Bartletts Ferry Fishing Report March 2013

Bartletts Ferry: Level: Full pool. Temp: Low 50s. Clarity: Heavily stained.

Bass: Good. “They’ve been biting pretty good,” said Dennis Hudson. “They’re starting to move up in the prespawn areas. There’s quite a few fish staging under the boat docks in the spawning coves.” Right now there’s a good ChatterBait bite going on along grass edges. Look for most of that bait on the main lake, but there are some grass edges in the pockets. This bite has been in 2 feet of water, and the “grass” is nothing more than stems right now. For the first half of March, look for fish in prespawn areas. “What typically happens up there is they gang up around the docks, and you can skip worms, jigs, Senkos, anything you can get way up under there,” said Dennis. In stained water, he’ll skip dark colors, preferring junebug and black/blue. When the water clears, he’ll skip green-pumpkin baits. “The crankbait bite is always good then,” said Dennis. “Just throw a small square bill, and run down the seawall banks and shallow points and back in any cove. Just cover ground.” The RC 1.5 and Rebel Wee-R are both good plugs. Look for the spawn to begin anywhere from mid March to the first of April. Fish will move down the banks and seawalls looking for places to spawn. “Just throw anything plastic,” said Dennis. Don’t forget to look around the main-lake hydrilla beds. Some fish will be staging on it, and they’ll likely bed in and around it, too.