In Alabama, the pollen is thick on the truck, the buttercups are popping out of the ground, and the dogwoods are about to bloom—all indicators that bass should be heading onto beds soon. The same can be said for other states in regions two and three (see map below) of our spawn reporters series. And while the Florida spawning season is winding down, there is still plenty of amazing bed fishing to come up North. You just need to know when to hit the water.
Our team of experts is helping nail down the perfect times to target bass throughout the spawning process. These professional anglers and fishing influencers have picked roughly two-week periods that you should be fishing during each stage of the spawn. The early pre-spawn and immediate pre-spawn are just getting going up North, but it's time to start thinking about the main event—targeting big bass on beds.
As largemouth, smallmouth, and spotted bass come out of their pre-spawn patterns, the fish move into shallow water to make beds and fertilize eggs. Many of these bass will be huge, too. And while some of the same tactics and techniques that worked well during the first two phases will still produce bites, slowing down is the name of the game. Here's when, where, and how to catch a monster bass during the spawn this year.
Spawn Overview
All species of black bass spawn in a similar fashion. A male and female bass pair up to create a “bed,” where the larger female will lay her eggs. Bass make these beds by fanning their tail, which removes debris like leaves, sticks, and silt. The fish look for hard bottom areas with sand, rock, or gravel instead of mud, muck, or silt. This allows the beds to be as clean and firm as possible.
Once a bed is made, the larger female bass lays her eggs and the male comes along to fertilize them. Afterwards, the male will typically position himself close to the bed, within a foot or two, while the female will linger in the area, but not as close. Sometimes the male or female will get especially protective and “lock on” the bed, at which point the fish won’t venture more than a foot from it. When you start looking at the different species of black bass, like smallmouth, spots, and largemouth, you find that each species builds its beds in slightly different places or at different times and depths. But no matter what species you're targeting, the spawn is one of the best times to catch a giant bass.
Region 1: Scott Martin
When to Fish the Spawn: February 1 to March 1
While there is no bad time to fish in South Florida, there is no better time to fish there than during the spawn. And the good news is that the spawn lasts for nearly five months where Bassmaster Elite Series Pro Scott Martin lives. Here's how he targets bedded bass.
“South Florida, specifically Lake Okeechobee, is an anomaly," Martin says. "It's like a four-and-a-half to five-month spawn. Sometimes fish spawn into June. But that middle part of January till the first of February is when the spawn starts to happen pretty heavily. North Florida is about two weeks behind, and South Texas will fall in that same timeframe.”
Obviously, the heart of the spawn in Southern Florida has already come and gone, but Martin's tactics are still useful on other fisheries. As the bass pair up and begin the bedding process, Martin slows his technique down. He’ll ease into areas, then hold his boat in place with his Power-Poles while fan casting or repeatedly pitching to a fish he finds on a bed. He looks for a few key elements: clean water, sparse vegetation, and hard bottom.
“I'm looking in that foot and a half to 3 feet of water," Matin explains. "In Florida, the water is typically pretty tea colored, so they don't spawn as deep as they would up in New York, where it's crystal clear and the smallmouth bed in 12 feet of water. The largemouth don't do that here.”
The tannic and dark-colored water means Martin is often blind fishing for bedders. “I start by throwing creature baits and dragging them on the bottom," he says. "Every cast, I pretend I'm fishing around a bed—just pulling my bait, letting it sit, pulling my bait, and letting it sit.”
These slow-moving soft plastics will trigger strikes from bedded bass that are defensive of their territory. And while fishing drop shots and Texas rigs like this catch lots of fish, there’s a better way to land the big ones. “When you start fishing your topwaters like prop baits and bigger creature baits, you seem to get a more consistent bite from bigger fish," Martin says. "Female bass react to that stuff a little better.”
Adding some notes for anglers in Texas, Martin suggests looking for spawners in super shallow water on the muddy fisheries in South Texas. Though you won’t be able to see these fish on beds, you can still fish for them by targeting hard cover like wood and rock on clean rocky banks and sandy shorelines. If the water is clearer, look for bass in 4 to 6 feet of water around bushes and other cover.
Region 2: Scott Canterbury
When to Fish the Spawn: March 21 to April 7
When it comes to region two, spawn reporter Scott Canterbury believes that the last week of March through the first week of April is prime time for spawning activity. But this isn’t what he would have told you a few years ago.
“The spawn keeps getting earlier and earlier," says Canterbury. "I used to say the last week of April through the second or third week of May was the best, but I think it’s gotten much earlier. I’ve won tournaments on Logan Martin (in Alabama) in March with bedding fish.”
While bass in this region will be on beds during these two weeks, Canterbury has a strategy for finding the first bedders of the season. It starts with looking for bass along northern shorelines. “The places protected from a north wind are going to have the very first spawners of the season," says Canterbury. He explains that the north shores keep a north wind down, which is important for water temperature. A north wind almost always brings cold air, cooling the water quickly and potentially shutting off fish. So look for the first spawning bass to be tucked up along northern shorelines to get away from cooler water.
Canterbury also emphasizes the importance of sunlight during the spawn. “Sloughs that run east and west get more sunlight," he says. "You can find fish on any lake by following that pattern.” Once you do find the fish in this region, standard bed fishing techniques work well. Fish drop shots and Texas-rigged soft plastics like lizards and tubes for largemouth. While drop shots, shaky heads, and Ned rigs are great options for spotted bass and smallmouth further west.
Region 3: Carl Jocumsen
When to Fish the Spawn: March 22 to April 7
Carl Jocumsen also points to late March and early April as the prime window for spawning activity in region three. He says it's time to hit the water when the late spring cold fronts have calmed down and the stable temperatures have settled in.
“Once it's full-blown spawn, I’m going to be using my eyes to find the shallowest, clearest areas with the best bottom," Jocumsen says. "Something with sand or hard stumps, anything for them to spawn on.”
When Jocumsen says “them,” he refers primarily to largemouth bass, though there are quality smallmouth in this zone, too. Still, the big bucketmouths draw anglers to Jocumsen’s home waters of Lake Chickamauga. And he prefers to just fish as he usually would, instead of solely focusing on finding a bass on a bed before making a cast.
“You can just fish for them," Jocumsen explains. "My favorite technique is using a bigger bait and trying to generate a really big bite from an aggressive fish. While I'm doing that, I’m also searching with my eyes and looking for a fish locked on a bed.”
Jocumsen’s big bait of choice is a glide bait, the Storm Arashi Glide to be exact. He’s caught more big bass on that bait than any other, including a 10-pound, 10-ounce monster. He also led a Bassmaster Elite Series event on Chickamauga fishing this way in early April of 2022, with 24 pounds-12 ounces for his best five on the first day. Evidence that this pattern works.
“Shallow pockets are usually the best," Jocumsen says. "The closer it is to the spawn, the more I look for shallow pockets near the main river channel. As you get later in the spawn, you can push further back into the rivers.”
On most fisheries, bass will spawn first on the lower end, as these waters are usually warmer, clearer, and more stable. When the spawn dies down in these parts, it’s time to make your way up creeks and rivers where swifter, muddier water has typically delayed the spawn a bit. This is a great way to stretch the bed fishing bite out and make the most of it.
Region 4: Bryan Schmitt
When to Fish the Spawn: April 21 to May 7
Bassmaster Elite Series Pro Bryan Schmitt spends a good bit of his time fishing the tidal waters of the Potomac River and the Chesapeake Bay when he’s not on the road competing against other pros across the country. Even though tidal fisheries are rare in region four, many of Schmitt's techniques can be applied elsewhere.
“On my home waters, the tide affects the spawn more than anything," says Schmitt. "Bass want to spawn pretty dadgum shallow, because if the tide goes up 2 feet and they're spawning in 3 feet, that’s 5 feet of water over their heads. Their eggs are never gonna do their thing in that dirty water.”
A good bit of sunlight is needed to incubate and hatch bass eggs. The deeper the water and/or the muddier the water, the less light can reach the eggs. For this reason, bass have to spawn extremely shallow on tidal fisheries like the Potomac.
“The wind can blow the water out and help the tide go even lower," explains Schmitt. "Sometimes their backs are out of the water because they don't want to leave their beds.”
It’s common for Schmitt to find an area with all the right components—hard bottom, woody cover, grass stems—and the water be so shallow that he can’t get his boat to the fish on low tide. When he finds an area like this, he’ll return on high tide and cast to cover, doing what he refers to as "blind bed fishing."
"I’ve never sight-fished in the Potomac or the Chesapeake Bay," Schmitt says. "But you’re target fishing, so it’s not completely blind. Lots of casts and slow, slow, slow retrieves.”
According to Schmitt, slow retrieves are key most of the time. But there is a tight window where the fish are more aggressive and will eat just about anything. This is typically when the last bit of outgoing tide swaps to the first bit of incoming tide. During this window, Schmitt will use a more aggressive bait, like a swim jig.
“They will eat a swim jig when the tide is right, but other than that, it’s slow fishing," says Schmitt. "I like flipping a Missile Baits D Bomb or a Missile Baits 48 on a wacky rig. And you’re fishing it as if you know there is one spawning in the area.”
By this, Schmitt means you have to envision a bass sitting on a piece of cover and make repetitive casts to the same spot, even when you don’t get a bite. As you do this, you’ll want to slowly move your bait through the 2-foot area around the cover, imagining you’re dragging it through a bed and the bass is looking at it.
Region 5: Ben Nowak
When to Fish the Spawn: May 30 to June 15
When it comes to plucking bass off beds, there are none easier to catch than the smallmouth that roam the waters of region five. And when you hook into these fish, they’re big and put up a heckuva fight. Here’s how spawn reporter Ben Nowak tracks down these big bronzebacks.
“For smallmouth, I'm typically looking for semi-protected water," he explains. "And that doesn't have to be areas where there's no current, but rather the backside of an island. Or if you're fishing a glacial body of water where it's all open, you're looking for those flatter bays where you might have more shallow water access or reed heads.”
Areas protected from current and wind create prime spawning grounds for bass. It’s also easier to spot the beds in these areas because the water is less disturbed. However, Nowak completely shifts his strategy for bucketmouths.
“For largemouths, it’s the backs of creeks or bays," he says. "And bays can be as small as a ditch coming into the lake. But you’re looking for these isolated protected areas for largemouth.”
When it comes to what the actual beds will look like, a smallmouth bed and a largemouth bed differ quite a bit. Largemouth beds are typically big white circles like you’d expect to see throughout the rest of the country, but smallmouth beds are more of an emerald green color.
While Nowak noted that he continues to find beds with his eyes, the Perspective Mode on his Garmin Livescope completely changed how he approached bed fishing this past year. This tech allows him to not only find shallow bedders with his eyes but also locate smallmouth spawning in 8 to 15 feet of water on small contour changes with his graph.
The bed fishing baits are pretty straightforward for Nowak. He likes a drop shot, a small finesse tube, and a Ned rig. And he’ll also keep a hair jig in the water while looking around for a spawning fish. Smallmouth will come up to the jig and reveal themselves and their beds. Even if they don’t fully commit to it, you know exactly where their bed is.
Region 6: Jeff Gustafson
When to Fish the Spawn: June 1 to June 14
Moving to the uppermost region of the United States, we borrowed Jeff Gustafson from across the border to see how the 2023 Bassmaster Classic Champ targets the spawn in this region. Similar to what we heard from Nowak in region five, Gustafson also looks for areas that are “protected" to find spawning fish. Not only are these locations the most appealing to the bass, but they create the best conditions for an angler to peer into the water.
“A good pair of sunglasses is the most important thing," says Gustafson. "I keep a couple different lens colors in my boat. The sunrise silver Costas are the most popular lens on the pro tour. It really brightens things up on those dark, cloudy days. If it's sunny and nice out, the green mirror is a good all-around lens.”
Gustafson also noted the importance of looking for areas with a good bottom composition—spots with sand and gravel or cover like boulders, logs, and other underwater structures. Both largemouth and smallmouth like to make their beds around this cover.
“If it's smallmouth, you can catch them on whatever you want," Gustafson explains. "Usually you just have to make an accurate cast, either. They are much more aggressive.” For the largemouth, Gustafson says there’s no reason to overcomplicate things. Pick a soft plastic presentation you like and dangle it in the bed. Drop shots and Texas rigs are long-time staples and work well.
Find the Habitat to Find the Beds
Locating good spawning habitat is key to finding big bass on beds. Whether you’re on a muddy fishery in Texas, a grass-laden lake in Florida, or a sprawling glacial body of water up North, there are several features that indicate good spawning grounds. Most of the time, it's a hard bottom, isolated cover, and the cleanest water you can find.
And while big females will react to more aggressive, larger profile lures like chatterbaits and glidebaits, your numbers will go way up if you slow down and drag a soft plastic. Remember, if you can’t see a fish on a bed, imagine one there and blind cast to cover. Use these tips and the recommended dates to find a giant spawning bass this spring.
