Because the water may be shallow, anglers might need to tilt the outboard motor out of the water and adjust the trolling motor to the shallowest point at which thrust can be maintained.

Most lipless cranks run between 4 and 6 feet deep. Holding the rod tip up allows this bait to be worked effectively in shallower water. Floating Rat-L-Traps or a bait like Mann's Baby One Minus could be the answer.

Although your presentation is aimed at coaxing a strike, that strike can be more of a subtle presence than an authoritative attack. For this reason, fishing low-stretch braided line like PowerPro or Fireline on a medium-to-light 7-foot rod can help you avoid telegraphing your imminent hookset to the fish.

This spectacular bite window is a small one, and can close overnight. Last spring, I hit it just right on a small private lake in northeast Iowa, catching almost 20 bass, two of which weighed more than 6 pounds. I returned to the same spot the next afternoon after showing photos of these fish to an old farmer friend. We were skunked.

Another important key is being on the water the first time that the water hits the 43- to 48-degree temperature window. Spring is a time of seasonal change, and cold fronts remain a fact of life. The water can warm to 50 degrees, and beyond, only to crash 10 degrees overnight with the passage of a front. The second time water warms through this magic 5-degree window, the bass will likely have the same cold-blooded, lethargic attitude of Southern largemouths that haven't spent several months swimming under the Iowa ice.

Limestone and topography in northeast Iowa limit the number of prime waters on which to test this strategy. Essentially, only three public waters are worth targeting when the waters warm to between 43 and 48 degrees.

Near Fayette, Lake Volga (also known as "Frog Hollow Lake") repurposes the signature utterance in Field of Dreams: "If you build it, they will come." When this 120-acre lake was built between high limestone banks, several feet of clay had to be placed on the bottom so that the lake would hold water.

Nature has since taken its course, with siltation entering Volga from three arms of the lake with northern exposure. No-wake rules are in effect on this scenic lake.

Two lakes near Decorah are also worth probing when the 5-degree feeding window opens. Forty-acre Lake Meyer, in a county park southwest of Calmar, has a silty bay on the north end that should become a bucketmouth magnet any day now. Lake Hendricks, off of state Route 9 west of Decorah, is about 20 percent larger, and every largemouth in the lake will ease towards the main lake arm that enters from the northeast in April. Both Meyer and Hendricks allow electric motors only.