Throughout the bulk of the South, March is not the peak month for bass to spawn. But as those of us who live south of the Mason-Dixon line are fond of saying, "It’s fixin’ to be."

This month sees the bass engaged in a major transition from their winter patterns to the shallows they use to spawn. Depending upon just where in the South an angler calls home, and the type of water body fished, the bass are in various stages of moving to their spawning sites. Balmy weather will accelerate their shift from deep to shallow, while any of the sudden cold fronts the month is justifiably famous for can slow the process down and may even send them back to deeper water for a while.

The bass can do some serious moving this time of year. But savvy anglers have one ace in the hole. Those who have identified the spawning sites the bass use know where the fish ultimately wind up. Once that data is acquired, expert anglers adopt a "fishing in reverse" strategy.

They start their search for March bass beginning from the spots they know the fish are heading toward. Then, they just backtrack along the migration routes the fish will use in moving from their deep-water haunts, to find where they are currently holding.

Locating the spawning sites is a key first step. Veteran anglers rely on previous experience, but even newcomers to the lake can up their odds if they just ask a few questions from the local marina operators. As to what questions need be asked, that depends upon the type of water body being addressed.

Bass are bass anywhere you find them, but the environment they live in largely determines their habits and responses. Given the diverse habitats available in the South, anglers can expect differing behavior on different types of lakes. Here are some tactics for the water you are likely to encounter.

Upland Reservoirs
These lakes are characterized by the abruptness of their depth changes, a tremendous amount of deep water, and a notable lack of aquatic vegetation. The primary cover for bass in these waters is rock, wood and submerged bottom contours, such as points, drops, ledges and rock walls. They can be some of the more difficult lakes to fish during the pre-spawn, since bass may move tremendous distances from their winter habitat to their spawning sites.

The peak spawning on these lakes generally occurs well after March, but this month sees the bass moving to the spawning areas. Those prime spawning sites are seldom on the main lake itself. Open lake waters often are not stable and protected enough. Instead, look for bass to move toward any coves or creek arms -- particularly those that do not have water flowing through them. You are looking for calm, shallow and stable conditions to find spawning bass on these lakes.

Within these stable areas the bottom composition largely determines the spawning sites. With a lack of hard sand bottoms and vegetation, the most popular spawning sites consist largely of pea gravel. This is what the bass move toward from the deeper waters. The word "toward" is key here.

The transitional process on these lakes is very gradual, and since the spring is one of the most unstable weather periods of the year, the transition becomes equally unstable. A weeklong warming trend may see bass almost at the spawning sites, yet one hard cold front can send them back to their winter homes virtually overnight.

The areas used for the earliest spawns are often in the north or northwest portion of the lakes, since these are the most sheltered from cold north winds and receive the most direct sunlight at this time of year. Sheltered waters in these areas often warm to proper temperatures a couple of weeks before other portions of the lake.

Once the spawning areas are located, points and creek channels are the logical migration routes from the main lake to them. For that reason, it is important for anglers to first determine where the bass will spawn, and then gain an understanding of the entire structural layout within the area. In that respect, a quality topographical map is almost mandatory. If you can identify the wintering areas and the spawning areas, the routes the fish take between the two become visible.