April bass tips

Thinking about doing an article on bass fishing tips, specifically in April.

I am not a scientific type bass angler, would this be pre spawn, post spawn or right in the middle of it?
What are your go to methods that you like the best?

Water temps and moon phases are the biggest factors of the spawn. In our part of the world here in TN April is still mostly pre-spawn......for largemouth anyway as smallmouth will spawn in somewhat colder water than LM. As the days get longer the water warms up faster due to longer exposer to sunlight. Smallmouth will usually start spawning in water temps approaching upper 50's and generally nest deeper than largemouths in the lakes. LM go on the beds as water temps approach mid-60's. The full moon has a big effect of the waves of bass that go shallow to bed. If the body of water you are fishing is approaching mid 60's near the full moon in May you will start seeing more of the larger females getting on the beds.

I would say it's more spawn than pre-spawn. Of course it all depends on what lake you are fishing and water temps. I know in Watts Bar some fish are definitely spawning. 2 or 3 years ago we were having my sons birthday party the first weekend in April and I caught a 5lb largemouth off her bed. She was on the bed in the swimming area and I threw a texas rigged lizard in about 20 times. I finally got her to bite after about 15 mins. It was cool catching her from the bank.

Favorites:

1. Square-bill crank bait(rip rap banks are my favorite).
2. Shaky-head worm
3. Jig with chunk trailer
4. Carolina-rig lizard

Bubble gum fluke with no weight, buzzbait, spinnerbait, rat-l-trap, texas rigged worm, and a chatterbait.

on ky lake, april 15. thats tax day, nectar flow for honey bees and usually marks the beginning of the spawns for crappie and LMB give or take a week depending on weather. before that is mainly pre-spawn and after that for a month or so is still pre-spawn, spawn and post spawn up into the first 2 weeks of may, generally.

temps stated above are about right but they also need a few consecutive days of sunlight for the females to incubate the eggs before laying. if nasty weather blows in theyll move off into deeper water and wait for conditions to improve. this is what happened during the 2018 Elite series where some fish were still on beds the week before and moved out when the weather rolled in.

travel routes and points from mouths to the back of the creek bays are typical pre-spawn spots along with main lake points and travel routes post spawn. travels routes are generally under water old creek channels, ditches, humps, etc. the north to northeast sides with chunk rock, rip rap and gravel heat up quicker early on as well as creek bays that have multiple feeder creeks. birdsong creek is a good example of this. keep an analog temp thermometer to compare with your transducer and adjust it if its off. even a 1-2 degree difference in water temp can make a difference in catching fish and not catching fish.

the guys above pretty much gave the run down on baits, but dont get committed to one or two baits. youll probably get burned if you do. if they dont hit red switch to a shad color, they may just be feeding on shad instead of crawfish.

learn to read lake maps and sat images. it can make a world of difference on big lakes to find those travel routes.

here is an example. main river channel at the bottom, old creek channel through the middle that runs a few miles to the backwater. those are not islands above water in the middle. they are under water as this was shot during winter pool and the satellite image is looking through the water, kind of like looking through a piece of glass. they are also helpful for searching for logs, treetops, rock piles, etc in shallow water spawning areas. the above water islands are to the right.





the same location with c-map.

here is another example of inside creek points and travel routes. shallow water gravel points that drop into the creek channel. this is just inside the mouth from the main river channel. there is even pocket water with cover.



c-map