Successful tactics involve knowing where bass are likely to be, and what lures, colors and presentations they prefer. This guide has a few ideas of his own.
By June, most largemouth bass in North Carolina waters have ended their spawn and are in a blue funk as far as chasing lures is concerned.
Most anglers don’t look forward to the post-spawn because finding an active bass bite often is tougher than getting a smile from a taxpayer, but landing largemouths isn’t impossible.
Joel Richardson of Kernersville has seen his share of post-spawns. A former bass pro, he guides fishermen on a handful of Piedmont reservoirs, from Lake Norman to Kerr Reservoir, up and down the Yadkin chain and especially his home waters, Belews Lake.
What exactly is the post-spawn period? That’s not difficult to answer: it’s when anglers believe bass are most difficult to catch.
During February and March, bass search for food to build up energy reserves to withstand the rigors of the April-May spawn. The “prespawn” actually is when trophy bass are easiest to catch with lures, especially those that mimic baitfish.
Bass will stage offshore on long, sloping points near deep water, plus humps and stump fields, trying to find easy meals and put on weight. Medium-diving and lipless crankbaits traditionally work well because they imitate shad, a favorite bass food. Baitfish gather around these structures, making it easier for bass to get a meal.
Bass also are coming off the winter doldrums, when one or two good-sized baitfish will keep their appetites satisfied for days. That’s why winter, with its low water temperatures and slow bass metabolism, is a difficult time to get largemouth to bite.
Then comes the spawning period, when bass head for the shallows, the females scraping out beds with their tails and the smaller male bass hanging around to fertilize eggs and then guard baby bass.
The best places to find female bass making beds will be on sandy or pea gravel bottoms. Fish apparently know their beds aren’t likely to be covered by algae or silt from rainwater runoff in such places.
“In most lakes in the Carolinas, the peak of the spawn will be the last half of April and the first part of May,” Richardson said. “Most (female) bass will be done spawning by mid-April, and the fish left on the beds after that will be males guarding fry. “Some of these male bass will be good-sized, but the majority at beds won’t weigh more than 3 1/2 pounds.”
Most bass caught near beds in shallow water will be males, although there’ll always be one big female at each nest, but she’ll usually have lockjaw.
If males don’t guard bass fry — which appear as small clouds of half- to inch-long bass — panfish will devastate them; bream are especially ravenous predators of infant bass. However, males guarding beds are hard-wired to keep all predators away from the small fry.
“I don’t think anglers should keep bass they catch near beds,” said bass pro Dustin Wilks of Rocky Mount. “If I catch one, I always release them. You don’t want to mess with the system of bass survival by keeping bass you catch off beds or hauling them all over the lake and then releasing them someplace they don’t know.”
When baby bass grow to fingerling sizes, large enough to fend for themselves, they disperse — and so do their former guardians.
This means in a lake, most post-spawn largemouths will be scattered; another reason anglers don’t like this time of year. The spawn-spent females also take a while to rebuild their strength, and they aren’t easy to locate or eager to chase lures.
But an impoundment’s bass eventually reorganize once the spawn has ended and gather at medium depths near structures, such as points, rocks and brushy areas, just as they did during the prespawn.
Most members of the sunfish family spawn immediately after the bass spawn, and that puts plenty of adult bream in the same areas as post-spawn bass. Anglers should remember the primary colors of panfish — silver, chartreuse, dark green and orange — when it comes to choosing lures that bass like.
“I’ve heard that the post-spawn is a hard time to catch bass,” Richardson said, “because the most-popular way to catch bass is in shallow water. But I’ve found at large reservoirs, shady places tend to concentrate bass a little, along with windy spots.”
Two of Richardson’s favorite post-spawn places to find bass are points or shoals where the wind is blowing, plus steep, shaded shore lines.
“When I’m fishing the post-spawn, and it’s windy, I’ll go to a long point or shoal that drops off into deep water, because I think the wind blows the little critters that baitfish feed on across those shoals, and bass will stack up on the windy side to feed on the (baitfish),” he said. “I think bass just get tired after the spawn, but they don’t have to chase baitfish when the wind blows onto points and shoals.
“Another good place, if a lake has them, is shady places.”
Richardson said he believes bass naturally head for shade and darker places, because being in open, shallow water during the spawn is unnatural to them, especially the bigger females.
“I think all those weeks on the bed disorients them,” he said. “So if a lake has steep banks that produce a lot of shade, especially in the morning or evening, bass are going to be there.”
He also said some lakes will have a good topwater bite during the two weeks after the spawn ends.
“There’ll be a heavy bite at the end of May and the first week of June at some lakes, including (Kerr, aka) Buggs Island,” he said. “It can be really fantastic. That’s when bass love to hit a topwater lure.”
Richardson said he has several favorite Piedmont lakes for fishing during post-spawn.
Randleman Dam Reservoir
This recently-opened lake in Randolph and Guilford counties is a prime spot for bass anglers.
“Randleman is the hottest bass lake around right now,” Richardson said. “It has so many bass it’s incredible.”
Richardson said the post-spawn period didn’t seem to slow the bite much at Randleman Dam. The lake has a lot of wooden cover near the shoreline, plus rocky banks and points.
“You’re average bass at Randleman may be a little lighter than at some other lakes, because if you fish shallow, you’ll be catching a lot of males,” he said. “But there’s always the chance to catch at 5- or 6-pounder.”
Richardson said it’s one of the few lakes if a bass misses a spinnerbait, he can throw back at the spot with a soft-plastic lizard or worm and almost be assured a return bite.
High Rock Lake
This venerable lake, the biggest of the Yadkin River chain, has been a favorite of bass fishermen for years and has been the site of three Bassmaster Classics.
“It’s got more stained water than any of the other (Yadkin) lakes, but I think it’s a little easier to catch post-spawn bass at High Rock,” Richardson said. “It’s got many places to catch fish, especially the docks.”
The two best post-spawn patterns will be fishing soft-plastics around and under docks on the main lake and feeder creeks.
“If you’re fishing post-spawn at High Rock, try the docks along the first halves of the feeder creeks and the docks on the main lake,” Richardson said.
John H. Kerr Reservoir
Kerr Lake (aka Buggs Island) once was Richardson’s favorite before largemouth bass virus took a toll.
“But I think Buggs Island is coming back,” he said, and most biologists agree that LMBV has run its course at the lake.
During the post-spawn period, Richardson prefers the mid-lake region.
“I like to fish in Nutbush (Creek) when the wind’s hitting heavy,” he said. “Little Nutbush to Ivy Hill is where I focus during the post-spawn. I’ve also done well in the open water near Clarksville (Va.) when the bass are (oriented) on the herring (schools).
“When you see (herring) flipping out of the water and see big dark circles in the water, the bass are knocking them, and you can catch them.”
Many areas of the lake also have steep, red-clay banks that hold the crawfish bass love to eat during the post-spawn period.
Badin Lake
Another lake with plenty of steep banks and shade that holds largemouths and crawfish during the post-spawn is Badin, one of the lakes on the Yadkin river near Denton.
“Badin Lake is a great post-spawn lake,” Richardson said. “It’s got steep banks and a lot of woody cover and docks.”
Richardson likes to throw a Pop-R early in the morning on the steep banks and later a finesse worm around shallow, wooden cover and docks.
“You can catch a limit of nice-sized bass at Badin during the post-spawn period,” Richardson said.
Lake Norman
Richardson said Lake Norman, once called the “Dead Sea,” is a good post-spawn impoundment.
“You actually can catch a lot of fish at Norman in the post-spawn,” he said, “but spotted bass will be mixed with largemouths, because they spawn together.”
Richardson’s favorite places are open-water flats with stumps, plus boat docks. He likes to uses soft-plastic lures, but he also likes to fish Flukes and Pop-Rs, concentrating on eight feet of water or less.
“I like the middle of the main-lake area,” he said.
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