Bass Fishing Tip of the Week 01/29/08: Fishing for Spawning Bass in Deeper Water

It's the spawning time of year in Florida and the air temperatures are at 68-70 F and the water temperature is around 65 F and you have a real good feeling about the big mamas being on the prowl. The temperatures have been steadily climbing since the last cold front went through and you decide that the bass have to be shallow performing their annual bedding ritual.

You start to fish any shallow cover ranging from Kissimmee grass, pads, reeds and cattails. You spot quite a few sandy spots in these locations with a few small buck bass protecting their nests. In fact, you catch 7 or 8 small bucks off the beds either by sight fishing or random pitches/casts to these sandy areas. The only problem is your not catching any fish that would even approach the legal size limit.

So what can be the problem? Are the females out in deeper water staging or are the males just too anxious and starting to get ready way to early?

There are two most likely answers. 1- The females may be staging and are just not ready to move to the bed until the moon phase or the water temp is just right. 2- The beds in the shallow cover are the tip of the iceberg, and the majority of the spawn is happening just beyond the shallow stuff in deeper water weedbeds. These beds are the first to be located by the cruising females, so they simply end up spawning in the deep beds versus traveling to the shallower ones.

If the answer is #1, start to verify this by backing off the shallow structure and cast hard jerkbaits or crankbaits to try to locate the staging areas. These may be points, drops or underwater humps. I prefer either Rattletraps or Rapala shadraps to locate these fish, as many of them are cruising the deeper areas and throwing these covers a lot more water in a relatively short period of time. In fact, even if I catch a decent sized fish, I'll continue throwing the crankbait instead of slowing down, since many of these fish are "on the go" and not really keying to any structure.

From Top- #9, #8, and 2 x #7 Shadraps

However, the answer is often #2. This is especially true in relatively clear lakes with submerged vegetation. The submerged cover can be hydrilla, peppergrass, coontail or other species. If the cover is just outside the conventional shallow structure, probe the weeds with crankbaits, worms and craw imitations. These lures will often entice these bedding fish that use the submerged weeds for their beds. They can strike crankbaits out of a reaction strike and if that doesn't work, slow down and throw the soft plastics. I have found that the smaller compact plastics like craws, tubes and finesse worms often coax the deep water bedding fish to pick up the bait better than conventional larger worms.

Chrome Blue Rattletrap

Don't forget about mid lake spawning areas if the underwater weeds are there and the lake has good clarity. If the water is 6 feet or shallower a few hundred yards off shore and vegetation exists, try to spy sandy spots in that area. Use the same techniques described above (answer #2) and you'll often end up limiting out with a nice catch.

So when you are only catching small buck bass in the shallow visible beds, move out and probe the deeper water for those deep beds and you may be surprised at your success!