Not Spawning Yet

Here on Nimrod the water temps are staying around the mid to high 60's. I have been checking the shallow buck brush regularly and only pick up an occasional male. Their tails are not worn yet.
We are catching almost all females out in the lake. The males seem to be holed up at 5 to 6 feet deep and the females are as deep as 10 to 11 feet and staging up on creek and river channel edges. All the females that I cleaned today had light colored eggs and they were still pretty clumped together.
I think they will spawn about the 2nd to 3rd week of April. After seeing some impressive stringers caught by a couple friends using bigger bass minnows I tried them this weekend. Definately catches the bigger slabs!
Here's some we caught today. This one was a staging female caught at 10 feet deep on a breakline leading into a spawning cove. Blk/Chart. Superjig on a Chartreuse Bighead Jig tipped with a glow Chart. Crappie Nibble.

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a1...edBlkChart.jpg

I caught this big male while checking some shallow spawning areas. Only caught this and one other male in a 100 yard stretch that usually produces a good fish every 10 or 12 yards. Blk/Chart Glitter Superjig.

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a1...ale3-30-07.jpg

I guess this is why they call 'em bass minnows!

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a1...-075lb11oz.jpg

5 lb 11 oz caught and released!

Those are some good fish Slabbandit, keep after them.

Good post slabbandit......I've been finding my fish in the same type of water your finding yours in....bet that bass was a fun catch.....good job.

Nice fish Slabbandit!
Is that a marker buoy next to your Driftmaster? How do you use them in the spring for crappie, or were you locating structure for bass?

Hey there CH, I use GPS to locate brushpiles then I mark them with the bouy and fish 'em. I wasn't fishin' for bass just happened to drag that big minnow through where he was.:)

Man, SB. Those are some hawgs there. I might have to venture over that way soon...:D

And those big crappie do love them some bass minners. The crappie were showing a preference to big shiners at Conway back a while back. Sometimes you have to match the size of the bait present to get bit. Hope you and Nimrod get some more of those slabs this week...