When water temps hit the 60s, Elite Series pro Jordan Lee looks for spawn-oriented largemouth inside shoreline indention ‘pockets’ formed by tiny tributaries on nearly every major reservoir in America.
Pockets can be located along main lake shorelines, typically where large natural drainage ditches are located or, as is more commonly the case, inside the major creeks of a reservoir where a minor stream originally ran into the main creek prior to the reservoir’s dam construction.
“Pockets are kind of a shortcut to finding bass around the spawn because bass are eventually going to be in them, it’s just a matter of when and what phase of the spawn they’re in on the day you’re fishing,†Lee said.
Most of the pockets he targets searches are in the 1 to 10-foot depth range.
“You can fish a ton of them fast versus searching miles of shoreline on the main lake,†Lee said. “I may fish 20 different pockets a day and maybe only five of those will have catchable fish in them; but those are decent odds and it’s an easy way to find bass in the springtime. It only takes a few minutes to fish each pocket.â€
Lee takes a two-lure approach to pockets based on water clarity.
“If the water inside a pocket is clear enough to look for spawning beds, I’ll cast a wacky-rigged finesse worm on a No. 1 Decoy brand hook with a weedguard,†he said. “That’s a great light-line presentation on a size-30 Quantum spinning reel if bass are roaming or fully locked down on spawning beds I can see.
If the water is too dirty to look for beds, he picks up a baitcasting reel and pitches a Texas-rigged 4-inch Strike King Game Hawg on 20-pound Seaguar fluorocarbon around wood.
?“Pockets are easy to locate, it doesn’t take long to fish them and if you fish enough of them in a day’s time during the spring, you’re probably going to catch fish.â€
