Greg Hackney: You know, probably top three tips on the spawn, you know, number one is cover lots of water. You know, don't get caught up fishing for the first fish you see. Would be, roam around and see how they're setting up. Are there pairs? Are there singles? Number two would be, don't be afraid to fish for dirty water. Once you find them in clear water, then go to the dirty water and target the, you know, the same type of area where you saw those fish. A lot of times, those fish in the dirty water will be a little easier to catch. You won't have to visually fish for them.
Number two would be don't count out moving baits for...when certain conditions are right, you can always catch spawning fish on moving baits whether it be a swim jig, a crankbait, a spinnerbait, a frog. But just under certain conditions, you know, the weather gets right, makes those fish a little more susceptible to a moving bait rather than just throwing plastics on them.
Keri: Sure, sure.
Brent Ehrler: Top three tip for the spawn of shallow water fishing, obviously, you need to fish shallow around the spawn. Typically, you need to get in bays or coves. Once you get into the bays or coves, bait choices, Yamamoto Senko if you can't see them. It's an excellent bait for covering water. If you're looking for fish that are actually spawning, it's a great bait to throw ahead of the boat, and don't do anything with it. You're looking in the water for spawning fish, you're looking for cruising fish, let that bait sink to the bottom water while you're looking and reel it in. If you go to reel it in and there's something on there, you set the hook. If there's not, you reel it in and cast again.
Then once you find betting fish, then I'm gonna use a Texas rig with a Yamamoto Flappin' Hog. Depending on where I'm at, if I want a smaller bait, I use a three-inch. It's actually a three and three-quarter-inch. If it's a bigger body of water or lake that has bigger prey, bigger fish, then I'm gonna with the four and three-quarter ones, a little bit bigger ones. So, two sizes of Flappin' Hog both on a quarter rounds head, Texas rig with probably 20-pound test. The spinning...or I'm sorry, the Senko, I'm gonna probably throw on a spinning out thick with braided line, 12-pound braid to eight-pound floor carbon liter. And I'll most likely throw that wacky rig.
But the best thing about that is you cast out and do not touch it, slack line. It does all the work for you. That's the whole design of the Yamamoto Senko. It's how it falls. So, the fish, you know, can't resist that bait. It's, by far, the number one bait around the spawn.
Jacob Wheeler: Number one, always wear a good pair of sunglasses and have different shades. You don't actually have to spend $200, $300 on a pair of sunglasses. I wear Wiley X, there's a lot of great brands out there. But have, you know, different shades, you know. Have a grey, have amber, have a brighter, a brighter, like, yellow. Give you a couple different looks of what these fish are doing and see a couple inches or a foot deeper. That's a huge difference.
Another thing, fish lower because those fish, sometimes they're a little finicky. When you get around there, fish lower when you get those areas where those fish is spawning, especially, when you can't see them. And last, but not least, don't be afraid to throw at top water. When the bass or spawning a lot of times are very territorial in what's above them because they don't wanna bluegill or shad or a minnow or anything around them. So that's one of my thing that I'll throw a trap prop or a skitter walk, skitter pop, something like that to draw their attention. They'll come up there and actually eat it because they're protecting their beds.
Edwin Evers: Top three tips for the spawn, I would say is one, all fish don't spawn at the same time, you know. You may hear or see lots of fish up shallow. For every fish that you see up shallow, there's generally that many more back behind you. So, keep that in mind. Two, quiet. You got to be quiet. If you are actually up there fishing, the more quiet, the more stealthy you can be, the more success you're gonna have, you know. Make long cast. Keep all the noise to minimum in your boat. Don't be sitting in a slamming lids or turn motor on and off. So, you know, be very, very stealthy.
And then last is, you know, just...if you're visually sight fishing for spawning fish, you know, you can...you know, like, how long it takes when you're flipping that bed, and then a fish comes in there, and then he leaves. Think about that when you're fishing muddy water because, you know, not...they don't...you know, all the lakes that we all fish, they're not all clear, we could see them. But by doing it when it's clear and you see how long it takes, think about that when you're flipping muddy water to let that bait sit in there a little bit longer, especially, if you're flipping bushes or docks, you know.
So many of us go down the bank and we flip it. Let it go to the bottom, you know, you pick your bed there and you pick it up ones. Check it, no bite, then you reel it in and do it again. During the spawn, a lot of times, that's when I...I'm gonna leave it in there, you know, twice as long as ever was. And you're gonna be amazed how many more bites you get.
Ott DeFoe: Top three tips for the spawn is, for me, I love to fish a wacky worm during the spawn, you know. So if I'm just going down the bank looking for fish, and even when I'm actually sight fishing, I'll use a wacky worm a lot. Number two would be to use a top water. I get a lot of fish on a top water bait. Name that storm cover pot, then I count to nine. Nine on last year in a bass master class.
Keri: That'll be nice.
Ott DeFoe: So I was going a long way again this year. But yeah, would be to use a top water bait sometimes. Those fish will just be extremely aggressive to it and you'll catch fish much easier that way. Number three would be to sue a heavy bait or not a heavy bait necessarily but a big bait, something that's a big profile especially, when you're sight fishing a big bass, you know. I'm talking a five-plus pounder. Don't do that all the time with a real small bait. A big bait will make that fish much more aggressive.
Keri: Really?
Ott DeFoe:Yeah.
Keri: Good tips, I'll use them it myself.
Ott DeFoe: Okay.
Keri: What are your top tips for the spawn?
Brandon Palaniuk: Yeah, we're getting into that time of the year when it's happening. The number one thing for me there is going to be identifying if it's a catchable fish or not, okay? And especially, in a tournament situation where you got eight hours, it's important to be able to learn which ones you can actually catch. If that fish...if you are driving up to it and it just takes off like a bottle rocket and doesn't come back right away, probably, gonna waste your time trying to catch that one. You want the ones that you drop by on 100 and it sits there and looks at you. Those are the ones you wanna chase after.
The next thing is gonna be identifying where that fish's sweet spot is because they all have a sweet spot. And I…actually it will create a grid system inside the bed that helps me break that down quicker and where that fish reacts mostly. And then the other thing is gonna be, you know, bait selection. What do you do to select the right bait? And you'll see fish that are hovering really close to the bottom, and some that are, kind of, suspended up. When I'd see that, if they're close to the bottom, I'd try to choose a Texas rig or something that's on the bottom. And if they're suspended up, a lot of times, I'll throw a drop shot so that those fish don't have to change their position to attack the bait.
Skeet Reese: Top three tips for fishing a spawn. I'm using a very large swim bait to find spawning fish, so seven-inch to even up a 12-inch size bait will pull fish from a long ways away. So to show you where the fish are, a little tip, and fishing a drop shot, so whatever your favorite Berkley bait. For me, whether it be a lot of times, it's Pit Boss. But, you can fish a drop shot in or a 6-pound test but you can also put on flipping stick with 25-pound test. But make it sure you fish a drop shot. And third tip is for fish weightless. If you're just randomly casting fishing a weightless worm...so I'm fishing the new general wacky rig that will slow weightless fall on spawning fish is hard for them to resist.
