#16689, "RE: Santa Margarita Lake Pre-spawn Question" In response to In response to 0
I'd use a more scientific approach to determine the best pre-spawn areas. Margarita is such a small lake, it won't take long to fish the entire lake during the prespawn time of year. Once you identify the best pre-spawn areas, you can pattern them around the lake and of course fish them year after year.
Fishing north facing banks in prespawn is something that has probably been printed in every Bassmaster magazine since the first one came out. It's in Roland Martin's book and people repeat it over and over in articles. Maybe it's true, but if you base your fishing on truisms like that one, you're going to miss out on a lot of stuff. On big lakes, do you really think the fish all swim to the north end to spawn? Righty-O!
Back when I fished that lake a lot my best prespawn areas were on the east and west facing coves, not in any relation to north/south, sunlight, or lack thereof. I could say the same thing about many other lakes. Just think about the likely spawning banks that are protected from main lake wind and then work your way out a little ways. You'll catch plenty of fish.