2025 Spring Fishing

Figured since you can fish bass in WI I’d start this up. I probably won’t be able to get out there til next week but I’ll be messing around over there soon. Talk about the bite here if you do get out.

Whats your go to early cold water bass tactics ?

Bearcat89 wrote:

Whats your go to early cold water <strong class=”ido-tag-strong”>bass tactics ?

Self admittedly, I suck early spring. We’ve never been able to fish it until WI went to C and R before the season opened so I just don’t have much time on the water in that stage of the year. I struggle when fish aren’t on shallow cover or there aren’t weed beds/weedlines to fish. So early spring is tough for me. However I’ve been doing a lot of reading and watching on early coldwater spring bass, and Ive found the common areas of focus are main lake points and covering water. Once you find them they are usually schooled up until they start moving up shallower. But basically the consensus was they stay deeper near points that are close to spawning grounds, then move to secondary points shallower, then the spawning grounds.

So that will be my focus, using chatterbaits, jerkbaits, lipless cranks, blade baits, and paddletails and underspins to cover water, until they start moving up. We’ll see if it works.

mahtofire14 wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Bearcat89 wrote:</div>
Whats your go to early cold water <strong class=”ido-tag-strong”>bass tactics ?

Self admittedly, I suck early spring. We’ve never been able to fish it until WI went to C and R before the season opened. I struggle when fish aren’t on shallow cover or there aren’t weed beds/weedlines to fish. So early spring is tough for me. However I’ve been doing a lot of reading and watching for early coldwater spring bass, and Ive found the common areas of focus are main lake points and covering water. Once you find them they are usually schooled up until they start moving up shallower. But basically the consensus was they stay deeper near points that are close to spawning grounds, then move to secondary points shallower, then the spawning grounds.

So that will be my focus, using chatterbaits, lipless cranks, blade baits, and paddletails and underspins to cover water, until they start moving up. We’ll see if it works.

I know on a local lake that both smallies and largemouths hang right at the first break in shoreline water and absolutely murder my crappies baits. The crappies like to hang at that break too along with pike and catfish so I can be a crap shoot what’s going to hit, but I can say crappie, smallie, lm, cat then pike in that order. And that break is from three to about 5 1/2 feet, but its an abrupt, sharp drop.

I’ve also struggled mightily in very early spring when the water is super cold.

They are warm water species as cold blooded fish so they are often still kind of hibernating in winter mode until there are signs of warmth.

I think mahto is on the right track though. They’re likely still out deeper in the wintering holes and probably tough to entice a strike.

And of course it turns back to winter when I bring the boat back home…..

Would not be the end of the world if we had a C&R season here too, bass are tough to catch in cold water. I catch them early season crappie fishing, they like stuff smaller, slower and suspended.

I found a smaller lake in WI that looks similar to a reservoir style lake with a lot of creek arm jutting out from the main lake. I’m gonna check that out soon and see if the bass act like I think they will and stack up in those creek arms once it starts warming up.

I spent 8 hours on Wednesday graphing rock points on Big Stone. I would focus where the main break dips off into the basin. 6 to 8 fow.
I probably have around 30 waypoints and plan on hitting it up this upcoming Saturday.
The plan run and gun to each waypoint till I come in contact with a good size school.
The 3 things I will be using.
Jerk bait, balsa crank bait (Shad rap) and a Neko rig.

Got out today on White Bear just to run the motor a little bit. Everything seems good on the boat so I think next week I’m gonna hit that lake in Wisconsin. I’ve been wanting to go for hopefully the water temps will be warmer than the 39° I found in White Bear.

My bass club use to always do a early season Tourney in Wisc. because they always opened way earlier there than here.( usually Bone, Balsam, or Wapogasset ) I drew a guy who almost always won those early tourneys there. His tactic was to fish mainlake points just outside of known spawning bays or fish the first breakline just outside those bays. He found the bass in these areas staging to move in once the conditions became right. A deep diving crankbait ( Old style Bommer A ) was his go to bait of choice. He would get it down to depth and then do a long slow sweep of the rod followed by a long pause. If nothing he’d crank it a few times to get back to the depth and repeat. Most of the bites came deeper into the long pause. Not much of a bite. More just a mushy push or just dead weight

fishthumper wrote:

My bass club use to always do a early season Tourney in Wisc. because they always opened way earlier there than here.

No they didn’t. They only removed their closed season and converted it to a C & R season in the last 5 years.

Their season traditionally closed in late February and opened one week before ours for many years.

gim wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>fishthumper wrote:</div>
My bass club use to always do a early season Tourney in Wisc. because they always opened way earlier there than here.

No they didn’t. They only removed their closed season and converted it to a C & R season in the last 5 years.

Their season traditionally closed in late February and opened one week before ours for many years.

WI used to open bass season the first Saturday in May with the rest of the gamefish. In the late 1090’s and early 2000’s I fished the WI Opener many times and at least 7 tournaments.

Bass Pundit wrote:

WI used to open bass season the first Saturday in May with the rest of the gamefish.

I know. That’s exactly what I’m saying.

Thumper said they always used to “open way earlier.” A week is not way earlier.

You don’t know your bass-fishing season history in either state. It used to be common for bass fishing circuits and clubs in MN to hold one or two tournaments in WI before the MN Bass Opener on Memorial Day weekend, well before WI did away with Closed Season for C & R in 2020. MN only changed to the early catch-and-release season in 2015, moving when we could target bass in this state back two additional weeks. Before that, we were 3 or 4 weeks behind all but a narrow section in Northern WI or if you were one of the rare few that went to far northern MN where they opened the bass season early. If May 1st fell on a Sunday, WI would open their season on April 30th, pushing it to 4 full weeks between when bass opened in the majority of both states.

MN also idiotically also screwed state anglers by tying our fishing Opener to Memorial Day Weekend rather than the second Saturday in May. So, there is at least one other scenario where WI opens for fishing two weeks before MN when a late Memorial Day happens.

gim wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Bass Pundit wrote:</div>
WI used to open bass season the first Saturday in May with the rest of the gamefish.

I know. That’s exactly what I’m saying.

Thumper said they always used to “open way earlier.” A week is not way earlier.

A little simple math and a history lesson goes a long ways. Maybe you should try both before you start flapping your jaws.

Bass Pundit wrote:

MN also idiotically also screwed state anglers by tying our fishing Opener to Memorial Day Weekend rather than the second Saturday in May. So, there is at least one other scenario where WI opens for fishing two weeks before MN when a late Memorial Day happens.

Ok I see what you’re saying now. You’re right the bass opener in MN used to be Memorial Day weekend. I forgot about that.

Now that we got that figured out…….;) I’ve got my rods rigged and back in the boat for when I invade WI next week. Here’s the lineup:

Jerkbait (bone)
Lipless Crank (gold red eye shad)
Chatterbait (zman Evo sexy shad)
Jig (All Terrain AT PB&J)
T-Rig (Rage Bug Black/Blue)
Weightless Wacky Rig
Drop Shot
Strolling Rigii (Hayabusa Jighead with Spunk Shad)
Underspin (Kietech or Largo shad trailer)
Spinnerbait

Also have a frog and a magdraft rigged up, but I doubt they’ll be shallow enough for those by next week.

I’ve had best luck with a twin Colorado blade spinnerbait in bluegill colors in early spring focusing on the shallow dark bays/areas that warm first. Fished relatively slow in/around existing weeds or openings in the weedy areas. Chatterbait works well but not as effective as the spinner bait. Certainly depends on the lake but I focus on shallow lakes, 15′ or less, that will warm faster. We have has some amazing days withing a week or so of ice out and it only gets better as it warms and the fish start spawning.

I’ve had better luck with willow blades on my spinners but I’ll admit it’s not something I throw that much. I’m heading to a small WI lake Saturday morning that has a lot of little creek arm offshoots so I’m thinking it will have some areas that are quite a bit warmer than other lakes in the area. Warm enough? We’ll see. But hoping to get on a few fish.

Got out this morning on a small WI lake. First off, why the heck are all WI launches horrible? Man that’s annoying.

Anyway, it was colder than we expected with water temps only at 47 at the highest. We threw Chatterbaits, spinners, jerks, cranks, and the kitchen sink at them. Caught two fish in about 4 hrs but one of them was quality. First bass of the year for me and it was 3.5-4 lbs. caught it on a lay down with a Texas rigged rage bug.

Had a pike bite off a chatterbait (shocker), and the only other bass came on a weightless wacky. Nice to start the season off with a good fish though.

nice fish!!!

That thing has some stunning color. Prominent black stripe back by the tail.

I’m planning to fish pre-spawn bass in Minn the week after opener. One thing I plan to try is the floating worm that they use down south a lot.

As the fish move into the shallows, the water is usually pretty clear and not a lot of cover. Casting lures with any weight can really spook them.

I started using the floating worm technique this past year and it’s a great stealthy technique with wicked action.

I use about a foot long fluorocarbon leader, 2/0 worm hook, a swivel and any number of worms that float.

The weight of the swivel, worm and hook is just enough weight to be able to cast, but doesn’t hit the water with the big “plop” that spooks them.

Casting into the shallows, the retrieve is only about 6 inches below the surface. You thread the worm on the hook with a little curve/bend to it. Not like your usual Texas-rigging where you want the worm perfectly straight. This little curve to the worm gives it incredible action with just light twitches on the retrieve. Occasional pause over targets, beds, etc. then start up again. You need the swivel to avoid a lot of line twist.

It totally pisses fish off and even if they just swipe at the worm, the small wire hook gets them a lot of times. Other times they annihilate it!

A lot of anglers use the bright colors in clear water or blue/purple in darker water. I plan to try the chartreuse if I find smallies in the shallows when I’m in town.

Inexpensive, effective and fun technique – and it works!

Video of floating worm action ~