Suspended Baits: Your Best Bet In Cool Water
Story and Photos By Darl Black

The sun had been hidden by overcast skies all morning. Now those gray clouds decided to start spitting wet snowflakes. Upon completing a cast, I cranked the 5/8-ounce Pointer 100 down about 3 feet so it hovered above remnants of last season's mix of milfoil and coontail weeds. Then I tucked the rod under my left arm and stuffed both hands in my coat pocket where chemical packet warmers could bring some feeling back to my fingers.

"What happened to the weatherman's promise of partly sunny with a high near 50?" I asked my fishing partner, Dave Lehman.

"Did you forget this is April on Presque Isle Bay?" Lehman replied. "Those weather forecasters never get it right with weather rolling off Lake Erie in spring."

Both hands had been enjoying the warmth for well over a minute before I removed the right one to once again grasp the casting rod. As I gave the rod a downward twitch to flash the bait, I detected resistance. Immediately the other hand jumped from the pocket to the rod. What started as a gentle lure nudge turned into a hook-setting sideways sweep.

The fish reacted by diving into the brownish-green weed carpet. There was no power run or aerial acrobatics on the part of this bass, only a dogged downward pull as it attempted to bury itself in decayed vegetation. However, steady pressure won out as the bass slowly ascended. The largemouth made a couple of last-ditch zigzag runs before surrendering to my forefinger and thumb grip.

That 4-pounder made one dozen chunky largemouth bass caught in the last two hours. While we had anticipated long pauses would be needed to trigger bites in the 44-degree water, it wasn't until we let the suspended baits rest for well over a full minute before we started connecting with bass.

Suspended Bait Season
As early as February in the South or as late as May in the North, whenever water temperatures are in the low 40s to mid-50s range, it's a good bet many successful anglers will be tossing some type of suspending bait.

A simple definition for a suspender is a lure that neither pops to the surface nor sinks to the bottom when forward motion is stopped. However, few lures are balanced so precisely that they actually hover in the water column indefinitely. Most will either rise or sink very slowly.

"Here in South Carolina, the colder the water, the better the suspending bait bite will be," says professional angler Mike Delvisco. "Of course, our water temperatures do not get as cold as up North, with 40 degrees being about as cold as it gets."

When he's fishing for largemouth bass with the water temperature between 40 to 47 degrees, Delvisco expects bass to be eating a suspending crankbait or jerkbait.

"You can catch largemouth on suspended baits until temperatures reach about 54 degrees, but then the bite fades quickly," he says. "On the calendar, that includes January through March in South Carolina. By contrast, no one up North starts thinking about this pattern until April."

Tennessee guide Jim Duckworth relies almost entirely on suspending baits for smallmouth bass during the winter to spring transition.

"Fish don't have a calendar," Duckworth says. "All they know is water temperature. Smallmouth on my favorite highland lakes will be plucking suspended baits off steep banks until about 57 or 58 degrees. Depending on the weather, that is usually until late March or even early April."

In northwest Pennsylvania, Lehman chases both largemouth and smallmouth bass.

"On the Northern lakes I fish, I'll be catching largemouth on suspended jerkbaits weeks before I'll catch smallmouth," Lehman says. "The jerkbait bite for largemouth starts with temperatures in the low 40s. But smallmouth will not turn on to jerkbaits until the upper 40s. This may have to do with the deeper wintering locations for smallmouth, thereby resulting in some delay before they move into jerkbait range, but that is only speculation on my part."

When the water temperature hits the low 50s, Lehman usually turns to another lure presentation for largemouth. But smallmouth bass continue eating suspended baits until they go on the beds at about 60 degrees.

Why Suspenders?
Exactly what is it that triggers bass to take a fairly large lure suspended in the water column at this particular time of the year?

"Within the 40- to 54-degree temperature range, largemouth bass are transitioning from deep water to the shallows where they will eventually spawn," explains Delvisco. "As they undertake that migration, bass will stage around certain structures. One classic site is where a river channel comes into contact with a 12-foot or shallower flat that leads back to spawning areas. If some mix of logs, rocks or other cover is present, it makes the channel breakline particularly important."

But Delvisco is quick to point out that largemouth position themselves above cover rather than in cover during this period. Instead of the usual tactile contact with an object that resting largemouth bass favor through much of the year, transition bass will suspend over the cover while waiting for a meal to come by.

Duckworth adds fuel to the suspension equation with metabolism consideration. He stresses that bass are cold-blooded animals with their metabolism controlled by surrounding temperature. During winter, they basically take in only a subsistence amount of food. Their metabolism doesn't kick into full gear until the water temperature reaches the high 50s. However, as bass transition toward the spawn, they must eat to fuel their increasing activities.

"Coming out of the coldest time of the year, bass for the most part are still lethargic and unwilling to chase down prey," says Duckworth. "In addition, there is no forage available on the bottom because it's still too cold for either crayfish or for insect hatches. Therefore, bass focus on baitfish, which are also seeking warmer water and their own food source."

Dr. Hal Schramm at the Mississippi Cooperative Fish & Wildlife Research Unit offers a fisheries biologist's perspective. His insight of scientific studies on predator/prey may help anglers better understand what is happening during early spring.

"Let's start with what we know," says Schramm. "Numerous studies have looked at preferred forage of largemouth and smallmouth bass. When I put them all together, the conclusion is that bass are opportunistic feeders. They eat what is available, easily captured and readily ingested. Science can add one more important piece of information. Bass eat what they can swallow whole, and that is determined by body depth of the forage."

According to Schramm, a suspending jerkbait incorporates all these principles, and the flash generated when the bait is snapped or jerked by an angler will attract the bass's attention.

"The bass sees a relatively large, but easily ingested meal that is sitting still and easily captured," Schramm explains. "Other cold-water go-to baits share similar characteristics. More information about when certain cold-water presentations are effective lies in the behavior of the forage in cold water — something biologists know little about."

The bottom line is that during early spring when the bass's reserves are low, they seek food that does not require high expenditures of energy to capture. Therefore, a lure that represents prey hovering in the water column with no apparent attempt to escape becomes the favored target. And if for the same amount of effort, a bass can capture a larger prey, which is a better supply of badly needed energy, then the bass will take it instead of a smaller bait.

To Catch A Bass
Delvisco's top pick is the Yo-Zuri 3D Suspending Minnow in Natural Pearl Blue, which he says suspends perfectly without additional tweaking. However, he replaces the tail hook with an Owner Feathered Treble.

"The opening of the feathers after each pull on the bait provides a subtle ‘alive' clue to bass," explains Delvisco. "I work the bait with a twitch-twitch-and-pause retrieve. The pause is a critical part of the cadence. During the pause, it's important not to pull the bait. The longer you can let the bait sit still, the better your chances of catching a big largemouth on it. However, many bass fishermen have a hard time letting any bait sit. They want to move it every couple of seconds, which is their downfall during this time of the year."

Delvisco points out that the aggressiveness with which bass take a suspended bait varies from day to day.

"It depends largely on weather stability," Delvisco says. "If you get two or three warm days, largemouth can be very aggressive. But if a cold front moves through, it is a setback — either reducing their strike zone considerably or giving them a case of lockjaw."

Duckworth's go-to bait is a Matzuo Suspending Zander Shad. He admits working it with a faster cadence for smallmouth than most anglers.

"Movement is a trigger for smallmouth, so I employ a rather quick cadence of jerk-pause-jerk-pause — with the pause being as short as 2 or 3 seconds on many days," Duckworth says. "But other days I may have to extend that pause. It is a matter of letting bass tell you how they want it rather than how you want to work it."

Lehman fishes a variety of suspending lures.

"I've caught fish on most jerkbaits, but if I had to pick two, I guess it would be a Strike King Wild Shiner in blue-back chrome for largemouth and a Matzuo Zander Shad in clown for smallmouth," he says. "The Lucky Craft Pointer Series is great, too, but I'm careful not to fish that expensive bait in waters with northern pike. Toothy critters like it as much as bass do. But more important than the exact bait is how you fish it. Many anglers like to stake a claim to a particular cadence of a certain number of twitches or jerks followed by a pause. But the exact cadence desired by bass changes almost daily. It's something you've got to work out each day you go fishing."

Lehman experiments with presentations until he finds a combination that works. Sometimes it seems to be very specific, while at other times he doesn't think that the number of jerks or twitches means a darn thing.

"However, I definitely believe the duration of the pause is particularly important," Lehman says. "With regard to the pause, there are a couple of tenets I follow. First, the colder the water, the longer the pause. Second, largemouth bass are more accepting of a longer pause than smallmouth. Smallies apparently lose interest if the bait sits for too long."

Whether fishing in the South or in the North, don't hit the water in early spring without suspending baits in your tackle box.