It won’t be long now before the early morning and evening topwater action will be sizzling on a bass water near you. Don’t miss out! Photo by J.B. Kasper.

If you want a trophy bass, right now’s the time to catch it. The bigger largemouths are feeding heavily and getting ready for the spawn. At times, these big females will add 50 percent to their late fall or winter weights. A 5-pound fall bass can weigh over 7 pounds just before she drops her eggs.

However, these bass didn’t become big by accident and they won’t just jump in the boat. You still have to trick them into biting your lure. Some days, that’s easy and it seems as if you are destined for the professional ranks. At other times, however, you can’t buy a bite.

One of the ways to avoid being hitless is to learn about forage and how it affects the bite. Flyfishermen have known this for a long time. They call it “matching the hatch.” That’s really nothing other than a fancy term for showing the fish something similar to what they’re eating.

Professional bass angler Mark Menendez has known this for a long time. His nearly two decades of professional, competitive bass angling have taught him the importance of presenting a bait that looks and acts like the real thing, something the bass are actually eating.

“I think a lot of anglers make the mistake of not taking time to see what’s available to the local bass. They get in a hurry to fish and forget the importance of this. That’s too bad because it probably costs them a lot of fish in the long run,” he said. “If you’re going to catch big bass, you’ve got to do it right.”

Doing it right begins by understanding local forage. Most lakes and reservoirs across our country have some form of shad in them. Each species is a little different, but they all have one thing in common -- they don’t tolerate cold water very well.

That’s why Menendez starts fishing -- anytime the water is in the 40- to 50-degree range and the local forage is shad based -- with a suspending, hard jerkbait. This lure choice matches the hatch perfectly. Different models and sizes can be fished at different depths. And at the same time, these types of lures are easy to work in a slow, helter-skelter manner through the bass’ strike zone.

“A good jerkbait is indispensable in the early spring on a shad forage-based body of water. They imitate a dying shad perfectly.”

Note, however, that he says a “good” jerkbait. Not all of them meet that criterion. To be good the jerkbait must be strong. Big bass pull hard. And it must run at the correct depth. That’s largely a matter of size, weight and bill length, but it’s also affected by line diameter. Remember, no matter what the manufacturer says, any bait will run shallower on heavy line and deeper on light line.

Your jerkbait must also suspend perfectly. Perfectly means the bait remains horizontal in the water and doesn’t move up or down, not even a little bit. A slow rise or fall will kill the bite on most days. Real baitfish won’t do that and neither should your lure.

Menendez’s personal choice is a Strike King Wild Suspending Shiner. (Yes, it’s named shiner, but it does a heck of a job imitating dying shad.) This bait will often work best in relatively shallow water around main-lake points, primary bay points and bluff ends. That’s where the shad will move as the water starts to warm a bit, so that’s where you should be fishing. But don’t confuse movement with survival. Many shad will still die. Therefore, your baits should be imitating dying shad.