PRACTICE STRATEGIES
PRACTICE STRATEGIES
Assess the Situation
Tournament results, public fishing reports and weather forecasts can all help when assessing the status of the spawn, but simply looking and fishing is the best bet. Each fish’ s physical appearance tells part of the story.
“ Are they beat up from the rigors of spawning?” asks FLW Tour pro Brandon Cobb.“ Do they look like summertime fish that are skinny and already spawned out, or are they just getting ready to bed and are full of eggs?
“ Are you seeing pairs or just bucks [ around beds ]? If you’ re seeing primarily bucks, and they’ re not paired up, then it’ s still early. If it’ s just bucks, the females might be around, but they’ ll be hard to catch. If there are a lot of beds with three or four fish around one bed, the spawn is at its peak. If they’ re rolling in the beds, they’ re hard to catch, but that’ s a good sign the spawn is at its peak.”
Don’ t be fooled into thinking you know the status of the spawn after checking just one area.
“ It depends on the lake, but there are times when they’ re on beds better in certain areas than others, and there are times they’ ll be up all over the lake,” notes Tracy Adams, who’ s considered one of the Tour’ s top sight-fishermen.“ If you’ re there when it [ the spawn ] first starts, it’ s probably going to be better in one area of the lake. If you’ re there in the middle, they’ re going to be up all over, but one area could still be better. You just have to feel that one out as you go.”
Two Search Methods
If you decide the spawn is on and commit to searching for beds, ideally you want to locate as many quality bass as possible. The biggest decision to make is whether or not you test the fish while you look. Opinions vary.
“ I’ m looking from the time the sun gets up until the sun gets down,” Adams says of his practice approach.
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FLWFISHING. COM I APRIL 2017