Tackle Box

14 Pontoon^ & Deck Boat March^2018 http://www.pdbmagazine.com

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Beware The Idleness Of March

March is the middle ground between the “off” season and the

“on” for many inland boaters and anglers, depending on your

latitude, a transition between winter boat and sport show season

and the period when weather warms and stabilizes enough to

offer reliable fishing action. For owners of deck and pontoon

boats who decide to jump the gun a bit and scratch that itch to

“go fish” before true spring weather arrives, the rewards can be

as remarkable as the weather and water conditions are fickle.

Early spring is the time of year when most of our popular

gamefish, such as bass, walleyes and panfish, are preparing for

the spawn, what is referred to as “pre-spawn” mode. The fish

are moving from their winter haunts, usually in and over deep,

open water, and staging near shallows into which they will move

to engage in the annual reproductive rites to come. Walleyes will

be gathering off river mouths or around shallow rock reefs, up

and onto which they will swim when waters warmed by the sun

and the length of angle of light trigger the migrations. Similarly,

crappies and bluegills will be lingering in waters just off the

first drop in water depth from the shallows where they will move

en-mass when triggered by Mother Nature to do so. Largemouth

bass may be in the shallows already, or off the drop.

The point is that no matter where the fish are found this time

of year, when an angler finds success, the action is likely to

continue in that particular location – or ones like it – for the fish

are concentrated. One key to that success, of course, is offering

those fish baits they will be prompted to strike.

Many successful early season anglers adopt tactics that

are productive during the winter months while pursuing these

same species through the ice. Being cold-blooded critters, the

metabolism of fish slows down when the water temperatures

around them drop. That means they neither need to eat much or

are motivated to move much to feed – at least early in this pre-

spawn mode. That’s why small lures, live baits and combinations

of the two can be the most productive offerings this time of year.

Walleye anglers, for example, adopt the same smallish jigs or

blade baits presented vertically from their boats that they may

have been dropping to those same fish in those same locations

from atop the ice a month earlier – and can expect similar

success. Panfish anglers who “iced” bluegills and crappies and

yellow perch from shallow weed beds or gravel bars in January

anchor over or near the same areas and use small jigs tipped

with minnows or larval baits, or the baits lone on small light

wire hooks, to tempt the staging fish.

To get a jump on the warming water phenomenon, savvy

early season anglers know to concentrate their efforts on those

days when the sun shines. They direct their boats to areas

You can have the fish-filled shallows to yourself if you get out early

enough in the season. If you time it right, you can catch the

gamefish moving into that warmer water in anticipation of

the spawn.