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This is the third installment of the “Spring Fishing Frenzy" series of articles, detailing productive fishing techniques and opportunities across Kentucky. These articles will appear on the second and fourth Thursday of the month. The series will continue until early summer.
A winter back-loaded with cold, snow and high water can make the season’s stay seem unusually long and especially harsh.
The first warm days of the year never come soon enough. But when they do, a feeling of euphoria sweeps over anglers because springtime offers some of the year’s best opportunities for trophy largemouth bass.
Fall is a great opportunity to catch a big one, but your best shot at the biggest bass of the year or your life is right now," said Geoff Roberts, a conservation educator with the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources and an avid bass angler.
Spring is the best time of year to catch trophy largemouth bass. Adam Martin, Western Fisheries District biologist for Kentucky Fish and Wildlife holds two huge largemouth bass captured and released during population sampling on west Kentucky’s Lake Beshear.
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The longer periods of daylight and the warming water temperatures of springtime tell largemouth bass that it’s time to move shallow. It’s also at this time when the big bass are at their heaviest, especially ravenous females that must pack on weight in preparation for spawning.
Kentucky boasts numerous lakes that hold "excellent" populations of largemouth bass. In its annual Fishing Forecast, Kentucky Fish and Wildlife classified 18 fisheries in this category for 2021.
Anchoring the list of "excellent" largemouth bass options are 10,500-acre Barren River Lake in Barren and Allen counties and 8,210-acre Green River Lake in Taylor and Adair counties. These two lakes have excellent numbers of largemouth bass longer than 15 inches with trophy-sized bass present. Other lakes also earning an "excellent" rating in this year’s Fishing Forecast were 760-acre Beshear Lake in Caldwell and Christian counties; 134-acre Bullock Pen Lake in Grant County; 68-acre Carpenter Lake in Daviess County; and 6,614-acres (in Kentucky) Dale Hollow Lake in Clinton and Cumberland counties.
These lakes also earned an "excellent" rating for largemouth bass in 2021: 149-acre Elmer Davis Lake in Owen County; 317-acre Guist Creek Lake in Shelby County; 2,500-acre Herrington Lake in Mercer, Boyle and Garrard counties; 183-acre Kincaid Lake in Pendleton County; 36-acre Lake George in Crittenden County; 767-acre Lake Malone in Muhlenberg, Todd and Logan counties; 22-acre Metcalfe County Lake; 109-acre Mill Creek Lake in Monroe County; 27-acre Spurlington Lake in Taylor County and 3,050-acre Taylorsville Lake in Spencer, Anderson and Nelson counties.
Two Madison County lakes earned an excellent rating for largemouth bass: 76-acre Lake Reba and 169-acre Wilgreen Lake.
Wilgreen Lake’s bass population stood out in last year’s research in the Northeastern Fisheries District. It yielded good numbers of fish over 15 inches and 20 inches, but bass don’t have to search hard for food with gizzard shad prevalent in the lake.
You can fish pretty much across the whole dam on that lake," said Tom Timmermann, Northeastern Fisheries District biologist with Kentucky Fish and Wildlife. "We see some nice fish across the dam. That would be a nice place to try. If you’re fishing Wilgreen, Lake Reba is just on the other side of Richmond. It has nice numbers of fish over 15 inches as well, and half of that is bank accessible. Those two lakes being the size that they are, it might make for a good day to fish one in the morning and then try to fish the other in the evening.
The largemouth bass in 135-acre Shanty Hollow Lake in Warren and Edmonson counties earned up-and-comer status in this year’s Fishing Forecast. The lake has an increasing number of largemouth bass longer than 15 inches, with strong numbers of 12- to 14-inch fish.
Bass typically start to move shallow when the water temperature ranges from 55 to 65 degrees with farm ponds and smaller lakes warming up first.
At a certain point, you’ve got fish in all three phases: pre-spawn, spawn and post-spawn," Roberts said. "If you try targeting the pre-spawners and you strike out doing that, try something a little different like sight fishing. And if you can’t get anything going there, look for the post-spawn fish.
Good lures to have on hand in early spring are jig and trailer combinations, spinnerbaits, square-billed and lipless crankbaits, suspending jerkbaits and other shad imitations.
Try to intercept bass at spots that lead to spawning areas, Roberts said, such as deeper points and the deeper stretches of banks that lead into embayments, creeks or a big pocket, and work back.
What you want to try to find are basically what bass use as highways," he said. "Bass like to feel secure and they like to have ambush points, so they’re going to use whatever cover is available as they work their way back in until they go to where they’re going to spawn. And then they’re going to do the exact same thing coming back out." "When they do get shallow, look for any stumps, lay down or structure like that because that’s what they’re either going to be spawning next to or hanging out by either in preparation for spawning or immediately after they spawn.
"When they do get shallow, look for any stumps, lay down or structure like that because that’s what they’re either going to be spawning next to or hanging out by either in preparation for spawning or immediately after they spawn.
Spring fishing is grateful fishing, and the thrill of an early spring reunion with the water never grows old. The pull of a trophy largemouth bass only makes it better.