When thinking about Route 66, a highway that travels across America, people see a road that allows people to travel from one side of the country to the other. Along the way there are many towns to stop to see sights, enjoy food, and relax. This is what comes to mind when trying to understand the moving habits of big female bass making the transition from pre spawn to spawn then to post spawn.
Bass spend their winters mainly in deep water, and then as the spring approaches and the water warms up they will work their way slowly into shallower areas to spawn. Then after a few days they will then leave the bed and slowly work their way back into deeper water. Finding bass from pre spawn to post spawn is all about finding what road these bass will take to and from their spawning flats.
When looking for this road you have to consider two things. First, bass will look for routes where deep water meets the shallower areas the quickest, whether the difference in depth is 10 inches or 5 feet. Second, the areas that will have structure that connect deep to shallow. Structure can vary from heavy weeds, rock or wood.
The map below shows an example of an area on Lake St. Clair where the water depth starting around 13 feet connects to a shallow spawning area of 2 feet. This area is connected by different areas of heavy weeds.
