Tips For Being Successful All Day Long

[MikeOGNR]

Yea it's basically empty and how are you making these assumptions on the flats and such??? And points also do the grey line that's in the water indicate the channel???

[aharris]

Figure out what your strengths are dude, and go with it. Mine personally is shallow water. Not to say I cant fish deep, but most of the times, I just choose not to. Obviously if I'm not getting bit shallow, I can go deep but I'll beat the banks to death before I do that. haha  Most great anglers are great in one particular area but they are strong enough to get by in others. Look at the elite guys. 9 times out of 10, in tournaments, they fish their strengths. KVD is usually cranking, the Lane bros are usually shallow throwing frogs or flipping, Denny B is usually flipping, A-Mart is usually off shore. Im from the south...I can usually go out and catch fish on the banks pretty much any time of the year and luckily thats what I like to do and what I feel comfortable doing. Im strickly speaking from my point of view, so dont bash me. haha   

[jhoffman]

Yea it's basically empty and how are you making these assumptions on the flats and such??? And points also do the grey line that's in the water indicate the channel???

 

What gray line? If you look on birds eye in the north east of the ramp youll see the creek channels coming in when you zoom the whole way. How do I make my assumptions on flats... many years of fishing for bass. They go where its shallow, usually protected by wind. It warms up faster there.

[jhoffman]

The water is down here, notice the creek coming in. That will still be there when it fills back up.

[Felix77]

Thanks everyone I cant wait to get out once the ice and snow is gone. Gotta start actually thinking logically when I am out start looking for more structure and cover among-st the main lake that my camp is on and start developing patterns maybe then ill develop some honey holes for myself.

 

One thing I started doing from my canoe (no electronics) is fishing a 1/2oz football jig in areas which I thought had potential.  I did it no matter how shallow I was fishing.  I was learning to feel the bottom of the area I was interested in.

 

It takes some practice to drag a jig and try to make sense for what you are feeling under the water.  On occasion I would catch a fish but even if I didn't I knew there was something there and I could go with another technique.

 

I wish I would have done this sooner.

[gripnrip]

This is the only book I've read.....tells you everything you need to know...lol.

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/largemouth-bass-in-fisherman-staff-and-staff-researchers/1113595488

 

I think they have a newer version, this one was printed in 1990. Google Largemouth bass handbook and you see the newer ones.

If you want this book Mike, I'll ship it to you for nothing.  Just PM me your address.

 

Darin

[WRB]

This is a small natural lake with mostly shoreline bass habitate, little or no main basin structure elements, except an island and a few longer points. Rocks are the natural structure, man made rip rap, dock cribbs or pilings and the highway bridge. No creek channels in a natural "meso" natural lake.

The 8' to 10' zone that has a steep break near shore, island and points is the zone the smallmouth prefer. The largemouth will use the same areas at times and the docks or any other cover areas like weed beds.

You may need to add a few lures; a buzz bait, hard jerk bait and mid depth deep diving crankbait. White perch may be the primary prey, so fire tiger colors should work.

You could troll the crank bait like a Bomber model 6A around the shoreline in 10' of water and learn a lot about this small lake quickly. Fish the few longer points and the island often, plus the rip rap and bridge on the NW shore.

The deeper water zones could be silted in and muck and of little use, unless there is an isolated rock pile.

Good luck.

Tom

[MikeOGNR]

Now see that's another thing I get lost on is trolling and learning the lake bottom??? How do you understand like the bottom if your just dragging a lure. Also I no where good weeds are so you think on this lake cover should be my main focus??? Rather than off shore structure and thanks Aharris for that tip. I will say I am more of a cover near the shoreline about 5-10 ft of water kinda guy looking for that big bucket mouth in the heavy cover type. If anyone has any tips on my preference of fishing that will help as well to.

[WRB]

Mike,

The vast majority of what is written and discussed on forums like this centers around reservoirs in the heartland of bassdom; deep structure hill and high land reservoirs. In-Fisherman has published some very good study reports on bass in natural lakes that can help you out.

Natural lakes located in the northern states or near the Canadian Shield are very different than reservoirs .

A reservoir is created by a dam that fills a river valley or canyon that at one time didn't have any water flooding the area. All the terrain underwater was ounce dry and had rivers, creeks and streams with trees, roads, farm houses, etc. A natural lake never had any of those features. Water fills in the lower areas creating a natural lake. Every wet season soil is carried into the lake from run off and the natural lake slowly fills in and eventually becomes a meadow. Your lake is middle aged and about 1/2 filled with silt, bass do not like silted or muck areas. This is one reason your bass are shoreline fish. The other reason is more complicated and has to do with the type of prey this lake has, it's dermasil prey that also lives near shore.

Trolling isn't a popular modern bass fishing technique because it isn't allowed for tournaments. However it is the best method to learn how to fish a crankbait. The crankbait stay down at the depth it works best and covers a lot of water at that depth. It takes skill to troll effectively and keep the lure in the right depth water without hanging it up in weeds or snagging the bottom. When you start to hit the bottom, move out a little deeper, this is a good way to find structure like isolated rocks or high spots and bass. Mark your map as you find stuff or catch bass. Then go back and fish those spots with other lures.

The eastern half of this small lake has steeper banks and a few good looking points and island. This is the area where trolling would work best.

Fishing heavy cover requires special tackle and without knowing what type of rod and reel have, it's impossible to recommend a presentation for you and I have doubt that bass in this lake relate to heavy cover often. They more than likely relate to the cover edges and pockets.

Add a Teaxas rig 6" to 8" plastic worm, peg the 3/16 oz sinker when fishing cover, fish the weed edges and pockets. The buzz bait also works good along edges and in pockets.

Everyone targets docks and on this lake it's a good choice.

Tom

[roadwarrior]

Mike,

The vast majority of what is written and discussed on forums like this centers around reservoirs in the heartland of bassdom; deep structure hill and high land reservoirs. In-Fisherman has published some very good study reports on bass in natural lakes that can help you out.

Natural lakes located in the northern states or near the Canadian Shield are very different than reservoirs .

A reservoir is created by a dam that fills a river valley or canyon that at one time didn't have any water flooding the area. All the terrain underwater was ounce dry and had rivers, creeks and streams with trees, roads, farm houses, etc. A natural lake never had any of those features. Water fills in the lower areas creating a natural lake. Every wet season soil is carried into the lake from run off and the natural lake slowly fills in and eventually becomes a meadow. Your lake is middle aged and about 1/2 filled with silt, bass do not like silted or muck areas. This is one reason your bass are shoreline fish. The other reason is more complicated and has to do with the type of prey this lake has, it's dermasil prey that also lives near shore.

Trolling isn't a popular modern bass fishing technique because it isn't allowed for tournaments. However it is the best method to learn how to fish a crankbait. The crankbait stay down at the depth it works best and covers a lot of water at that depth. It takes skill to troll effectively and keep the lure in the right depth water without hanging it up in weeds or snagging the bottom. When you start to hit the bottom, move out a little deeper, this is a good way to find structure like isolated rocks or high spots and bass. Mark your map as you find stuff or catch bass. Then go back and fish those spots with other lures.

The eastern half of this small lake has steeper banks and a few good looking points and island. This is the area where trolling would work best.

Fishing heavy cover requires special tackle and without knowing what type of rod and reel have, it's impossible to recommend a presentation for you and I have doubt that bass in this lake relate to heavy cover often. They more than likely relate to the cover edges and pockets.

Add a Teaxas rig 6" to 8" plastic worm, peg the 3/16 oz sinker when fishing cover, fish the weed edges and pockets. The buzz bait also works good along edges and in pockets.

Everyone targets docks and on this lake it's a good choice.

Tom

 

 Great post!

 

Before we had electronics trolling was the #1 tactic for locating fish.

 

 

[Shane J]

Haha! Yeah, and you got to the lake by horse and buggy probably, too, huh?

[roadwarrior]

Old School...

 

We walked 5 miles back and forth on a dirt road to a one room school, uphill both ways!

[Shane J]

In two feet of snow! Don't forget the snow!

[WRB]

Haha! Yeah, and you got to the lake by horse and buggy probably, too, huh?

More than likely been looking at flasher type sonar units before most members of this site were born.

Started fishing in the 40's at Big Bear lake, the same lake on the news, trolling was popular back then and still is in some parts of the country. Did go to a school house, grades K to 5 in 1 room, only had to walk about a mile and couldn't afford a horse!

Finding bass (fish) on sonar doesn't mean they are active or catchable. The big misnomer about bass is you can catch them if you find them; not true! Bass don't alwys stop feeding and move out to off shore sanctuary, they stop feeding and stay where they are most of the time, then return to active feeding about every 4 to 6 hours at the same location. Bass on off shore structure stay on off shore structure, rarely make daily migrations, these are 2 different groups of bass.

Tom

[Shane J]

You're right. they are two different groups of bass. Aside from seasonal migration, they don't really move too far. As far as finding fish on a sonar, I'm not looking for the fish most of the time, I'm looking for what the fish will be looking for. 

[MikeOGNR]

So what your saying is fish in my lake would be on cover edges more or less because they adapt to the very little structural features of the lake therefore they pertain to docks and weeds and heavy rock cover instead of like drop offs and humps???

[WRB]

So what your saying is fish in my lake would be on cover edges more or less because they adapt to the very little structural features of the lake therefore they pertain to docks and weeds and heavy rock cover instead of like drop offs and humps???

Yes! The reason for bass to venture out into the deeper water main lake basin in your natural lake is to seek warmer water during the winter. If your lake has a population of pelagic prey fish, the bass would follow the bait out into deeper water. White perch crappie are pelagic school fish, however only the adults will move out into deeper water if they have a food source out there.

Lakes with a shad or herring population, both pelagic fish, have a bass population the targets those bait fish.

Tom

[MikeOGNR]

Seems to make sense now

[hookset on 3]

Having fished natural New England lakes and ponds for about 40 years, I figured I'd chime in.

 

I noticed you like to fish soft plastics, right? That's great for when they will hit a slowly worked lure.

 

I have a lot of my success using lures that move through the water when I move them by reeling and using the action of my rod tip. Crankbaits and jerkbaits for example. I use these lures throughout the water column, top to bottom. I reel them medium to fast with an erratic retrieve.

 

I'm looking for the reaction bite, most of the time. When bass have a long time to examine your slow moving soft plastics, they are more than likely going to sense that it is a fraud or fake and not hit it.

 

 

These are the fish that the bass are most likely eating, especially the little ones about 2 to 4 inches long.

 

 

 

 

sunfish; white perch; yellow perch

[scrutch]

The water is down here, notice the creek coming in. That will still be there when it fills back up.

http://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-forums/index.php?app=core&module=attach&section=attach&attach_rel_module=post&attach_id=22371

Look at this bay closely here. There are actually three creekbeds in this little bay. The large one on the east side, a smaller one just west of the larger one and another one to the extreme west right along the shoreline. It looks like it will be in 6-8 ft of water with docks all along the shoreline. In this bay I would start at the south end of the point made by the western most creek. Especially during pre and post-spawn times. If you can find a stump or a large rock or larger natural rock or a weedline on this point you've found Walmart. It is a perfect spot for bass to stage on their way into and out of the bay. The creek is the highway.

You can find the cover (rock, stump, etc) I'm talking about by dragging a Carolina rig across the point to "feel" the bottom.

I would also try flipping the docks along the western shoreline next to the creek bed.

I fish a few lakes like this and with these types of lakes with little or no structure and no major depth changes, a foot of depth change makes a huge difference. In a lake with no change, small changes are a big thing.

[jhoffman]

I dont know about this lake but there might also be other stuctures you cant see on the map. If you go to the state websites or army corp websites sometimes you can find a "structure map". This is all the man made structure they have built. Sometimes its so new its not even on a map.

 

I go out when the lakes are down and mark everything I can find. Rock piles in mud areas, every bass box I see, a depth change near a dock, a rise you dont see on the map. I do this with a hand held gps. Then I upload it into google earth. This is when I make my plan, google earth, structure maps, topo, weather history, what point works on what wind.

 

My bass club actually has a meeting this week. The state wants us to design the new structure in our local lake. That likely wont be on a map for several years.

[jhoffman]

Heres a structure example, biggest inland lake in pa, theyre adding more this year. This doesnt even touch natural cover

 

http://www.fish.state.pa.us/water/habitat/mgmt_plans/lake/raystown.pdf

[MikeOGNR]

Wow great info guys. I have been reading a lot of the articles on this website tying to read as much as possible before the season then I am going to bring it all out on the water.