Lake Sinclair Fishing Report April 2012

Sinclair: Level: Full pool. Temp: 70-72 degrees. Clarity: Light stain to clear.

Bass: Aaron Batson said the warm spring will mean his fishing techniques will be geared more toward a late April and May pattern. “I believe the bass spawn is already in full swing,” Aaron said in an interview on March 21. “April will be more of a postspawn month, where normally it is the month to sight fish for bedded bass. Also, the annual shad spawn is about to bust open any day now. I am already seeing and hooking shad very shallow at daylight right up tight on seawalls.” The next time you’re on Sinclair, be there at daylight and look for flipping shad on rock or woody banks. Aaron will fish a Net Boy Baits swim jig, an Ol’ Nelle spinnerbait, a floating worm and a Fluke during the shad spawn. After the shad-spawn bite, Aaron will fish mostly plastics. He’ll have two rods loaded on the deck all day. One will be rigged with a Net Boy Baits jig, and the other will have some type of soft plastic on it. He said anglers can pick and choose their favorite plastics, and all will catch postspawn bass. “You can flip a Brush Hog or Paca Craw, but I still love a straight-tail worm. A Trick Worm or a Senko on a Texas rig or jig head is just hard to beat for numbers and sometimes quality,” said Aaron. He also likes a worm called the Magic Wand made by Bitter’s Best Value. Don’t be surprised to see bream on the beds in April. Aaron takes the Net Boy Baits green pumpkin or black/blue swim jig and tips it was a green-pumpkin chunk. He dips the little tips in J.J’s Magic chartreuse. “I think that is a very good bluegill imitation swim jig to throw around bream beds. Throw out, and just twitch it along,” said Aaron. For a full feature on fishing the early spring on Sinclair in April with Aaron, turn to page 22.