Early season fishing

[BNL]

Hey all

With my expectation of early ice out this year and an early start to the fishing season, I'd like to hear what techniques you all like for fishing when the water temps are from the high 30s to the low 50s?  I'd expect to hear people will suggest blade baits, but what other techniques should I be thinking about?

I'm seeing lots of open water and I cannot stop thinking about that first trip and what rods will be along for the ride.

2018 here we go....

Thanks!

[dartag]

Orange Rattle Traps should work on your lake along with blades until the water is above 50.  Kent is a great trap lake in the spring.

[djkimmel]

I been feeling the fever for a few weeks now! I blew it on ice fishing by waiting too long!!! Been a real busy start to the year for me for website work (which is fine, I need it!!).

So I'm looking at all the open water as I drive each day to Outdoorama in Novi and thinking, 'Man!! I've got to get real, real soon!!'

Depending on what lake(s) I go to, I will probably do some of what I always do early in the year - blade bait, a Kustom Kicker 2K Jigs Deposit Spin spinnerbait in bream (unfortunately, Dan has decided to discontinue them due to the difficulty in getting the wire he wants - but I did grab almost all he had left so I'll be good for a while!!), maybe some Dock Monkey jigs, possibly some KVD 1.5 and 2.5 cranks if the water warms in the shallows really fast.

Maybe a trap-type lure - most likely a Red-eye Shad (I like reds too though I'll through a nice minnow color if they don't want red that day). I'll have a big juicy stick worm tied on - probably wacky style with some weight on it to get it fall a little deeper a little faster if I don't find many bass cruising shallow yet. I may also have one rigged up Texposed as a soft jerkbait too. Probably Wayne's X-worms. I like Slither early in the year, or Canadian Mist.

I'll also have a mid-sized minnowy-looking suspending jerkbait ready as sometimes you can't beat a super slow, long pause retrieve for cold water bass just starting to wake up!

In case the bass are finicky and not hitting the jig like they should I will have my favorite Bullet Craw rigged Texas-style with a pike-attracting Tungsten bullet sinker ready to pitch to spots too good to pass up!!

If bass are wandering and doing any odd I also like to have a mid-sized swimbait and a Deposit Swim jig ready to slowly swim by and through good looking stuff!

I'll probably be ready with a deep crankbait too in case they're sitting a little deeper, maybe earlier in the day before they fully wake up and I want to put something right in their face - do a lot of pauses and variations in retrieve speed for that! Somewhere along this approach I expect to catch some!! Good luck out there! Get going soon - the biggest bass of the year are sometimes the first bass to cruise in for the feed bag!

[fishstick]

Jerkbait, jig, trap, blade, and a spinning rod with ball head jig with a small craw, ned, or darter on it. Usually the craw or ned work best immediately after ice out. A couple weeks later and they usually want the darter instead.

[djkimmel]

That's a good point about the jig and plastic suggestion. I don't do it as much in the early season because I fish mostly snag-infested waters but if I find myself on more open water, and on shallow to deep, sparse flats sometimes the jig and plastic approach is deadly.

[detroit1]

Pike attracting tungsten wts....

[djkimmel]

Pike LOVE the Tungsten! Unfortunately...