Hours and hours of prepping tackle, map studying, watching fishing videos and getting the boat ready have all led up to this, the best time of year. You guessed it, the pre-spawn bite! The bite that makes you realise why you bass fish, why you spend all those hours on the water putting in the work to find the best spots.
Still, some anglers struggle to catch bass during the spring pre-spawn. At times, it can be tough to figure out that bite. After all, largemouth can be very temperamental at this time of year with the weather constantly changing. But, power fishing to cover a lot of water is a great way to break areas down and find where largemouth like to sit. It’s also one of the best ways to put up numbers and maybe even the biggest fish of the year in the boat.
What is Power Fishing?
Power fishing is defined as a fishing technique focused on covering a lot of water quickly with moving baits to trigger reaction strikes from fish, often involving larger lures and heavier tackle.
Often called “chuckin’ and windin,’” this usually involves horizontal moving baits that can quickly cover all depths of the water column. For most anglers, whether fishing on the Elite series or beating the banks, this is one of the most effective types of fishing for finding bass quickly.
This type of fishing often calls for what most bass fishermen love. Big rods, heavy line, and fast reels are what all bass fisherman dream of out there on the water. There’s nothing better than getting slack-lined on 20-pound-test and a heavy rod, then just wrenching on them like it’s your duty as an angler.
Top Spring Power Fishing Baits
Like any style of fishing, there are always baits that really excel and ones that don’t. Finding the right baits, understanding how they should be fished, and how bass react to them are all part of the game. Here are some of the best baits for power fishing big largemouth during the pre-spawn season.
Chatterbaits
If you ask any angler what their favorite bait is, I guarantee they will all say a chatterbait. A combination between a jig and a spinnerbait, the chatterbait is the best of both worlds. The flash and vibration of a spinnerbait with the sleek and slender profile of a jig, making it the best combination for success. During the pre-spawn, it drives bass insane.
“There’s just something about the vibrations of a chatterbait that drive bass absolutely nuts,” says Caleb Konrad of Reel One Guide Service out of Syracuse, New York.
Caleb is a longtime friend that is working up the ranks in tournament fishing here in the Northeast. He is also the person that I spend a lot of time with in the spring chasing big largemouth. Last season, we boated what was possibly the biggest bag we all have seen together, a 35.36-pound bag of northern strain largemouth — all caught on a chatterbait.
“The way chatterbaits move through the water, especially tungsten chatterbaits, is unlike any other lure on the market. It hunts along the bottom causing fish to chase it down and grab it,” Konrad says.
When choosing the right chatterbait, you have to look at the areas you are fishing. In most circumstances, our go to is the Z-Man Evergreen JackHammer. It’s arguably the best all around chatterbait for every condition. When that water is a little cleaner, it’s hard to beat the Z-Man JackHammer StealthBlade Chatterbait. With its smaller profile and glass blade, it creates less shine as its counterparts with a metal blade.
Spinnerbaits
I feel that, lately, many anglers seem to forget the power of a spinnerbait, especially on springtime bass. A staple for years in the spring, a spinnerbait provides the look of a small school of baitfish while giving off lots of resistance. It’s just a bait that has been proven to catch thousands of bass throughout the country. What makes it perfect for pre-spawn applications is how it allows you to cover various depths; that spinnerbait can get burned up dirt shallow or rolled slower to creep along deeper cover. Regardless, it’s a bait that can be used to cover lots of water and generate big strikes.
In the spring, I primarily find myself throwing spinnerbaits shallow along cattails, boat docks, duck blinds, and shallow wood. Places that have a super hard, defined edge. Generally it’s shorter pitches around tighter cover. Roll casting to get into the tightest little spots, then burning the bait out to trigger a reaction strike. My go-to spinnerbait is a Bassman Compact Spinnerbait and for good reason. With its small profile and its ability to move through the water well, it’s great for fishing tight around cover where big largemouths love to hide.
Shallow and Lipless Crankbaits
If there is one type of bait that will always hold a special place in my heart, it’s a shallow-diving crankbait. It can be fished around a variety of structures as well as create a vibrating motion to entice any big largemouth nearby.
There are different lip designs to help defect cover better and a variety of body styles to mimic the forage in your body of water. During the pre-spawn period, it’s hard to beat a balsa wood crankbait for fishing around hard cover, like a Rapala DT series crankbait. The buoyancy of these baits when the bait is paused is superb and draws big bass that are following to bite on reaction.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, you have lipless crankbaits. With their hard rattles and fast sink rate, they drive bass to bite very well in the pre-spawn, especially around standing vegetation. “While I used a lipless crankbait some when I fished at home, it wasn’t till I started fishing Florida lakes with extremely pressured bass did I see trap style baits shine” says Destin DeMarion. DeMarion is a former Bassmaster Elite Series pro and the owner of Big Fat Bass Guide Service on the shores of Lake Erie.
DeMarion quotes “when I was guiding bass trips in Florida, I discovered the power of a trap. Mainly it was a great way to get clients on fish with a chuck and wind retrieve, but it’s what’s inside that triggers bass to bite.”
Trap style baits come in a variety of different internal components. There signature loud baits such as the Bill Lewis Rat-L-Trap that have many internal BB’s to make the bait sing, one knockers such as a Booyah One Knocker when fishing around rock to imitate crayfish, and silent baits like the Nomad Vertrex to give that subtle appeal to a pressured situation. All have their time and place when around certain types of structures and how pressured the bass actually are. “As far as retrieve speed, it all varies. You need to let the fish tell you what they want” says DeMarion. It’s important to vary up your retrieve and let the bass tell you what they want.
The Main Takeaways
Power fishing techniques are a great way to cover water and more importantly, it’s a super fun way to fish. When power fishing and constantly moving the baits all day, don’t get stuck in the same chuck and wind retrieve. Vary up how you’re retrieving the bait and see what the fish really want. Replicating upon your bites is crucial to turning bites into fish in the boat.
Also, when you do get bit, make the same cast over and over again. During the pre-spawn, bass are NEVER alone. Once you find one fish, you’re going to find the whole school. Stay on em and rip lips all day long. That’s what power fishing is all about!
