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March and April can be fantastic months for catching big Largemouth Bass. One key is getting started early by doing your homework. Your target species is worth the extra effort, and you may be surprised at how you can improve your Spring success. Don't waste those eye-crossing, boring, twitchy days of February by just sitting there cursing the snow, fog, rain and bombed-out thermometer and barometer. You have more important things to do besides reorganizing your tackle box for the tenth time. You've got preparations to make!

Do you have Google Earth on your computer? If you don't, I strongly recommend that you download this useful application, and it won't take long if you have a high-speed connection. With the satellite 'look-down' shots you can search out bodies of water near your location, zoom in and study features that might have taken you weeks, months or even years to discover in the old days. The view can be manipulated to show you different 'looks' of the same areas, and the clarity of the pictures have really improved in the last few years. Heard of a spot you might like to try? Just plug in the lake, river or reservoir, watch the planet turn, 'fly' down and scan around. Sometimes the picture is so good you can even make out underwater structure such as rocks or gravel beds. Very useful! Most of the satellite pictures were taken during summer months in order to take advantage of good weather for clear pictures, so you may want to bear this in mind when considering the typically higher spring water you may be fishing.

Do you have a GPS? Some, such as my Garmin Map 76 Csx, have tide tables, sunrise and sunset times, sun and moon locations, moon phases, compass, barometric pressure and 'Excellent, Good, Average or Poor' fishing day and time designations for each day of the year. Hardly seems fair but don't worry, I can guarantee you the bass aren't going to roll over and wait to be lipped when they see you holding your GPS unit. I like to scan ahead and look for Spring tides, moon phases and 'best' fishing days for upcoming months. When fishing, I also like to mark waypoints when I find a honey hole. They usually produce from year to year under similar conditions.

Most high-end GPS units also have the capacity to accept chips with specialized information. I went online and purchased a chip with Western lakes and streams, which also shows bathymetric information (underwater topography) and even old roads or creek channels through reservoirs. This can be golden, when a few feet of water depth and a crucial underwater feature might make all the difference in locating that lunker bass, or in locating any fish at all under tough conditions.

Another useful GPS tool is the 'trackback' feature, especially handy for finding your way back on an unfamiliar impoundment if you fish until after nightfall. My wife was finally impressed with my GPS last November in Mexico, when she needed to find a drugstore in an unfamiliar city. I took us right to it, then tracked us back to our hotel. She quietly said 'hmph,' which is the same as anyone else jumping up and down and saying 'Wow!'

Don't forget the advantages your home computer can provide. No need to wait for your monthly bass magazine. Most of them usually focus on weather conditions, forage fish species and water temperatures them good old boys down South are familiar with, but won't happen up here for us until deep Summer, if ever. Try Internet searches on specific bodies of water you want to fish. Look for maps, newer articles, local organizations and forums, and don't be afraid to trade information with other online bass fanatics. Some of them will gas you, but most are good-hearted people, happy to share helpful pointers. Time of year or month can be included as keywords in your search. You can save or 'bookmark' your searches. You can also pull up good articles from online fishing magazines. I like to go back and re-read helpful information from sources I've already found. For me, some useful tidbits don't always 'sink in' the first time, but once I finally 'get it,' watch out!

Maps are still useful tools. I like to fish the Columbia River and some of its tributaries and a good map can be very helpful, not just in navigation, but in reducing the river to fishable, productive areas. My current favorite maps are produced by “Fish – n – Map Co.” They are waterproof, tearproof, writable and sufficiently detailed as to be trustworthy river partners. Did I mention they also have GPS longitudes and latitudes? They also have reliably marked areas with the best Smallmouth or Largemouth fishing – as well as other species – depending on river level and tides.

There is no need to stay home right now. You can put on your longhandled underwear, some warm, waterproof clothes, some fingerless gloves and go out for some coldweather bassing. Try jig-and-grub or jig-and-pig combos in blacks or browns fished very, very slowly. Try suspending stickbaits fished slowly with occasional short 'rips.' Try spinnerbaits, slow-rolled. Try deep-digging crankbaits in firetiger, silver or citrus, following bottom countours down, where creeks enter the lake. Get your depth-finder on, look for concentrations of fish in deeper holes and try vertical fishing finesse drop-shot rigs, and vertical jigging spoons. Try rattling lipless crankbaits, ripped along like it's mid-summer (Don't know why, but it works sometimes). And don't be afraid to try – gasp! – live bait like nightcrawlers on baithooks with no lead. Be patient, freeline them down into deep holes that you know contain big rocks, stumps or jumbled logs and limbs. You'll hang up down there, but you might just hang into the biggest bass of the early season! I've caught Largemouth in February, and I know you can too.

Do you have a new spot nagging at the corner of your mind, or have you seen or heard of a place that might hold good bass? Time to study up! Arm yourself with good information, write down some goals for places to visit this Spring, and you'll be a step ahead of where you were last year when you venture out to find that trophy fish!  Hint: Smaller bodies of water and shallower areas of big water will heat up faster in a 3 or 4 day late-winter or early-spring warming spell, and bass do like warm(er) water.

Future articles will contain information on the importance of stealth, hunting a big fish, topwater techniques, modifying baits, lines and line visiblity, bait sizes, nightfishing, tidal considerations, barometric pressure, fishing pre and post spawn, best weedless and finesses soft plastic techniques, improvising and experimenting, river vs. lake fish, and possibly, requested topics}

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