Mix it up for Postspawn Bass

by Kevin Patton

There are a lot of opinions about what it takes to catch finicky and elusive postspawn bass.

Some anglers would fish for suspended bass off points with crankbaits or topwater lures. Others may try one of the hot finesse tactics, such as drop-shotting or shaky head worms.

Sometimes it can be a day to day experiment to see if a slow technique or a reaction bite works.

My Spring trip to Newton was postponed for two weeks this year, so I expected that spawning would be mostly completed in this hot-water, power plant lake. In recent years I have fished Newton during the first week of April and found spawning bass.

When I arrived at the main ramp at 11 a.m., the water temperature was 69-70 degrees with sunny skies. The water color was bordering on muddy due to near-record rain this year.

After five hours of trying a variety of lures in some of my favorite spots up the cold arm, all I could manage was one small bass on a white Chatterbait. A major adjustment was in order for tomorrow.

I launched at 8 a.m. the next morning at the cold arm ramp. The water was 66-67 degrees. The sky was a mixture of sun in the morning and cloud cover in the afternoon.

Day two would be an improvement, but I had to run and gun for every fish, mixing up my baits and my locations. The bass just wouldn't consistently bite any one presentation.

I caught fish from rocky banks, main lake bluffs, and secondary points in coves. The fish definitely weren't all shallow in spawning areas.

I caught fish up to 17-inches long on a white Chatterbait, a white and silver Nichols spinnerbait, and a chrome and black 3/4-ounce Rattletrap. One 19-inch bass and a few smaller fish took a Texas-rigged black and purple, six-inch lizard.

I concluded that I was in a post spawn situation because I didn't see any bass on beds in the clearer water up the cold arm and because the bass had worn tails and skinny bellies. This was no surprise since the spawn at Newton often occurs between mid-March and mid-April.

The forecast for day three was for 30-mph winds from the southwest, so I decided to fish my best areas in the cold arm early before the wind got out of hand. I went back to my most productive area from the previous day, where my two biggest fish were caught.

I worked the area over with the same lizard and Rattletrap, but got no takers. Once I switched to the Nichols spinnerbait, bass started to bite. I caught a small bass, one 15 inches, a 17 1/2-incher, and one 19 1/2-inch keeper before moving to a similar cove on the same side of the cold arm. There I caught another small bass and a 18-inch keeper on the spinnerbait.

Once the spinnerbait bite fizzled and the wind picked up to a ridiculous level, I fished the lizard in some protected coves north of the main boat ramp but had few bites.

Finally, I decided to bounce around in the waves and see if I could find some biters along windy shorelines. Fishing the lizard was out, so I tied on a deep-diving, shad-colored Fat Free Shad and pounded the windy secondary points in a cove.

Quickly I boated a 15 inch bass and then the largest fish of the trip, a 20-inch keeper. Slow and fast presentations in shallow water, such as lizards, Rattletraps, and spinnerbaits had produced, as well as the lizard fished deeper. Now a deep-diving crankbait came through. It was truly a mixed bag of presentations.

I hadn't found that "magic" bait this trip, but I did find one area that produced a number of quality fish on a variety of baits. Sometimes that's all you can hope for during postspawn. Sometimes what Newton Lake doesn't give you in quantity, she makes up for in quality bass.

This trip showed that postspawn bass fishing often requires a mixed bag of techniques, but if you keep moving you may find a technique or a location that produces quality bass. I had found one 100-yard stretch of bank in a cold arm cove that produced several small fish, two 17 1/2-inchers, and two 19-inch keepers.

When given a choice, most anglers prefer to fish for prespawn or spawning bass. However, if you fish during postspawn you may find that being versatile and mixing up your presentations can produce some nice bass.