guidlins because every place is different.

I have seen beds and prededding cruisers on solid rock banks this year event hough those aren't ideal spawning bed locations they happen to be where the water warms up first espcially west ond north rocky banks.

How this translates to your area I have no clue, so I guess I should just keep my opnions to myself. LOL

I will try some of this out soon....er' what are tulies?

Regards,

Suthern

Baits would very from jerkbaits, to jigs, to weightless plastics. Let the water temp and aquatic activity determine your presentation. Cold front comes in , sometimes the fish will move back, sometimes they will tuck into available cover. If you find spawning grounds, then move back from there to the flats, and then the adjacent drop offs. Map study to me is the most important thing you can do. Segment off the areas you want to fish, bass are pretty predictable, and use the same spawning areas year after year , almost to the inch (In-Fisherman Largemouth Bass).

Good luck, sorry I cannot be more specific.

Chris

Somewhere between these spawning areas and the deep winter areas will be staging areas such as long points, dropoffs, etc. Is these areas have cover, then that much better.

My baits choices are simple. Suspending jerkbaits and crankbaits fished with long pauses, lipless baits dragged along the bottom or 1/2 oz. - 1 oz. spinnerbaits slow rolled are about all I throw early in the year.

I've caught several nice Indiana bass in March this way.

Brad

Warren

Right, I believe finding spawning grounds will give you an idea about where the fish will winter over. So working out from there is probably his best bet, especially if you are not used to fishing those patterns (deep water, slow presentation) use jigging spoons, or blade baits, or even jigs or plastic salamanders. I have never got to fish Pre-spawn here on Winnebago out of my own boat, so it will be interesting once I get my boat back :-). I know where the fish spawn, so to find their wintering areas will help me big time.

Chris

Warren