Chug Buggin’ the Shad Spawn
Keith Lusher 05.10.23
Post-spawn bass fishing can often be tough. By now the bass are finished with their beds and looking to get back to a more normal patten. Here in Louisiana, the bass spawn has ended and now bass anglers are dealing with tough post-spawn conditions.
The Pearl River Navigational Canal is a 20-mile, machine-dug channel originally designed to make it easier for ships to transfer goods from Bogalusa, La to the West Pearl River. Now solely used for recreational purposes, it comes complete with dams, sand pits and even a shallow waterfall that flows over a sill at its northernmost section near Bogalusa. The canal is divided into three sections by locks that are used to regulate water levels. But it’s the section of water between Lock #1 and Lock #2 simply referred to as Lock One that can often be a headache for bass anglers during the post spawn months.
Chris Basey of Covington La, fished Lock One and didn’t quite know what to expect from the landlocked, canal. He started his day checking some old spots where he thought he might find some stragglers still in spawning mode. “I thought they may still be spawning because the water temperature was around 72 degrees,” he said. “I saw a bunch of old beds but there was nothing new and there were no fish around.” Basey then decided to head to a spot where he caught fish before in April. It was two small islands that were lined with limestone that served as a bulkhead. Basey was throwing a Chug-Bug made by Storm, and within a few casts, caught his first fish. “A couple casts into it – Bam! I got a hit and caught my first fish,” he said. It was a bass a little over a pound. Basey reeled it in but it ran across some grass which made it harder for him to get it in the boat however, he managed to grab the line as it neared the boat and pull the fish onto the bow. “There’s nothing like throwing a Chug Bug during the shad spawn,” he said.
A few casts later, Basey caught another fish close to two pounds. He was still throwing a Chug-Bug. “That’s when I knew it was probably going to be a shad spawn kind of day,” he said. When shad spawn they tend to gravitate towards lowlight conditions and set up at the top of the water column. Shad largely spawn at night but sometimes it lingers into the morning hours. Basey picked up on this and knew he only had a few minutes to catch bass. “I started looking for any shade as the sun came up because I knew they would be there,” he said.
Basey started fishing his Chug-Bug hard at all shady spots along the shoreline and was able to catch two more fish for a total of four fishing weighing a combined total of 7.5 pounds. His biggest fish weighed 2.71 pounds. “Last week I caught them in sun but now that the shad spawn has started I’m catching bass in nothing but shade,” he said. The shad spawn should last throughout the rest of April and into May for anglers in the deep south. Basey recommends throwing topwater baits in the early morning hours and as the sun comes up, switching over to overhanging trees that throw shade on the water.
