The best month to catch bass

If there’s a month on the calendar that every bass fisherman should have circled, it’s May.

Why? Largemouths are everywhere.

The first part of the month bass will be shallow — well, the biggest majority of them — and by the end of the month, anglers still will have a lot of fish shallow, plus a lot of fish will be at mid-range depths.

Some bass will have finished spawning, for the most part, and are getting hungry again, getting aggressive, ready to chase baits.

The chasing part is why May is one of the two months I think about when somebody mentions using topwater lures. October is the other one, but May is probably the best month of the year to fish topwater lures. Anglers can catch some really big fish — and a lot of fish. I can remember many days when I’ve caught fish like that using a buzzbait.

Topwater lures are good to use during May, along with slow-sinking plastic lures, floating worms, spinnerbaits, shallow-running crankbaits and lipless crankbaits. Just about every bait in a tackle box will catch bass, but topwater baits are great.

Why is May such a good topwater lure month? One big reason is a lot of the baitfish are at the surface. The water temperature has moved to around 70 degrees, and it’s there consistently. That puts the bait shallow, close to the surface, so bass are naturally looking up, and that’s where they’re going to attack.

Fishermen need to remember that during May shallow stumps are about the best kind of cover to fish because bass orient near stumps so much. Rock veins and other kinds of cover will attract more bass later in the year, but stumps are great in May.

If you think about it, a pier post really isn’t much more than a shallow stump, so pay attention to them.

The other kinds of places I really like to fish are islands or shallow points. They’re hard to beat, especially long, shallow points coming out of coves where bass have spawned.

When I decide to fish topwater lures, I usually start with a buzzbait. It’s a little easier to fish — you don’t have to be as precise with a buzzbait as a topwater bait like a Skitter Pop or Skitter Walk, two of my favorite topwater plugs. Fishing a topwater bait like those two will work you pretty hard, if you keep at it all day.

I like to use a buzzbait to see how aggressive bass are; they’ll absolutely kill a buzzbait. But sometimes they’ll just come up behind the lure or swirl at it.

When that happens, I know I can send that buzzbait back in there and retrieve it slowly, or I can follow it up with a topwater lure.

If all else fails and a bass won’t hit a buzzbait or a topwater lure, I’ll go back and throw something else, such as a Trick Worm, let it fall a little, and a lot of times, a bass will hit it.

One thing I do to help with buzzbait hookups is to fish a fiberglass rod. When using those rods, I can eliminate trailer hooks because the rod is soft enough that when a bass hits, it’ll give a little and allow me to get a better hookset.

I’ll fish a 6 1/2-foot American Rodsmith cranking rod — but fishermen should cast with the rod they feel the most comfortable using. It’s the softness of the glass that makes the difference.

I like to fish a buzzbait with a reel spooled with fairly heavy line — heavier than I would use when fishing a topwater lure. I prefer Rapala line from 14-, 17- or 20-pound test.

If I feel like fish aren’t aggressive enough to hit a buzzbait, I’ll go to the Skitter Pop and next a Skitter Walk.

I’ll fish those lures with a medium-action graphite rod, usually about 6 1/2-feet long. I won’t fish heavy line; I stick to 14- or 15-pound test.

Zell Rowland is one of the best topwater fishermen among all bass pros. He said with a popping-type lure line that’s too light or too heavy will affect the bait’s action. He believes a topwater popper or walking bait will work best with 14- or 15-pound-test line. The line won’t bother the bait’s action, and it actually makes it work better.

How I retrieve a lure depends upon how aggressive bass are that day. Most of the time, during the first part of the month, it’s best to fish slowly. By the end of May, you can work it faster, keep it popping along the surface. You might stop it a time or two to see if that works, but mostly, you’re going to want to keep a Skitter Pop popping or a Skitter Walk darting.

As far as lure colors are concerned, I stick with the ones that best mimic natural colors. I like Baby Bass the best, but white-with-a-green-back is a really good color. I know bass can’t see the back of that type lure, but when that lures rolls while it’s working, that green-and-white combination seems to work. It’s one of Rowland’s favorite colors, and that’s probably why it’s one of mine.

I also think a bone-color really works well. Sometimes, you need to pay attention to the color of the bait’s belly. Sometimes bass won’t hit a bait with a lot of orange on its belly, and sometimes, they won’t hit one that doesn’t have an orange belly.

The other thing I make sure is my topwater lures have hooks with good feathers tied into them. A lot of topwater lures don’t come with really good feathers tied on their hooks, but you want a feather that will fluff out when you stop the lure. When a lot of cheap feathers get wet, they just stick out in a straight line. You want feathers that fluff; that action might entice an extra couple of strikes every day.

The VMC Sure Set treble hook I helped design has good feathers, and they come in packs of about a half-dozen. The big advantage to this hook is the one big bend on the hook. It allows you to fish a smaller hook on the bait and that helps the bait’s action. And with the bigger bite of that one point, you get the hook-setting power of a bigger hook.

If your topwater lures don’t carry these hooks, switch them out. Remember, when the lure is on the surface, the big point on the front hook should stick down and forward, while the big point on the back hook should stick up. I like to fish a No. 4 or 6 hook size on the back treble and a No. 6 on the front.

If you fish the correct rod and have the right hooks on your topwater lures, if a bass bites, you should be able to get him in the boat — unless he breaks the line or you try to horse him in too quickly.

Take your time and trust your rod, your lures and your hooks.

David Fritts is a 51-year-old professional fisherman from Lexington. He won the 1993 Bassmasters Classic, was the 1994 BASS Angler of the Year, and won the 1997 FLW Tour Championship. He is sponsored by Ranger Boats, Evinrude Outboards, Rapala, Zoom, VMC hooks, American RodSmiths, Bass Pro Shops and Chevy Trucks.