It’s easy to hear the words prespawn and post-spawn and instantly think offshore. The secondary points in pockets and creeks as fish are moving in to spawn and he humps and ledges as fish head back out are hotspots for bass fishing action. However, there is a short window on either side of the spawn where bass are in the general area where they actually bed, but they’re not locked on. We’ll refer to those windows as the immediate prespawn and immediate post-spawn.
During the immediate prespawn, you’ll often hear the term “cruising” which is used to describe bass behavior as they peruse the shallows in search of a mate and a good place to bed. Bass can be a little tricky to trigger during the immediate prespawn and seem to aggressively feed less and less the closer they actually get to bedding. But you can still catch a few good ones and cover is key when it comes to finding them.
As soon as the bedding process ends, fish look to feed up again. They are typically pretty spent from the spawning process however and will often times seek refuge in the shade of cover and wait for a meal to come to them. Also during this short window, bass will either guard their fry or actually eat them. Either way, those fry typically hang tight to cover and shade as well.
All this to say, overhanging bushes along the bank play well during both the immediate prespawn and immediate post-spawn. Cruising bass can be really hard to catch. Once you see them, they’ve typically seen you and their jaws lock. But they will position under or around an overhanging bush to sneak in one last meal or two.
Then, during the immediate post-spawn, overhanging bushes are probably the most productive they’ll be all year. Typically the bushes will hang within inches of the water, at times even breaking the water’s surface, creating great overhead cover for both the bass and fry.
So once you know where they are, how do you get them out?
Personally, I like to cover water and power fish during these windows. You’ll see a lot of guys skip a Senko or floating worm around and I’ll do that too when they’re actually on bed or if I miss one on something else. But typically, I want something in my hand that I can fish pretty fast.
These are my 5 favorite baits for power-skipping bushes around the spawn.