Trout season opens April 1, with many local ponds and streams already stocked with everything from fingerlings to a few breeders. Opening day of trout is always an exciting time. I hope to have a list of this season’s stocking in next week’s outdoors column.

Another sure sign of spring — because Mother Nature loosening her grip on local ponds and lakes — is crappie fishing. I always have been told, if you really want to know that spring is just around the corner, watch the sky for local geese and ducks, as they are beginning to pair for their annual breeding ritual. It wouldn’t be long before every pothole that holds water will play host to a pair of waterfowl. Amazingly enough, we witnessed this in the past few days.

While Chautauqua Lake is holding onto its ice for now, it won’t be long before a steady southwest wind will take care of all that. While there are larger, tastier fish in Chautauqua Lake, there is none more popular than the bass. Either large or smallmouth, either sub-species, are the most popular chased fish on Chautauqua Lake. With a catch-and-release/artificial bait season running from Dec. 1 until the third Saturday in June each season, anglers are able to pursue their favorite line-tightening bass.

For anglers who chase bass, after the ice-out is the signal of opening bass fishing season. The melting ice allows the water to heat, and that sets a number of processes in action which are favorable to bass, and to those who are fishing for them.

While the water is still cold, the best bass fishing will be in flowing water and grassy, shallows exposed to full sun. Shallow water is the best place for fishing on cold days and cool mornings. As the day warms up, move to open water in the mouth of many creeks that line Chautauqua Lake, cast minnow-style baits like RattleTrap or rubber worms because they produce good action.

During the heat of the day and into evening, concentrate on crank baits in deeper water. Keep in mind that fish get more active as they warm up, and retrieve the lure at faster speeds to match, from a slow crawl in the morning to a medium pace in the late afternoon.

The key to finding bass during the first part of the season/ice off is to cover as much water as possible to find where the fish are holding. Start out deep near points or common deep areas that bass like to hang out and work your way more shallow. Faster moving lures work best during this time, so try throwing RattleTraps, jerkbaits, swim baits and crankbaits. Keep moving until you find the fish. Once you do, it can be fast and furious. Make sure that you have some finesse baits rigged up to follow up if you get short strikes. A stick bait or Senko-style bait weightless is a perfect option

More than any time of the year, in the spring it is really important to pay attention to what’s going on under the water. If you have a boat, make sure you have some decent electronics that will alert you to fish activity where you’re fishing. When you don’t see bait and fish, move on. Invest in a decent pair of polarized sunglasses and spend some time looking in the shallows for bass moving up into their spawning flats. Keep in mind that if you see smaller males around, the big girls aren’t far away. Pay attention to that area where you can barely see the bottom. Many times, you’ll spot a bigger fish cruising in and out of your visual area. Get away from the little fish, pull off the shallows a bit and target that slightly deeper area. This can pay off huge this time of year.

Always consider the location when selecting a lure. Under docks — once they are put in and near the bank — is a good place to use spinnerbaits or artificial 3-inch grubs. In deeper water, spinners and swimbaits are more successful. Once weed edges begin to pop up, a medium size jerkbait is your best bet.

After ice-out, lakes and ponds come alive. Sunlight penetrating to greater depths encourages the growth of plankton, and that feeds the entire marine food chain. To get the most out of bass fishing, control the depth of your bait according to the warmth of the day. That means keeping close to the surface in the spring, but moving away from banks into deeper water as summer begins to show its face.

The melted ice also triggers spawning, and bass are feeding more often to accommodate increased activity. While I’m not a big fan of casting to beds, it can be very successful when done properly and the fish are safely placed back into the water to return to guard their beds.

Once Mother Nature loosens her ice grip on Chautauqua Lake, anglers will be heading to the lake to get their crappie fix for the season. While some will be standing on shore to hit the channels and creek mouths once they heat up, I challenge you to have more fun than anytime of the year.

Ice-off always signals the time to go crappie fishing. Total ice-off on Chautauqua Lake may be a couple weeks out, but it’s time to get ready for your first outing. Whether you are using a lightweight spinning outfit or taking a child along with spin cast equipment, it’s important to make sure you have fresh line on all your equipment.

Fishing is always good after ice off, but it does come with many risks. Between floating debris and barely-above-freezing water temperatures, ice-off fishing isn’t for faint of heart.

More years ago then I would care to remember, my childhood friends and I would stand on the shores of Chautauqua Lake at the edges of the canals catching buckets of crappie.

As a young man, I would spend hours on the shores of Chautauqua Lake and catch crappie after crappie. As months turn into years, our ideas of a good time, really didn’t involve a fishing rod and smelly worms. Spring meant cars and girls, and the fishing rods would gather dust in the closet for a few years.

Like our childhood, many things have changed, but others have stayed the same, like the enjoyment of spring fishing on Chautauqua Lake. First, the days of taking buckets filled with crappie are gone, because there are currently limits, so always make sure to know creel limits before heading to the water. Currently, the creel limit for crappie are a 9-inch minimum and a 25-per-day limit. Secondly, a drive up and down the lake’s shoreline will find few kids on bikes with fishing poles strapped across the handlebars, but make no mistake about it, shoreline fishing for crappie can be very successful and tons of fun.

Many folks believe that calico are native to Chautauqua Lake, but that is not actually true. Calico bass were introduced back in the late 1920s and early 1930s by the DEC. These first fish actually were pulled out of Sodus Bay on Lake Ontario.

The gift of crappie a hundred years ago to Chautauqua Lake is one of the best the state has given local anglers.

While the site of kids fishing from shore isn’t as abundant as years gone by, there is still one thing for sure: There are folks who want to be the first boat on the water every year.

One of things I have learned and all but guarantee is that if you want to get a kid hooked on fishing, take them when the crappie is biting. When you find a school of hungry crappie, there is nothing that will keep a child’s attention than waiting for their bobber to go down. Than watch them fight their catch and it will be a memory they will keep for a lifetime.

As the weather begins to turn for the better, so does the outdoor sports. Early spring in our part of the world brings ice-off crappie fishing, jumping trout in local streams, catch-and-release bass fishing, and the sound of mature gobblers waking-up.

That is what makes spring so special.