It was a beautiful early spring day--unseasonably warm and mostly sunny, one of those times when nature seemed to be awakening from the winter doldrums. Birds were singing, bugs hatching, and I hadn't caught a thing in three hours of hard fishing.

I knew every spot on the small 125-acre lake and fished most of them. A shallow, four- to five-acre mud bottom bay was attached to the main lake. A 30-foot wide opening sheltered the bay from the lake. Even though the deepest water in this bay was 2-1/2 feet, it usually is a hot spot right after ice out. A 100-yard long and 50-yard wide slab of ice blocked the entrance to the bay and my initial plan of fishing it.

I had a gut feeling the small bay held fish in spite of being locked in by an ice mass. My fishing partners weren't too thrilled to hear we were going to "skate" our aluminum boat over the ice to reach the sheltered bay. But, since the water was only a few feet deep, and one leg would be kept in the boat while the other pushed, it was no big deal.

We "slaughtered" the fish. Big crappies, bluegills, and bass pounded our small jigs on nearly every cast we made to a sun-drenched shoreline adjacent to the deepest water in the bay. As the sun lowered to the point where the rays no longer penetrated and warmed the water, the fish quickly shut off.

Very often the key to catching early spring fish is to find some sheltered, early-to-warm areas. Factors that also help make some areas better are a darker bottom, dingier water color, calm water, being adjacent to the deepest water in the area, and direct sunlight.

During the 1960s and '70s when I was heavily into river fishing, early-to-warm areas paid off with big catches of walleye, bass, pike, and panfish. Backwaters off the main river, especially those blocked from receiving much current flow, were tremendous producers. A necked-down opening slows current into a bay which allows it to warm quicker. A bay that connects to the main river from a slightly up-current position is also very desirable.

Although these bays may be fairly shallow (2-1/2 to three feet or more) and full of carp, gar, or other "junk" fish during the warm months, they are often havens for game fish and panfish during the warming days of early spring.

Another good early river pattern is to fish the tributaries that lead into rivers and streams. Tributaries usually have their highest rate of flow in spring, and many times the water is slightly warmer than that in the main river. Combine this with fish-attracting flow, baitfish that may come in out of the main current, and a fish's basic nature to "run" up current in spring, and you have potential.

Often I've seen excellent populations of smallmouth bass, crappies, pike, and walleye in five- to 20-foot-wide tributaries that would be pretty barren of quality fish during the warmer, lower-water months of summer. Fall would usually be even less productive as water would be even lower and less apt to attract sizable fish.

Harbors off big bodies of water are also prime early season hot-spots. The sheltered areas warm much quicker than the big open waters they connect to and frequently draw hordes of early spring fish. Even on the Great Lakes I've seen connecting harbors draw numbers of smallmouth and largemouth bass, crappies, perch, rock bass, walleyes, and pike, plus cold-water species such as trout and salmon in spring.

Several favorite, super-tough clear lakes of mine have panfish runs into sheltered, dingy pier studded harbors shortly after ice- out. Bass will move into these same waters once the water temperature in the harbor climbs above 50 degrees. At that time they are very vulnerable to a spinnerbait pitched tight to just about any available cover in the harbor. Target areas include piers, docks, rocks along a bank, mouths of feeder creeks, any type of felled wood in water, marker buoys...any type of cover.

In reservoirs the far back end of a cove can be a real fish magnet early in the season. I've pushed, pulled, and clawed my way through flooded timber and shallow perimeters of depressions to experience some excellent early season bass action. In clear shallow waters plastic worms with little or no weight and shallow running crankbaits are tops. Spinnerbaits are added to the list with improved (dingier) water conditions.

Warm-water discharges are tremendous fish attractors during colder weather. Action at the discharges may draw species that fare better in colder water such as trout, walleye, salmon, and pike, while bass, catfish, white bass, and striped bass may move in a bit later.

There is no question that early-to-warm areas draw fish in the spring. Learn to pick out these hot areas and your fishing year will be off to a fine start.