Pre-spawn techniques

[BNL]

What are your top 5 techniques for pre-spawn fishing?

I have been focusing on these 5:
1) lipless crank - yo yo retrieve
2) bladed jig - swimbait or craw trailer slow roll and hopping along the bottom
3) jerkbait -
4) jig - dragging / hopping
5) squarebill crank -

What else should I be considering? What else you guys use? What's your go to technique?

[fishstick]

Silver buddy...depending on where your at the water might be starting to get a bit too warm at this point though. I would include a drop shot, when the water is cold I do better drop shotting smaller bulkier baits like a 2.5 inch crooked creek tube or nemesis goby and then switch to worms as the water warms.

A jig, jerkbait, and trap are my other go to baits just depends on what they want that day or the type of pre spawn area I'm targeting.
I use a lot of other stuff during the pre spawn to just depends on the type of area and how close they are to moving up and making beds.

I've also caught some nice fish on swim baits this time of year.

[McCarter]

trap
sq bill
Nemesis Sicko
Optimum BLT 5" swimbait ( dont be afraid of its size, they eat it )
Jig

thats when they are in actual prespawn mode and up shallow getting ready to start making a mess.  cover lots of water and throw any of the above and you will catch at least one bass

McCarter himself.

[Durand Dan]

So far this year for me it's been a DT-6 in Blue Gill color and a Root beer Bandit 300. I've been fishing the DT-6 in 9 to 11 fow running it down quick and retrieving it slow stopping quite a bit. I've been bouncing the Bandit off rocks and the bottom along the shoreline (Kent). Both have consistently been catching good size fish. Of course the Rattle Trap has been effective but not as in past years. No jerkbait fish yet.

[t-bone]

I hammered them on a squarebill crank last night. Water temp was 55 and they are starting to come up in the shallows.

[BNL]

McCarter

Love the idea of the Optimum BLT.  What are your got to colors on inland lakes?  I am going to order a few and would like to hear your thoughts.

[McCarter]

I like the Golden Shiner, Pearl Shad, and believe it or not the Table Rock Shad is killer.  i dont do well on that color in other baits, but it kills em on the BLTs.  My favorite color is the Jackson Trout tho.  I was throwing that the other day and had one annihilate it, but i missed him.  the best thing about throwing a swimbait like that is the strike.  they hit it so hard, but if they are in a funk, you will miss a lot of strikes. 

McCarter himself

[Wolverines]

IMO, the best part of pre-spawn bass fishing is that you can catch them on just about anything.  Great time of year to gain confidence in a new technique or a new lure you want to try.  It's a shame we can't have tournaments this time of year cause there would be some amazing weigh-ins.

Obviously as water temps increase, some techniques lose their effectiveness, but as far as "pre-spawn"  the list of what I wouldn't do would be way smaller.  

[bob o]

we slammed'em on spinnerbaits yesterday, and my buddy even busted one on a frog 

[FishermanJohn]

When they're pre-spawn and up shallow I like going either really fast or really slow.  I'll search with a spinnerbait, lipless crank, or shallow running crankbait.  Once I find them or encounter isolated cover I go in with a jig or senko.

If they're staging deeper I'll go with a lipless or jerkbait.

[thedude]

jerkbait bite has been off for me. I had one day a 2 wee....er days ago  where i must've caught nearly 40 keepers on a jerk. One of the craziest nights of fishing ever.  The last few times out has been a jig though, again - just knocking them dead with it. Trap bite has been sporadic, i feel it will pick up with this warm week we are supposed to have. Lake temp around here came up 5 degrees from saturday to wed so a few days in the upper 60s/low 70s will really get them going.