April Can be Tough

I'll start out by saying I'm a pretty casual bass fisherman. I'm retired and live on Lake Tyler and fish often enough but I'm not out there all the time. But I find that the fishing get's a lot tougher in April than it is in March. For me the when fishing in March, the fish are up shallow along the bank and in pockets but by April they seem to be long gone. And this seems to have been the case here for the last few years. I suspect by April much of the spawn has passed but you'd still think there would be a lot of fish still shallow. But for me it's gotten very slow this April. Now it can be that we had a warm winter and an unusually cool spring. I don't know. Any of you disappointed fishing in April after a typical March?

To contrast, in years past some of my best spawning time trips to Lake Fork were excellent in April. I don't fish Fork anymore.

I found the same thing at Bob Sandlin last week. Fished three days in the middle of the week, and caught nothin. My buddy brought in a few dinks, but I was looking for the regulars, and got none. I tried Pre-spawn, spawning areas and Post spawn. Nothin.

Did run into schooimg sandbass, in the last hour of the last day. They were full of eggs !?!?!?

Its been the other way around for me, but I strongly prefer to fish deeper water. In March, I still caught a few here and there but it was definitly slower.

The last week or so has been insane. The main lake points have loaded back up with fat hungry fish and the buffet is open. I've been catching 30 to 50 fish on a spot, with long runs of catching fish on back to back casts.

Post spawn fish are starving and easy to catch, you just gotta move back out to where they are.

Opposite for me but the April weather this year has been much more like March

I wonder how much this varies depending on the lake you’re on. I can’t find any fish on main lake even primary points where the post spawners should be congregating. I have caught some spawned out girls back in the creeks along the channels that should take them to those post spawn areas. But generally they have not flipped the switch to “feed up” mode on my lake. April has been so weird.

May I ask what techniques are you using for deeper water on main lake points?

Deep diving jerkbaits, underspins with 4" or 5" swimbaits, carolina rig with fluke or trickworm, and shakeyhead. (In that order)

February, March and April have been a grind for me.

I was fortunate to have 3 days in a row to fish this week(and a few hrs on Tuesday as well) and I'm fully in the "April can be tough" camp!! The lakes I fished aren't "deep" compared to normal lakes but I tried from 6" to 8' without hardly any luck at all. Now some of the "adverse effects" that could have played into this were-
High water
Muddy water
Cold temps(to start the mornings)
Wind(over 10mph 3 of the 4 days)

Would have been good to fish a lake like(Pines, Rayburn, Toledo) that have deeper water with points and such to see what would have happened.

April has been a blast for me. March was tougher but I also didn’t fish as much in March. I started fishing Fork finally and it’s been a lot of fun this month. Topwater and sight fishing is hard to pass up when they’re up shallow. Even Lewisville was productive in the few hours I’ve spent on it this month.

best bite by far is still at first light even though its been COLD... 42-46 this week at first light. shallow at a feeding area.

the cold effects texas fisherman the bass not so much at least on the 3 lakes Ive been frequent in e texas

Where the heck have you found water clear enough on Fork the last two weeks to really sight fish? Visibility on the southern end (Little Mustang, No Name, Grimes, etc) was only about a foot. There's a few that shallow but they're generally small guys that I've seen!
I haven't been out as much in either month, but it's been either on or off in both April and March. Hit em ok one day, not so much the next.

Alligator cove, Searcy, and the cut south of Minnow Bucket Marina, not sure what it’s called. caught some nice slots and completely screwed the pooch TWICE on a giant. Still waking up in a cold sweat over it.

Still lots of prespawners even on Rayburn out in 15-20ft mixing with post spawn. It's only mid April, lots of fish in all stages right now

The water has cleared up much more this past week out there. I will say personally I have seen way fewer on beds in April this year than previous years but we have had such an odd spring weather wise and also the water was a bit dirtier than usual as well.

Since my move to Lake Fork around 2006 I have noticed many reoccurring fishing patterns. One of which is that there always seems to be a 2-3 week period in April when if are not sight fishing you likely are not having much success. Having said that there are certainly exceptions, especially using a topwater or swimbait during this time of year when you have the shad spawning. These are the shallow water baits that often produce for me other than sight fishing during this time. The fishing is often great throughout March and very early April because you still have a vast majority of the bass preparing to spawn and feeding up heavily. In mid to late April, at least on Lake Fork there is always a period of time when the majority of the bass across the lake are either guarding fry in the shallows and not very interested in feeding or many bass are still spawning and also are not interested in feeding. You are not the only angler who struggles in April, it is one of my absolute least favorite times of the entire year to fish because I do not like to sight fish. Although I dislike it I have come to the realization that there is always that 2-3 week period in which if you are not looking at the bass you probably are not having many great days, especially compared to the prespawn action in late February/March or in late spring when many bass have recovered from their spawn and are schooling up on offshore structure in deeper water. On sunny and calm late April days try to find fish on deeper water beds to boat more bass. On days with a bit more wind if using a topwater lure or shallow swimbait does not produce don't hesitate to move into 12-16' of water near spawning flats and throw a deep diving crankbait anywhere you see ball of bait of your electronics, especially in areas which have predominant points, roadbeds, or channel swings that come close to expansive spawning flats. The offshore bite on many lakes in northeast Texas begins well before many anglers realize. I hope this helps, good luck fishing!

Thanks for posting. Very informative as are your YouTube videos which I love. You are very good at explaining things is easy to understand and easy to remember terms!

PS I'd say he knows how to fish just a tad:

The rain and lightning is leaving the area... time to get on the water.

True this year cus it’s been colder in April than it was in March.

January, February and March were great for me. Then came social distancing.

texasAUtiger, I wanted to let you know that I very much appreciate your kind words and hope that some of my instructional YouTube Videos have helped yourself and many other bass fishing anglers whom are aspiring to become better at this craft. It is always a great feeling when I am recognized for the unpaid video work that I relentlessly shot and edited for the sake of helping other anglers improve their skills. I had no mentors throughout my entire fishing career, only jealous haters whom motivated me towards many self improvement and business projects which without a doubt has made me a much more successful and well rounded angler. Having difficult days on the water is as just as a valuable if no more valuable in regards to the learning experiences compared to those successful days on the water when we are boating fish all day long. Knowing what does not work is over 1/2 of the battle in being successful on the water, particularly when competition in top level tournaments. If I am able to continue healing this season I will be getting back into the processional fishing business in 2021, most likely not as a guide since I want to now focus solely on competing at the top level. I have dedicated the vast majority of my entire life towards learning as much as possible about being a professional angler since I was 9 years old. Since then I was a sponge and watched every fishing show available to me, read every magazine and book available to me and to this day I have stacks and stacks of handwritten paper notes. There was nothing I wanted more to become a professional angler and since then have had been blessed with the opportunity to fish waters from upstate New York to Florida, to the James River, numerous fisheries in southern California, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Nevada, the Great Lakes and many other fisheries across the country and particularly in the state of Texas. Thank you again for your very kind words of encouragement, I am very grateful sir. @texasAUtiger

Amen. A grind. A full grind.

Solid post and very COOL video. Good job.

Thank you to texasAUtiger for his kind words and for sharing one of my old videos. I hope to be back at the grind very soon and appreciate the fact that these videos I've spent countless hours producing have helped anglers learn and become inspired to be better at this craft. Their words are very humbling. Thank you everyone, stay safe on the water!