Bass will be cruising around in preparation for the spawn
With most of the winter in the rearview mirror by now, March is a welcome time of year for bass fishing on Toledo Bend.
The bass spawn definitely gets underway on this big border lake, and bass anglers get their hands on more and more double-digit fish to enter in the Toledo Bend Lunker Bass Program. The spawning cycle shifts into high gear as temperatures creep up night and day.
I prefer to fish for pre-spawn bass in March as much as possible with moving baits such as spinnerbaits and chatterbaits, as well as swimbaits. Look for bass cruising into areas but not on a spawning bed yet. Once they get on a nest and actually get in the process of making babies they’re harder to catch, but definitely still catchable.
Top March lures
A majority of the lake’s bass historically spawn this month. That’s when a large portion of them are in 10-foot depths or less and many of those are in less than 5 feet. Remember, though, the closer you get to the dam, the more you’ll still be dealing with pre-spawn bass that haven’t moved in to nest, while at the upper end of the lake many bass are in post-spawn.
You’ll have fish that stage on hard spots — points, stuff like that — while spawning bass will be more on flats with stumps, grass, whatever’s available, depending on the water level and whatever part of the lake you’re in.
When I toss a spinnerbait around it’s usually a ½-ounce or less chartreuse/white Berkley spinnerbait unless the water’s real clear, where a translucent color is good. A gold Colorado blade/silver willowleaf bladed model is my favorite. Blade combos are something anglers must experiment with to see what bass want.
It’s hard to beat a Z-Man Chatterbait, ½-, 3/8- or even a ¼-ounce model when the fish are shallow. When shallow, white, translucent white or chartreuse/white are in play. I’ll thread a Bass Assassin Elite Shiner on the bladed jig a lot, and when I want more of a kick I’ll use a Bass Assassin Bang Bug.
As for my pick of swimbaits, my go-to soft plastic is a 3 ½-inch Bass Assassin Lit’l Boss on a belly-weighed swimbait hook, as light as I can get away with, like ¼-ounce or less. Houdini is a good color, as is pearl white.
You can’t talk about March bass fishing success without talking about stick baits like Gary Yamamoto Custom Baits (GYCB) Senkos and Bass Assassin Fat Jobs, either of them in watermelon/red, Junebug or black/blue. I throw them Texas-rigged and weightless a lot this time of year.
A good time for crappie
Crappie action heats up as well in March. They’ll be positioned very similar to bass but the depth can be a little more broad range than bass, like from the bank with their fins sticking out of the water all the way to 20-feet deep. Typically, though, they’re in 6- to 15-foot depths.
The most popular artificial lure this month is a 1/32- to 1/8-ounce Roadrunner. Black/chartreuse is always good, but in clear water try something like “monkey milk” or chartreuse/blue.
And a live minnow under a slip cork almost always pays off. Typically, I use a gold Aberdeen Size 2 or Size 4 hook and fish it under a split show. Crappie usually are around stumps or grass 5- to 10-feet deep, so set the cork so the shine’s right above them.
I’ll keep a crappie fishin’ pole rigged and ready when I’m in my bass boat because a lot of times when a bass angler gets a “tick” or light bump on a spinnerbait it’s often a crappie hitting the blades.
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