By Daryl Bauer
We have open water early this spring. I know, everyone has the fever and cannot wait to hit the water and catch some fish. . . .
Then they find out that the water is still darned cold, the weather is erratic and catching fish right now ain’t easy. In my opinion, early spring is the most challenging fishing of the entire year.
I have blogged often about some early spring strategies, so I am not going to repeat that all here again. However, I am going to highlight some things:
First, Think Warm.
Second, I will tell you that one of my favorite baits for a variety of predator fish, especially when the water is relatively cold, would be a neutrally-buoyant jerkbait. Again, I have often blogged about fishing those baits, and am not going to repeat all of that again. On the other hand, I recently stumbled across another article on that same subject and I am going to recommend you follow this link and read it!
Yeah, I know. The title says to fish those baits for bass. Don’t mean nothing. Those baits work for all of our predator fish. Where it says “bass” ignore that word and replace it with whatever your favorite predator fish might be. Or, leave the word “bass” there. Whatever.
Throw bigger suspending jerkbaits for larger predators like walleyes, pike and muskie, smaller for trout and crappies. The way to fish those baits is pretty much the same regardless of species.
One last thing: Of course that article mentions all the latest, newest and improved suspending jerkbaits. Good baits, all of them. Just do not forget that the old favorites still work too!