Rip Rap Early In The Morning

[mattk22]

What do you guys think about fishing rip rap early in the morning, good place to start or wait till mid morning? How would you fish it early, crank, top water, spinner, senko?

[papajoe222]

Most guys abandon rip rap after the pre spawn/post spawn once the water has warmed up, but it can be a great producer if you keep a couple of things in mind. First and foremost is the fact that it was put there to eliminate, or reduce the effects of waves beating on the shore. That means that there is a good possibility that the wind is blowing into the rocks and that can mean awesome fishing anytime during the year, but especially in the spring and fall. During the summer months, bass may move in during peak activity levels and retreat to deeper water nearby when in a neutral mood. They may do this several times a day, so if you've been experiencing good action only to have it die off, move deeper and check out the transition area where the rock ends and the natural bottom composition begins.

Active fish will hit just about anything that you can put into their zone. Inactive fish need to be enticed or surprised. You can't beat a top-water for enticing them and a crank will definately get a reaction strike if you can figure out how they want it. Paralleling casts can be effective once you determine where in the water column they are. A few casts with a deep diving crank cast perpendicular to the rocks will help you determine where that is. Neutral fish likely won't react to much of anything, but if they're the only option, I'd go with a Senko or drop shot in the area I mentioned earlier.

If rip rap is the only type of cover available in a given area, it becomes more desireable to the bass to hold in it. Avoid long stretches of it, especially if it's all the same general size and the water around it is a constant depth. If there is other cover availabe, fish the transition area where the two types of cover meet and also where they mix together.

[Bluebasser86]

Rip rap grows algae that attracts baitfish and crawdads both and also offers lots of ambush places for bass to hide. Early in the morning I like to fish a popper right up against the rocks or parallel the rocks with a buzzbait. If they won't break surface I'll switch to a jig or shakyhead. Banging cranks off the rocks can be really effective too.

[WRB]

Rip rap can be very good both early and late or during low light periods when Crawdads are active, the primary prey that use the rock to hide in. I look for transition areas in the rip rap; any patches of soil where brush or weeds are rooted, edges where the rip rap starts or ends, any other structure like a big boulder or a culvert pipe, gully or channel or bridge piling near the rip rap are all sweet spots that hold bass anytime.

A round head light weight 1/4 to 3/8 oz jig that works through sharp rocks, Senko or Fat Ika looks like it's trying to hide in the rocks, deep diving crank bits are good lures around rip rap.

Tom

[Bankbeater]

Great fishing, especially when there is some type of vegetation growing out of it.

[iabass8]

The pools i fish have lots of rip rap amd almost always produce fish in one way oranother. Shallow cranks and jigs/shaky heads are a go to around me.

[wademaster1]

any of the baits you mentioned will work; early morning is my favorite time to fish because of the coolness; late evening is great too