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5 Tour Tested Techniques To Land Post-Spawn Lunkers

1. Shake Tubes For Late Spawners
Here’s a news flash. Contrary to what many anglers believe, not all bass in a given lake will spawn at the same time. While most bass have vacated their spawning beds once the water temperature creeps toward the mid-70s, some bass will still be on their nests. Targeting these late spawners can be your ticket to a heavy stringer of fish, provided you use a stealthy approach.

Texas pro Gary Klein proved this last spring on a small lake in Dixie. Although the surface temperature was 76 degrees, Klein felt there still might be some spawning activity. A visual search of a shallow cove quickly proved he was right. There were bass beds everywhere, and although the lake was crowded with fishermen, none of them was focusing on spawning bass. Donning polarized sunglasses, Klein pitched a tube bait onto one bed after another and scored a heavy limit topped off by a 7-pounder.

Reading the mood of the fish was paramount to Klein’s success with these late spawners.

“Bedding bass have distinct personalities,” he explained. “Some of them are highly aggressive and will rush in to kill any intruder that happens onto their nest. Others are extremely wary and require repeated presentations to make them bite. Still others are totally lockjawed. These are the ones that can kill you in a tournament. They may swim up to your lure and examine it, but you’ll waste precious fishing time trying to get them to bite.”

By shaking the tube in place on the bed, Klein was able to catch most of the bedding fish he spotted. He made long, accurate pitches, each time placing the tube in the center of the bed, and then gently shook his rod tip so the lure quivered and pulsated on the bottom. Bass would either peck at the lure violently or simply swim up and suck it in.

“Bedding bass have one thing on their minds, and it’s not eating,” Klein noted.

“They’re programmed to defend their nest, and you can tap into this behavior by shaking a tube. This presentation keeps your lure in the hot zone for an indefinite period of time and works much better than swimming or crawling a lure through the bed.”

2. Drag Tributary Points With A Carolina Rig
While Carolina-rigging is highly popular with weekend anglers, many bass pros dislike the method, claiming it’s too slow for tournament competition and catches too many small fish.

“If I’m Carolina-rigging, I’m in serious trouble,” one pro confessed. “I’ll only resort to this approach if I’m absolutely desperate for a bite.” Virginia pro Woo Daves doesn’t view Carolina-rigging as a desperation tactic. On the contrary, the former Bassmaster Classic champion finds this approach wellsuited to his laid-back competitive style.

“After bass spawn, they’ll follow creek channels out toward the main lake,” Daves said. “Along the way, they’ll stop and hold onto tributary points, where they feed up on shad prior to moving to their deep summer hangouts. These fish are still stressed out from spawning and aren’t likely to chase down a fast-moving lure like a deep-running crankbait. That’s why a Carolina-rigged soft-plastic bait scores so well on these structures. You can drag the sinker real slow on the bottom, and the lure will dart and suspend behind it like an injured baitfish.”

According to Daves, big fish can stack up like cordwood on these points when the water temperature is in the 75-degree range, often in the 10- to 15-foot zone. “Normally, I’ll do best on points at or near the mouth of the creek arm,” he said. “This is an ideal tournament pattern. Just hop from one point to the next and pick up a fish or two on each one.”

A major key to scoring quality fish on these structures is to maintain the right balance between visibility and a natural look with your lure. “By post-spawn, plankton blooms will lend a greenish hue to the water, limiting visibility somewhat,” Daves said. “I’ll dip just the tail of a watermelon or shad-colored lure like a soft-plastic French fry in chartreuse dye to give it a tad more visibility.

You don’t want to overdo it, or you’ll turn off these sluggish fish. If you notice bass pecking at the lure but not taking it, chances are you need to tone down your lure color.”

3. Twitch Baits Up Shallow
Some anglers may be old enough to remember when the floating Rapala was the hottest bass lure in the world. A few Rapalas had filtered into North America from their native Finland by the late 1950s, but when Life magazine featured an article about the minnow mimic in 1962, it triggered an unprecedented wave of demand among bass anglers.

Today, floating minnows aren’t nearly as hot among serious bass anglers as they were back then, but that doesn’t mean they won’t catch fish. In fact, some pros argue that they’re even deadlier now that you don’t see many anglers fishing them.

Several top pros, including Mark Davis, Skeet Reese and Edwin Evers, consistently score big post-spawn bass on floating minnows like the Bagley Bang-O-Lure, A.C. Shiner #450, Smithwick Rogue and, of course, the Original Floating Rapala.

While most weekend anglers fish these lures with a stealth presentation, casting them out and twitching them ever so gently on the surface, the cast-for-cash anglers find an aggressive presentation pays off with bigger fish.

“In post-spawn, bass will hang around shallow coves and the back ends of tributaries, holding beneath overhanging trees and around flooded bushes for a spell before migrating to deeper water,” Evers explained. “I’ll work rapidly around a shallow area with a floating minnow, going for a reaction strike. Use a side-arm cast to get the lure under overhangs, and then as soon as it hits the water, jerk the rod tip repeatedly while reeling up slack. You want the lure to dive, start floating back up and dive again so it darts and splashes like a frightened shad. Post-spawn bass will jump all over it, whether or not they’re actually feeding.”

A 6-foot light-action baitcasting outfit with 12-pound line is ideal for this aggressive approach. “It’s short enough to allow accurate casts in tight places and whippy enough to provide plenty of shock absorption when that big, old sow loads on,” Evers added.

4. Contact Baits On The Edges Of Flats
Another killer bass pattern that savvy pros turn to during the post-spawn period involves careening contact baits like spinnerbaits and crankbaits off submerged stumps and laydown logs. This one sounds like a no-brainer, but it’s where you employ it that can spell the difference between catching dinks and bagging lunkers.

“Bass spawn in protected areas along the shoreline,” explained Tennessee pro Charlie Ingram. “But once they’re done spawning, they’ll move out to the edges of flats where they’ll hold for a few days before scattering into deeper water. Rather than focus your efforts around shoreline cover now, you’ll be better off by making a 180-degree turn and moving out several cast lengths from the bank to the first drop-off into deeper water.

Any seemingly insignificant piece of wood cover you find along the edge of these flats will usually hold bass.”Ingram’s first choice now is a 1/2-ounce willow-leaf spinnerbait.

“The long, slender willow blades have a strong baitfish profile and take advantage of the bass’s propensity to feed heavily on shad before moving into deep water,” he indicated.

“But on days when the spinnerbait bite is slow, I’ll switch to a medium-running crankbait in a shad or bluegill pattern.” Ingram favors a “crash and burn” presentation at this time.

“I’ll cast just past the stump or log and grind the lure straight into the cover with the reel handle, so it careens off the object at a sharp angle,” he said. “Of course, many anglers cringe at the thought of chunking their prized crankbait into a treetop, but its diving lip is a pretty good deflector. Normally, the strike occurs the instant the bait bangs off the wood. Use a high-speed reel and 14- to 20-pound abrasion- resistant line with this tactic.”

5. The Best Pattern: No Pattern
Bass anglers are often too quick to try to pattern a lake, admitted Alabama pro Randy Howell.

“This is especially true in post-spawn, when it’s common to have several patterns operative at the same time,” he said. “Now, it’s not unusual to see the top-five finishers in a tournament catch their fish on five totally different lures and approaches.

Having so many different options now can drive you crazy until you learn to accept it and take advantage of it.” Although Howell claims there are many ways to catch bass after the spawn, he uses this brief period to focus on the methods he enjoys most.

“My favorite approach is twitching a floating worm around shallow cover,” he said. “I’ve caught scores of giant bass doing this during post-spawn. You may prefer cranking or bumping a worm around cover. Virtually any cover- or structureoriented pattern that’s not too deep has the potential of catching big bass now. If you’re more comfortable fishing shallow, use tube baits, twitch baits or spinnerbaits.

If you feel you need to move offshore, target the edges of flats and tributary points. Enjoy this freedom while you’ve got it, because summer will be here before you know it, and you’ll have fewer options.”