April Bass at Martin with Kelley Jaye
April is the month most bass fishermen dream of, with big sow bass in shallow water on the bed and bass of all sizes roaming the shallows feeding. It is a dream month for bass fishing, and you can make your dreams come true at Lake Martin.
Martin is a big clear water lake north of Montgomery on the Tallapoosa River. It is known for its spotted bass but it has a good population of largemouth, too. By late March many largemouth buck bass will be in the shallows scouting for bedding spots and the big females will be close behind.
Spotted bass will be feeding on deeper points and will start looking for bedding areas in April. They bed deeper and are hard to catch by sight fishing but are aggressive and will hit many baits fished where they are holding. Spots are fun to catch and you can catch a bunch of them right now, but for tournament fishermen you want to fish for largemouth for a heavy stringer.
Kelley Jaye has lived in Reeltown since he was 12 years old and has been fishing Martin since then. He has done well in tournaments on the lake, finishing second in the BFL Super Tournament there a couple of years ago. This year he is fishing the FLW Everstart and BASS Open tournaments as well as local tournaments on Martin.
On March 5 he came in 5th in the BFL on Martin with five spotted bass weighing 14.9 pounds. Since the largemouth were not bedding yet he stuck with a jerk bait all day and caught the big spots.
“April is a great month for both spotted bass and largemouth,” Kelley told me. Spots are concentrated on points and can be caught on topwater baits, spinnerbaits, jerkbaits, jig head worms, a jig and pig and a Carolina rig. Largemouth will slam a topwater bait early in the morning then you can sight fish for them on the beds with a jig head worm, Trick worm and a lizard.
In tournaments Kelley will go to the bedding pockets first thing and go around them with a buzzbait or big stick bait like a Spook. He works around the shallows fast looking for a reaction strike. After the sun gets up he goes back around the shallows and throws a Trick worm or weightless lizard to bedding bass.
To catch a lot of bass Kelley will fish secondary points in the bigger creeks and coves, looking for schools of spots. A spinnerbait or jerk bait worked across the point early will get hit, as will a topwater bait. After the sun gets up a jig head worm, jig and pig or Carolina rig will catch them.
Kelley does not have any sponsors at this time so he uses baits and equipment he likes best. He prefers a G Loomis rod and a Johnny Morris DBS reel with BPS fluorocarbon line for jigs and jig head worms or Suffix Monofilament line for topwater.
For April Kelley will have a peanut butter half ounce Chompers jig with a twin tail brown trailer and a BPS quarter ounce jighead with a Zoom green pumpkin Speedworm tied on for spot fishing after the sun gets up. He likes a Rogue jerk bait, a Spook and a one half ounce white and chartreuse spinnerbait with one gold and one silver blade for early fishing on the points.
For largemouth the Spook works early as does a buzzsbait. For later fishing he ties a five-0 hook and threads a Zoom Green pumpkin Trick worm on it. He also likes a Zoom six or eight inch lizard rigged weightless for throwing around visible beds. He expects to find largemouth bedding down to about four feet deep. If he needs the lizard to go a little deeper or if it is windy he will tie a swivel ahead of it to get it down.
We fished in early March the day before the BFL and Kelley showed me the following spots for April fishing. We caught about 15 spots, they were already feeding on points and they hit spinnerbaits, jerkbaits, jig head worms and jig and pig. By now even bigger spots will be feeding and the largemouth will be moving in.
1. N 32 43.104 – W 85 50.155 – The very back of Spain Branch has a good spawning flat and is the kind of place you want to look for largemouth. Go back to the powerlines where they cross on the right side and start fishing. There are a lot of stumps on the point that comes out just past the powerlines and all over the flats in the back of the creek.
Work around it before the sun gets bright with a topwater bait like a Spook or buzzbait. Make long cast and work the baits fast. You want to cover as much water as quickly as you can, searching for a reaction strike from a big largemouth. If you can see stumps cast to them but it will be hard to spot cover or fish under water before the sun gets up.
After sun up go around the cove watching for bass on the bed. Throw a weighless lizard to bass that don’t run off when you cast to them. You don’t need to waste time casting to beds when the fish swims way off when you spook it. Kelley says they are ready to hit when they stay within five or six feet of the bed, come right back, and pay attention to your lizard.
2. N 32 45.145 – W 85 51.456 – Across Blue Creek just upstream of the point with Union Ramp on the South Side of the creek and the long point coming toward it on the other side, there is an island just off the bank. Downstream of this island is a shallow spawning pocket where bass move in early. There are a few stumps and some brush in it and it has a hard bottom, a requirement to draw bedding fish.
Start on the right side at the metal roof dock with a kids slide on the bank to the right of it facing it. Work the brush there and around the next small red dock. There is a good bit of brush the left of the red dock that will be in six or seven feet of water at full pool, and bass will hold in it before bedding.
When the water temperature is 60 to 62 degrees first thing in the morning and warms to 65 to 67 in the afternoon Kelley says he knows he will find largemouth back in these pockets. He expects to find two to four beds in a small pocket like this when the spawn is on.
3. N 32 43.624 – W 85 51.043 – Go back across to Cooper Branch and go past the two long points on your left going in. Just past the second one the very back of the cove where Center Port Road bends around it is a good spawning area. It is protected and lined with docks all the way around it.
You will see twin houses with tin roofs on the right side going into the cove. One is brown and one is green. Start working the docks in front of them and work around the cove, fishing topwater early around the docks and brush then coming back and looking for bedding bass.
Bass like to bed beside a stump or dock post so look closely at those kinds of areas. Bass on the bed can be hard to spot but practice helps. Look for the black tip of the tail or any movement. Watch them to see if they hang close to the bed or move off so you will know if they are ready to hit.
4. N 32 42.878 – W 85 50.901 – In the back of Cooper Branch a point comes out with small cabins on it. This is Lake Martin RV Resort. A good creek enters on the left side of it, facing it. This long narrow creek splits in the back and holds a lot of bedding bass.
Go in and you can fish the steep bank on your right, there is a good bit of brush on it. Start across from the cabin with a patio house down the slope from it then a dock. All three have green roofs. Work around both sides and the back for bedding bass.
Where the creek splits past the green roof dock the cove straight ahead, the left fork, has a good channel coming out cutting through a flat. Channels help draw bass in and coves with a ditch or channel are best. Kelley says bass will stage on the ditch and work in to the bedding spots, the use it working back out, too.
5. N 32 42.797 – W 85 41.503 – Come out of the cut above and go past the RV Resort, following that bank to your left. You will round a point and see a big gray house with lots of tin roofs at different angles on it. It sits on a narrow rocky point that is a good example of the kind of places spotted bass hold and feeding in April. They may bed on these points, too.
Kelley likes to sit on the channel side of the point and throw across it, working it from shallow to deep. Start with a spinnerbait, jerk bait or topwater bait early in the morning. If fish are hitting the jerk bait Kelley will often keep throwing it all day. He says sometimes big spots will eat the jerk bait all day. You won’t get m any bites but can catch some quality spots this way.
Drag a jig head worm or jig and pig across the point, too. Kelley says he seldom uses a Carolina rig because he seems to catch bigger bass on the jig head worm, or jig and pig, but if you use one try a half ounce sinker with a green pumpkin lizard or Finesse worm following it.
Kelley likes a quarter ounce BPS jig for his shaky head worm fishing and a half ounce Chompers jig with a twin tail trailer. Work both slowly across the point with small hops and drags, covering the entire bottom on the point.
6. N 32 42.527 – W 85 51.333 – Keep going toward the back of Cooper Branch and it splits to the left and right. Stay to your left going in and this narrow channel goes way back. There is a no wake buoy in the mouth of it and a danger marker in the center near the back. The danger marker is on a flat point that comes off the right bank.
A good channel comes out of this cove and the flats on both sides of it are good bedding areas. It is very shallow back in here, especially if the lake is down some. Bass will bed anywhere in the back of this creek so fish all around it.
7. N 32 43.127 – W 85 51.665 – Come out of the above cove and past the danger marker. Watch to your left and when you pass three coves running back to the left, there is a big point with some big new houses on it on your left. Watch for the point with the gray house and you will see a big stump on the right tip of that point just off the seawall.
Way off this point a hump comes up to about ten feet deep with the lake down six feet like it was when we were there. There is a big log and some trees on this point and it is a good place to work a jig head worm, jig and pig or Carolina rig.
Kelley keeps his boat out in deep water and works all the way around the hump, throwing up on top of it and working his bait out to deeper water. Probe for the log and brush and concentrate additional casts when you hit cover.
8. N 32 43.452 – W 85 52.246 – Go toward the mouth of Cooper Branch and into the last big cove on your left. Ahead and on the right side of this big cove are several points. One with a “For Sale” sign on it has no house but there is a sculptured concrete sea wall around it. This point has shale rock on the downstream side and two flat points run off the upstream side, across the cove above it. These points have smaller rock on them.
All three areas hold bass. Fish them will all your baits. Stay out in deeper water and cast toward the bank, working your bait from shallow to deep. Also go past the point and cast back across it bringing your bait at a different angle.
Some wind blowing in on this and other points makes them better for spinnerbait and jerk bait but more difficult to fish with a jig or jig head worm. Heavy wind will make them almost impossible to fish because you can not hold the boat in position. Choose your bait based on the wind.
9. N 32 44.896 – W 85 51.930 – Go back across Blue Creek and into the bog pocket across from Union Ramp. It is behind a big island. The pocket splits into two arms running north. Go in the left one and start fishing just inside the right point. It has a smaller side cove to the left and a bigger cove to the right. It has a big brown house on the main point and a dock inside the point on your right going in.
Fish all around this pocket with a Trick worm and watch for beds. Fish the points, especially the one between the two coves, with jerk baits, jig head worm and jig and pig. The smaller left hand cove has lots of trash in it from cleaning the lots so fish it carefully.
10. N 32 44.889 – W 85 51.762 – Go around the big main point between the two big coves and watch for a flat secondary point on your left. It is in front of a brown house with a rock patio. Just past the house the dock has two orange floats in front of it.
Stay well off the bank and fish the point with a jig head worm and a jig and pig. Hop and slide both baits down the slope of the point. Keep your boat out in deep water and throw shallow, and fish all the way around the point.
These places all are holding bass right now on Martin. Check them out to see the kinds of places Kelley fishes and you can find many similar places all over the lake to catch spots and largemouth.