April is a big month for bass fishing, with these slimy green objects of our affection on the move all over the country.
The spawn is lingering here in the South, but the post-spawn funk is fast approaching. Some bass have even been off bed for a while from here to Texas and further south. But those a little north of us are laid up right at this very moment. And for those further north in the waterways surrounding the Great Lakes, the bass are just now getting the frost knocked off for good.
I’ll break down the bass baits I’m using in the South. Then we’ll catch up with a few experts from around the country to see what they’re throwing.
Hag’s Prickly Pear
Well, I finally broke down and rigged one up. It only took an Elite Series win on my home lake and an industry-wide frenzy for me to finally buy one of these urchin-style baits. Now, if you’ve been living under water for the past few months, you may not have heard of an urchin-style bait — though if you have been living under water, you’ve probably seen one.
Fisher Anaya won the Elite Series event on Lake Martin back in February leaning heavily on an urchin-style bait, sending the market into a frenzy to produce baits similar to the Hideup Coike, the industry standard at the moment. These baits look like nothing and get bites better than anything by pressured bass. I ordered up a Hag’s Prickly Pear in the only color available, Terlingua Heat. The jury is still out on how I’ll do fishing this fireball, but I’m giving it a shot.
Wacky Rig
The wacky rig is one of the best early post-spawn baits. You can take a Senko or other soft plastic stick-bait worm, run a small hook through the middle of it, and catch lots of fish — and some really good ones in April. There will inevitably be a few lingering spawners this month (and those are definitely susceptible to the wacky rig, too) but there will be even more bass trying to recuperate from the spawn, scanning the shallows for food, and guarding their fry.
A wacky rig is very subtle, so it doesn’t spook wary fish. It’s not a fast or intimidating bait: All bass see is an easy meal they don’t have to work hard for. And the undulation of this slow falling soft plastic is simply irresistible.
Perhaps the best bass to target with a wacky rig in April are those guarding fry. The male bass often hang around to protect the ball of freshly hatched bass babies. These paternal protectors can be hard to catch, as they often just run at a bait defensively to scare it off instead of actually trying to eat it. But a wacky rig is one of the few baits they’ll go ahead and slurp up.
Small Popper
A small popper is another great bait for April. When bass are guarding fry, a popper looks like a little baitfish trying to chase down a meal of its own. Throwing these baits around docks, isolated cover, and bare banks is a great way to get bites and catch some really big ones.
I don’t like the larger Chug Bugs and P70-style poppers in April, since I think they can be too aggressive. Instead, go with something like the Team Ark Topwater Popper or Monsterbass Mad Max Popper. Both of these baits are slender and short, coming in under three inches. The P70, many Chug Bugs, and other topwaters like Spooks are either longer or more plump. I like the finessier poppers in April. They seem to get bit more as the bass are still trying to get their fins back under them.
Rapala Clap Tail
Now, take what I just said about the popper and forget it, because I am loving the larger, splashing, and sloshing Rapala Clap Tail right now. Don’t sleep on the finesse popper, but don’t think that’s the only topwater bass will bite in April, either. Both work really well this month, especially if you can tune in on how to use them in tandem.
If I’m fishing isolated cover, that’s when I’ll typically go with the popper. But, if I need to pick up speed on the trolling motor and cover water — between spread-out docks, for instance — I like to pick up a topwater that I can reel, like a buzzbait or rear-prop-style bait. These can be fished faster, allowing me to cover more water than I can with a popper.
The new Clap Tail has quickly become a favorite of mine. This was one of the first topwaters I was able to get a bite on this year. Its subtler sounding prop and the light tinking of the attached blade hitting the metal prop gives this bait an entirely different sound profile.
Ben Nowak
Here’s what this Michigan angler has to say:
A jerkbait — that’s probably going to be my number-one bait. A lot of times for smallmouth, it’ll be like that one size that dives down to six to nine feet. And for largemouth, it’s just your standard 110 jerkbait, like a Berkley Stunna 112, or 112+1, or Vision 110 — whatever your favorite jerkbait is. Colors don’t necessarily matter. A lot of times it’s perch-oriented or bluegill-oriented up here in the North. But just choose the color based on the water color and the conditions you’re fishing.
My second bait for both largemouth and smallmouth is going to be a lipless crankbait. For smallmouth fishing, it’s more like a blade bait along the bottom, with lifts and drops. And for largemouth, I’ll be fishing it around grass or around isolated cover.
And then I like to fish a jig for largemouth when I want to slow down. It’s a bigger profile. They key in on bluegills a lot this time of year. And then for smallmouth, I’ll fish a tube probably for the most part. It’s just a little bigger presentation than a Ned rig—something I can slow down and drag through an area when I need to get a bite. And then I’ll also fish for smallmouth with a Great Lakes Finesse 3.3 swimbait or a three-inch swimbait.
Tyler Anderson
Fishing in North Texas, Anderson adds the following:
When it comes to early April in North Texas, you’re looking at full-blown spawn. We usually have the full moon coincide with the last week of March or the first week of April. I don’t care how many warm fronts we’ve had or the ice storms we’ve had, it seems like the first week of April is the best fishing we have of the year.
Whether you want to go on the bank with a swim jig, or a frog, or a buzzbait, or a squarebill, there are so many ways to catch them the first week of April. And then pretty soon after that, our shad spawn starts. I’d say by mid-April, we’re in either a really weird funk or you’ve just got to get out there early for the shad spawn type deal.
I throw an Outcast Tackle Jackpot Jig in Guntersville Shad a ton in the pre-spawn, especially if you’re on dirty water. But then, when it comes to spawn time and post spawn, bluegill beds are the deal, so I’ll just switch to a straight bluegill color.
If they’re on beds, I’m a big fan of the Space Monkey. It’s kind of an under-the-radar Strike King creature bait. It’s just hard to fish fast — it has so many appendages. I like that one a ton. Most of my soft plastics during the month of April, I fish with the lightest Texas rig I can. So like 16th ounce or eighth ounce max. And I’m dragging it, like slow.
And then one that has kind of taken over my favorite topwater is the Rage Buzz Minnow. It’s a buzz-frog-style bait, and it holds a double-frog hook so good. And the hookup ratio for such a thick plastic is mind-blowingly good.
