SubmittedJoe Fortson caught this bass while pitching a lizard to shallow brush. 

Muddy cold water surging through a shallow lake doesn’t make for very good fishing any time, but especially after the water has warmed up and the bass are preparing to spawn. That was just the scenario we faced on a recent bass fishing trip.

Joe Fortson and I hit the water about sunup, but the wind was sweeping in from the northwest and a chill in the air signaled the changes below. We’d worked a shoreline for about 15 minutes with nary a bite and that wasn’t normal for an April bass fishing trip. We knew something was amiss, so Joe switched to a blade bait.

Pitching the shad imitation near the shoreline Fortson cranked the handle a few turns before the lure came to a complete stop.

Wham! A hungry bass smashed his lure and our first bass was finally caught, admired, and released to grow up some more.

I switched gears about the same time and tied on a black and blue Bass Pro Shops Stik-O. We’d only fished a short distance when I pitched the Stik-O near a bush and saw the line twitch and move to the side.

Bam! I reared back and drove the Gamakatsu triple gap hook deep into the jaw of the bass. After a short battle Fortson took my picture with my first bass and we admired it and I quickly released it. A glance at the temperature reading on my sonar showed that the temperature had fallen from the 70s to 64 degrees! That’s a big drop during the spawning season and likely why the bass were not aggressive this morning.

It didn’t take us long to realize that the bass had a good case of the lockjaw, so it was time to finesse feed them.

Fortson switched to a black lizard and I picked up a Junebug chartreuse colored Bass Pro magnum tube. We started probing the muddy water picking up random bites here and there but not really establishing a pattern. I spotted a bank across the lake with some pads, grass and brush and figured that had to be the place. We not caught more than one bass in any place.

It takes two bass to develop a pattern

I maneuvered my Skeeter boat parallel to the waters’ edge and worked against the wind as Fortson started pitching to the shallow brush. I’d pitch my tube into good looking spots as we probed every nook and cranny.

After I pitched the tube into a brushtop and felt something mushy I reared back on the rod and drove the hook into a bass’s jaw. The bass never gave a hint that he was on there except for the mushy feeling on the end of the line.

A few minutes later Fortson reared back and drove the steel home and caught another bass. We’d finally put something together and figured out that the bass were in water about 12-18 inches deep staging next to wood cover with vegetation nearby and they wanted something slow.

Though the wind was tough we were able to fish close to the cover and probe ever piece of wood cover on the shoreline.

I slammed the hook into a lunker bass and fought him around the boat as Fortson put his rod down and reached for the camera. I tried to swing the bass into the boat, but the hooks tore loose, and it fell back into the water. Bites were hard to come by and I just let a lunker get back without putting him into the boat for a picture.

Finesse bites

We continued working the shoreline picking up a few bites here and there, but the bites were almost imperceptible.

Fortson pitched his lizard between two trees and stopped to feel.

Wham! A lunker bass smashed his lizard and tore out like a freight train. The old pro drove the steel deep into the jaw of the bass and turned him around like a roped calf. A few minutes later I netted the bass and we admired another hard-earned bass.

As we worked the cover slowly, we enticed a few finesse bites from finicky bass, but they were all quality fish. After jerking a 4 or 5-pounder slam out of the water towards the boat and losing him on the hookset I switched to a Black Neon BPS tube and went back to probing structure.

Ka-whoosh! A massive bass smashed my lure and when I set the hook the resultant explosion was spectacular. The bass thrashed wildly on the surface as I fought to keep him on the line. Fortson got the net this time and after a few tense minutes I finally wore her down and landed the enraged sow bass. She had bit at 1:05 p.m. and was just icing on the cake after spending a morning on the water with my friend and talented bass angler Joe Fortson.

Call Mike Giles at 601-917-3898 or email mikegiles18@comast.net.