The Rat-L-Trap is one of the most deadly baits to throw during the pre-spawn. The bait is designed to penetrate mid-range depths and it rips through vegetation incredibly well. Best spring colors are red and burnt orange.

Give it another 45 days days or so and the shallows of just about every cold water impoundment across the deep south will come alive as waves of largemouth bass embark on the procreation ritual known as the spawn.

Forty-five is a good median number to use because it’ll land us somewhere into the second or third week of March. On many southern impoundments, that is historically when the first major spawning wave occurs.

The spawn is a biological phenomenon that beckons egg-laden female bass to emerge from their deep, winter haunts and situates them at medium-to-shallow-range depths.

Following the lead of a male counterpart, the female is courted to a pre-constructed nesting site where she deposits her eggs. Nesting sites are most often found on sandy or shell shorelines bottoms next to logs or under bushes, on flats, on top of submerged stumps and in the forks of trees. The nests are usually “fanned out” in water depths of 2-6 feet, give or take a little.

The way some anglers perceive things, the spawn ranks as one of the most opportune times of the year to catch a giant bass. But I disagree – in part, anyhow. Although nesting bass may at times be “easy pickings” for a savvy sight fisherman, most anglers don’t have the expertise nor the patience to aggravate them into striking a lure.

As a rule, big bass are much more vulnerable just prior to moving into shallow spawning areas. This period is sometimes referred to as the “pre-spawn.” It’s a transitional phase – a period when any angler, no matter what his or her level of fishing skill, stands a good chance of getting the big bite. Stumble across the right spot and you just might catch more than one.

Pre-spawners are lured to certain types of places. They’ll relate heavily to inside and outside grasslines, bushes, humps, ditches, long points – any place there is some sort of irregular feature for them to hold to until water temperatures in the nearby shallows warm sufficiently.

As a rule, pre-spawn lunkers don’t relate to the bottom, nor are they drawn to the surface. Instead, they like to be somewhere in between.

Pre-spawn bass don’t really relate to the bottom during the early spring. Instead, they’ll suspend a whole lot. They’ve been in cold water all winter, so when the sun starts warming the top layer of water the fish will rise up and bask in the warm sun. You need to throw baits that are designed to penetrate these mid-range depths.

One of most deadly of pre-spawn lures ever made is the is the Rat-L-Trap. It’s a lipless lure constructed with a built-in rattle chamber. As the lure speeds through the water, the rattles make noise to help attract the strike.

The bait works best in water depths of 4-8 feet – mid-range depths – which is where pre-spawn lunkers are likely to be suspended right now. Go with 1/2-ounce baits in shallow water, 3/4-ounce baits in deeper water.

Another gold star for the Trap is fishability. Anybody can fish one. Just chunk and wind. It’s as simple as that.

Like the Rat-L-Trap, the suspending jerkbait is designed to penetrate mid-range depths. Lures falling into this category include the Suspending Series Rogue, Rapala Husky Jerk or suspending Thunderstick.

Suspending jerkbaits come with built-in weight chamber, which makes them sink and suspend 4-8 feet beneath the surface. This is called “neutral buoyancy.” Many anglers will resort to suspending series lures when the bass seem sluggish or they refuse to chase a faster-moving bait.

The spinnerbait also will work wonders in this situation. It consists of a hook built into a skirted lead head that’s attached to a thin wire frame. The frame is usually adorned by one or two blades that turn in unison as it moves through the water.

Like other bass lures, spinnerbaits come in an assortment of sizes. Baits in the 3/8-ounce to 3/4-ounce range are best suited for spring fishing. I like a 1/2-ounce Pro Model when I’m fishing water that’s 2-6 feet deep and a 3/4-ounce bait when fishing 6-12 feet deep. The size bait you use should always coincide with the depth of water you’re fishing. It’s not a good idea to throw a 3/4-ounce lure into shallow water, because you’ve got to work it too fast to keep it out of the grass and other cover.

On the other hand, you wouldn’t want to throw a 1/2-ounce in 12 feet of water, because the bait is going to rise up as you retrieve it. Bass want a spinnerbait worked extremely slow during early spring – so slow that the blades are just barely thumping. These two baits are weighted perfectly to achieve this at mid-range depths.

When bass aren’t willing to chase even a slow-moving lure they’ll often eat a rubber-skirted jig/pork combination alive.

Jigs come in a variety of sizes. The best size for fishing the pre-spawn depends on the individual situation. For instance, when the bass are suspended in heavy cover such as willow bushes or buck brush, you’ll need a jig heavy enough to crash through the limbs, yet light enough to maintain a fairly slow fall.

A 1/2 or 5/8-ounce jig combined with a Strike King Senior Bo-Hawg trailer would be good choice in this type of situation, whereas a lighter 5/16-ounce lure would be better suited when fishing stumps and other vertical cover and/or structure staging bass like to suspend around.

Yet another great pre-spawn technique is Carolina-rigging with a plastic lizard or french fry. “Draggin’” works best when bass are staging on bald flats adjacent to inside grasslines or in secondary brush growth.

The typical Carolina-rig consists of a 3/4-ounce slip sinker and two glass beads, which are staged ahead of a barrel swivel. Attached to the opposite end of the swivel is 18-36 inches of leader line (lighter test than the main line) and a 3/0 hook. The reason for the lighter leader line is so you won’t lose the entire rig if you get hung in brush.

Then there are those West Coast lunker lures. The growing popularity of mammoth bass lures like the 9-12 inch AC Plug, Castaic Soft Trout, gizzard shad and perch is rock-solid evidence that big baits will indeed catch double digit largemouths.

The king-size bass baits began selling like hotcakes in Texas last spring, mostly at bait shops around Lake Fork. But rest assured, they’ll produce the big bite on any lake known to harbor a decent population of bragging size bucketmouths.

During early spring, try working the baits around areas known to hold staging largemouths. Don’t be afraid to fish them over deep water structure, either. I’ve heard numerous reports of fish coming to the surface in water as deep as 20-25 feet to crash the lifelike lures.

The spawn is still at least month a way on most deep south reservoirs. But the meat of “big bass” season is bearing down upon us. Test the right waters with the right bait and you just might hook into the fish of a lifetime.