Shallow Water Systems In The Dead Heat Of Summer... Hoping For Some Advice.

[Jay Ell Gee]

Good evening everyone. A good buddy of mine and I are taking the kayaks out in the morning to a SHALLOW water "spillway" system. Problem is, he has to drop his kids off at school for 7 a.m. so we probably won't be getting out on the water until 9 a.m. That's right, 9 a.m.

 

Now, when I define this area as "shallow," I mean 2-3 feet deep in most areas. While there is a "lake" in this system, it is a serious paddle, has almost zero shade to fish, and is only 3-4 feet deep, so I suppose I will be ruling that out.

 

What we do have available are many small canals with downed timber, some shaded bridges, as well as a long line of large docks on the east side of a larger canal near the launch. The water is fairly stained year 'round.

 

I guess my question here is what types of areas should we focus on patterning in such conditions? My initial thought is to skip docks. Sitting at the waterline in SOT kayaks makes that very simple. I'll probably toss flukes and senkos under docks to see what the slow fall produces. 20lb braid on a spinning setup will be the weapon of choice.

 

This place is notorious for it's white spinnerbait bite, so that is getting a dedicated setup regardless. I will also be bringing along the hollow body frog rod to drag over heavy cover, if I find any. I simply can't find myself leaving the frog rod at home. I'll probably bring one more rod along for a typical texas rig. My last setup, and this is going to just be an experiment, would be to use squarebill cranks to bump dock legs and timber. Does anyone have any luck on cranks in the dead of summer, even shallow? I'll probably be tossing the spinnerbaits under the docks as well.

 

Please understand that this is a VERY shallow water system and deep water fishing is not really possible.

 

In this type of scenario, is targeting shade probably going to be the weapon of choice? I really hate missing the topwater frog/buzzbait bite, but we are going to try to fish regardless and put in some hard work to find the big bass that call this shallow system home. Two people have already told us to stay home, but hey, you have to fish when you can... right?

 

Thanks for the heads up everyone. I hope to be back with a decent report!

 

Joshua

 

 

[Khong]

I would cast weightless rig into small pocket hole.  Jigs with craw would be great for punching side grass, walking through rocks, and fallen timber.

 

if you want a faster presentation, go with smaller spinner bait.  White with silver willow leaf for clear, or Chartreuse/White with Colorado blade for muddy.  

[ClackerBuzz]

sounds like you have a solid plan. i'd only add a small non-vibrating/bladed reaction lure

ie 1/8oz white grub. shallow water can mean spooky fish. a weightless 4" zoom finesse worm pretty much will catch anything shallow too (only problem is getting too many dinks but you have a nice assortment of lures if the bite is good)

[Catt]

I fish shallow water (1 1/2-2') marshes of SW Louisiana, but we have plenty vegetation. The marshes only deep water (3-6') is a series of canels, again with plenty vegetation.

While I have grass you have timber & docks, what I'm getting at is these extremely shallow bass are very target orientated. Pay close attention to patterns like size of laydowns, enter or outer canel edges, turns or bends in canels, dock sizes ect.

Lures, your pretty well covered, I throw a lot of weightless T-rigs, Flukes, Frogs, & spinnerbaits.

[5 Dollar Fishing Game]

I have a very similar spot here in NC that I use my kayak in. I use swim bait minnows all day and bring bass out if the water easily. Your situation may differ, but minnows are what I use. Occasionally a small spinnerbaits to attract some attention.

Joe

[Bluebasser86]

I have a very similar spot here in NC that I use my kayak in. I use swim bait minnows all day and bring bass out if the water easily. Your situation may differ, but minnows are what I use. Occasionally a small spinnerbaits to attract some attention.

Joe

A smaller, hollow belly swimbait or boot tail grub style swimbait was the first thing that came to my mind. Shallow water, good spinnerbait bite, plus you could skip it way under docks where they probably never see a bait like that. 

[5 Dollar Fishing Game]

Cool! I will have to use that. ;-)

[TC235 <*))))><]

I fish alot of shallow water. Some places that reach a max depth of maybe 6ft.

 

Great info above.. and my two cents......

 

 

Finding bait in shallow water is easy especially if it's clear water. Find the bait and they'll be bass hanging around somewhere near by. My fav shallow water baits in no order.

 

Swimabaits

Swim Jigs

Bladed vibrating jigs(chatterbait)

Almost any big topwater plug, weedless if there's lots of emergent cover

Shallow jerkbait

buzzbaits

 

probably a few more, but those baits have caught me many quality fish outta my shallow waters

 

 

 

 

Good luck

[Jay Ell Gee]

I brought plenty of paddle tails just in case, and I'm glad I did.

Spinnerbaits picked up a few, squarebill got zero love.

We fished heavily shaded areas and were skipping wacky rigs under large tree overhangs and under docks. However, the wind was terrible (drifted our baits quickly, making weightless frustrating) so I tied on a 3.8 inch Keitech Swing Impace Fat Shad in sight flash on a 3/0 weighted gammy swimbait hook and began skipping that under docks and overhangs, and that was the ticket. We could roll the baits out quickly even in current and still produced fish. Nothing huge, but I know good ones are in there. I will be back at daylight soon.

We also found a huge matted duckweed field and drug hollow bodies across and got a few strikes that way. Fun stuff!

Thanks again for the suggestions all. I'm glad someone else learned some things too.