Though any type of cover is liable to hold bass in spring, I look for patterns that tell me where the fish are likely to be on any given day. Then I don’t have to waste time fishing every good-looking piece of cover that I come across, because not all of it will have bass.
I don’t know why it is, but bass definitely show preferences for different types of cover at different times in the spring. For instance, in east Tennessee where I live, we don’t have buckbrush, but they have a lot of it in the western part of the state at Kentucky Lake and bass love to spawn in it. Later on, though, bass will move into flooded willow trees. When fish are in the buckbrush, you can’t buy a strike under a willow tree, but all of a sudden the willows will get hot and the buckbrush will shut down. Later on, it’s wood cover – stumps, logs, tops.
The point is, bass will change from one type of cover to another in a lake as the year progresses and you need to pay attention to that. Maybe it’s got something to do with the spawn, or guarding the fry, or just because of something the bass want to eat and it’s available in a certain kind of cover at a certain time. You don’t have to figure it out; just make sure you understand there is a connection and try to find that cover pattern.
— Ranger pro Craig Powers of Rockwood, Tenn.