Unless you’re fishing every other day, it’s tough to stay right on top of what the bass are doing and the best ways to catch them. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a starting place, a report from your area that gives you an idea of what to tie on first, and where to start?
Here is a report from anglers in various parts of the country, all collected on Tuesday, May 19. These guys are guides or tournament fishermen who are out there every day and know their waters better than just about anyone, and I got them to give you exactly what they’re catching fish on right now, and to give you an idea of where to start your fishing day.
This Memorial Day weekend, between catching bass and eating hamburgers and hot dogs, remember the reason for the holiday is to honor those who fought or gave their lives for the freedom we enjoy. Thank a veteran, or better yet, take one fishing.
Teddy Carr, Locust Grove, Virginia
Teddy is one of the most respected guides in the mid-Atlantic region. He fishes the Potomac River and Lake Anna in central Virginia, and says that spawning is almost done in the Potomac River.
“The majority have been off the beds now for a couple of weeks,” Carr said. “There are a scant few on beds around shallow marsh grass, and they’ve been hitting 3/8-ounce Boogie Baits presented very slowly through the sparse milfoil growing in front of the marsh reeds.”
He said that 5-inch YUM Dingers in green pumpkin or Junebug also will take these late spawners, but the postspawn bass are really putting on the feedbag.
“We’re targeting main river and larger tributary grassbeds for these fish,” he said. “They’re hitting topwater. Black Booyah Pip-Zqueeks and Rebel Pop-Rs in silver and black are pretty effective. If the sun’s shining and there’s a little wind, I’ll switch to a herring color patterned Booyah HD Spinnerbait. If there’s no wind I’ll flip a Texas rigged Craw Papi into the grass pockets. Best color has been green pumpkin.”
Carr wrote the book on fishing Lake Anna (he really did, appropriately titled, Fishing Lake Anna) and he says his home lake is a little tougher right now because the bass are transitioning and moving a lot. He’s been following them from point to point using just a couple lures.
“I’ve been leaning heavily on a 4-inch Houdini Worm in watermelon, rigged on a ¼-ounce Booyah Football Shaky Head jighead,” he said. “The real key to this rig is 10-pound Silver Thread Fluorocarbon line.”
Carr says he’s pulling the shaky head rig very slowly down deep secondary points. He’s also keying in on docks with at least 10-feet of water in front of them. For the docks, he’s skipping a 4-inch Dinger under as far as he can, and working each piling.
For more information on Teddy Carr or to book a trip, go to www.fishingwithteddy.com/
Doug Cummins, Chesterfield, Mich.
Doug is a guide who fishes Lake St. Clair outside of Detroit, and he says that the smallmouth action is red hot, with smallies in most mainlake areas still in the prespawn mode.
“It’s still common for two anglers in a boat to catch upward of a hundred fish a day,” he said. “Some spawning activity is already taking place in the shallow bays around Harsen’s Island where water temps have been consistently at the 60-degree mark for a couple of weeks.”
Cummins says that a lipless crankbait is one of the best choices for locating and catching prespawn smallmouth. Specifically, he’s been catching fish on the Xr50 in ghost and pearl melon color patterns. If the water is especially stained, go to a lemon lime color pattern.
“If the water is calm and clear, swimming a 4-inch grub will catch a lot of fish that might shy away from the crankbaits,” he said. “My clients have had success with the YUM Muy Grande Grub in glimmer blue pepper rigged on a 1/8-ounce ball head jig. Swim it with a slow, steady retrieve.”
Cummins says anglers should concentrate on the 4- to 8-foot depths along the Michigan shoreline through the “Mile Roads,” which runs from Ford’s Cove on one end, north toward Metro Beach. Also try the west side of Anchor Bay, concentrating on those same depths just off shore from the Selfridge Air National Guard Base.
“If water clarity allows, look for the dark spots on bottom and concentrate your efforts there,” Cummins said. “These dark spots could be small rockpiles, individual boulders or new weed growth that the bass will use as cover for spawning.”
He said that fishing for largemouth is best in the boat canals and is a good option if the wind is too strong to focus on the main lake. The canals in and around Metro Beach are a good choice. Cummins suggests flipping a 3/8-ounce Booyah jig around the seawalls and dock pilings.
“The canals have been pretty dirty this year, so black and blue jigs tipped with a matching YUM Craw Papi have been my top producers,” Cummins said.
For more information on Lake St. Clair or to book a trip with Doug, go to www.finelinefishing.net.
Ben Parker, Union City, Tenn.
Kentucky Lake angler and tournament fisherman Ben Parker says the bass in Kentucky Lake are done with the spawn and the high water will be receding over the next few days, which will move the bass more into an early summer pattern.
“Water’s been higher than normal for the postspawn,” Ben said, “and it’s kept bass shallower than normal for this time of year. For the past two or three weeks you could catch fish on multiple patterns, but all that’s about to change. This dropping water will rush all of those shallow fish back out to deeper water.”
Parker’s been cranking a Fat Free Shad (BD7F) in the 8 to 12 foot depths and catching a lot of fish, but says that size has been hit-or-miss. One day he’s catching big bass, and the next he’s plucking dinks, but he feels that with the dropping water levels the crankbait bite will solidify and become more consistent. His most productive color pattern has been Foxy Shad and Citrus.
“There have been a lot of fish caught down toward Johnsonville, the southern end of the lake,” he said. “I suggest to start fishing at a secondary point in bays and working your way out. But it all depends on where the baitfish are. Sometimes I spend half the day just looking for the baitfish. Just about all of the bass I’m catching have little yellow tails sticking out of their throats. If I get in a good bunch of baitfish, I’ll often throw an Xr50 in Foxy Shad or similar baitfish patterns.”
Jason Christie, Park Hill, Okla.
Christie, fresh off his fourth place finish in the FLW Event on Beaver Lake, says that both Grand and Tenkiller lakes are flooded, putting a tremendous amount of water up in the shoreline brush.
“If I was going to one of those lakes I’d key on the flooded trees and bushes,” he said. “The bass are starting to come out of the spawning coves, so I’d focus on the mainlake points and throw a spinnerbait or flip with a YUM Tube.”
John House, Ramsey, Minn.
Bass season where John lives starts Saturday, and he says that he’s seeing smallmouth on Mille Lacs staging on deeper sand/gravel flats out from spawning areas along with fish starting to move up to the outer, open sand/gravel areas adjacent to the bulrush spawning beds.
“The shallow bite should be good,” he said. “If it continues to stay cool the bass should be on the beds, and a 4-inch YUM Rib Worm on a 1/16-ounce mushroom head jig seems to work ver.y well in these conditions, especially along the deeper outside edges.”
House also likes a YUM Dinger rigged weightless for the midrange depths. He said that a good topwater bite is a possibility if the weather cooperates.
“I like a Hula Popper for largemouth bass in shallow, dark-bottom coves where the lily pads have yet to come up, or a Pop’n Image around and over hard-bottomed bulrush beds for smallies,” House said. “The bulrushes are below water level, or just starting to poke above in patches, so working a popper around and over the area is a good move.”
Will Kirkpatrick, Broaddus, Texas
Will Kirkpatrick is a guide and fishing instructor who plies his trade on Texas’ Lake Rayburn. Literally thousands of anglers have him to thank for sharing his tremendous knowledge of bass fishing and Rayburn. When I talked to him on Tuesday morning, he was in his boat and had boated about 20 bass in the first few hours of daylight.
“The bass have been on a great Pop-R or Zell Pop bite early in the mornings,” he said. The fish are holding in pond weed, which has a long leaf kind of like a willow. What makes these weeds so productive is that they have leaves all the way from the root to the top, so there’s a lot of cover there. Where you find this type of weed you’ve got a great topwater bite.”
Kirkpatrick said the topwater bite holds until around 8 or 9 a.m., depending on the light conditions, and then he goes to a Fat Free Fingerling or Fat Free Shad Jr. in Foxy Shad or other baitfish pattern. He works that bait along the outside edges of the weedbeds.
“The shad are moving in and out and that’s what the bass are feeding on,” he said. “That bite lasts until about 10 or 11, then you need to switch to a 4-inch YUM Wooly Beavertail or 5-inch Dinger, both in green pumpkin or Mardi Gras color patterns.”
Technique is important when using the soft plastics. Kirkpatrick says that the most effective way to catch these bass is to cast the Wooly Beavertail to the outer edge of the weedbed and let the lure sink to the bottom, and then shake it with the rod tip.
“I’m using a 3/0 wide gap hook with a 1/8-ounce weight,” he said. “Keep it right outside the grassline. If you’re fishing in the grass, rig the Dinger weightless. I’ve caught seven bass this morning on one YUM Dinger.”
The Water temperature at the time I talked to Kirkpatrick was 73 degrees and clarity was good.
Troy Micnheimer, Greenville, Ill.
Here in west/central Illinois, the largemouth bass are in the spawn to late-spawn to post-spawn mode. They are starting to move out to the flats and mainlake points and gorge on shad.
We've had continuous rain here in the Midwest and the water is dingy but not too bad. For the spawning bass, the baits of choice have been the YUM Wooly Bug in black neon and big o craw color patterns, and the YUM Craw Papi (3.75-inch) in black/blue shadow and Junebug. The post-spawn fish that are still protecting fry are being caught on the Smithwick Devil's Horse in bass/orange belly and XCalibur Zell Pops in z-shad. The fish relating to the flats and mainlake points are being caught on Bomber Fat Free Finglerings in chartreuse/blue sparkle and citruse.
This time of year in the Midwest you can catch them shallow, deep and everywhere in between. Anglers should look for windblown flats and mainlake points when the fish are gorging on shad, and with all of our lakes above normal pool there is some good really good brush in the water for flipping soft plastics. The best lakes in central to sourthern Illinois right now are Carlyle, Coffeen, Sangchris, Rend, Shelbyville and Stephen A. Forbes. Coffeen and Sangchris are both power plant lakes and the bass in those are already in post-spawn mode.
JB Webb, Pottsboro, Texas
The great border lake between Oklahoma and Texas, Lake Texoma, is 22 feet high and launch sites are limited. If you can get on the water, fishing for all species should be pretty good. Bass are scattered in all of that new flooded water, with some holding in a post-spawn pattern on boathouses not too far off the bank. I fished a tournament last Saturday and water temperatures ranged from 65- to 69-degrees. Our best bait during the tournament was a white 1/2-ounce Booyah spinnerbait with a single nickle No. 6 willowleaf blade. We also caught some fish by swimming a 5/16-ounce black/blue Booyah Bed Bug with a matching chunk trailer around the boathouses.
Stripers are mixed in with the bass in the new flooded cover so hold on to your rods. The lake is pretty fair shape visibility wise. This may be changing as six flood gates are open and the upstream stained water is being pulled into the main lake. If you want to catch stripers, try a YUM Samurai Shad (white with a pink tail) on a 1/2-ounce jighead and throw it to windblown points. Also, there is some scattered topwater schooling action taking place.
JB is a full time fishing guide on Lake Texoma. For more information or to book a trip, call him at (903) 786-5271.