How to Make the Most of Spring Fishing
No matter how cold and endless-seeming the winter may be, spring fishing makes it all worthwhile. After spending months wrapped up and braving the elements for a winter bass fishing or ice fishing session, nothing beats the excitement that anxious anglers feel when they return to their favorite fishing hole to find it absolutely teeming with life and ripe for a rod and reel. Just make sure to check the weather first, not only because spring weather is notoriously fickle, but also because bass are incredibly sensitive to environmental factors like temperature, barometric pressure, and precipitation.
It’s not as simple as watching out for April showers — especially since early spring bass fishing is some of the most exciting and rewarding angling you can find all year long. Various weather events have different effects on bass behavior and require different tools and tactics on a day-to-day basis. With AcuRite weather technology, you will be able to adapt to any situation that spring may bring and have your most successful spring fishing season ever.
Spring Is for Spawning
Like many animals, bass spend the winter in a kind of dormant daze. As their metabolisms slow to account for fewer food sources, bass get sluggish and lethargic and tend to seek out shelter to suspend in place while waiting for the weather to change. Once the water temperature starts to rise, bass will leave the comfort of cover and head for the shallows, especially the areas that get the most direct sunlight during the day.
Broadly speaking, this predictable pattern makes it easier to estimate the start of spawning season — the time of year in which bass lay and fertilize their eggs — and then set a course for the coastal areas of the lake where spawning bass make “beds” for their brood. Bass are known to be more aggressive in shallower water, so an opportunistic angler armed with an AcuRite Hunting and Fishing Activity Meter with Weather Forecaster will always know the best conditions to fish and can leave with a nice haul. Combined with the fact that bed fishing allows you to actually see the fish and watch how they react each time you cast, many fishermen consider spring the “best” time for bass — when the weather is pleasant, that is.
Fish Early — and Often
However, early spring bass fishing can be even more lucrative than waiting for slightly warmer temperatures if you understand how weather affects bass. Ponds and lakes don’t heat up all at once, so bass venture out from the shadows in stages and start storing up energy for an exhausting spawn. Bass need to regain weight lost during the long winter, so the prespawn time means lots of hungry bass and plenty of opportunities for strikes.
The problem? Early spring bass fishing means early spring weather, and bass are as attuned to the water around them as the sky above them, like finicky floating meteorologists. A passing shower, a gusty day, or a shift in barometric pressure can send bass down to the murky depths of the water to hide or find more appealing temperatures. Finding them among the nooks and crannies of a lake is like finding a needle in a haystack with a blindfold on, so unless you have a sonar system or other advanced electronics on your boat and are willing to trawl the bottom for hours, it’s time for a different tactic.
The Right Fishing Forecast
The AcuRite Iris™ (5-in-1) Weather Station with High-Definition Display and Lightning Detection accurately measures the environmental patterns that affect bass so you can predict their behavior and find them where they hide. Knowing the temperature, prevailing winds, and rainfall gives anglers a fighting chance against even the deepest-dwelling bass and is especially crucial for the wacky weather that often accompanies spring fishing. As with all things fishing, there’s always something lurking under the surface, especially with a species as confounding and elusive as bass.
Gauge the Temperature
Waiting for the temperature to rise seems simple enough — warm water means spawning, and spawning means plenty of bass in shallow, easy-to-fish areas. But even a slight drop in temperature can send them scattering, and temperatures can vary widely in bigger bodies of water, which makes finding fish almost impossible in the early months of spring. With your AcuRite weather technology, you can monitor for incoming warm weather and sunlight that would indicate an imminent spawn, and then catch bass in their prespawn phase when they tend to chill out in cover until things heat up again.
To find these staging spots, seek out large rocks, tree trunks, or clumps of aquatic plants where bass like to find cover and feed while on their way toward the spawning shallows. Bass use their eyesight to feed, so catch their attention with brightly colored lures in muddier water or more natural-looking lures in clear water, and you’ll hook them before they head to their beds.
Watch for Wind
Despite the lack of air down there, wind has an outsized impact on bass behavior, and knowing the right way to work with the wind can make or break your spring fishing session. Some anglers love a blustery day, as it ripples the surface of the water and helps cloud the clear-eyed vision that bass possess and makes them act more aggressively toward prey. High winds will drive bass into more protected areas, which can make for easy pickings — that is, if you can figure out where they are congregating.
Before you head out, use your AcuRite personal weather station to measure both the speed and direction of the prevailing winds, which can sometimes give hints to which protected areas are worth exploring. If your AcuRite Portable Anemometer shows moderately strong winds and the surface of the water is rippled, drop a line in the water ASAP to hit bass at their most aggressive. Set a wind speed alarm for stronger speeds, and if the wind is really blowing, swap for brighter lure or bait to compensate for the cloudy water underneath you. Windblown points are your best bet, but if the winds are so sustained that your line can’t stay taut, you’ll have a harder time feeling the fish bite. Use your AcuRite home and portable weather technology in tandem to find the sweet spot for wind speed, and remember: If it’s strong enough that you’d worry about getting a kite stuck in a tree, it’s going to be line-tangling time for your fishing rod too.
Rain on Your Parade
“April showers” are a bit of a misnomer, since they tend to show up early to the Spring Fling party and can go from shower to deluge in an instant. In the same way rain sends people scrambling for their umbrellas, a storm will send bass to cover; but just as some people enjoy a little drizzle, bass go from hungry to voracious if the rain is right. You probably start each spring day checking your AcuRite Atlas™ Weather Station with Direct-to-Wi-Fi Display and Lightning Detection just to see if you’ll need your rain boots or not, but spring fishing is highly dependent on precipitation. Just like how a little bit of wind can make it harder for bass to see underwater and make them more liable to bite, a nice light rain can hide your boat from bass and give you an advantage, while sending the fish into a feeding frenzy. Make your bait dance and dash so the bass can see it through the pebbled water, and get ready to reel them in.
But too much rain presents a problem. The bass may get even more aggressive, but heavy rains will flood a lake with runoff from the land, which makes things muddy and introduces nutrients and organisms into the water that can mess with equilibrium, eat up oxygen, and make bass bolt around underwater, the same way a sudden downpour creates chaos in a busy city square or outdoor event. A rainy, raucous day on the water trying to chase the bass from cover to cover can make for some fun memories, but if you prefer to let the fish get wet while you stay dry, there’s another way to approach the stormiest season of the year.
When your AcuRite weather technology shows sudden fluctuations in air pressure and temperature, grab your gear and head for the water. Warm air tends to settle low and get a little gusty before the cold air sends it skyward, while the cloud coverage and resultant flat light that precede a cold front can camouflage you from the bass and create conditions for more active feeding. Moreover, the days after heavy storms and cold fronts are usually lousy for bass, since the associated temperature drops and even the fluctuations in barometric pressure are thought to slow them down, and all the runoff and mud can linger for a few days down below.
Learn to Love the Weather
Nothing beats spring fishing, and early spring bass fishing can be even better if you work with the weather. Bass may be surprisingly good at reading the weather, but with AcuRite weather technology, you can stay ahead and ensure you always have the right tools and tactics no matter what spring may bring.
What are your best spring fishing tips, tricks, or stories? Let us know in the comments below!
