If you had to quickly sum up May bass fishing on the St. Johns River, you could do it in one word -- exciting!

Capt. Rick Rawlins is hoisting the kind of largemouth the middle river gives up this time of year. Photo by Bud Reiter.

There are, no doubt, some anglers who bemoan the passing of the spawning season, where the sight of a big black shape hovering over a brightly fanned bed can get any angler's pulse pounding. But when it comes to fast action on numbers of bass -- including some true trophies -- the month of May ranks high on the list for experienced anglers.

One reason for that is the spawn is largely over. Now that the bass have finished with that annual chore, they are ready to feed up to replace the energy they expended. Another is that water temperatures have risen enough that bass metabolism is in high gear, but not so high that the fish adopt an early and late routine. Many bass, including some big ones, are caught right in the middle of the day this month. And, anglers don't have to move very far from the recent spawning sites to do catch them.

Bass need to eat, and Mother Nature has provided a veritable buffet in the same shallow areas the bass recently used for spawning. Bream begin actively bedding this month in those same areas. A host of smaller forage fish gather to eat the panfish eggs and fry, while recently hatched shad fry are also abundant in the shallower vegetation. If fast action in shallow vegetation is high on your list of angling favorites, May can provide it in spades!

GEARING UP
From Lake Woodruff to Palatka, anglers are going to find the vast majority of their bass in the grass and at depths of 5 feet or less. There are a few exceptions, and we'll talk about those as we get to them. But, May on the St. Johns normally means "bassin' the grass."

In that respect, don't ignore traditional shallow cover lures like Texas-rigged plastic worms, spinnerbaits, spoons and soft-plastic jerkbaits. They can all produce. But, if there is one "signature" lure that truly characterizes May bassin' on these waters, it would be a topwater lure.

Aggressive bass and topwater baits go together like ham and eggs, politicians and promises, or any other well-used cliché you'd care to dredge up. Like most clichés, there's a lot of truth inherent in the statement. May bass are aggressive, and nothing spells an easy meal for them like a critter struggling on the surface.

Traditional hard-plastic topwater plugs can be very effective. Among those that have earned an enviable reputation are the Zara Spook-style walking baits or poppers and chuggers like the Rebel Pop R, as well as prop baits like the Devil's Horse. While gold is a top color in cooler weather, May anglers find that chrome and shad finishes are better bets this month.

All of those options can work well anywhere the cover allows treble-hook-laden baits to function. On the St. Johns, however, those places may be limited. Eelgrass is a key cover, and to that you can add dollar bonnets, and in some places hydrilla. These aren't always friendly toward treble-hook plugs. For that reason, a number of experts shift to buzzbaits, or surface-running, weedless soft plastics like the Zoom Horny Toad or Gambler Flapp'n Shad.