Mark Taylor

Mark Taylor's Outdoors column and notebook appears regularly in The Roanoke Times.

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The Bassmaster Elite Series is arriving at Smith Mountain Lake during a prime bass fishing time, with many bass moving into the shallows to spawn.

Pro angler Ish Monroe of Hughson, Calif., said he expects roughly 80 percent of the 100-angler field to spend a good amount of time fishing for spawning bass, which can be fairly easy to spot hovering over the saucer-shaped nests they scoop out in sandy shallows.

While spawning bass aren't interested in eating, they can sometimes be coaxed into attacking lures that they perceive as a threat to their nest. Lures popular for fishing spawning beds include tubes, lizards, jigs and swimbaits.

Largemouth bass tend to favor shallower water than smallmouths. And while smallmouths can be easier to catch from beds, they can be more difficult to spot.

Sight-fishing isn't the only thing that will work this week.

"Some guys don't believe in sight-fishing," Monroe said. "So they'll just go fishing, and they'll catch fish."

Spawning shad could turn out to be an important pattern. When the prolific forage fish are up on the banks, predators such as bass will be up there, too, where they can fall victim to various shad-imitating lures.

--Mark Taylor