Water temp:67
Clarity :2-4Ă‚Â’
Patterns: Top water and shallow run spinnerbaits and jerkbaits for schooling fish,
Carolina rigged small plastics and spinnerbaits for others.
This is the most intense transistion period of the year. The fish are on the move in a huge way. They can be finicky as they have an almost unlimited supply of food with the large schools of shad in the lake. The mid-day, evening bite has been better as of late. Poppers, walking baits, propbaits as well as hard and soft jerkbaits will produce good numbers and the occaisional large fish. I had a couple from Chicago recently who got to experience a whole school of Smallmouth up feeding on the shad. Pay real close attention to the size of the shad that the bass are feeding on, and try to “match the hatch” with your baits, especially the size of your spinnerbait blades. There have been some big White bass and big Stripes showing up with the Largemouth and Smallmouth.
Catfish are biting in old ditch runs and sloughs off the main river channel in 15-25 feet of water. Cutbaits seem to be the best. However the old standby nightcrawlers will catch them as well. Some good reports of Crappie have come in. Casting small jigs and grubs to cover/structure in 8-12ft of water seems to be the predominant pattern. Some are being caught trolling crankbaits. Be sure to check out Strike King’s complete line of Crappie baits new for 2012.
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