The lake we fished is a fertile one. Though the lake would see a heavy algae bloom by summer, in the relatively clear water of spring, a good growth of milfoil weeds rose well up off the bottom. In the backs of the bays, protected from the north wind of a recent cold front, it was possible to make out submerged stumps.

Whether you are talking largemouths or smallmouths in rivers or lakes, spring is a time of rapid change for bass.

Ten minutes into the trip, a big largemouth bit Eck's spinnerbait after he bumped it off a stump. The fish was lost at the boat, but not before revealing its 5- to 6-pound bulk.

Eck was using a 3/8-ounce spinnerbait. He had removed the primary blade from the tandem spinnerbait, and replaced it with a big No. 5 Colorado-style blade. Colorado blades are rounded in shape, and tend to give off a great deal of vibration or "thumping." It is this characteristic that Eck places a great deal of confidence in to trigger bass bites at this time of year.

Colorado blades also provide lift to a lure, meaning baits tend to ride higher than they would with a slimmer profile blade at the same retrieve speed. It takes little movement to get a Colorado blade to spin, so they can be fished slowly with plenty of rotation.

Our next stop was a shallow bay featuring large patches of milfoil. The tops of the weeds rose to within a foot or so of the surface. I was using a tandem spinnerbait, a willow-leaf model in 3/8-ounce size that I hoped would swim just above the weed cover.

In contrast to the Colorado blade, willow-leaf blades are slim. They don't offer the vibration of the Colorado blade, but they do sport much flash. Whereas Colorado blades ride high, willow-leaf models run deeper. The weedy bay seemed an excellent place to "grind" such a spinnerbait through the tufts of submerged vegetation. My spinnerbait was about 10 feet from the boat when a 4-pound largemouth rose up from the weeds to grab it.

These two bass bites illustrate the utility of the spinnerbait. When fishing around stumps, Eck used a bait modified by way of an oversized Colorado blade to trigger a strike, and he continued to do so throughout the day. In newly developing weeds, where I wanted something that didn't have as much lift that I could slowly roll through the cover, willow-leaf blades excelled.

I like a moderately powerful casting rod for working spinnerbaits, and have had good luck using a 6-foot, 8-inch casting rod.

As you can see, it takes an assortment of presentations and tactics to effectively fish the many habitats bass make use of this time of year. Lures are tools, best suited to certain situations, as well as the daily preference of the fish.