Cranking and pitching into Spring

Fun Size crankbait fish

The winter curse has finally lifted here in Southeast Virginia and the water is warming up! After a week of warm spring temperatures I was excited to get out on one of my favorite lakes for some prespawn largemouths.  I rigged my Cuda 14 up and hit the water.  I planned on throwing swimbaits and crankbaits around stumps and submerged brushpiles.  The first hour was slow with only a few hits, but I went up a large creek off the main lake and found the fish.  My first fish nailed a swimbait that I bounced off a stump.  I kept running my swimbait and crankbait near stumps and picking up small fish. 

This fish crushed a swimbait near a stump

The bite was never heavy, but it also never stopped.  I caught most of my fish on the crankbait, with a few of my larger fish on the swimbait.  I also picked up a few pickerel on my crankbait as well. 

Hooked Up

The next day I went back out to the same lake.  The temperature had dropped about 10 degrees and there was a stiff north wind.  The rising barometric pressure made the crankbait bite tough, so I switched to pitching heavy cover. I caught 5 fish on laydowns and submerged trees in around 6 feet of water.

 This takes a lot of time and patients on days like today. I would work one laydown for about 10-15min to find fish. I also had to experiment with several colors and baits until I found the right combination.  A PowerTeam Lures 3.5” Craw D’oeuvre in green pumpkin red flake was the hot bait.  I would cover the bait with PowerTeam Lures Hog Tonic to give the bait that extra edge on the fish.  These fish were in the tightest, thickest part of the cover, and took a stiff rod to get them out.  I even pulled a pickerel out of a huge laydown. 

Spring is here, and it’s time to get out and catch some big pigs!