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If you learn the times, places and strategies to capitalize on the shad spawn, spring bass action can be spectacular. Here’s what you need to know.

The bass spawn may be over but don’t head for deeper water yet. On lakes that team with shad, one of the best shallow fishing opportunities of the season happens when these baitfish spawn. Anglers who take advantage of this phenomenon to catch spring bass, such as Alabama bass guide Jimmy Mason, refer to it simply as “the shad spawn.”

“I start seriously looking for spawning shad in the spring when the water temperature stays above 70 degrees at night,” Mason said. “Here in northern Alabama that usually happens around the last week of April to the first week of May.”

Learn how a Florida sight-fishing expert finds big bass on beds and coaxes those fish into biting.

Northern Florida tournament regulars know.

If bass have begun moving onto beds and Tim Mann is fishing a tournament, he will be someone to watch, come weigh-in time. A veteran tournament angler who considers the St Johns River home waters, Mann is a master at sight fishing. He and tournament partners have notched countless tournament wins over the years and have brought some monstrous bags to the scales.

Mann has an uncanny knack for finding the right caliber of bedding fish and figuring out how to catch those fish. We talked with Mann about his approach and how it helps set him apart in so many spring tournaments.