Frankie Cipollone displays a chunky Keystone Lake largemouth bass caught and released in May. Jeff Knapp/Special to the Eagle

It was a successful day, as evidenced by the No. 45 on the fish counter at the end of the six-hour trip. Forty-three of those were bass, largemouths mostly, along with an incidental walleye and bluegill.

All of these fish came from as shallow as a foot to as much as 7 or 8 feet of water, clear evidence they were in what’s commonly called the prespawn period. With water temperatures in the upper 50s, they were still a week or two away from actually getting on beds, but rather positioning themselves in the general areas where they will eventually spawn.

It amazes me how bass will suddenly appear near their spawning areas. I see this on the middle (free flowing) portion of the Allegheny River.

The first smallmouth bass to be caught tend to be in the same general areas they were the prior late fall, basically in deep water sanctuaries protected from the brunt of the main river current. As spring proceeds, these deeper spots become less and less productive as fish filter out and head for shallower water featuring spawning habitat.

By late April, barring exceedingly high water, I can bank on bass being present in staging areas near their spawning spots.

The same kind of thing happens in many of our lakes. On Keystone Lake, where the opening trip took place, I often catch bass on deeper wood cover located along the old Plum Creek channel in 25 feet of water, give or take. This past March, right after ice out, Art Hamley and I caught around 15 bass from these spots.

While checking these same areas three weeks later, primarily for crappies, I did not catch one bass. Nor did I see much fish activity on the sonar screen.

For years I’ve observed the bass in Keystone move shallow about the time the wild dogwood trees start to blossom, clearly evidenced by the white blossoms contrasting against an otherwise drab wooded hillsides.

My next trip to Keystone was the one described in my last column, which dealt with windy conditions. The purpose of that trip was to verify the presence of near-the-bank bass for an upcoming guide trip, and a venue change due to a blown out Allegheny River. Things worked out as my guys enjoyed lots of action two days later running up the fish count.

A variety of presentations can be potentially effective when fishing for prespawn bass in lakes.

During that recent Keystone trip, the hot bait was a Ned Rig (2.5-inch worm on a light jighead) in the color yoga pants or hot snakes. I’ve had many Keystone trips where an unweighted Zoom fluke was tops, as have Senko-style worms rigged either Texas style or wacky style.

Lure choice is also related to the type of lake being fish.

The bass we caught at Keystone were relating to bank sections devoid of snaggy cover. One of the best areas was simply a sandy flat with tufts of short submerged grass. On a lake where bass relate to shoreline wood cover, a spinnerbait or chatterbait might well be a better choice. The same goes for shallow flats featuring dead and newly emerging lily pads, cover common on Lake Arthur.

The prespawn period provides some of the best fishing for bass in our area lakes as fish move shallow and feed aggressively in preparation for the coming event of procreation. It’s a great time to experience excellent action.

Jeff Knapp is an outdoors columnist for the Butler Eagle