To many fishermen, a large part of Harris' allure is the two major aquatic grasses that choke its shallows during hot weather: primrose vines and hydrilla. After all, grass means bass. But in April, the grass isn't a big factor. In fact, Cable doesn't just ignore it -- he searches for banks to fish where there are no remnants of any kind of grass.

"I'll start the month throwing a 400 Poe's (crankbait) on some points as I go back in the creek," he said. "Those are the places they'll move before they get ready to spawn, and when they move in, you've got a lot of pure, clean shoreline at that time of the year. The hydrilla isn't up -- it won't be up until June -- and you have plenty of clean banks you can throw to, just back in the creeks and in pockets.

"They'll spawn all over the whole lake, but I live for clean banks. I don't target the primrose as much as I target banks that don't have it."

When he starts fishing shallow, Cable will throw a handful of baits: jerkbaits, small crankbaits, lipless crankbaits and Senko-type plastic baits.

"Once I get into the mouth of a creek, I put my trolling motor down and start catching fish," Cable said. "People who think this lake is fished out need to go in the spring to a bank where there's no hydrilla and just see how many are spawning."

When he's using a jerkbait, Cable likes a Rapala Husky Jerk, or Lucky Craft Pointer 78 and Pointer 100s. "You can't ignore a jerkbait. There is a great February-March bite here, but there will still be some fish on it in April. Fish are still looking up at this time of the year, and I've learned to have patience when I fish a jerkbait," said Cable, whose favorite April bait is a Berkley Gulp Minnow, a Senko-style bait.

Thomas has a handful of baits on which he relies, moving between them and switching up as the spawn progresses.

"In early April, there are going to be some spawners, but more pre-spawn fish," Thomas said (919-258-3757). "I like to fish pre-spawn fish better, so I'll throw a Berkley Frenzy, a lipless crankbait, on a 7-foot Skeet's custom fiberglass rod. I like to find windy, main-lake points or any point off a spawning flat and cast right up on the bank, then just slow-roll it out to about 3 to 6 feet deep.

"Early April is probably the best time to catch a really big fish at Harris because the big females will stage on those points before they go in, and a lipless crankbait has been a great bait for big fish. Last year, the biggest fish we caught was on a lipless bait," he said.

"The bass will stay in a pre-spawn pattern a lot longer than they'll spawn. They don't stay up long at all. With all the fishing pressure Harris gets, they get up there and get out of there."