The colder winter this year has kept the fish two or three weeks behind schedule this year. In fact, I didn't see any perch beds until a couple of weeks ago - and I caught some nice bedding females last week. Most days, sight fishing is no longer the best pattern. But the spawn is just now coming to an end. It wouldn't surprise me to find a fish or two on beds in June this year (if I wasn't night fishing).

The lake is in great shape right now. It's a little murky (even in the clearer spots), but there is lots of hydrilla, millfoil, pepper grass, llily pads, and even a few cattails deep enough to hold some fish. The spawn is coming to an end, but the perch are spawning - and there are some bass feeding around them. The water temperature is in the lower 70's, which is their most active temp. Full pool is 403' - and from the last good rain we broke 400' for the first time in a couple of years. So, it is only about 3 feet low. There's quite a bit of grass that was on land, but is now underwater.
The best pattern is hard to name. I've been catching a handful of fish on beds and guarding fry. I've been catching some around the perch beds. I've been on a good topwater bite and a good crankbait bite and I've cauight several fish on a lot of other patterns. And I've had days where I couldn't hardly get a bite all day long.
Many mornings, there's an awesome first light bite where the fish are feeding on shad and you can catch a ton of white bass and a good number of largemouths on any bait you want before the sun comes up. Other days, you can hit the same spots and the action is minimal. I believe the days where the early bite is slow tend to be better fishing the rest of the day. It seems that when they gorge themselves in the morning, they don't eat much (if any) the rest of the day. So, it's a good idea to try to beat the sun.

Because of the delay this year, I expect the bite to be good (though up and down) well into July. I'm very optimistic about June. Historically it is my best month for numbers and quality fish combined. This is mainly because I fish at night and they are recuperating from the spawn and feeding heavily before the dog days of summer.