Standing Timber Tips

[Todd2]

I mainly fish a 4000 acre Highlands reservoir. It is loaded with standing timber in a lot of the creeks and some of these creeks have channels of 30-40 feet deep with timber on both sides. There are plenty rock banks as well but very little grass. The water is stained year round. I've fished this lake for years but I've really clued into fishing the timber more lately. What I've determined is...when the sun is out and high, I can usually catch a nice pig by pitching a jig/pig. The downside....I have to pitch to a lot of trees to get that one nice one. I mean...a lot of trees. I almost never catch smaller ones when pitching. So I sacrifice quantity for quality. Does anybody have any tips to increase the strikes? I've tried different things...from only letting it fall only few feet to feeding out line all the way to bottom. I switch up weights, colors, shady side, sunny side. Sometimes, I'll stick close to the channel but yesterday my bites were closer to the bank. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks...

[Catch and Grease]

Squarebills.

[geo g]

If the water is that dirty, I would throw a spinnerbait around the base of the timber., and bump it off every piece of cover I could find.  They may not see it,  but they sure will feel it, and hear it.  Early morning or evenings, walk a zara spook, or pop a chug bug.  Look for trees with osprey nests, and hit that jig around the base.  They are messy eaters and bait fish hang where the droppings fall, bass follow the bait fish!  In Florida we don't have a lot of lakes with dead standing timber, but we do have a bunch with live cypress, and pond apples. Good luck!

[OntarioFishingGuy]

Squarebill is a good suggestion. Something like a citrus shad color should produce well.

[Bluebasser86]

Get a topo map if possible and forget about all the trees, look for the breaklines, long points, rockpiles, humps, anything that would hold a fish even if the trees weren't there. Find those spots and then fish the trees that are around and on the structure. If you stick to fishing those high percentage spots instead of just fishing vast amounts of trees that are all basically the same with nothing different to attract fish from the other 100 trees around it, you'll catch more fish in less time. 

[deep]

Get a topo map if possible and forget about all the trees, look for the breaklines, long points, rockpiles, humps, anything that would hold a fish even if the trees weren't there. Find those spots and then fish the trees that are around and on the structure. If you stick to fishing those high percentage spots instead of just fishing vast amounts of trees that are all basically the same with nothing different to attract fish from the other 100 trees around it, you'll catch more fish in less time. 

Indeed.

[Fishes in trees]

I fish reservoirs with quite a bit of timber, both obvious standing timber and less obvious totally immersed timber.  The advice of fishing trees on structure rather than just randomly is a good idea - for the most part.  I've had days when that part of the puzzle didn't seem applicable.  Sometimes proximity to routes that schooling bait fish take trumps structure.  Don't know exactly why, but sometimes it does. Trees that are isolated in some fashion generally offer a better opportunity for success.  Try to pay attention to what kind of tree - a hardwood or a cedar or a rotting softer cottonwood (perhaps the lowest percentage of the 3)   Back to the isolation idea - a lone cedar amongst a bunch of hardwoods or visa versa.

 

As far as baits go, I've found that a wacky rigged senko to be a better timber bait than a jig & pig as long as you've got the patience to let it fall uninterrupted.  On those days when I didn't have the patience to wait, a 10" worm with a 1/4 of 5/16 oz weight worked better than a jig & pig.   I admit I don't experiment much with lighter jigs (less than 3/8) very much anymore.

 

I think that the "sweet spot" when fishing timber is that major horizontal branch that is located 5 to 8 feet down, assuming that it is in a shade pocket.  I think that immediately under these style branches is where the better fish hang, when they are in the trees.  My goal is to drop the bait past them, in the light immediately next to the shade pocket.

 

Another option is to throw cranks.  Bubba up the crank bait line, go from say 10 lb to 14 or 17 and throw a DC16 Timber Tiger into the crown of the sunken tree and bring it out.  In standing timber or sunken timber, these baits don't get hung very often.  The heavier line is more abrasion resistant and I think that 10' or so is a deep as you need to get when cranking trees.  If they are locating deeper than that they will feel the crank and if they want it they will go get it.  I've had big fish, 20" or so strike right at the boat after I've pulled the bait through the crown of a sunken tree 10' deep.  Comparable to your jig & pig, cranking trees is often not a high percentage presentation, but occasional big fish to happen, at least for me.

 

There you go, that's my current thinking on fishing trees

[Todd2]

Wow...that's the kind of stuff I was looking for. I was back today. I couldn't get much going in the trees. I tried a square bill through the tops but never got bit. I did catch several smaller ones running it down some lay downs. Today was more cloudy..when that happens the timber bite is not there for me.

@Fishes In Trees.. for the life of me I don't know why I've never dropped a 10 inch worm down one. I think I've probably used them every way except pitching to standing trees. Another thing...I've been pitching in the shade mostly (not just outside) I'll have to try that too. I usually use Senkos for shallow stuff but maybe I can force myself to be more patient. So do you (or anybody) have better luck in calm or windy conditions?

Thanks again....

[BasshunterJGH]

Squarebills. Another one of my favorites (that gets snagged a lot less) in timber is a soft jerkbait like a yamamoto d-shad or top shelf schooling minnow.

[Fishes in trees]

More on the subject of cranking trees, I wouldn't recommend a square bill for cranking trees mostly because it doesn't get deep enough.  I recommend a Timber Tiger DC 16 or DC 13.  These are designed to dive 16 and 13 feet respectively on 10 lb line.  OK, fishing 10 lb line in trees can become problematic, although allegedly Berkley is reintroducing the Iron Silk line, which is very abrasion resistant, probably the best cranking line made IMO once you learn its quirks.  Boost your line test up to 14 or 17 and you can still get a DC16 down to 10 feet.  I don't know any square bill that gets down that far.  You have to fish the Timber Tigers for a while to  realize how well they go through wood.  You might wedge one in a branch from time to time, which is pretty easy to retrieve.   They very seldom get hook hung, which is much more difficult to retrieve.

 

Regarding fishing the 10" worm in trees, the Berkley Power worm is pretty much the standard on Truman Lake.  Research fishing patterns on Truman Lake (which is basically a flooded river valley/forrest)  and you'll find lots of opinions of when & how to fish worms in trees.  Me, I generally let them drop all the way to the bottom, as long as it isn't any deeper than 20' and my electronics don't show a drastic thermocline.  On the bottom, I might hop it a few times, I might dead stick it, but not for long.  The vast majority of hits I get worming trees are on the drop and for the most part they are pretty subtle.  Hope this helps.  Fishing trees & timber is seldom a numbers thing for me, it is more of a bigger fish thing.  Guys who are really good at fishing soft plastics in trees catch a lot more fish than I do.  Me, I kind of know what to do, and I have the correct gear for the most part, but I don't consider myself "expert" and it isn't my favorite technique.

 

Just ask if you think I can help any more.

[Bankbeater]

Try using a lipless bait and letting it sink down before you start your retreive. 

[fishballer06]

Squarebills and spinnerbaits do no good in standing timber whenever you're talking 30-40 feet of water.

 

I fish a lake in West Virginia that is very similar to your lake (large lake, tons of standing trees, and 30+ feet deep everywhere). Jigging vertically in them is usually the best bet. But again, whenever you're jigging vertically, you're not covering a lot of water, so fishing can seem slow. You can use a jig/pig, jighead with live bait, or a spoon.

 

I can also recommend getting out in the deep channels where there could be down trees or tree tops in them. In the lake I fish, the channels will run 30-50 feet deep, and there are random tree tops in the channel that come up to about 15-20 feet deep. Trolling a Shad Rap or DT that comes just over the tops of that wood can produce as well. If you find a particular spot that seems to be producing well, you can then hover over it and jig them vertically.

[Master Bait'r]

1/4oz Owner flashy swimmer + fat worm, craw or swimmer of your choice to fit the situation.  It combines several looks because you can change up the profile and presentation and widen that appeal based on your lake.  I've gotten steamrolled using these to broadcast.  Definitely cool rigs.