Smallmouth bass fishing, early season

It gets really cold during the winter in Lake of the Woods, thus the water will take more time to consistently warm up to spawning conditions. Bass live deep and feed sparingly during the winter, and they will start rising to shallow bays and calm pockets to spawn as soon as the water temperature hits the 55 °F mark. This is an important period as bass will feed up heavily, preparing for the spawn period. This is a 15 day window where they don’t eat as male and female will guard their bed. During this period, anglers should focus on south-facing rocky shorelines, with a gentle slope into deeper water. Depending on the water temperature and also the specific conditions of the day, such as wind and cloud cover, bass will be deep or closer to the surface. Once the water temperature reaches 70 °F, anglers should start noticing the males and females roaming the shallows and clearing circular areas on the sand, between two and four feet deep. In large bodies of water bass will tend to spawn in waves.