Transitioning Largemouth Bass

By Larry Self

The move from February to March and on into April is a tremendous transition time for largemouth bass and the anglers that spend hours, days, and even weeks pursuing them. What bass fishermen are faced with is the biggest change of the year. We’re talking about going from deep jig and Silver Buddy patterns to grubs, tubes, spinnerbaits, crankbaits and a whole tackle box of options in more shallow settings. All this can often happen in a relatively short period of time as water temperatures quickly begin to warm.

This first spring-like transition involves literally bobbing and weaving with bass as tactics and techniques change with the first hints of pre-spawn activity. With so much before you and changing so fast, it’s often hard to keep up. If you’re looking for a direction to turn, we’ve employed the help of a touring pro that’s found a lot of tournament success the last couple of years. When your livelihood depends on making the correct decision and it all means catching more bass, you learn to adapt.

Turning The Corner

Being in the boat with Wesley Strader on more than one occasion has allowed me to see how he puts a largemouth bass game plan into motion. Whether it’s tossing a topwater bait like a Pop-R or flipping a jig along brush—he’s never failed to impress me. From his simple beginnings with local tournaments on Watts Bar Lake, the Tennessee native has slowly and concisely carved out a name for himself on the national bass tournament circle with big wins among the biggest names in the sport.

Among his tournament successes, you’ll find a modest but successful start in the Red Man Tournament Trail in 1993 that launched him into his first full year on the Wal-Mart FLW Tour in 1998. In all, Strader has had 12 top 10 tournament finishes and two wins. To date, none have been bigger than his comeback victory in March 2002 at the FLW Tournament on Lake Quachita near Hot Springs, Ark.

Strader said he nickeled and dimed his way through the first two rounds of the tournament hanging on to the eighth spot. After day three, he moved into more serious contention into fifth place. His 14-pounds, 10-ounces in the final round were enough to claim the first place prize of $110,000 and 1.5-pound win over noted bass angler Kevin Van Dam. Other bass fishing notables in Strader’s wake were Craig Powers, Rick Clunn and Gary Klein. Strader is easily recognizable on the water or television at the weigh-ins in his Fuji film Boat. One accomplishment Strader is particularly proud of is that he qualified for the Bassmasters Classic in New Orleans two years ago. Success such as that has led to major sponsorships from Ranger Boats, Yamaha Motors and Minn-Kota Trolling Motors.

Bass Transition Time

When it comes to patterning transitioning bass there are several factors Strader will key on regardless of where he finds himself on whichever lake. He said one of the first signs bass are making a move is seen when small 6-inch to 1-pound bass are seen hanging around close to the surface. That signals the tournament pro that things are happening. Once that happens in March, Strader instructs anglers to watch for big shad movements. He’s not talking about a school of shad here and there—he’s talking numbers. As shad start to make a transition from deep water to shallow areas lakewide, bass will begin to position themselves and stack up on points and bars aligning themselves for the pre-spawn push and will start to gorge themselves on baitfish for the rigors of the spawn. They’ll move with the shad as they leave main lake areas and head back into creeks.

Temperature plays a key role into the situation as well. Strader said he counts on his Lowrance X-15 depth finder and its built in GPS to put him on the feeding bass and help get him back there. When he starts to read water temperatures above the 52 to 53 degree mark, staying there and warming over a short time, bass are ready to be patterned. That 52 to 60 degree timeframe is a sweet time to be on the water. Strader also feels the length of the day plays a factor in how quickly bass make the transition from winter to spring. He feels bass are affected by the photoperiod and become more active and begin to think about pre-spawn activities as daylight is extended.

As the April transition begins, the time of day plays a role as well. Strader said you’ll pick up a few largemouths early in the day but as the day goes along and water temperatures are warmed by the springtime sun, you’ll find the better action later in the day. The late evening can be particularly good.

Putting Them In The Boat

With all these factors coming together and pointing towards better bass fishing, let’s look at what Strader does to catch them once everything is aligned. For the transition period, he has two major patterns and both call for shallow water fishing. Strader concentrates on waters from 2 to 6-feet in depth, and said he’ll fish no deeper than 6-feet after the transition from winter to spring begins.

Once largemouth have made the move and stacked on the first transition points and banks, he is looking for particulars. Those particulars in the first stages of the change are in the form of mud banks and mud bars. Strader sums up his strategy very well when he said mud in the spring for bass is like a woman lying in a tanning bed, it just warms them and attracts them to it. Strader has but one strategy for these mud situations—crank ‘em out of there. He throws a flat sided crankbait called a Flat Shad and said the pattern is one of his favorites during the year and is the deal when faced with fishing long mud points and bars.

His second pattern for transition time is to head back into creeks with the shad and largemouths. In the back of creeks, he’ll locate the creek channel on the outside bends where there’s cover in the form of rocks, stumps or laydowns. That’s where he chooses to pitch or flip a Lake Fork Mega Jig or Lake Fork Trophy Tackle Tube. With his jig fishing, he prefers from a 3/8 to 1/2-ounce bait with a 2 & 1/2-inch Lake Fork Pig Claw trailer which helps to create a slow fall. Strader will very rarely go below 1/4-ounce and uses 20 to 25-pound Izor line to slow the rate of the fall as well. Tactics like these have led to Strader’s tournament success.

Every tournament angler from the weekend warrior to the touring pro dreams of fishing sponsors and success in tournament bass fishing. Neither success nor sponsors come easily. You have to put your time in on the water and get the right breaks at the right time. And I’ll guarantee you Wesley Strader will tell you success has to come before you get sponsors. Keep on patterning largemouth bass, learn them and use what you learn. Someday, you may be the next big thing to hit the bass circuit.