Bass Fishing in Early Spring

March 23, 2009  
Filed under Random

     The temperatures are warming up, and it is time to start fishing.  The bass are starting to come up into the shallows at Santee, and they are moving into the back of the lakes and swamps off of The Little Pee Dee.  The fishing is not very good at Little Pee Dee now because the water is so high, so the only way to catch fish on the rivers now is to get into the back of a lake and fish a Texas rig worm near the bank or a Senko around grass beds and trees.  A Texas rig worm is a worm with a weight above it.  A Senko is a worm that resembles a pen or pencil, and it rocks back and forth in the water as it slowly sinks.  At Santee, on the other hand, the fishing is great; the bass are coming up into two feet of water or less to spawn.  To catch these wary bass, the best thing to do is to get within easy casting distance and anchor the boat or use a power pole to keep from moving the boat and spooking the fish.  Do not use an electric motor near a bedded fish because it will spook it and cause it to swim off, and it might not come back for several hours.  To catch these fish, the best tackle is a six foot medium action spinning rod with braided line and  #5 hook.  The best lure is a solid white tube with 1/4 oz.  Texas rig weight on it.  The key to catching these fish is to throw just past the bed and bring the bait through the bright spot in the middle of the bed which should be about the size of a quarter.  That small spot is the bass’s eggs, and the mother bass should eat any small fish or lure that comes near its bed.  Another good way to catch bass at Santee in early spring is to fish just off of the bank where fish that have already spawned, or those that are about to spawn may be hanging around.  You should be able to get a reaction bite from these fish by throwing a spinner bait, chatter bait, or a top water lure.  You can also catch fish on cypress trees or grass patches when the sun comes up.  To fish this type of cover, you need to fish with heavy line, a large hook, and a weightless worm. The weightless worm will slowly sink to the bottom, and the heavy line will help pull a large bass from heavy cover.  Last weekend I went to Santee and tried to catch pre-spawned bass that were off of the bank in about five feet of water.  I caught three bass that day off of a chatter bait; the first fish weighed seven and a half pounds; the second weighed two and a half pounds, and the third fish weighed five pounds.  If you use these tactics, you should go home with a cooler or a live well full of fish.

                                                                                                                         Anthony Fogner