Too often early in the bass fishing season, I read how-to story after how-to story with excruciating details about targeting the ever-so-ubiquitous spring shallow bass.
Just as dollar-cost averaging can give even the toughest investor a weak stomach during a bad economy, targeting deep-water bass in spring bucks basic commonsense, but it’s vital to success. We all know that bass provide awesome action over shallow weeds and soft bottoms early in the season, and that’s where we want to invest our time!
Still it’s a flat-out fallacy that bass are a shallow-only fish that lives exclusively in vegetation and never ventures into deep structure. Learning to find and catch those deep bass during the middle of spring can produce some of the best action and biggest fish of the year. It’s like investing folks: You need to nimble at the edges of shallow water and deep water, then let the natural movement of fish average out your highs and lows!
Before tearing into tactics, allow me to access a little of my aquatic biologist background. Let’s look at the springtime life history of these awesome fish.
In early spring, prior to spawning most bass will be deep, then they’ll begin moving into a “staging” situation – typically along the first break in the lake’s bottom topography. Obtain a contour map and locate this “breakline” before launching your boat. Where seasons allow, I’ll start fishing bass as soon as I can find open water and I’ll fish them until the lakes freeze up. This breakline is an important reference point all season.
Bass will hold on a lake’s breakline when driven from the shallows, and they’ll follow the breakline to travel to other structure, feeding areas, or cooler deep-water resting locations late in the spring. Whatever spawn phase bass transition through, the breakline will serve as a rest stop for the feeding and spawning action of the shallows. Not all fish, even of the same species, are in the same stage simultaneously, which means you almost always can locate fish here. (Geography plays a role here, too. In more northerly climes, bass may be in the prespawn phase while nest-protection is running full tilt 100 miles south.)
Targeting the break will reveal different productive patterns depending on the phase of the spawn. Pre-spawners are a little more active, because they’re still trying to build an energy reserve. Post-spawn are obviously more physically drained and lethargic.
A quick technique aside: My favorite way to catch pre-spawn bass is via slow-rolling spinnerbaits. Work it right along the bottom, almost like a jig with a steady lift-and- drop retrieve. Let it drop to the bottom, raise the rod tip a bit to activate the blades, then drop it back to the bottom.
This is just like jig or plastic worm fishing, and it doesn’t need to be any more aggressive. Run it slow enough, and with enough finesse, to get those lethargic fish active, too.
Now, compared to casting into four- or five-foot flats or dock fishing, this is relatively deep-water work. That first breakline in lake topography probably will begin around 8 feet. Bass also will relate to adjacent deep weed edges or a weedlines. And don’t rule out more drastic depths, say 12 to 25 feet, beyond the base of that first major break. How?
You’ve probably already surmised that electronics will be helpful here. In lakes with vegetation, sonar will reveal where weedlines tapers off, and we’ll even see fish laying near the bottom on that deep edge.
Wherever I fish bass, I’ll hear people ask: What about offshore structure? Well, I always check the top and sides of any easily accessible emergent flats or other offshore structure. Today’s modern map chips and GPS can make finding and researching such structure downright easy.
As a general rule, it’s uncommon to find fish on far offshore structure early in the season. That said, one bass opener, after skunking on bucketmouths early in the day, I tried to find some walleyes. I flew out to an underwater bar and immediately tied into a big fish. I thought “Great! Walleye fillets tonight!”
But a largemouth bass had grabbed my jigging spoon 4 feet off bottom – way out in the middle of nowhere! Before leaving, I caught several more specimens of varying size. What gives?
Far from any shoreline structure, those fish had no intention of spawning. I think they were there all summer for a number of reasons. Some fish aren’t mature enough to spawn, while others were too small. Energy levels could play a role. Perhaps a tough winter stressed them out and they had reabsorbed the spawn as an energy reserve. Or it simply could be that every bass in a given population doesn’t spawn every year.
By nature, I’m more of a shallow water guy. I start out looking shallow, especially early in the year. If I don’t like what I’m catching, I move deeper. Many guys approach it that way, but others just figure the fish aren’t biting and head home.
Even where you don’t have luxuries of sophisticated equipment, your need to work your way away from shorelines and cover water until you find fish. Prime deepwater locations may include rock piles or deep rip-rap. Also, watch for areas with current that create an underwater lip or ledge. In areas with heavy boating and fishing pressure, I look for deepwater escape zones adjacent to prime shallow habitat. When the pleasure boaters get rolling, that’s a top spot.
Largemouth vs. smallmouth? I think the same rules apply for both species but again, at different times of year. Typically the largemouth will spawn before the smallmouth. And largemouth prefer thicker cover while smallmouth prefer more open structure.
As for lures, in deep water-search mode, you need to cover water. Try deep diving crankbaits (there are some great ones on the market these days) down to 20 or 30 feet. You really can tune into specific depths with the latest and greatest versatile cranks.
A jig worm or finesse worm is another old standby. You get a lot of bites using your trolling motor to slowly work this along the breakline. A Sluggo will work, but I prefer it in shallow water situations simply because it takes a long time to sink and reach the fish. I’m too impatient to wait. (Tip: Try thick salt-impregnated-like versions, which sink a little faster.)
Now get out there and make you bass investments pay off!By: Adam Johnson
