Catching post-spawn bass on frogs, cranks and worms

Bill McKay is the longtime competitor on the tournament circuits around Ross Barnett. He’s caught many bass in late April and May on black and blue 11-inch worms around vegetation 3 to 5 foot deep.

Bill McKay sailed a frog into the salad patch and worked it back through the vegetation, which included several different types of grass and pads, but he never made it back to the boat.

“Ka-whoosh!” Another Ross Barnett bass smashed his lure and dove for the bottom. Before the bass could hang him up, the veteran angler jerked back and drove the steel hooks deep into the jaws of the bass a second before it exploded out of the water and wallowed across the surface like a wild hog in a slough.

“I like to take a frog and soft jerkbait and get around grass or any kind of vegetation during low light conditions this time of year,” said McKay. “When they are actively feeding you can kill them on the frog and soft jerkbait. If you ain’t fishing around vegetation this time of year you are doing it wrong!”

When it comes to choosing color, McKay said that it is simple to him.

“I use a black or white frog and they will hit either one or the other when they are feeding actively,” he said. “I’ll use a black frog during bright sunny days, and I’ll use a white frog on cloudy days. A lot of people do just the opposite, but I’ve always had good success fishing them under those conditions.”

Confidence in your bait

As for soft jerkbaits, any color will work as long as it is a shad colored variation. Bass like to feed on shad this time of year and the shad-colored jerkbait is deadly and the bass just can’t seem to refuse it.

When the sun comes up and it gets bright, this successful tournament angler moves a little deeper in the 3 to 5-foot depths and casts a crankbait and jig around the vegetation or wood cover.

“Normally I’ll catch a big one on the frog, but after the frog bite slows I’ll go to my confidence baits and that’s a crankbait and jig,” McKay said. “I can pick up that jig any time of the year and catch fish and usually it will be a big one. I catch a lot of fish on it all year and I believe it’s because I have confidence in it and know that I can entice bass into striking it.

“I can get bites when my fishing partners can’t buy a strike, and I believe it is strictly having the confidence in the bait. I’ll use a 3/8 or ½-ounce jig when fishing shallow lighter vegetation because you don’t need a heavier weight to penetrate it.”

Fun fishing

McKay also loves to fish buzz baits this time of year because they elicit bone-jarring strikes! A buzz bait is a good bait to throw too, but he’s also lost a lot of lunker bass on it, so he doesn’t use it during tournaments. But he always like to use it when fun fishing because those monster bass try to destroy it and they are so good at enticing bass into biting them.

Crankbaits have always been a staple item in McKay’s repertoire, and he loves casting a square bill crankbait and banging it into, around and over stumps and brush. If he ricochets off of enough stumps, he’s going to catch more than his share of lunker bass. Over the years he has proven himself time and time again while winning or placing at the top of tournaments with the best anglers in the country.

If you are looking to catch bass during late April and early May, take a few of McKay’s tried and true tips and techniques and try them for yourself. You might just experience the thrill of your life catching monster bass and lots of them.

About Michael O. Giles 405 Articles
Mike Giles of Meridian has been hunting and fishing Mississippi since 1965. He is an award-winning wildlife photographer, writer, seminar speaker and guide.

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