Fishing Bottom Baits In Current

[BuffaloBass716]

I was hoping you guys could shed some light on how to approach bottom contact techniques for fishing a river from shore.  I already made an attempt to get some advice on the "general bass forum" but didn't really get any responses. I was going to post this topic in the "Northeastern section" for the local forums but figured I'd have a better chance of getting some help on this forum.

 

Well, I fish the Upper Niagara River mostly and there have been some really good smallies the past month or so and I mainly use lighter weight jig heads and bullet weights and use the current to carry my lure downstream.  I usually cast upstream, let the bait fall and begin drifting, and occasionally hop/twitch my lure as it comes towards me.  This has worked pretty well, yielding some nice smallmouth with T-rigs, shakey heads, and tubes with 1/8, 3/16, 1/4 oz weights. I can feel the lure bouncing on the bottom when there is rock/boulders but I notice that my lure returns close to the shore in a minute or so and most of my strikes come when the lure is relatively close to shore.

 

Would switching to a heavier jig head/weight be a better option? Or does the drifting technique make the lure look more natural, therefor getting more bites? I know that a heavier weight will get hung up a lot more too so I'm not sure... I would like to keep my lure out deeper to to get some hits in deeper water.

 

Any advice from you guys that fish a river/current would help a lot.

Thanks 

[flyfisher]

My first question would be if your bites are coming in closer to the shore then why focus on the areas where you aren't getting bit? 

 

Maintaining bottom contact in current is always tricky but it can be done if needed.  You need to find the right weight that will hold the bait where you want it to be and go a little heavier if needed.  I have the best luck with football shaped shaky heads or drag gin heads..  With that being said, I rarely want my bottom baits to stay on the bottom in current but rather in the eddies and seams.  In current i prefer baits that float along in the current much like food flowing through would be with my baits of choice being flukes, stick baits etc...

[BuffaloBass716]

My first question would be if your bites are coming in closer to the shore then why focus on the areas where you aren't getting bit? 

 

Maintaining bottom contact in current is always tricky but it can be done if needed.  You need to find the right weight that will hold the bait where you want it to be and go a little heavier if needed.  I have the best luck with football shaped shaky heads or drag gin heads..  With that being said, I rarely want my bottom baits to stay on the bottom in current but rather in the eddies and seams.  In current i prefer baits that float along in the current much like food flowing through would be with my baits of choice being flukes, stick baits etc...

I see gets in boats drifting with the current that are a good distance from shore, about as far as a long cast that pick off some good sized smallies.  Maybe their vertical jigged technique works better out further?  I guess a weight amount that allows the lure to just drag on the bottom, not to slow, not too fast, would be a good option.

[Scott F]

Being on shore, you have no way of knowing what kind of structure the boats are fishing. You cannot assume that the water keeps getting deeper, the farther from shore you get. I've never found that you must drag the bottom when fishing current. Heavier weights will get you snagged a lot more and you may not get any more bites than you are getting now. It sounds like you are already doing it right. You'll probably get more bites on the edges of the fast water, near the shoreline breaks, than you can get in the main flow anyway.

[BuffaloBass716]

Those are some good points.  I do believe that i'm doing something right to a certain extent, but I think I be a little more consistence. I should probably just try a few different weights in order to see if a fast or slow drift is what works for me, and the fish.

[Crestliner2008]

I use to fish the Ct. River here in MA quite a bit for smallies years ago. Our go-to was always ball head jigs and curly tailed grubs. We caught a lot of smallies in this mature big river, even from shore. The trick is knowing how deep you are fishing and the speed of the current.  Then casting the appropriate weight of jig up stream and reeling back just fast enough to give the bait the action it needs while maintaining bottom positioning.

 

Much easier to do in a boat of course. The technique employed there is called slipping.