Fishing Rocky Reservoirs

[Tim Kelly]

Do you guys have any tips or experience fishing lakes with no weed and very steep rock sides? The place I'm going is a water supply reservoir in the mountains and because of the fluctuating water levels it rarely has any weed or grass of any sort. Big shad, population massive rock walls and car sized boulders. The shad get very pelagic in summer so I imagine the bass would follow them at least some of the time. Any clues how to approach this sort of water?

[buzzed bait]

i would like to throw some soft bodied swimbaits around there and let them flutter off those rocks.  something like a zoom fluke or a paddle tail swimbait perhaps.  that's just my opinion of course....

[WRB]

You are describing a typical SoCal highland water storage reservoir.

What type of shad do have across the pond, Threadfin?

What other type of small fish do the bass have for prey?

I would get a copy of Don Iovino's book (TW) Finesse Bass Fishing and the Sonar Connection.

Don is called the Father of finesse fishing and this was developed presentations for fishing deep clear rocky structure lake.

Go to presentations are drop shot, split shot and slip shot (sliding Mojo weight) shaky heads or doddling, nail weight worms. Dart heads, structure spoons.

If you prefer more of a power technique casting a spider jig works well (Yamamoto Hula skirt in football jig).

Deep diving crankbaits in shad colors.

Night fishing? The Texas rigged worm and jigs n craw.

Points are always a good structure to determine at what depth the bass are feeding at, depth is important.

Tom

[Raul]

The lakes around my hometown are exactly what you describe, contrary to what you may think bass aren´t THAT deep nor look for "depth", they already have all the depth they want under their bellies. Your approach to steep sloping banks represents the mental adjustment that the structure is there but instead of being on the bottom is on the walls, deep water is right under you, so you shouldn´t fish too far from the shore, also, fish don´t chase baits too far from structure, so there´s no point in you being 30 yards from the bank. Teacnhique like d-shotting are tailor made for those environments.

 

If you are going to throw baits like spinners and cranks cast paralel to the shoreline, remember, the closer you are to the Wall, the closer the baits will be to the structure that holds the fish. I don´t uderstand when faced to such conditions people immediately think about "finnessing", man, I´ve fished those lakes for 3 decades, they are crystal clear and 9 out of 10 times I fish them witrh regular baits and heavy gear, the only thing I adjust is how much I twitch the rod when fishing, too much will mean the bait will either sink too deep or won´t cover the structure methodically.

 

It´s not difficult to fish those lakes it only takes the mental adjustment.

[Tim Kelly]

Interesting guys, thank you. The lake is actually in Spain and the shad are bleak, but they are effectively similar to shad. Last time I went there I caught well using drop shot, t-rig baby brush hawgs and senkos. I didn't feel like I was really getting into them reliably though as the number of bits of shoreline that regularly produced were relatively small. I got the feeling that a lot of fish were either off shore or doing something else. Maybe they were there and I wasn't getting them for another reason though as it sounds like my approach should have worked.

Any other insight would be welcome.

[WRB]

Bleak, interesting bait fish, look a lot like our Hitch in clear lake California. 68 Huddleston swimbait in Hitch color would be ideal, hard to find anywhere. Basstrix 6" paddle tail hollow body Fat Minnow in shad would also be a good choice, if the Pike don't tear them up. A Lake Fork Tackle 5" flutter spoon would also work.

Work the Bleak schools like we do shad schools.

I would still check out Don's book, good information. When you have suspended baitfish like Bleak in deep water, the bass more than likely will ambush them when they approach structure so the can trap the baitfish. Swimbaits worked up and over points is a good presentation. All the soft plastics should work and jerk baits could be affective.

Good luck.

Tom

[JayKumar]

Water type = upland reservoir. What time of year?

[DILLY07]

Football jigs.

[Tim Kelly]

Next chance to go would be May, so it would be early summer/late spring. I expect they would either be spawning or just finishing.

[WRB]

Late post spawn to Summer transition is always a search project as the bass recuperate from the spawn and spread out into summer locations. If the lake is over a few miles long there should be a few waves of spawner's, the deep water end by the dam area is always last or later in the spawn cycle.

It reaaly depends on what stage the bass are in when you fish.

Study the lake map for wind protected areas with spawning features, the bass should be close by if not on beds. Look for beds! Follow the 3' to 8' break out towards deeper water and fish the structure breaks.

Does the lake have crayfish? My favorite lures for this period are jigs and Senko's or drop shot & T-rigged worms in the colors of the crayfish. Meter (sonar) the areas to determine what depth you see fish, should be between 3' to 12' or slightly deeper for clear water, shallower if off color.

Can you fish at night? if you can that is a real advantage.

When and where do the bleak baitfish spawn and are they egg eaters?? Bass hate any egg eaters during this seasonal period! If the bleak are close by, the swim bait will work.

Tom

[Tim Kelly]

Not sure about where or when the bleak spawn but doubt they're big egg eaters. They're more pelagic plankton eaters, though you can catch them on small bits or bread or maggots. I asked about crayfish and the answer was a foot shuffling "probably"! I did get a lot of fish in baby brush hawgs texas rigged, but whether they were taken as crayfish, or just something alive and edible looking I have no idea.

 

You can possibly see from the photos below what the shoreline, and by extrapolation the bottom features are like. We were there in July previously.

 

 

 

 

 

[WRB]

Bump this up for Tim Kelly

[Tim Kelly]

Thanks WRB, your detective skills are better than mine! 

 

I've ordered the book, getting excited about the trip. 

[Bassintheweeds]

Sounds a lot like the Southwest United States as far as conditions go. Maybe do some research on this and see if it sounds right. If you can catch em one place in the world it, why wouldn't it work elsewhere?

 

Some baits i would try are drop shots (robo worms in a morning dawn or pink color if possible.) Alabama Rig, Large Crankbaits, Carolina Rigs, Top water stick baits and poppers. I would work these baits on the largest points during summer months as well as any sort of moving water going into the lake (or out) bait loves current no matter where you are. In fall and spring look for bait activity on the surface in the backs of coves. Remember bait is very active in lowlight conditions so dawn and dusk may be prime times.

 

Good luck

[Tim Kelly]

I've literally just got back from Cijara a couple of hours ago. Had a great week there with plenty of bass. On Tuesday I found a weedbed, which is a rare thing on Cijara, and with the westerly wind caught a number of good fish between 3 and 5 pounds, All came on a soft plastic jerkbait when I eventually worked out how to turn followers into takers. The rest of the week was easterly winds and the bite was more awkward. the weedbed produced nothing much, but I caught a good number of fish every day. On Thursday I went beating the banks with a senko and caught a lot of fish, probably about 50, although the average size was down. I still has a couple of three pounders and a four. That was the only day they were really keen on the senko though. 

 

Had a number of fish on an Alabama rig when the fish were schooling over deep water, a few spinnerbait fish, crankbait fish, creature fish and jig fish, so it was a matter of scratching round to get a bite, but they were regular enough to give a good bag by the end of the day. Even on a slower day I expect I would have caught 10-15lb limits. A great trip and it sucks to be home again with probably another year to wait for my next bass fishing trip! Just got to nurse my raw "bass thumb" now!  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One of the Comizo Barbel

 

 

As we were loading up the van this morning to go to the airport I caught this toad...

 

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