April is an awfully fun time to be a bass fisherman in South Carolina. The weather is usually great, and the fishing is good. You can count on almost all the bass being in shallow water, and the most interesting part is, you’re going to be looking at a lot of the fish you’re catching.
I’m not the biggest fan of sight-fishing for spawning bass, but it is a very interesting way to catch fish. I’d still rather catch fish I can’t see, but you can really have a good time out there catching bass you’re looking at.
The spawn across South Carolina is usually early to mid-April. It can be a little earlier or later on different lakes, and it can be earlier and later depending on the weather, but April is definitely the month. With that in mind, anybody who fishes should practice catch-and-release in April, moreso than at any other time. There’s nothing wrong with keeping a few bass to take home and eat, but when bass are spawning, they’re either actually spawning or guarding fry or eggs. It’s a time when we really need to put back the fish we catch, because ensuring a good spawn is a lot more important than a couple of bass filets.
That said, when the spawn is approaching, I attack a lake the same way I would in February, July or October. I try to put together a pattern. That means putting my trolling motor down and covering a lot of ground. I’m searching, fishing fast, trying to figure out what kind of cover and how far back in the creeks the bass have moved. If I can put together a good pattern, I don’t necessarily have to see fish to catch ’em.
Years ago, I used a floating worm as my search bait in April. I’ve gone to a Senko Lite, which I fish on a 3/0 Owner rigging hook, with a 7-foot medium-action All-Star baitcasting rod, and I’ll use 10-pound Trilene XT, because if you use fluorocarbon, you have to fish it too fast to keep it up at the surface. I like really bright colors — yellow is my favorite — because you need to be able to see the bait as you’re working it. I’ll fish it between six inches and a foot below the surface, and I really need to have the water clear enough that I can see at least two feet down — and three or four feet is good. This bait doesn’t have a lot of movement, sound or vibration; it’s a visual bait — they’ve got to be able to see it, too. And bass tend to be very aggressive when they can see something.
Searching is the whole deal when you’re fishing a bait like this. I want to be able to catch a few fish, but any one I actually catch is gravy. You’ll get a lot of fish that just swirl at a bait. Some days they eat it, and some days, four out of five will just swirl at it. But if you pay attention to the fish that swirl at it, you can start to figure out whether they’re spawning around boat docks or stumps or willows. When I get it figured out, I can slow down and go back and fish a jig, a lizard or a regular Senko. You’re casting to the kind of spots you’ve found them. When I make a pass through a pocket, I try to catch them just fishing, then I come back and fish for the ones I found.
Once in a while, you pull into a pocket and look down the bank and see a bedding fish about every 50 feet. That’s when you look up at the sky and say, “Thank you, Lord.”
One thing I think fishermen need to realize about sight-fishing for spawning fish is that if you can see a fish, nine out of 10 times, the fish can see you, and it might take you anywhere from five minutes to five hours to catch it. If you’ve done a lot of sight-fishing, you get a knack for figuring out which fish you can catch and which ones you can’t. It’s like going to a high-school dance, figuring out which girls will dance with you and which ones won’t. You can just tell.
A fish that spooks off the bed when you approach, even if it comes back, that’s probably a fish you’re not gonna catch. I want to see a fish that’s acting sort of jumpy but won’t leave the bed. And if the fish doesn’t even move, if it’s really locked down, I’d rather try to catch that fish than the one that’s roaming around. With a locked-down fish, you just use a lot of different baits and different colors to try and make her bite.
I can remember a BASS tournament at Santee when I found a 5-pound fish. I stopped and fished for it for about 30 minutes. I fished everything I had, all kinds of bait, and nothing worked. Then, I picked up a lizard, threw it about five feet past the bed and was going to drag it in, and it had barely hit the water before she raced over and ate it.
Depending on the fish, you may have to experiment with a lot of baits and colors, but eventually, she’ll eat. It’s like me sitting down at the dinner table. Even if I’m not hungry, if you keep putting a piece of pie or cake in front of me, eventually, I’ll eat one of them.
When I’m actually fishing for bass I can see, I try to stay as far away as I can and still get the bait in the bed. If I can stay a full cast away and get my Senko in there — and still be able to see everything — that’s how far back I’ll stay. If I have to move a little closer, I will, but I don’t like to hunker down on top of one.
One other big variable is finding two fish on a bed — the female and the male. The male is going to be more protective than the female. He’s going to be more aggressive and most likely, he’s going to bite first. Some fishermen believe you should try to catch him, put him in the livewell or take him somewhere else and release him, then come back and fish for her.
If you catch him first, one of two things will happen. The female will become more protective and she’ll bite, or she’ll just leave. I think she goes looking for him. It’s just a chance you take. Of course, if you see an 8-pounder and you’re in a tournament, a 50-50 chance is all you can expect.
But if you’re just out fishing to have a good time, if you’re out on the water because it’s a beautiful day and you want to enjoy yourself, you can have as fun a day on the water as you’ll ever have, because you’ll be able to catch all the pound-and-a-half and 2-pound bass you’
Davy Hite, a 44-year-old native of Saluda who lives in Ninety Six, was BASS Angler of the Year in 1997 and 2002, and he has won the 1999 Bassmasters Classic and the 1998 FLW Tour Championship. He is sponsored by Triton boats, Evinrude outboards, All-Star rods, Pfleuger reels, Berkley Trilene, Yamamoto Baits, Owner hooks, Humminbird depthfinders and Solar Bat sunglasses.
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