A lot of anglers will tell you that catching bass isn’t all that hard. It’s finding them that’s the problem. At no time is that more true than during the postspawn. They move, don’t stay put very long after they move and generally are unpredictable in their whereabouts.
Even the best anglers struggle at times when this is going on, and with good reason. It can get funky and they can definitely leave you scratching your head. Nevertheless, they can be found if you follow a logical and consistent plan of attack.
I always begin by looking over the water I’m fishing. Bass will spawn anywhere, even in the smallest of places, but there are always a few huge bays or backwater areas where they spawn in numbers. Those are the places I look for because those are the places that improve my chances of finding them. My theory is that the more bass there are the better my chances of finding one.
My first few casts are always near the spawning flats. There are times when the bass don’t move very far. I want to eliminate that water first. After that I work my way out fishing anything that looks like a stopping point or a natural place for a bass to be if it’s heading towards deep, main lake water. I’ll go pretty far out, too. They have to be somewhere and I can find that somewhere if I cover enough water.
If there are docks in the area, I fish them carefully. Docks are natural spawning places and they’re natural stopping places after the spawn. And, you can fish them effectively with a wide selection of lures. They’re likely places.
I also fish any marinas on the lake carefully, large and fancy or small and simple. The backs of them are usually like spawning flats and the docks, as well as the large boats that are parked at them, are good places for the bass to stop and rest. Always fish in front of the docks, too. There’s usually a brush pile or two around.
For the most part lure choices are endless right now. When I’m looking for postspawn bass I have several rods on my deck and they all have something different tied on them. My standard lure choices include a drop shot, a wacky rig, a jig, a crankbait, a spinnerbait and maybe a topwater lure. You never know what they might hit.
One thing I have noticed about lures, though, is that a lot of anglers seem to want to go big right now. I’m not so sure that’s such a good thing.
A couple of days ago I was on Guntersville. I noticed that a lot of the anglers were fishing huge swimbaits. I’m sure they were looking for big bass. Maybe they caught one, maybe they didn’t. I have no way of knowing. What I do know is that I caught two big bass on a drop shot setup with a spinning outfit.
Look at the postspawn as a location challenge, something you need to figure out. That approach will help you catch more bass. It has me, anyway.