Bob Bledsoe

APRIL
Largemouth Bass
Most of the time I’m a die-hard plastic-worm angler or jig-fisherman. I just like catching fish on falling baits. But for a short time each spring, usually late March and early April, I become a jerkbait fanatic.

That’s because at Grand Lake you can tie on a suspending jerkbait, like a Smithwick Rogue, Rebel Minnow, Rapala Husky Jerk, etc., and lay waste to some lunker bass that are cruising just offshore in a pre-spawn mode.

Twenty years ago we all fashioned our own suspending Rogues, drilling holes in the lures and inserting lead shot and sealing the holes up with epoxy. Now, though, you can purchase suspending baits that work fine.

Using 14-pound-test or lighter line (I may go down to 10-pound test if bites are few and far between, as using smaller line can sometimes increase the number of strikes), make a long cast and pull the bait down below the surface. Some days, a depth of 7 or 8 feet seems to be the most productive, while on others the fish seem to hit best at 11 or 12 feet. A little trial-and-error can help you find the best depth.

You can tailor the target depth by choosing the right lure and the right line size.

After you pull the bait down to the correct depth, fish it slowly, with twitches and pauses, until it gets close to the boat. I’ve had numerous strikes just as I started to raise my rod tip and crank the lure back for another cast.

I’ve had my best luck catching pre-spawners on jerkbaits in the midlake areas.

MAY
Bluegills
Oklahoma has a lot of small lakes with relatively clear water and lots of emergent shoreline vegetation like smartweed and water willow. Those lakes seem to be the best at producing hand-sized bluegills and redear sunfish. April, May and June -- with May usually being the best -- are often the leading months for catching lots of these tasty sunfish in a hurry. That’s because the fish, especially the bluegills, are concentrated around spawning beds at that time of year.

There are many baits and lures and fishing techniques that can be used to catch bluegills. If you have a favorite method that works, go for it. Personally, I’ll put a slip-cork rig and a bait of live crickets up against just about any technique when it comes to high-yield bluegill fishing.

George Edwards, from Oklahoma City, talked me into my first sunfish fishing trip using crickets. It used to be that I didn’t use live or cut bait for anything except catfish. My bluegill and redear fishing was done primarily with small jigs and spinners. But when I accompanied George on a bluegill expedition in western Oklahoma many years ago, I became a devoted convert to fishing with crickets.

Use a small slip-cork -- just big enough to be visible on the surface -- a split shot or bell sinker, and a small No. 8 or 10 hook (even big bluegills have small mouths). Rig your tackle so that your bait stays just inches above the bottom.

In clear, shallow water, you can often see the bluegill nests -- circular depressions fanned clean -- on the bottom. But they may also spawn in water too deep for you to see the nests, so try a deeper spot now and then.

JUNE
Channel Catfish
Oklahoma’s biggest reservoirs were once loaded with channel catfish, but year by year the channel cat numbers have grown much smaller even as blue catfish populations have increased tremendously.

A lot of small lakes -- municipal water-supply reservoirs, watershed lakes and the like -- still hold good populations of channel cats. And when it comes to catfish for the table, I still prefer channel cats to other slick-skinned species.

From late May through early July, channel cats tend to move toward shorelines to spawn in crevices and cavities and caves. A riprapped shoreline is often a great place to fish for spawning channel cats because the cavities between the large rocks are attractive spawning sites.

You can tightline, hang your bait beneath a bobber, or even run the shorelines with your trolling motor and lob baited hooks gently toward likely looking spots. I’ve caught spawning channel cats on Lake Eufaula by flippin’ the shorelines using shrimp (the frozen kind from the grocery store) for bait.