‘Tis the season
When the water temperature creeps into the low 60s and the first full moon of spring arrives, the bass fishing world completely changes. The annual spawn pushes giant female largemouth out of the deep water and onto shallow beds (or relatively shallow depending on your lake) where you now have an opportunity to catch some of your biggest bass of the year.
Granted, some anglers don’t like fishing the spawn because you’re interrupting their breeding season and potentially harming their ability to reproduce. There is definitely an ethical concern about bed fishing, and the biggest issue is more about bass not being able to defend their nests once they’re removed from the water vs harming the female or the eggs directly. However, the science seems to suggest that fishing during the spawn doesn’t seem to have much effect on the overall largemouth bass population in any given fishery. Especially if you’re releasing them right away. Bass will lay zillions of eggs each year, and a large number of them will not survive, and the fishing doesn’t seem to play much of a role in that. There is some evidence that smallmouth in northern climates are more affected by spawn fishing, but the presence of gobies in the Great Lakes region may be to blame for that.
Personally, I don’t really do a ton of bed fishing because 1) the lake I usually fish doesn’t have very clear water, and 2) bass tend to spawn pretty quickly up north and sometimes I just miss it. Plus, it’s not always as easy as you think. You’re dealing with cold fronts, high winds, spring rain and storms on occasion, water levels changing… if you think you can just pull up on the bank in calm, gin clear water and bag 50 pounds of bass in minutes, it’s rarely that easy. And if it is, is that even fun? It’s just not my favorite way to fish, but I don’t really have any issue with it.
All that being said, being able to sight fish for big bass requires a different approach than usual, as these bass are striking out of sheer aggression and maternal instinct. Their sole focus is protecting their eggs and fry from nest-raiding predators like bluegill, perch, crawfish, gobies and salamanders. To catch a spawning bass, you need lures that can invade the bed, stay in the strike zone for an extended period, and frankly, piss off mama enough to make her bite. And many times, she isn’t biting to eat, she’s biting to move you away from the eggs… she can spit it out quickly.
All that being said, here is my go-to arsenal: the 5 best lures that I’d use for fishing the bass spawn.
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1. Soft Plastic Lizard/”Hawg”
If there is one creature that a spawning bass hates more than anything else, it is a salamander or water lizard. Salamanders are notorious for raiding bass beds and eating the eggs, meaning bass are hardwired to annihilate them on sight. A lizard or “hawg” style bait presents a massive, threatening profile, and when you flip it into the center of a bed and let it sit, the legs and curly tail will sway in the water. It drives bass absolutely crazy. Rig it on a standard Texas Rig with a light bullet weight (1/4-oz is usually perfect).
Rapala Crush City Hedgehog – $7.49
Colors: White, Black Blue Flake, Watermelon Red
2. Wacky Rig
When the water is highly pressured, or you are dealing with a particularly spooky female bass that swims away every time your bait splashes down, it is time to finesse them with a weightless stickbait. A 5-inch Yamamoto Senko rigged wacky style (hooked directly through the middle of the body) has a slow, agonizingly seductive fall rate. It doesn’t crash into the bed; it flutters down gently, shimmying at both ends. Often, the bass will suck it in before it even hits the bottom. If she doesn’t, tiny twitches of the rod tip will make the bait flex and contract right in her face until she snaps. When the craws and creatures don’t work… the wacky rig is ol’ reliable. Use a size 1 or 1/0 wacky hook. If you are fishing around heavy cover or flooded bushes, opt for a weedless wacky hook with a wire guard.
Colors: Baby Bass, Green Pumpkin, Bubble Gum
3. Texas-Rigged Craw or Creature Bait
Crawfish are another major threat to bass eggs. A compact, flapping craw or creature bait is the perfect tool for pitching directly onto a bed and “dead-sticking” (letting it sit completely motionless) or hopping it in place. Craws and creatures are designed to displace water and look defensive. When a Texas-rigged craw hits the bottom, the claws naturally float upward, mimicking a live crawfish standing its ground. To a bass, this is a direct challenge to their territory. I generally use a 4/0 EWG hook, usually ringed, and peg my tungsten weight so it stays locked to the nose of the bait. This ensures your bait falls perfectly straight into the target zone.
Rapala Crush City Bronco Bug – $6.99
Colors: Black & Blue Flake, Green Pumpkin Blue, White
4. The Bluegill Swimbait
Public enemy number one right here. While lizards and crawfish steal eggs off the bottom, schools of bluegill are notorious for swooping in and decimating a bass’s nest from above. Big female bass will aggressively chase bluegill far away from their beds. A soft-plastic bluegill swimbait like the Megabass Sleeper Gill perfectly matches the hatch of the most common nest-raider in the lake. Instead of dropping it directly into the bed, slowly swim this bait right over the top of the nest, or drag it just along the outer edge. The bass will see it as a scouting bluegill looking for an opening, resulting in some of the most violent, bone-jarring strikes of the entire year. This can also work as a great search bait when you can’t see the beds and are trying to find them.
Megabass Sleeper Gill – $12.99
Colors: Pumpkinseed, Gill, Sunshine Gill OB
5. Drop Shot
A drop shot is perfect for keeping your bait right in the strike zone. If you twitch a Texas rig too hard, it pops out of the bed, forcing you to reel in and cast again. The drop shot completely solves this problem. Cast your weight directly into the center of the bed and shake your rod tip. Your bait will dance, dart, and hover right in the bass’s face, but the weight will never move.
Roboworm Straight Tail Worm – $4.99
Colors: Aaron’s Morning Dawn, Aaron’s Magic, Bold Bluegill
And for a more detailed bait recommendation, specific to your exact location and waterbody, check out the Bass Forecast Bait Advisor. Just input your ZIP code or share your location, and Bass Forecast will give you 5 bait recommendations, a bite rating, and suggestions for peak feeding times.
Bass Forecast Bait Advisor
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