Use these lures and tactics to capitalize on bass moving shallow and utilizing easy-to-recognize cover during spring.
Spring ranks among the best times of the year to fish for bass, whether you are a veteran of the sport or a relative newcomer, and whether you’re fishing by boat in a large reservoir or walking bank of a stream or pond. The fish find comfortable conditions and plenty of food in shallow water and often relate to visible cover. They tend to be where it seems like they should be, which isn’t the case through every season.
The bass’ tendency to use visible, shallow cover makes them easier to find. Add optimal temperatures that make the bass active and in need of plenty of food, and they also tend to be easier to catch than at other times, often with straightforward fishing strategies. Four lure types that work extremely well during spring and that together cover a broad range of conditions are a topwater popper, a weightless YUM Dinger, a spinnerbait and a shallow crankbait.
Use a Popper Call Up Bass
Gamefish cruising shallow stay tuned in to surface activity because of critters like frogs and snakes, displaced terrestrial insects and baitfish that get chased to the surface by other predator fish. Surface sounds get their attention and often prompt attacks.
Popping lures, such as a Rebel Pop-R or BOOYAH Boss Pop, rank among the best surface lures for spring bass fishing because they are easy to fish effectively and because they are exceptionally versatile. Fishing a popper, in the most basic sense, involves nothing more than casting to a fishy zone and snapping the rod tip to make a popping splash with the lure. That said, how hard your snap the rod, how far you move it, whether your line begins tight or slack and how quickly you work the lure all impact the presentation, allowing you to appeal to fish in various “moods.”
If bass are around beds or tight to specific pieces of cover, like stumps, dock supports or stick-ups, you can land a popper close, allow it to rest and then work it with gentle pops and defined pauses so it stays in the zone longer to entice strikes. For fish that are spread along weed edges, chasing shad over points or humps or maybe cruising flats, you can work the bait with quick pulls and few pauses to imitate fleeing baitfish and cover water.
Hard sweeps with a tight line create a chugging sound that imitates a feeding bass. Quicker snaps with the light semi-slack make more of a pop that suggests a baitfish. Mix up sounds and cadences and pay attention to what prompts strikes.
Fish Targets with a Weightless YUM Dinger
One of the most efficient ways to fish for bass during the spring is to rig a YUM Dinger weightless, cast near everything that looks fishy, let the bait sink and watch for your line to start moving. The Dinger’s shape and action as it falls do the fish-attracting work for you. If nothing hits on the initial fall, you can lift the rod a couple of feet and let the bait fall again for as long as you’re in the zone. If you are casting to specific targets, though, often it’s best to just reel in and cast again.
You can use a weightless Texas rig if you’re fishing around a lot of weeds, wood or other grabby cover. Alternatively, you can hook the Dinger wacky style, which means you put the hook right middle. Each rigging makes the bait fall differently, and one isn’t necessarily better than the other. It depends on the mood of the fish.
If you’re newer to bass fishing or maybe bring along a youngster or other newcomer – and if the area allows for an open hook point, try rigging with a circle hook, either nose hooked or through the middle of the bait for a wacky rig. When a fish bites, just tighten up. No hookset needed. The fish will do that part for you!
A 5-inch YUM Dinger is standard and often the best choice. For extra-clear water or other conditions that make fish fussier, a 4-inch version can be more effective. Conversely, a 6-incher can be a better choice for stained water and for waters with a larger average size of fish.
Cover Water with a Spinnerbait
If bass are scattered throughout the shallow zone a spinnerbait is an outstanding tool for working quickly and covering water to find active fish and figure out key depths and the types of cover they are holding near. A spinnerbait’s flash and vibration imitate baitfish and get fish’s attention, and fishing the bait can be as simple as casting and reeling.
A 3/8-ounce spinnerbait tends to be a good choice for fishing shallow during spring, with double willow blades or a traditional willow/Colorado tandem being good configurations. Choose the double willow if the water is clear and the willow/Colorado to get a bit more “thump” in stained water. Let water conditions and likely forage help you pick the best color schemes.
Two important variables with spinnerbaits are retrieve speed and depth. While related, these are separate functions because rod angle also helps control bait depth. A good general strategy is to keep a spinnerbait right at the fringe of visible and out of sight. Another is to essentially split the water column in half with running depth. The key is to experiment and pay attention to what the fish reveal. That also applies to cast angles and to the kinds of cover the bait is near when fish bite.
Also experiment with slight hesitations and with twitches of the rod tip as you are reeling. Some days a straight retrieve works best. Other days, slight cadence variations trigger more strikes.
Spinnerbait Options:
Bump Cover with a Crankbait
A crankbait is another cast-and-crank lure that is highly effective for covering water and finding active fish. Especially effective through spring are shallow-running, square-billed crankbaits like a Bandit 100, BOOYAH XCS or Cotton Cordell Big O. These baits stay in a key spring bass zone and are designed to deflect cover, such as riprap, stumps and downed trees.
Bumping the bottom and hitting as much cover as possible are key elements for maximizing spring crankbait success. A square bill kicks out when it hits cover, and that variation in the movement commonly triggers a strike from a fish that is following the bait or watching it from a hiding place within a cover.
When possible, cast parallel to riprap, weed edges, downed trees and docks so the bait stays beside the cover, sometimes hitting it, as long possible. Keep the rod down to help the bait dig the deepest and slow the retrieve when the bait is crawling across gravel or other rocky cover.
Water color and prevalent forage in an area are both important factor for picking the best crankbait color. Start with what seems to fit conditions, but don’t be too stubborn to experiment.
