Photo by Ron Sinfelt.

A lake doesn't have to be big to offer up some great bass fishing. As a matter of fact, smaller lakes are often better bets than larger waters when it comes to tangling with good numbers of lunker-class bass. You certainly can't always expect to have 50-fish days, but true trophies are sometimes lurking in the depths of these overlooked waters.

The bass in many of our smaller waters are educated. It's open to debate how long a bass will be conditioned to avoid any bait they've been caught on, but that they do remember is undisputed. When you're tackling a small lake, you know that many of these bass have been caught before. They aren't going to fall for the same trick twice. It's uncanny that bass have the ability to successfully ignore these baits, at least through the rest of the open-water season.

Dealing with "educated" bass in these lakes means experimenting with off-colored baits and different presentations than you might be used to. Fishing with either an undersized or an oversized bait, finessing with soft plastics and either speeding up or slowing down your crankbaits can all mean the difference between fish on the line or a fishless day. Let the bass tell you what they want.

Here's a look at three small lakes where largemouth fishing can be as good as you want it to be this spring.

BEAVER CREEK LAKE
Beaver Creek Lake is also known as Beaver Lake and Beaver Dam Lake, but no matter what you call it, this 205-acre jewel can produce some nice bass.

"This lake is a good bass lake," long-time fisheries biologist Dan Carnahan said. "Electrofishing catch rates are good and it has some nice-sized bass as well. During a survey a few years ago, largemouth bass numbers accounted for 13 percent of the total fish population in the lake and made up 43 percent of the fish population's total weight. The 369 largemouths that were sampled included fish over 18 inches."

This survey showed a dramatic improvement in the bass population over previous numbers. According to Carnahan, the lake is an excellent fishery for both bass and panfish and at the rate the bass showed up in the survey, the lake would normally be considered top-heavy with predators and in need of more bluegills, crappies and redears.

"Beaver is an all-around excellent fishery and is one of those rare lakes where both the panfish and the bass fishing are excellent," Carnahan said.

The lake has a history of producing good bassin', said Jeff Miley of Jeff's Bait and Gun Shop in Jasper. Best-bet locations on the lake early in the spring include the docks that border much of the shoreline. Some dock owners have dropped brushpiles into the lake by their docks to spice the angling up a bit. If you can find them, these can be the hotspots.