In May, High Rock Lake’s bass anglers get a treat in the form of the bass spawn, which is in all stages. That’s one reason Chris Love of 911 Custom Lures likes to fish here this month.
“In May, my favorite body of water is High Rock Lake. You typically get a good mix of bass spawning, in pre-spawn, and in post-spawn,” said Love.
This allows anglers to fish a variety of different techniques.
“You’re able to bounce around and use your favorite technique and not get locked into doing one specific thing like you do when all the bass are in the post-spawn,” he said.
On a typical day this month, Love will start off with one of his favorite low-light lures, a 911 Custom Lures buzzbait.
“High Rock is one of my favorite buzzbait lures, and I’ll start with one of those first thing in the morning. I like to start about halfway up a creek and just look for whatever structure the bass will be keying on. That could be rock, wood, or manmade docks,” he said.
For buzzbaits, he’ll use white and bright colors during sunny days, and will go to darker colors when the clouds take over.
He’ll often get some exciting topwater bites throughout the early morning hours, then he’ll migrate to a spinnerbait once that topwater action slows. He sticks with pretty much the same colors under the same conditions here as he does with buzzbaits.
Get jiggy with it
As the day continues to warm up, Love said it’s time to find isolated cover, which he likes to target with his custom jigs.
“Your bigger fish, you’ll catch them by finding isolated pockets of structure and dropping a jig in there,” he said.
Love said the month of May does bring challenges during periods of heavy rain.
“For me, High Rock is really tough when it’s filling up with water. If the mountains have a lot of rain, High Rock’s water level will begin rising. And that’s a hard time for me personally to catch fish there. Some anglers like it that way, but when that’s happening, I’d rather not be there,” he said.
But, he said, it only takes a few days for that to turn around into some great fishing.
“Two or three days after those rains pass, you can go there and have a lot of fun. Those fish will move up shallow, and you can catch some good fish,” he said.
Love’s ideal day on High Rock this month would include warm weather, a slight amount of wind, and partly cloudy skies. He doesn’t find May to generally be a big fish month, but because some fish haven’t spawned yet, he said anglers always have a chance to find some true trophies.
When it comes to jigs, Love relies primarily on two custom color combinations.
“I like one I call OGP, which is an olive green pumpkin pattern, and my other favorite is called Hypnotic. It’s black with blue fishscale and purple chrome fishcale highlights.”
Love makes a variety of custom lures in a wide range of colors. Check them out at 911customlures.com.
Be the first to comment