Play the Odds - Any Lake Any Time - BAG

By Mark Lassagne
Reprinted with permission from Bass Angler's Guide


A quick pitch to the closest piling watching the bait as it falls to the bottom, the line twitches! What is it? Is it a bass? Most likely! How big? Is it still there? Your heart races that split second before you set the hook. For the bass angler this adrenalin rush is what keeps us fishing. “This rush is what it's all about”!

Let's see how to get more of these “what it's all about” bites.

 First, a little homework helps, try to learn the generalities about the lake and get a good contour map or mapping chip. The internet is a wealth of information and by searching fishing reports using the month, weather conditions and water temperature as criteria, I can often get a pretty good idea of what to expect at a certain time of year, especially on a new lake. Friends are also a great source of information as most bass fishermen remember every fish they've caught for many years! Tackle shops can be a great resource, call more than one if possible and

then stop by on your way to the lake. While you're there, look around and see which pegs are empty, sometimes the low inventory and your previous research coincide. Another resource is tournament circuits, look for recent events and the results.  This information can be a yardstick to measure your success against.
Hopefully you now have a starting point, combine that information with these basic seasonal patterns and you'll have a good idea of where the bass are.

General locations per season:

Winter: We will be looking at deep water areas, submerged islands, deep creek channels and main-lake points. 

Spring: Bass move from their deep winter haunts to protected spawning flats, this happens at different time in different areas. Some bass start to move up when the water is in the 50's, others when it's in the 60's. Try to envision a route from the main lake to the spawning area. The protected banks with southern exposure will warm first and receive the bass first. Eventually, most all of the protected coves will have spawning bass. Keep in mind bass spawn on a hard surface bottom. If it's silt you won't find any bass. You can use your rod-tip as a mud or hard-bottom locator.

Summer: Again, the bass are moving from the spawning area back to the main lake and if you found fish in the spring, start in those same areas. The first few weeks after the spawn can be very tough fishing. Depending on the month, you may try the areas where the fish spawn early or later. Bass seem to move quite a bit in the summer so a “stick and move “approach is wise, don't wait for a bite that just isn't there!

Fall: The focus in the fall is bait, “find the bait and find the fish”. Bass can be in open water chasing bait and you may catch them mid-lake in 200 feet of water, or on the bank a foot deep! It would be helpful to know what bait-type the lake has. Shad will be shallow with the bass not far behind while lakes with pond-smelt will find the bass deep. Fall is a good time to fish structure like points, creek channels and anywhere bass can ambush prey. Bass typically move shallow in the fall their minds and mouths fixed on one thought-FOOD! With an idea of where the fish might be during the 4 seasons, the lure selection is your next challenge, but as important as lure choice, is your confidence in that lure. Without confidence your catch rate will suffer. You might ask: “How do I get confidence in a bait if I have never used it?” Here's what I do. I envision the lure in the water, what it looks like to a fish, how the fish will react and strike and how I will set the hook and play the fish.  It is surprising what a difference this imagining can make. Many times you will intuitively know that you're using the right lure and the more time you spend on the water the stronger this intuition becomes.

 
General methods to catch fish per season:

Starting in the Winter we know the fish are deep. The water is cold, which means we will usually start by fishing slow and deep. Lures that produce in the winter are Texas rigged worms, jigs or Carolina rigs all fished slowly. If you happen to run upon a school of bait, hopping a spoon off the bottom or through the school can be very productive. Sometimes in the winter we have warming trends which can bring the fish up shallow, if this happens, a crankbait or a spinnerbait fished slowly will work. If it is a nice winter day and you feel like you should take off your jacket, give the shallows a quick try. If you're in a deep creek channel with standing timber, try a drop shot or even a weight-less senko right next to the trees.

Spring-time bass focus on crawdads. Crawdads have calcium and protein which helps the fish sustain the rigors of spawning. We have a multitude of crawfish imitation baits starting with the jig. The jig can be fished at any depth no matter which stage of spring it is, and the jig is a big-bass bait. We also have numerous plastics that look like crawfish. This time of year you can also catch giant bass on crankbaits. The key to cranking spring time bass is depth; use a crank bait that runs the depth the bass are at. When spring time bass first move up, they can be caught on almost any lure including, ripbaits, swimbaits and spinnerbaits, while the bigger fish often fall for the biggest baits.

Summer-time brings warm water and the bass' metabolism is on high. Early summer or post-spawn can be tough! Sometimes you can find schools of fry with a fish guarding it, to catch this fish throw a spinnerbait multiple times at the fry and don't worry about where the fish is, it will find your bait. When the fish settle into their summer pattern, the day usually starts out catching fish on topwater baits until the sun comes up, and then working down to 20 feet using plastics or a jig. At the end of the day bass can be caught on topwater again. Bass are not afraid of the sun but it is easier for them to ambush prey in low light. Shade found under docks, near canyon walls and thick weed-lines can be key during the summer. During the summer, a storm-front can help the bite as it brings in cloud cover and cooler weather. When a front blows, late spring to mid-fall, many fish will move shallow and feed. After the front has passed through, the fish will often move deeper, close to structure and the bite may slow.

Fall, follow the bait or fish structure. This can be the most awesome time of the year because bass have one thing on their mind, eating.  Spend a few minutes driving around to find the bait, it may be balled up deep or fish may be busting on the surface. Drive over a few points, check the backs of some coves, find where the bait is and look below the bait for signs of feeding fish. People often mistake boiling fish for trout but sometimes it's a potpourri of trout, bass and other game fish. You may catch a five pound trout on one cast and on the next a five pound bass. You can catch breaking fish on many different lures, topwater and ripbaits being the most productive. In clear water a shad colored fluke works well. If you can't find the bait and there's no action, check out the major creek channels. Within the creek channels, an intersection or sharp bend is the most likely holding area.  Follow the channel from deep to shallow and test a few areas for fish. One bait that works well for creek channels is a lizard rigged Carolina style.

Whichever season you fish, keep an open mind and experiment until you figure it out. The greatest reward in bass fishing is figuring out and fooling the fish, as we keep looking for that “adrenalin rush” that comes with the next bite!

 Mark Lassagne is the publisher of the Bass Anglers Guide Magazine www.bassanglersguide.com and a pro bass angler competing on various circuits across the west coast. For more information on Mark see www.marklassagne.com