Ahhh. Take it in with me. Deeply inhale the spring air … the thick, yellow spring air. Now cough up all that pollen and let’s get out on the water. There’s a golden cloud of pixie dust floating through the air and beginning to settle on the water here in the south.
It’s only a matter of time until this telltale indicator of the bass spawn sweeps up and across much of the map this month. Spring is certainly in the air, Allegra is in my pocket and these are the five rods on my deck.
- SPRO DEAN ROJAS BRONZEYE FROG 65
- NICHOLS CATALYST COLORADO WILLOW SPINNERBAIT / Z-MAN TAIL TRAILERZ
- NED HEAD / Z-MAN FINESSE TRD
- DIRTY JIGS NO-JACK SWIM JIG / STRIKE KING RAGE TAIL CRAW TRAILER
- BILL LEWIS SB-57 SQUAREBILL CRANKBAIT / BILL LEWIS RAT-L-TRAP
SPRO DEAN ROJAS BRONZEYE FROG 65
It may still be a hair early, I hear you, but I could care less. Even if it is still a touch cold for a topwater here in Alabama at the start of the month, I still have a hollow body frog on deck. Just the possibility of a topwater bite has me eager to slip this rod out of the rod locker as soon as it’s warm enough to take my hoodie off.
A good frog, like the SPRO Dean Rojas Bronzeye Frog 65, is one of the first topwater baits you can get bites on in the spring. It’s not as obtrusive as a lot of other topwaters. It even pales in comparison in the noisemaking arena to its popping frog counterpart.
A walking-style hollow body frog can be worked subtly which makes it a great topwater to throw during the immediate pre-spawn. The bass are often very aggressive during the early pre-spawn, feeding heavily to prepare for the bedding process. However, they can get quite finicky right before they bed, as they peruse super shallow water in search of the perfect spot to spawn.
The gentle action of a hollow body frog is just enough to draw their attention without intimidating them. When a big girl does take the bait, she bites off more than she can chew with a SPRO Bronzeye Frog. These baits are perfectly equipped with bold, twin hooks that can haul any bass to the boat. A hollow body frog is the perfect blend of power and finesse in my opinion, thus making it perfect for March.
NICHOLS CATALYST COLORADO WILLOW SPINNERBAIT/Z-MAN TAIL TRAILERZ
Next to hit the deck for me is a trusty spinnerbait. The Nichols Catalyst Colorado Willow Spinnerbait is one I’ve been throwing a good bit recently, along with the Z-Man Sling BladeZ. Spinnerbaits are great lures to use year round, but they’re particularly well suited for the spring because bass move shallow and feed aggressively.
I’ll take a chartreuse and white spinnerbait and throw it in the muddiest water I can find this time of year. I will graduate the willow leaf blade all the way up to a number 6 if the water is either cold enough or muddy enough to warrant it. The larger blade generates a lot of thump while simultaneously slowing the bait down, making it easier for bass to find the bait and catch up to it.
If the water isn’t all that muddy but just has a good stain to it, a 1/2-ounce Colorado/willow combination is plenty. You can even back down to a 3/8-ounce spinnerbait in a more natural shad pattern to get bites in relatively clear water in March, as long as there’s a little cloud cover or wind present.
NED HEAD WITH Z-MAN FINESSE TRD
I think of a Ned rig a lot like insurance; I don’t like having to have it, but I like what it can do for me in a pinch. It’s no secret that a Ned rig is one of the better bite getters out there—if not the best of all. We’re talking a small soft plastic on a flat-topped jighead with the hook exposed. Plain and simple, and deadly effective.
You can catch fish on this near-nothing looking bait all year. However, it’s particularly effective in the early spring, when bass are spawning or getting ready to. Bass are ornery critters who are very protective of their beds. Whether you’re looking at a bass on bed or just fishing down a bank where you suppose bass may be bedding, a Ned rig is the perfect little morsel to get plucked up as it eases through a spawner’s territory.
You really can’t go wrong here with bait selection in my opinion. I’ve bitten many a Senko in half and slid the tail end up on a Ned head, and then proceeded to catch a ton of bass. They’ll bite just about anything you put on this deal. I will say, the Finesse TRD from Z-Man is hard to beat. It’s plain looking, which the bass love for some reason, and it’s as durable as a sledge hammer.
The 10X Tough ElaZtech material these baits are made of is unbelievably durable. One of these baits will last you a long time. They also float, so there’s the added bonus that the TRD will help your Ned head stand up straight.
DIRTY JIGS NO-JACK SWIM JIG/STRIKE KING RAGE TAIL CRAW TRAILER
I live in central Alabama. Lake Eufaula is an hour to the south and multiple pools of the Coosa River are less than two hours to the west. These fisheries are famous for large amounts of aquatic vegetation and big fish. There are also a half dozen or so other lakes in my general area that have a fair amount of water willow, coontail, lily pads and reeds. This makes Alabama a great place to swim a jig.
Swim jigs are closely associated with power fishing in this state. So much so, the steady twitching of the rod tip when a swim jig is being reeled in has become known as “the Alabama shake.” These baits are all-terrain vehicles that come through the thickest cover with ease. They have big, bold hooks perfect for big, bold bass. When you pair the heavy gauge hook with a heavy braided line, there’s little concern of losing a fish or breaking one off on a swim jig.
It’s hard not to have one particular jig come to mind as I describe this genre of bait—the Dirty Jigs No-Jack Swim Jig. I don’t fully recall but I either stumbled onto this bait or someone put me on it over a decade ago. What I do know is that it’s been my go-to swim jig ever since.
We have a lot of bluegill in this area. For this reason, I like a black, blue and purple 3/8-ounce swim jig with a green pumpkin Rage Craw trailer. During the shad spawn, I’ll swap over to a chartreuse and white or a more natural translucent shad pattern. The latter is better for clearer water and the former for muddier water.
BILL LEWIS SB-57 SQUARE BILL CRANKBAIT
As I was racking my brain trying to put together the best five baits for March, images of wacky rigs, ChatterBaits and lipless cranks danced through my head. While all of these and more are great baits for March, they don’t always land in the first five baits I put on deck this time of year. A square bill, however, does.
The Bill Lewis SB-57 Squarebill CrankBait is the one I’ve had on deck throughout the last four or five springs. I’ve tested and thrown a lot of square bills—a lot of good square bills. Those other baits catch fish, and it’s not necessarily that they couldn’t catch as many or more than the SB-57, but for some reason I have an affinity for this squarebill in particular. Keeping it in my hand has further reinforced my tendency to return to it time and time again when I need a bite in March.
A quality square bill like the SB-57 can crawl through cover like laydowns and riprap with minimal snagging. I’ve also found via the… rare errant cast, this bait can even bang off cover when it’s airborne without fatal injury. Having a workhorse of a square bill on deck in March is essential. It allows me to cover water and pick apart shallow cover without being scared to throw where the fish are.
As the water temps sky rocket from the upper 40s to the mid-60s in my general area, these are the five baits I’ll have on deck. The bass will be shallow, they will be feeding and many will be spawning before this month is through. These five baits give me almost all I need to cover the bank and pick apart the relatively shallow water where most of the bass will be in March.
