The tough part is over. They’re rested up, and now it’s chow time. That’s the basic script for posts-spawn bass and the reason topwaters play such a prominent role this time of year.

Sure, other baits will tempt big female bass when they’re looking to regain the weight they lost during the spawn. However, as Alabama pro Jimmy Mason explains, seasonal patterns make these fish — along with the males tasked with nursery duty — suckers for topwater baits.
Spawning Forage Species
topwater bass

“One of the things we associate with the post-spawn is a shad spawn, so you have a lot of fish that go to that heavy feeding opportunity,” Mason said. “In addition, you’ll have a lot of fry-guarding males. Also, in a lot of areas, almost immediately following the post-spawn, you’ll have a bream bed bite.”

It’s important to note that Southern waters can see such a gradual spawn that stages occur with significant overlap. Mason’s patient with the progression because he knows the building momentum can deliver a show worth the wait.

“On a lot of lakes, you have a fairly long spawn, so you’re gonna have some post-spawn fish while you still have fish on the bed and some pre-spawn fish,” Mason said. “It’ll take a few days for those (recent spawners) to recover, and there are also fish that have been done for a while, and they’re more in that feeding stage.

“It’s not all happening at the same time on every lake, so you get a lot of that mix. Once you get past about the 50-percent point in the fish that have spawned, you start getting a lot of that topwater bite.”

Strategically, Mason wants to find areas with good post-spawn bass feeding areas that also hold bream beds. Giving himself options, Mason can make the most of the seasonal complexion.

“With the bream beds and shad spawns, that’s two different scenarios where post-spawn bass can get lot of calories,” Mason said. “The neat thing about topwater this time of year, you’re catching above-average size fish.”

Walk the Walk

Shad spawns start in the overnight hours and spill into the following mornings. Targeting docks, seawalls, riprap, grass lines and any other hard edges, Mason approaches this spring fling with what he described as pure elation.

“As the water continues to warm, the shad spawn is my absolute fave topwater time of the year,” he said. “You catch a lot of big ones because that’s when the largest fish start feeding up, and every morning, you can enjoy some of the best topwater action of your life.

Mason noted that in the lakes that have blueback herring, the baitfish spawn lasts a little longer than a shad spawn, and that with cloudy conditions, that shad spawn can continue until around noon.

Mason’s primary tools for the shad spawn are a Heddon Super Spook Jr and a One Knocker Spook. The latter, being a little bigger, offers a definite distance advantage.

“That Super Spook Jr. is going to get a lot of bites because it’s a slightly smaller size, but if they’ll bite that One Knocker Spook, I’m gonna throw it because it’s a little bit heavier and I can throw it farther,” Mason said. “A lot of times, casting distance is a big deal, and that One Knocker allows me to get a longer cast and cover water efficiently.”

Mason’s favorite colors are bone silver and shad patterns. In particularly clear water, he’ll go with a translucent pattern like Pearl Shad, but if the water has some stain, he goes with solids like Foxy Shad. Feathered trebles often help, so Mason keeps Spooks rigged with and without this option handy.

Popping Presence

When he’s fishing bream beds, Mason trusts the unquestionable drawing power of a BOOYAH Boss Pop. Favoring the ghost shiner and Arkansas Shiner colors, he goes with the 3-inch size, as it affords greater casting distance.

Mason also uses this bait for fry guarders, but he stresses careful release so the fish can return to their important duty. With both scenarios, Mason has a specific way of fishing this commotion-centered bait.

“I fish a two-pop-pause and a three-pop-pause cadence,” he said. “I alternate between the two, and with both, I’m doing more short, sharp snaps than pops.”

One key is knot position. After tying on his bait, Mason moves his knot to the bottom of the line tie. This ensures the correct lure angle on every snap to create that water-spitting snap.

The Follow Up

When all goes as planned, the surface presentation convinces a hungry post-spawner, the strike gets converted, and life is good. However, topwater fishing is not the highest percentage technique, and misses happen. Sometimes, that’s angler execution; other times, the fish forgot to clean its glasses.

However, a missed opportunity is not necessarily a lost opportunity. To this point, Mason employs a couple of different tactics aimed at reconnecting with the recent attacker.

One way to do this is to toss a subsurface follow-up bait to the point of attack. The idea: A fish that may not have enough moxie for another topside run might prefer something swimming a little deeper into the water column.

Mason trusts this job to a soft-plastic jerkbait and likes a YUM Break'N Shad or a YUM Houdini Shad rigged on a wide gap hook. As the larger bait with greater casting distance, the Houdini Shad gets most of the work, and Mason opens the perforated tail for a more active look.

No question, follow-up baits convert a lot of opportunities, but this actually is Mason’s secondary move. In many cases, he’ll simply give his original bait another shot at closing the deal. Fish mood varies, but the ones that maintain their initial boldness will put on quite a show.

“Sometimes, you can get that fish to come back on that topwater bait,” Mason said. “With a popper, I may pause it, but with a walker, I’ll increase the (retrieve speed). You increase the likelihood of a follow-up bite by creating the appearance of a bait trying to get away.

“I think for some fish, it makes them madder when you don’t slow it down. If you speed up the retrieve and get them to bite a second time, it’s a much more aggressive bite.”