The warm days of late March and April really get the bass fisherman’s blood flowing, especially if you like hunting for bass. Sight fishing is great right now and if you like trying to tempt a trophy bass to hit while watching her, nothing is more exciting. But there are other options for catching bass now, too, and Lay Lake offers the best of all of them.
Lay Lake is a 12,000 acre Coosa River reservoir about 35 miles south of Birmingham that was dammed by Alabama Power in 1914. It has many river and creek ledges with expansive flats and grass filled shallows. Access is good and the channels are well marked.
The Alabama Department of Natural Resources says Lay is a high quality bass fishery for both largemouth and Coosa spots with many fish of both species in the 18 inch range. Bigger bass of both kinds are also in the lake and trophies are caught in it each year. Tournament catches of five bass weighing 20 pounds are common and many of those limits will be all spots.
In the 2007 Bass Angler Information Team (BAIT) survey done by the DNR Lay placed eighth overall of the 22 lakes in the survey. That placement was a combination of an 85 percent rate of angler success, 1.79 pound average bass weight and 5.86 pounds per angler day. It also included an average big bass per tournament reported of 3.95 pounds and an average of 624 hours of fishing to catch a bass over five pounds. Of bass weighed in 57 percent were spots and 43 percent largemouth.
All those facts and numbers are interesting but really do not tell you how to catch bass on Lay right now. But Brandon Ligon can help. Brandon was born and raised in the Tuscaloosa area and Lay is one of his favorite lakes, especially when the bass are bedding.
When he graduated from high school Brandon had the chance to go to college on a baseball scholarship or fish most of the time. He chose fishing. As a member of the Grammer Marine Fishing Team he fishes many local tournaments and trails. Last year he won the Woods and Waters Solo Trail point standings and has done well in many other tournaments on Lay Lake.
After fishing a few tournaments with the West Alabama Bass Club Brandon started concentrating on pot tournaments. C and H Sporting Goods in Northport supported him and helped him out with tackle and equipment and he fished more and more tournaments. This year he is fishing the Bama BFL trail as well as many local tournaments.
Brandon took me to Lay the first Thursday in March to show me how he catches bass there. Although there was still snow on the shady banks from the big storm the weekend before we went and we were too early for bedding bass, we landed about ten bass in less than six hours. Nine of them were spots and I was shocked at how hard they fought in the 50 degree water. The first one I hooked I thought it had to be a hybrid or striper.
Our best five bass that day would have weighed about 17 pounds and Brandon says that is not an unusual catch. It would not have placed in most tournaments. Now, three weeks later, Brandon would usually go for a limit early like we had then try to catch a kicker largemouth or two off the beds. Our biggest bass was a four pound spot he caught so we really did not have the kicker you need to push your weight above the 20 pound mark to compete in tournaments.
Sight fishing for bedding bass on Lay this time of year is Brandon’s favorite way to go after them. He admits it can be frustrating and you have to spend many hours finding just one quality bedding bass you can catch. It takes days on the trolling motor looking in the shallows to locate enough to hope to put together a limit of them.
On Lay Brandon says the largemouth like bedding areas with small openings that are better protected from the wind. There are pockets everywhere that look good for bedding fish and most of them will hold some but the best area are well protected and will hold the biggest bass. The spots often bed in deeper water further out and Brandon concentrates on bedding largemouth.
There are always some resident shallow water fish on Lay since there is so much cover and food for them. The ones that do migrate seasonally don’t have to go far. They might pull out to the nearest river or creek ledge but creek bass probably don’t go all the way out to the river.
To start his hunt Brandon will pick a big creek like Cedar or Clear Creeks and look for small, protected pockets. Finding a hard bottom back in one of them means bass should be bedding in the area. Lay Lake bass like hard bottoms for bedding rather than the more common soft mud. You can find hard bottoms by watching the bank. Sand or pea gravel will often extend out from the visible part of the shoreline and bass will find it.
The grass beds on the banks will also give you a clue as to what is on the bottom. If there is a grassbed running along the bank and it suddenly has a gap it might be because the bottom changed from soft muck that the grass likes to pea gravel the bass like. Check out such gaps. Also watch for indentions in the grass beds. Often the contour of the grass will give you an idea where the bottom becomes harder.
Brandon will ease along looking for the little things that gives the beds themselves away. Often there will be a light spot on a darker bottom where the bass have fanned away surface debris. Sometimes he will spot a shell or a small rock that shows up because the bass have fanned the mud on the surface of the hard bottom away from it. He also watches for the dark shape of a bass and the black tip on the tail but the bass themselves are much harder to spot, even when the water is clear.
Another clue is to see baitfish jumping or scooting away as a bass chases them off the bed. You might see gills flare or the white side of a bass as it turns to run baitfish off. All these indications of beds are easier to spot if you have good sunglasses and Brandon says they are critical to spotting the fish once he finds the bed. You need to be able to watch the fish to know what it is doing to increase your odds of catching it.
“If you are watching a bass it is watching you,” Brandon said. He will stay back from the bed as far as he can and still make an accurate cast or pitch to the bed. It is important to make as small a splash as possible to not spook the fish so you have to be close enough to be accurate and quiet without being too close.
To keep from spooking bass Brandon will wear clothing that will match the sky. Bright tournament shirts are not good. He will also keep boat movement to a minimum, using a push pole to hold the boat in place and he stays off the trolling motor as much as possible.
Brandon likes a bright colored lure to cast to the beds so he can see it. He favors a Texas rigged tube but will also use a lizard or craw and will fish all of them on as light line as he can. He likes fluorocarbon and often goes as light as eight pound test to make the bass bite.
Brandon often finds bass bedding as deep at six to eight feet and that makes them even harder to see so that makes using a bright lure important. He likes white but will also use black if the bed is real white and clear, or another color as long as he can see it. He tries to get it into the bed and watches the bass’s reaction. If it stays put or moves just a few feet and comes back he feels he can catch her.
Bass that move way off the bed or don’t come back very quickly are not likely to hit. They are not “hard” on the bed and are not ready to be caught. When they stay in a ten foot diameter circle even when spooked Brandon feels they will hit and he will spend a lot of time on them.
“Don’t get impatient when bed fishing, and don’t expect to run out and catch the first bedding bass you find,” Brandon told me. He likes to find seven to ten bass on the bed before a tournament and hopes to get five of them to bite, but that does not happen often. You have to take your time to catch bedding bass. First it takes a lot of time on the water finding them then it takes a lot of time on a bed to make them hit.
“There are bass you can catch on the points every day of the year on Lay,” Brandon told me. If fishing for bedding bass is not to your liking you can catch them off the points. Brandon will often start on the points and catch a limit then go to bedding bass. All the bass we caught in March were on points.
“Bass here don’t really relate to secondary points like they do on many lakes,” Brandon said. So rather then looking for points that hold bass as they move back to the spawning areas he is searching for points where they run in to feed. Brandon thinks bass on Lay hold on these points but then move in pretty quickly to the bedding areas rather then making staging moves and then holding.
Watch the temperature and when it hits 60 degrees Brandon expects the bass to be on the banks. They move up onto the flats then to the bedding areas. The females feed on the grass points until it is time to join the bucks in very shallow water so they can be caught on points around the flats.
Brandon likes a main river or creek point just off the flats leading to the spawning areas. Grass is the key. The bass have no need to leave these points even after the spawn so they may live here year round, feeding until they run in to the shallows to spawn then moving right back to feed after the spawn.
Several baits will catch bass off the grass points. Rattle baits are always a good choice and a variety of colors will catch them. Red is always a good bet in late March and stained water calls for brighter colors. Clearer water means natural colors like shad are better. Jerk baits also catch a lot of Lay bass this time of year.
Make fairly long casts with your rattle bait and work it fast. Rip it loose from the grass when you hit it and expect a strike as the lure darts away. That fast movement seems to trigger hits. Seven of the bass we caught hit rattle baits around grass. Work a jerk bait with different cadences until the bass tell you what they want. Rip it free of grass for a reaction bite, too.
Spinnerbaits also work well and can be fished fast over shallow grass or slowed down in deeper water. Brandon likes a white and chartreuse combination with willow leaf blades and fishes it through the shallow grass and over deeper grass.
Start at the mouth of a big creek or work main river points at the mouths of spawning pockets. Brandon seldom hits smaller secondary points back in the pockets or in the smaller pockets on creeks since he thinks the bass bypass these points as they move back. Jump from point to point but slow down when you catch a bass, there are probably more there. And return to points later where you catch them. Bass will often quit hitting when the water is stirred up but start again when things settle down.
Sometimes Mother Nature is cruel and we have unusually late cold fronts and the water stays cool longer than normal. As a back-up plan when this happens Brandon will look for cruising bass. The big females will still go back to the bedding areas and cruise them until things get right for spawning.
Watch for bass moving slowly along the grass lines and try to figure out the direction they will move in and how fast they are going. Cast a floating worm or Senko ahead of them and let it sink to the bottom. Cast too close and you will spook them, too far away and they will not see it. If you hit just right you will see the bass pause and follow the bait down.
You will often need to let the bait fall to the bottom and sit there without moving it, especially if the bass follows it down. If they follow it down and don’t hit, jiggle it just a tiny amount. Be ready to set the hook at any pressure. You often will not feel them hit the bait.
Get on Lay now and try Brandon’s techniques. Pick a big creek and study it, learning its secrets and what the bass are doing in it. Take your time and you can land 20 pound plus limits of bass.