Okay let's not get too excited yet but my goodness it's February. Before you know it spring will be upon us and we will have lot's of bass moving up in the shallow water for the beginning of the spawning season. Now I'm trying not to be too overzealous but all of us at Lake Casitas been waiting three or four months for this and it sure is an exciting time of year. It's been a very cold winter and with some extremely low water temperatures throughout the West. The days now are beginning to get a little bit longer here in February. And we should begin to see bass at Lake Casitas make their progression into the shallow water areas to begin their spawn. Now let's be clear, the great majority of the bass throughout the Western states are still in deep water and basically in a winter pattern. But on warm sunny days when you feel the heat on your back while you're out on the water make sure that you spend a decent amount of time up in some of the shallow protected sunny bays and flats as you move through the day. The bass are not actually moving in to spawn quite yet. But they are milling around in shallow water on those warmer days as we move through this month. You still want to focus your lure selection around slower moving baits. Stay away from lures that move too quickly in the zone. The same lures that we have talked about for winter fishing i.e. the jig, drop shot, and split shot are all still the lures of choice at this time of year. Make sure you add a Senko to this list of weapons. As many of you know that have been on bass fishing guide trips with me at Lake Casitas I absolutely love the Senko rigged either in a Texas style fashion or a wacky fashion as it is absolutely one of the most deadly lures to use when the fish first move into shallow water to spawn. I wrote a rather lengthy column last year devoted completely to fishing the Senko in a pre-spawn situation. My basic approach is a #2 Daiichi drop shot hook, a 5 inch watermelon red Yamamoto Senko, and a rubber washer, or retainer in the middle portion of the worm to help support the wacky style rigging. This can be fished on either a baitcasting or spinning rod, and monofilament and fluorocarbon fishing line are both obvious choices. Always be aware that the closer your reservoir is to sea level the faster that lake will produce spawning bass. For instance where I work at Lake Casitas in Ventura California it's basically at sea level. It's absolutely one of the first lakes in Southern California that the bass move in the shallow water and began to spawn. If the lake you fish is 1000 feet above sea level it's always going to be behind in the spawning cycle to a lake that's right at sea level. The higher the elevation of your particular lake will always dictate when you're bass will spawn. There's been a longtime debate over water temperatures and how they affect bass when it comes to the spawning season. My personal feeling is that length of day has always been the determining factor as to why bass move into shallow water to spawn. I believe that the amount of available sunlight is one of the largest triggering points in manufacturing the spawning situation. This is just a personal belief, but it's one that I feel very strongly about. If the lake your fishing has got clear water absolutely start to spend some time standing up on the nose of your boat and looking in the shallow water to see if there is any shot at some site fishing. It's February, and in February bass move in to spawn on many of our western lakes. Once again continue to work your bait slowly. Be very methodical in your approach. It's just a bit too early for you to get on the trolling motor and move at a high rate of speed. But we are really close as the fish are going to be moving into shallow water. These first bass that move into shallow water will be spooky and a nice quiet easy-going approach is absolutely the best bet at this time of year. Try to limit your baits to the ones that we spoke about within this article and focus your efforts directly on the bottom. It's my personal belief that once bass begin moving to shallow water to spawn their total focus becomes very bottom related. Many of our bass throughout the Western United States have spent the entire winter suspended, and focusing on huge schools of threadfin shad out over deep water. Huge schools of bass at Lake Casitas have been traveling in open water and have had very little desire to focus on the bottom it all. Most of their time has been spent suspended and cruising underneath and around these large schools of bait fish. That all changes at this time of year as the fish begin the spawning process. They really focus on the bottom due to the fact that that's where they will be building their beds at this time of year. I've received lots of e-mails and calls from anglers who read this column and are interested in actually going out on the water and getting some personal one-on-one instruction on how to utilize these techniques but hopefully improved as an angler. As always if any of you are ever in the Southern California area and would like to come meet me for a day guided bass fishing at Lake Casitas in Southern California feel free to go to the "Contact Rich Tauber" link at the top of the page and I'm sure we can arrange a day to get out on the water.