This week was about as short as it gets for me. Yesterday was the only day that I got an early start and stayed out till mid-afternoon this week. I fished a few hours earlier in the week, but I really didn’t get a handle on things until today. The way my morning started this morning was with some topwater at dawn after seeing a few surfacing fish on a point in the creek. They were shallow and chasing bluebacks on the surface, so I tied on the Spro Epop in the emerald color, and it didn’t take long till a fish came completely out of the water, blowing up on the popper. It was my first topwater fish for 2025 and it was on the emerald color. It reminded me of catching fish in late March years ago on the old emerald popper. I generally use the popper if I see surfacing fish but it’s also a good idea to start throwing it around those shallow pockets very early in the morning right now. Yesterday I found that the fish were actively feeding on top for about the first hour of sunrise. The popper bite will improve over the next couple months but it’s a good idea to have it tied on and ready.

The second bait I used with success yesterday was the Damiki Keitech swimbait over brush and on points. I like the little Damiki rig when it’s flat in the early morning hours because I’ve found over the years that the bass can react to smaller baits in flat conditions, better than larger baits. Basically, it’s easier to fool them with the little 2.8 Keitech on a 1/4-ounce Damiki head, whether it’s over brush or just blind casting a point early in the morning. If you’re using Livescope, it’s just as easy as locating fish in the tops of the timber or brushpiles, and making a cast just beyond the target area, counting to ten and a slow retrieve back to the boat. I can also cast to single fish or small wolf packs with the little swimbait using Livescope and it kinda reminds me of sight fishing redfish in the marshes of Louisiana. You can also use the little Keitech around docks with great success right now and yesterday I caught fish with the keitech around docks, points and over brush.

Next came my meat and potatoes bait yesterday, the shaky head. I used this the most yesterday and it produced some very nice fish, first while running a stretch of deeper docks and then I started hitting the deeper, shady rock bluffs. If you’re not scoping docks, right now you just have to assume there are fish under every dock….and there could be right now. Right now, my favorite place to look for bigger fish with the worm would have to be a deep, dark shady rock bluff with a blowdown or sunken wood on the bottom. The sundrenched rock bluffs are a good option right now, but I prefer the deep, dark shady areas for bigger fish right now. Really, you can’t go wrong throwing a shaky head worm around rocks and docks right now, especially in those mid-morning hours when you’re waiting for that wind to kick up. Yesterday I caught the most fish on the shaky head.

Late yesterday morning the wind started to blow out of the SW, and it started a pretty good ripple in the creek so I noticed the wind blowing right into a couple rocking points and I wanted to see if the crankbait bite was still an option, so I picked up the cranking rod and started making bomb casts with the crankbait across points. The DT10 runs at about 10 feet in depth but most of my casts started at close to 10 feet and I don’t think I caught a fish on the crankbait yesterday while it was making contact with the bottom. I ran a long stretch of rip rap in the creek and found a couple of smaller fish willing to eat the crankbait, but I just wasn’t feeling it with the crankbait. The wind was really starting to pick up and I had another fun bait in mind, but the crankbait is definitely still in play right now. It won’t be long till we can put away the red cranks and pull out the shad pattern crankbaits. We’re going to be approaching the shad spawn very soon and a shad pattern crankbait that dives between 5-10 feet will be the ticket for some nice bass prior to, and during the shad spawn.

If it’s spring and the wind is blowing, you’d better have a spinnerbait on the deck. Yesterday in the early afternoon the wind picked up and it provided me with plenty of options for my 3/4-ounce SpotSticker Baits Mini Me. Right now, I don’t use a trailer for the bait, and it does just fine without one. It’s pretty simple with the spinnerbaits right now. Just find a wind point and start chunking it around. I like to spot lock up wind and make my casts downwind for the extra distance on the cast. I follow it up with a 10-15 count depending on the depth I’m fishing. If I’m fishing shallow, I like to keep it just above the bottom and for deeper applications like over brush, I’ll give it a 10 count just to get it down below the surface a bit. Yesterday I caught some nice ones with the spinnerbait out on windy points, but I broke it off in the top of a brushpile after success on a few points. I don’t like to use Livescope for the spinnerbait because I like the surprise I get from the fish slamming the bait unexpectedly. After I broke off the spinnerbait, I decided to pull out one of my all time spring bait favorites, but the spinnerbait on windy points is a must right now in the afternoons.

The last bait I used yesterday was the Zman Jackhammer chatterbait. Man, I gotta tell you guys, I love me some chatterbait in the spring. If nothing else, I love the way my rod unloads and reloads when they hit the chatterbait. The heck with Livescope! Give me the thrill of not knowing exactly when it’s going to happen and when it does happen, it can be extreme. Once I broke off that spinnerbait yesterday afternoon, I didn’t skip a beat and hit a rock point with wind on it. On my first cast I felt the chatterbait unload and reload, and I knew a fish had swirled on it. My very next cast produced another swirl so I knew there was interest. I worked my way down the side of the point and made casts across the point; on my 4th cast, I felt the bait totally unload and then reload, doubling over with a fighting fish on the end. That’s such a great feeling when fishing points out in the wind. Years ago when I first started using the Jackhammer, I mainly used it around docks and in the shallows in the spring but over the years I’ve broadened my usage of the chatterbait to include rocks, docks, points and random bank beating. Basically, I’ll use it anywhere, anytime the wind is blowing and it’s sunny out. One of the biggest attractions using the chatterbait is that chrome flash from the blade in the afternoon sun. That flash is a fish magnet and one of the main reasons I have success with it. Another successful area I like to use the chatterbait is the shade patches around docks in the afternoons. There’s just something about running that chatterbait through a shade patch down the side of a dock and feeling a fish slam it in the dark shadow. I finished my afternoon yesterday about 4pm and the last 2 hours were spent throwing the chatterbait in the wind and popping the occasional bass. I think the chatterbait provided the most fun for me yesterday and the wind was instrumental in my success. I used a pearl paddletail fluke jr. for a trailer on the chatterbait and it provided a great ending for my week.

Right now the lake is holding steady at just above full pool and the corps is only moving water a few hours a day. Water temps are still a little on the low side for this time of year but the lake is warming and approaching 60 degrees right now. Above are 6 baits that I use this time of year with great success on Lanier. I could rattle off another 4-5 baits that I would use in addition to these six but these are 6 of my favorites and the ones I used with success yesterday. Here’s a few more fish from my week.