Now is a perfect time to seek pre-spawn female fish

Whoever coined the phrase “records are made to be broken” must have had the month of March and lunker largemouths in mind.

Many years ago, a friend made a statement that’s stuck with me to this day — “It’s just like the whitetail rut in the fall of the year, springtime equates to monster bass.”

Thanks to a mild winter we experienced along with the warm nights as of late, it means big prespawn females rise from their deep water haunts to the shallows..

Smaller bodies of water such as ponds, strip pits and municipal lakes will be the first to warm and, best of all, it doesn’t require a fancy six-figure bass boat that can range as high as $150,000. I have personal thoughts on boat prices but will save my ranting for another day.

Once again, it’s “hats off” to the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservartion (ODWC) for its relentless efforts stocking waters with Florida bass and genetics.

These are stocked into lakes below Interstate 40. Florida bass don’t do well in the colder northern Oklahoma lakes such as Grand Lake.

The exceptions to that rule are Lake Bixhoma and Sooner Lake. Sooner is a power plant lake between Stillwater and Ponca City off U.S. 177 in Noble County, but Bixhoma is an anomaly. Some believe it is because Bixhoma is such a deep lake that it has diverse thermal lairs.

Recently, there was a man who caught an 11-pound, 1-ounce bass in Bixhoma in late January. I graduated from Bixby in the mid-1970’s so I remember when the lake was built.

Of the top 20 largemouths ever recorded in the state, two were caught the last week in February while 15 were caught in the month of March.

On March 13, 2013, while fishing Cedar Lake, Dale Miller of Panama caught a largemouth bass weighing 14 pounds, 13.7 ounces, which is still the state record for that species of fish.

Northern banks that catch southerly winds mixed with rock and pea gravel will warm the quickest, and fish can sometimes be caught in as little as two feet of water or less. On the other hand, waters on the lower end tend to be clear and the fish spawn out a little deeper.

Males start the process by fanning out nets followed by females who then deposit 2,000 to 7,000 eggs per pound of body weight. After fertilization, the male drives off the female and any other intruders from the nest until the eggs hatch and the fry leave.

A few years ago, I caught the same male three times on three different style baits — a jig, worm and lizard.

Normally, I look for water that’s a bit stained and look for the warmest water I can find. My favorite bait this time of year is a black and blue or brown and orange jig fished on a seven-foot medium to heavy action rod and a 6.6 gear ratio bait cast reel and 15 to 17 pounds fluorocarbon line.

It’s time to get some new fishing line on your reel and get outdoors.

Fishing is fun for the whole family. You never know, the next fish you catch might be one for the record book.

If you land a fish you believe to be a lake or state record, contact a Wildlife Department Fisheries Division employee or game warden in your region.

We are blessed to live in a state that is rich in natural resources and catch and release is encouraged.

Don’t let them go to waste.

John Kilgore is the former Greenleaf State Park manager. He can be reached by emailing him at jkilgoreoutdoors@yahoo.com.