Boat Houses and Post Spawn
Every day there are more fish recovering from the spawn and finding their way out from the spawning areas; however, there can be many stops along the way and one of them includes boat houses. Do not overlook the obvious, as bass progress off the bedding areas to normal daily activity they stop along the edges and corners of boat houses. There can be many reasons that bass hang along corners and edges of boat houses and one of them is the shad spawn.
The activity of the bait fish known as she shad spawn many times dictates where the bass locate; if the shad spawn occurs in the back water then the bass will hang in those areas until the shad move to more deeper patterns away from the spawning grounds. Your job is to find where the shad spawn is occurring and fish; accordingly, sometimes it’s a combination of the back waters and the main river humps and ledges forcing you to adjust patterns dependent on the time of day. I have found many times that the early ledge bite is great during this period and them moves to the back waters as the sun rises in the sky. Things like to much current during the rainy spring force the shad to the back waters, combine that with high pressure sunny days and where they can hide around boat houses make for great reasons to hang in the back waters.
Some of the good news about this boat house pattern is bass are not normally suspending underneath the boat house as they are more likely to be on the corners and under steps that project off the edges. These areas are more like ambush spots for them to lurk around corners to feed on shad passing bye and make a meal of them. I know that many people are not good at skipping a bait under the boat house and this is generally a time where that may not be necessary; allowing the novice fisherman to be able to fish edges without being a pro at skipping a bait. It is also an easy time to pick a bait as just about anything you fish from spinner baits to creature baits will catch fish during this period.
Fish Lake Guntersville Guide Service
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Email: bassguide@comcast.net
Call: 256 759 2270