BASS: Homer Circle Spring Training Spring is an apt name for the season, for now is when giant bass spring loose from wintertime hangouts, and when the largest fish are most vulnerable to anglers. A thermometer is handy for determining the optimum time. When water temperatures range from 55° to 70°F, give it your best licks. There are two factors going for you. Because this is the pre-spawn period, big bass are 1) gorging on prey after lean pickings all winter, sensing there will be no time to eat after bedding begins, and 2) heading for inshore areas--where they are most reachable. Pre-spawn bass can be found congregated around certain types of shore cover. Keep in mind they can be tightly concentrated as they move from one spot to another in search of forage. This means you have to saturate each spot before moving on to another. Cast to shore cover in four to six feet of water, keeping your lure near bottom. Saturate each spot before moving on. Spot Checks: There are specific areas you should work on ponds, lakes and reservoirs. Make shallow flats your first target because this is where bright sunlight warms the water fastest. Bass normally prefer rocky or gravelly bottoms, which require less fanning on the bass's part to prepare it for the eggs. Fish in and next to visible cover, including various weed types, brush, standing timber, deadfalls and riprap. Use lures that resemble a bass's forage at this time of year--shad, shiners, smaller bluegills, frogs, salamanders and hellgrammites. Typical examples would be big-lipped crankbaits that dig their way to bottom; lipless crankers that sink and wiggle naturally; Texas-rigged plastic worms and salamanders; soft-plastic minnows with curlytail or paddletail animation, impaled on 1/4-ounce jigheads; blade lures that will slice through a wind, sink fast, and can be worked right on the bottom. As you fish, keep in mind that at this period bass are on the move, feeding and looking for a place to pair up and get on with spawning as soon as the water temperature, and nature's urge, compels them. Work over those areas in four to six feet of water. If you don't locate bass there, try water that is 10 to 15 feet deep. In some areas, bass will favor the temperature and clarity of this extra depth. Casting About: The following presentations are calculated to appeal to one of the many impulses that compel a bass to attack a lure. Be sure to make your approaches quietly so as not to alert bigger fish. Strike Zones * Make shallow flats your first target because the water will be warmest. * Cast to brush, standing timber, deadfalls and riprap. * Use crankbaits, Texas-rigged worms, blade lures. Begin with the big-lipped crankers, trying several until you hit one that digs into bottom on the way back. When you feel the lip dig in, stop reeling to let it rise slightly off bottom, then reel it...twitch it--keep it diving to bottom, then rising, as if foraging for food. Do the same with lipless models, crawling and wiggling them over bottom. Use natural shad and shiner colors. Next try a Texas-rigged six-inch salamander. (Bass hate salamanders because they're egg eaters, and will attack them with fury.) Be sure it's a floater, and use a toothpick to peg the slide sinker about eight inches above the lure. As you work this over bottom, the sinker kicks up a silt trail as if it's evading the salamander hovering above. Then use six- to 10-inch plastic worms manipulated the same way. Also try leadhead-jig minnows, in two- to four-inch sizes, worked slowly from shallow to deep. As you reel steadily to make the minnow wiggle naturally, give it a twitch on every third crank, as if something frightened it. This can trigger impulse strikes. The blade lure is ideal for two conditions. One is when you must cast into a wind. The lure's all-metal construction, thin body and compactly weighted design cut through even a heavy blow. And it can be worked in still lake water or in stream currents, constantly contacting bottom as you urge it along with coordinated reeling and rod-tip lifts. Spring bass fishing is much like spring training for a baseball player. You've got to stay with it to hone your senses. Once you learn the areas and depths the bigger bass are using, you're sure to catch more fish.   Probing the Depths The Fish Hawk is an instrument that measures not only water depth and temperature but light intensity as well. It also lists the ideal temperatures for the 10 most popular sportfishes and the best lure colors to match their visibility in the water. It costs about $190 and is worth its price in bass. For more information, contact Fish Hawk Electronics Corp., Dept. SA, P.O. Box 340, Crystal Lake, IL 60039; 815/363-0929. ⌐ 1997 The Hearst Corporation. All rights reserved.