The Best Fish in The Spring

The early days of April saw some beautiful weather on Lake Norman which caused many of the fish to start their spring spawn earlier than usual. As we know, the fish spawn at different times within the spring spawning period, so while some fish were already on the slawning beds, others of the same species were getting ready. That offers a great variety of opportunities for fishermen. The fish preparing for the spawn are
agressively feeding in the deeper waters of 10 to 15 feet deep, and those that have started the spawn are in the shallow water.
The most exciting aspects of this season are the bait fish that are now moving into the creeks and coves in large numbers. Shad schools, which all but disappeared during the winter months, are starting to show up on our Sonar screens. The shad school shown in the photo below is very typical of a spring pattern

The availability of Shad has activated both the Spotted bass and the Crappie. Wherever you find bottom structure you can find a few nice Crappie, like the one that I caught recently on a cool evening, shown below.

Catching a 14 to 16 inch Crappie on Lake norman looks like a fairly regular occurence this year. As usual, the Spotted bass are also in great supply. The "cookie cutter" type bass in the 1 to 2 pound range are all over the lake. if you look for the shad schools, you will find the bass and probably a big blue Catfish or two.Lou Mintzer and Rich Doering took home a few Spotted bass from my boat recently. (shown below). We were trolling in 15 feet of water using medium shiners as bait.

April and May start the really good fishing on Lake norman for just about everything except Stripers. The fish kill last year and in the previous two years has hurt the Striper population, but we are seeing a few being caught (although not on a regular basis). Hopefully the state will stock Hybrids this year and we will begin to build a good population of that species.