Numerous techniques work in May
It’s not the closest lake to his house, but High Rock Lake is Chris Love’s choice for bass fishing in May. That’s because he sees bass in all stages of the spawn there this month.
When he’s not fishing, Love is making fishing lures for his company, 911 Custom Lures. It’s no surprise his favorite lure to start the day with is a 911 Custom Lures buzzbait, but that’s not the only lure he uses during a day of fishing here during May.
“This month, bass at High Rock Lake are typically in various stages of the spawn. Some are actively spawning, some are in pre-spawn, and some are already in post-spawn,” said Love. “And the reason I like that so much is that it allows me to fish numerous techniques. You can really switch it up this month.”
Various techniques
“This is one of my favorite lakes to use a buzzbait, and that’s what I start with first thing in the morning,” he said. “I’ll cast that throughout the creeks, starting about halfway up and targeting whatever structure that may be holding bass.
“That includes rock, wood and manmade docks.”
He uses conventional wisdom when it comes to picking the color of his buzzbait.
“I’ll use white and bright colors on sunny days,” he said. “When it’s cloudy, I’ll use darker colors.”
His buzzbait usually brings some good bites throughout the early morning hours. He sticks with it as long as it’s producing.
“When the buzzbait bite slows down, I’ll switch to a spinnerbait,” he said. “I’ll use that until the weather warms up good. At that point, I turn to jig fishing. It’s a good way to get some fish in the boat, especially when fishing isolated cover.”
Ideal conditions
If he could pick an ideal day this month to fish High Rock, Love said he would look for three factors.
“I’d like it to be a warm day, I want a slight amount of wind, and I’d like the skies to be partly cloudy,” he said. “Fortunately this month, it’s not uncommon to have all three of those factors in play during a day of fishing.”
One thing Love said anglers should watch out for is periods of heavy rain in the mountains, which pushes water straight into High Rock.
“Personally speaking, when High Rock is filling up with water, it’s tough to fish,” he said. “Some guys like fishing it like that, but for me, that makes it hard to catch fish. When that happens, I will wait two or three days, and it can be a lot of fun then. The fish will move shallow, and they’ll bite good. ■
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