Eight Spring Fishing Tips to Help You Catch More Fish

Everyone looks forward to those first outings of the spring, especially when the weather’s nice and the lengthening days bring warmth. Sometimes the fish are energized, too, and the fishing is fairly easy. But that’s often not that case. So here are eight spring fishing tips to help increase your success.

1. Pay Attention to Water Temperature

Temperatures often vary at different places on a body of water for a variety of reasons. Sunlight exposure is one. Northern and northwestern portions of some lakes and ponds may be warmer in the early season because of sunlight exposure, so they become places to concentrate your efforts, especially if your time is limited.

2. Try Sunny Afternoons

If you can pick your days or times of day to fish in early spring, opt for sunny afternoons because sustained sunlight warms the water and helps spur activity as the day progresses.

3. Try Tributary Areas

There may also be an activity boost after a warm rain, which boosts temperatures, especially near tributaries. In large waters, it takes a few days for warm inflows to have an effect (and it may make the water more turbid), while in smaller waters, near-tributary areas warm immediately afterward.

4. Watch the Wind

Pay attention to wind direction as well. This spring fishing hack is especially worthwhile on large waters, where a strong blow can stack a lot of warm surface water along one shore, raising temperatures and possibly drawing in forage, which may stimulate action.

5. Don’t Rush

This may be the most important of all spring fishing tips. Sometimes in spring, especially when you get a warm day, it’s easy to get into a routine of casting and moving and covering a lot of water. In other words, fishing too fast. Be mindful that the water may still be cold. If you’re retrieving lures quickly, and not getting reaction strikes, slow down, perhaps using plugs that suspend when they’re stopped, or jigs that are slow hopped- or slow-crawled along the bottom.

6. Understand Missed Strikes

Short strikes and swipes are common elements of fish behavior in spring. If fish are just suddenly “there” when you’re retrieving a slow-moving lure, that’s an indication of a light bite and of fish that aren’t aggressive. If you see fish follow and swipe at a lure, or feel a bump that doesn’t translate into a hookup, that’s also a sign of less aggression. Try retrieving more slowly, and changing to lures that don’t have to be retrieved quickly (a suspending plug, for example).

7. Work a Productive Spot Thoroughly

On spring fishing trips, anglers who fish from a boat, primarily using an electric motor to maneuver, often catch fish in one spot and immediately move on. Instead, work that area some more, and in a thorough manner. Don’t assume that you’ve caught the only fish in that location.

8. Come Back

Return to a productive spot later and try it again with a different lure or a different color of the lure that was effective on your first go-round. Similarly, if you’ve had a strike or seen a large-fish swirl after your lure, go back to that spot an hour or more later and try again. This is especially worthwhile if the fish you missed or saw was large. Approach quietly and make certain that your first cast is right on target, because that will be your best chance.