Because I love to catch bass in deep water, away from the bank, April is a tough month for me. It’s simple: almost all the fish will be shallow this month, no matter where you fish in North Carolina. And a lot of them will be spawning, which makes it even tougher on me.
Things may be different this year, because of the winter we had. It was colder and wetter than almost any winter I can remember, and that may push things back two or three weeks. The first couple of weeks of April may fish more like March, which would be fine with me, because most bass won’t move up into the shallows until the water temperature gets up in the 50s somewhere.
That said, if you’re not fishing for spawning fish that you can’t see, or you’re not catching fish that you’re looking at, you’re not going to win tournaments. I can still catch some fish that way, and if that’s what you’re more interested in, that’s fine. If you want to catch fish the way I struggle to in April, I’d have to say you have a chance with five baits: a Rapala Clackin’ Rap, a Mini-Fat Rap, a Shad Rap a Zoom Brush Hog and a Zoom Z-Nail worm.
I like the latter two baits because I think the plastic bite is better in April. I fish the Brush Hog Texas-rigged with a worm weight; the Z-Nail I fish weedless and weightless. It’s heavy enough to fish without a weight. I know that for me, April is putting the trolling motor on high and going. You have to cover a lot of water because the fish will be scattered.
As far as North Carolina lakes go, places like Buggs Island may be a little bit behind some of the lakes farther south. It may have a little more of a prespawn bite than a spawning bite. You can still catch fish there on a Clackin’ Rap or a Shad Rap in April. When you get to Lake Norman and Wylie and lakes in the southern part of the state, it’s a bedding-fish deal. In fact, by the end of April, there’s usually a pretty good topwater bite at Lake Norman because the spawn is over.
The way the weather has been looking, I’d say people are going to be fishing a lot of trees. The water is as high as it’s been in a while, and it looks like it’s going to continue to be, so you’re going to fish whatever shallow cover you can find, whether it’s gun trees, bushes, laydowns, posts on docks or rocks in three or four feet of water.
Most of the time, before bass really move in to spawn, they’ll stop on some kind of cover and stage. Sometimes, bass will move into a pocket, but before the actually move to the bank to spawn, they’ll stage out in the middle of the pocket, in water that’s a little deeper. You can catch those fish on a small crankbait.
The other thing you need to take into account is how the spawn is progressing on the lake you’re fishing. You can move around the lake and avoid having to fish for bedding fish; you probably won’t win any tournaments, but you can catch some fish.
I think this holds true all over: the first place fish will spawn in the upper reaches of a lake, on the main lake. Then spawn will progress down the lake, so the last places they spawn will be in the backs of creeks on the lower end.
Buggs Island and Lake Wylie are two of my favorite spring lakes. Buggs Island has always been a good spring lake because of all the shallow cover and the number of fish. I like Wylie, too, because fish move in and out of shallow water real fast. Sometimes, you can find a little corner where bass will be staging going in and coming back out.
If you just want to have a fun day, it’s hard to beat Lake Norman. You won’t catch any big fish, but you’ll have a ball just catching fish. If you go and just fish little, flat pockets, you’ll catch fish all day. And by the end of the month, like I said before, you can catch some fish there on topwater.
One thing worth remembering is that in April, you are trying to make bass mad more than you’re trying to make them eat. So you want to fish bright-colored baits, especially plastics. You can fish anything from crawdad all the way to white, chartreuse, yellow and pink. You want to fish the brightest baits you can.
And maybe, that brighten up your month.
David Fritts is a 53-year-old pro bass fisherman from Lexington. He was the 1993 Bassmasters Classic champion, and the 1997 FLW Tour Championship, and he was the 1994 BASS Angler of the Year. He is sponsored by Tums, Ranger boats, Evinrude outboards, Rapala, VMC hooks, Zoom, American RodSmiths and Bass Pro Shops.
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