einscodek Posted October 3, 2013 Posted October 3, 2013 Need some advice. Finally located a spot on my reservoir where deepwater fish are sitting. I've been looking for the LMB and where they disappeared to in mass after early summer from the shallows. Its early fall so I am thinking it may still be bass suspending a few feet off bottom or it could be the infamous deepwater fish: yellow perch. The deepest point is 18 feet and these fish are suspended at 15- 16 feet.. pretty much off bottom. I wasted a good part of the afternoon assuming its bass and trying to coax them with jigs, swimbaits, spinnerbaits, and plastic worms to no avail. I caught a 17" largemouth in the same area weeks ago on a spinnerbait on the fall at a depth of 3 feet so they are around and so thats why I am thinking they may be LMB. However our reservoir has perch and I often wonder where they go and this is pretty much the deep-end. What do you think? Short of using sinkers and earthworms to try and get some perch to confirm.. I dont know what to do.. I dont wanna waste more time throwin big baits at perch if its perch instead of LMB.. Quote
Super User Dwight Hottle Posted October 3, 2013 Super User Posted October 3, 2013 Take a picture of your screen & we can help you out. Perch show up as a school in mass. Bunches of small arches in strings or fingers. Largemouth would show as much bigger arches with more separation between arches. Quote
Super User slonezp Posted October 3, 2013 Super User Posted October 3, 2013 Need some advice. Finally located a spot on my reservoir where deepwater fish are sitting. I've been looking for the LMB and where they disappeared to in mass after early summer from the shallows. Its early fall so I am thinking it may still be bass suspending a few feet off bottom or it could be the infamous deepwater fish: yellow perch. The deepest point is 18 feet and these fish are suspended at 15- 16 feet.. pretty much off bottom. I wasted a good part of the afternoon assuming its bass and trying to coax them with jigs, swimbaits, spinnerbaits, and plastic worms to no avail. I caught a 17" largemouth in the same area weeks ago on a spinnerbait on the fall at a depth of 3 feet so they are around and so thats why I am thinking they may be LMB. However our reservoir has perch and I often wonder where they go and this is pretty much the deep-end. What do you think? Short of using sinkers and earthworms to try and get some perch to confirm.. I dont know what to do.. I dont wanna waste more time throwin big baits at perch if its perch instead of LMB.. You answered your own question Quote
einscodek Posted October 3, 2013 Author Posted October 3, 2013 You answered your own question Its been a long long time since I used natural bait.. hopin to avoid Quote
einscodek Posted October 3, 2013 Author Posted October 3, 2013 Take a picture of your screen & we can help you out. Perch show up as a school in mass. Bunches of small arches in strings or fingers. Largemouth would show as much bigger arches with more separation between arches. dont have screenshot but there is some separation but i dunno if perch maybe dont bunch up as much since there isnt alot of perch in this reservoir but the perch is fairly big.. I accidnetally caught one in the spring and it was 13-14 inches.. Quote
einscodek Posted October 3, 2013 Author Posted October 3, 2013 Something similar to this? Erase everything shallower than 12ft on that screen and yes.. Is that perch? Do schools of perch stack up the water column like that? I thought theyd be all bottom Quote
Super User WRB Posted October 3, 2013 Super User Posted October 3, 2013 Learning to use your electronics to locate deeper suspended bass can be frustrating because sonar returns from fish with similar size air bladders look the same. Bass that are suspended are almost always inactive and difficult to catch unless they are on or near structure or active feeding on baitfish. Lure presentations like structure spoons and drop shot soft plastics are good when you locate suspended fish. Lots of fish suspended in schools; bass, crappie, perch, carp, gizzard shad and trout are common. Threadfin and gizzard shad school very tight together in a bait ball. He basic maneuver is circle the school to determine what structure or baitfish may be in the area. Way point the spot or drop a marker bouy on the spot so you can back off and or return later. Under water camera helps to solve the problem or catching a fish helps. Tom Quote
JayKumar Posted October 3, 2013 Posted October 3, 2013 Where's the bait? That's where the largies will be. You said reservoir -- do you have any feeder creeks? I'd check there if so. Quote
einscodek Posted October 3, 2013 Author Posted October 3, 2013 None to be found on the feeder creeks. Had an awesome Spring and Early Summer smashin lots of 20in+ bass in the shallows but the bunch is gone and since them I've been like Rambo stalking them in the weeds pickin them off one by one but the pickoffs been in the 17- 19in range so I've alway wanted to find out where they all went (the big boys > 20") as a lot.. hard to imagine they are all in the weeds. They got to eat alot.. they big! Quote
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