FORT WORTH — It’s a given — the Bassmaster Classic drives the competitive fishing world’s enthusiasm to a fever pitch. Expectations for the 2025 Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Classic presented by Under Armour at Lake Ray Roberts are not different, but this event likely will be remembered as a shining example of why anglers love March in the South.
In a word: Prespawn.
“I would say it’s a real close second to the actual spawn,” said Brandon Lester. “I love fishing the spawn because there’s so much visual stuff, but the prespawn is really a fun, fun time because those fish are as fat and healthy as they’re gonna be all year long. When you get a bite, they’re giving you everything they have.”
Now, no one has a crystal ball and asking anglers qualified for the sport’s biggest event exactly how they intend to fish is not cool. However, within the framework of what Lake Ray Roberts will likely present, we find several key points that’ll have any angler from the local pond to the massive reservoirs chomping at the bit.
Guesswork gone
Okay, bass fishing’s only two bankable facts are as follows: The fish are wet, and they have fins.
Beyond that, good luck nailing down a handful of definitive truths. With that given, Hunter Shryock roots his prespawn preference in seasonal efficiency.
Compared to summer, when bass could be cooling their heels in a wide array of deep-water haunts or fall, when they’re scattered and chasing bait, the prespawn period simplifies the search.
“You know what the fish are trying to do and where they’re trying to go, so it eliminates a lot of other variables,” Shryock said. “You know that they eventually want to get up to the bank, and you just must figure out how to intercept them.
“Prespawn puts them in a lot of predictable places.”
The variables
Lester’s alert every minute he’s on the water, but a key spring metric keeps him fixated.
“During the prespawn, I keep an eye on water temperature on my Lowrance units more than any other time of the year,” he said. “There is a huge difference between 50-degree water and 55, or 55 and 45.
“If you see that overnight water temperatures drop more than 7 or 8 degrees, that’s pretty significant. If you see it drop 8 to 10 over a couple days, that’s probably enough to pull those fish back out.”
Rising temperatures certainly spike the optimism, but Shryock takes a measured look.
“When it’s springtime and it warms up, we all want to jump to the ‘Oh my gosh, they’re going to pull up in waves right now,’’ Shryock said. “The biggest thing I want to see with a warming trend is sun. It can be warm, but if there’s no sun, the water temperature isn’t going to jump (as much) as we feel.
“I also want to look at the overnight lows. I don’t want a cooler night taking away what we gained during a warm day. You couple sunny days with warm nights, and you string three, four or five of those together, that’s when I’m really going to start keying in on the backs of pockets, or little ponds, or any place those fish are going to pull up to and look for signs of life.”
Low impact: Shryock takes an equally measured look at spring temperature declines. Extended periods of extreme cold can toss the proverbial monkey wrench, but it’s not always that bad.
“It depends on how far along they are,” Shryock said. “If they’re up there on bed and we get a cold snap, typically, they will hang around. Their mood is just a lot different.
“If it’s still really early in the prespawn migration, I can see them backing out, but they’re not going far. They might just hold tighter to cover, whether that’s grass, laydown trees or docks. I’ll just slow down with a Berkley Slobberknocker (vibrating jig) to get those reaction bites or pick up a flipping stick with a Berkley Creature Hawg, which doesn’t have a lot of action.”
Shryock stresses the right perspective. One or two cold nights — no big deal. Three or four — time to adjust. Either way, the effort invested in reconnecting with the fish is time well spent.
Eye to the sky: “I really like the sun because it positions the fish on cover,” Lester said. “But I like a little wind, 5 to 10 mph, to create a little chop. That will make those fish set up and make them predictable.
“The wind makes it easier to sneak up on them. They don’t get as good a look at your bait, and they bite easier.”
Tested tactics
Noting that prespawn preferences are day-by-day, Lester said he’d prefer catching prespawners on a Z-Man ChatterBait or spinnerbait. At times, though, he knows he must slow down and break out the plastics.
“There’s a point when they’re far along in the prespawn when they like to sit up next to a piece of hard cover like a boat dock or a stump to get warm,” Lester said. “One of my favorite ways to catch them is a Neko rig with a 6.5-inch LIVETARGET Straight Tail Worm and fish it on a No. 2 Mustad TitanX Wacky/Neko hook.
“I’ll add a 1/32-ounce nail weight to the head of the worm, so it falls vertically, but it falls slowly.
While sight fishing fuels Drew Cook’s true passion, he enjoys warming up for bed fish season with good round of prespawn smackdown.
“During the prespawn, I’ll always have a couple of Spro Aruku Shads tied on — one in a red or orange pattern and a shad pattern — a vibrating jig and a medium-diving crankbait,” Cook said. “For me, it’s mostly reaction baits, but if conditions aren’t right, I’ll slow my retrieves and rip my baits out of the grass more aggressively.
“Also, I’ll throw a jerkbait so I can keep a bait in their face. Another option is worming that lipless bait through grass but ripping it free. Even if they’re not hungry and conditions are not ideal, their instincts make them bite when you rip it by them.”
Cook’s fallback for particularly picky prespawners — a swimming worm. Reeling this thumping, commotion maker around pads, grass or any other medium to shallow cover is like a finesse ChatterBait.
For those spring pullbacks, Lester makes this observation: “We saw some of this at the Lake Fork Elite last year. The fish had started pulling up on beds, but we got a cold front. With forward-facing sonar, we can watch how the fish pull back out and set up on the next piece of cover like stumps, rocks, brushpiles or timber. On a dock lake like Grand, they might set up under docks. That’s when I’d turn to a Neko rig, drop shot or a shaky head.”
Just in case: While prespawn cooldowns stall the progress, when increasing warmth aligns with full moon cycles, Shryock knows a sudden wave of bed fish could dramatically alter his day.
“When I’m going through those areas and the water’s clean enough, I’m going to keep my eyes peeled up on bank,” he said. “You’ll see them swirling around and rolling up there — a lot of times with their tail out of water.
“Instead of just staring at your screen, pay attention to the bank.”
