LESSONS FROM A TOURNAMENT PRO

This will be the second installment in a series of lessons from one of Minnesota’s top tournament anglers, Loren Davidson. These lessons are the answers to some of the most commonly asked questions concerning bass fishing.

What Lures Work The Best In Spring?

SPINNERBAITS

The first lure I use at this time of the year is the spinnerbait. I want to cover water quickly, looking for active fish. I use a 3/8 oz. ThunderSpin spinnerbait. I think the rattles in this lure draw fish from further away than a standard spinnerbait. My preferred colors on most bodies of water are white or chartreuse. I usually use double willowleaf, silver blades. I like to run this lure past any cover that I locate in the shallow bays. Stumps, logs, lily pads or weed clumps are examples of the cover the bass will be near at this time of year. If they do not want to chase the spinnerbait, perhaps due to a cold front, I will go into the cover after them, with a lizard on a flipping stick.

PLASTIC LIZARDS

There will be times during spring when the bass are in the shallows but are not very active. When a cold front comes through, dropping the water temperature, they will hold tight to the cover. The rays from the sun are absorbed by the cover, which in turn will warm the water next to the cover. Since we know that the bass are looking for the warmest water, it stands to reason that they will be very close to the cover. Then it is time for a flipping presentation. I like to use a lizard in the spring. I believe the bass thinks of the lizard as a natural predator for their eggs. I Texas rig a tequila sunrise, Berkley Power Lizard. I rig the lizard with a 3/16 oz. rattling brass worm weight and a 3/0 Gamakatsu hook. The Texas rig allows you to get in and out of very tight cover. The flipping technique can often catch you the biggest bass of the day.

CRANKBAITS

If the bass are roaming, still looking for the best areas to build their nests, you will need to fish crankbaits. Crankbaits allow you to cover water better than any other lure. My favorite search lure in the spring is a red Rat-L-Trap. They are extremely easy to fish. You just cast it out and crank it back. The Rat-L-Trap sinks, so you can use the countdown method to cover a variety of depths. A very important tactic to use is to let the lure sink to the tops of the weeds. Retrieve the lure so it just ticks the tops of the weeds. If you do get too deep into the weeds, just rip the lure out of the weeds. It is a good way to trigger a strike. If you use the fiberglass rod that I suggested in Lesson One, you should be able to fish all day long and not get worn out from this method of fishing.

JIGS

I use jigs to catch the females that are staging in deeper water. They are waiting for the males to build the nests. They will hold position near the first break into deeper water, close to the spawning areas. I favor a 3/8 oz. pumpkinseed colored Thunder Jig. Once again, the rattles in the brass jighead can draw fish from quite a distance. I use a Berkley Power Craw in pumpkinseed as a trailer. It seems the crayfish are lighter in color at this time of year and it is a good match. This is a presentation that requires concentration. You must fish the jig slowly, right on the bottom. This is also when you should use your most sensitive rod. Typically, the strike will be light, not the hard crunching bite that comes later in the year.

FINESSE BAITS

Finesse baits cover a range of lures that tend to be small in size and light in weight. You will be using them when you need to keep well out of the line of sight of the bass. When the bass are in very shallow water, such as on the spawning beds, they will be very spooky. This is the time you need to use your spinning tackle. These light lures are very easy to cast on spinning tackle if you use good line like 8 pound test Stren Sensor. My favorite lure to use for this presentation is the tube lure. This lure performs double duty. When it first hits the water, it spirals down just like an injured baitfish. After it is on the bottom, it does a credible imitation of a tasty young crayfish. Both of these feeding opportunities are hard for a bass to resist.

POWER SLUGS

Under the right conditions, there is no better lure to use in the spring than a Berkley Power Slug. This is a pretty strong statement, but one I firmly believe to be true. I have seen spring days where you could catch (and release) thirty to forty bass in a mornings fishing using a Power Slug! I use my worm rod to fish this lure. My six foot, six inch Quantum worm rod has a limber tip making it easy to cast these light lures. I will use this lure as a follow up to the spinnerbait pattern. Bass that would not chase a spinnerbait will chow down a Power Slug in a heartbeat. The lure is also very easy to fish. It just needs to be fished slow. There is a built in action, or should I say non-action to these lures. During the retrieve, they never do the same movement twice in a row. When you twitch it across a weedbed, it will swing to the right, then the left, then maybe the left again. Sometimes the nose goes up; sometimes it goes down when you twitch the lure. I think it is this random action that bass find so enticing. It triggers more strikes than any other lure you can use in the spring, under the right conditions.