Skip Spring Swimbaits With Jake Whitaker

Deep into Day 3 of the 2019 Bassmaster Elite Series event on Lake Hartwell, Jake Whitaker found himself in the Top 15. He’d spent much of the tournament targeting prespawn bass with a wacky rig, but as the clock began to tick down on the cut, he looked to another pattern to pluck out a kicker fish.

“Prespawn is huge in a lot of the South during March and early April,” explains the fourth-year Elite Series veteran from North Carolina. “A lot of people know to target floating docks with a wacky rig, but an underrated tactic is skipping a weightless swimbait under them.”

Whitaker says large