March is the signal to anglers that spring is coming and April is the month where we capitalize on it. The deluge of rain, everything turning green and blooming and the waters begin rising on the lakes. But more importantly the fishing always picks up in a big way in April. From bass to crappie or whatever you like to catch, everything moves out of their deep winter haunts and finds new temporary homes in the shallower waters of both lakes.
And that migration makes them a lot more accessible for a lot more anglers. It’s hard to pick one thing as the best bite in April, largely because fishing is so good for everything this time of year. Crappie are spawning, largemouth and smallmouth bass are moving shallow to feed in the prespawn and beginning their spawn towards the end of the month. Bluegills and red ear get on the banks leading to spawning coves and catfish are not far behind, often outside of shallower areas on structure and brush. The white bass are running in a lot of places.
Best Bites in April: Crappie
Many anglers will tell you April is the best month of crappie fishing the whole year. But it’s also a great time for other fish as well. Between smallmouth bass and crappie you will find some great fishing in April.
One thing to know about April is the weather is pretty volatile. Rain, flooding, fluctuating water levels and water color can make consistency something to aspire to rather than follow. Instead work from the knowns. Both black and white crappie come to shallow cover to spawn. Shallow is relative. If they spend a lot of their life in 15-20 feet of water, 4-9 feet of water is shallow. And that is often where you find fish spawning on our lakes.
In April, you can catch crappie in a wide variety of ways. From fishing small jigs and minnows under floats shallow to vertical jigging fish with long rods from medium depth cover, there is always a lot going on in April for crappie fishing.
The fish are in the bays thick this spring and fishing is very good on both lakes for crappie. Look for cover in 2-8 feet of water in April and fish according to the depth you find the or know the cover to be in.
One of the best bites in April is setting a jig about 2-3 feet below a slip float or clip on bobber and getting on chunk rock banks and casting. Throw your jig bobber combo out and then work it back with either a short pull and pause retrieve or twitch or slow reel it along keeping the bait moving very slowly over shallow cover and down spawning banks for black crappie spawning, guarding and feeding in shallow water.
Jigs like Crappie Magnets, Roos, Baby Shads, hair jigs, Road Runners and more all work this time of the year casted, pushed on spider rigs, trolled and vertical jigged for crappie.
Other Best Bite: Smallmouth Bass
April is arguably the best month of the year to catch numbers of smallmouth bass as they come shallow to spawn. They will go for a variety of baits from jerkbaits to tubes. But often a soft plastic of some sort is the ticket to catching spawning smallmouths. You want to look for big rocks, stumps and wood next to rocky banks for spawning smallmouths. They can be in the bays or on the main lake both.
In recent years, a jerkbait has been a great bait for smallmouths spawning shallow as has been a tube, Senko, jig and minnow combo and even a small swimbait at times.
Use your electronics to find shallow areas with rock and wood and fish around. You often won’t see these fish on your electronics. But they are there laying on the bottom. And aggressively feeding and protecting their areas. Which makes them easy pickings for anglers.
Look for areas out of the current or where the current will be blocked to find these fish.
The Smallmouth bass population exploded on Kentucky Lake in the last 5 years and we are seeing numbers of big health smallmouth in the system. So take great care of these brown beauties and you might just nab your personal best this month.
Other Good Bites
Largemouth bass — Largemouth also come shallow in April and can be roaming in shallow flooded cover, yellow mustard flowers, bushes, docks and pockets where they can spawn off the main lake.
A wide swath of lures work for largemouth in May from jerkbaits to Senkos and everything in between. This is a time of year where you can just go down the banks and into the pockets and fish what feels right and looks right and have success.
Bluegills and Red Ears — The panfish have also moved out of deep water and are prespawn staging feeding up before they spawn in late May and June. Look for them on rocky lead in banks and secondary points in the bays as well as on mid depth brush and around docks. It’s not uncommon to catch big bluegills and shell crackers where you are catching spawning crappie and bass. They are in close by areas hanging out getting ready to move in to spawn after the water warms up in the 70s. A small jig under a float and red worms and crickets work as well.
