Well I have completely filled my calendar with fishing events this summer and thus far the results have been great. Since bass opener I have had two club tournaments, two night league tournaments and a Fishers of Men event. The fishing at each of the tournaments has been awesome with big schools of fish on typical post spawn locations and they were very willing to bite.

This years MN bass opener fell just after most of the bass quit spawning so up until this week they have been pretty much following the general rule of finding the next closest cover to the spawning areas. Sunfish began their spawn process in the past couple of weeks so there are definitely some bass roaming the shallows targeting sunfish beds.

The key to my success catching the mid-depth post spawn feeders was to gear up a finesse approach. I used light line (10lb 100% Fluorocarbon Trilene) and 1/8 oz weights and a variety of different soft plastics including Berkeley power worms and weightless MG Lures pachinkos.

With my finesse set up I went to find high percentage spots where I thought I would find post spawn bass. I looked for a hard bottom with sand and gravel, close to deep water, and the structure I targeted was milfoil, coontail and other aquatic vegetation. The key was to find these types of areas and then stay aware for bait. If there were big bait balls showing on the depth finder or minnows jumping out of the water, we knew we had a good spot.

The water temp has been hovering around the 72 degree mark for the past couple of weeks but will probably increase with some more steady warm air temperature. So soon to come the bass will move in to their normal summer patterns on rock piles, deep weedlines, and shallow slop spots.

-Stay tuned for more tips and techniques and fishing reports-