Toughest Lake To Fish?

[Master Bait'r]

Quabbin on the main lake side.  If you don't have electronics and depth finders your chance of finding fish out there are slim to none.  

[thehooligan]

Pretty sure NJ has the most fishermen per square mile, lol. Every lake/pond gets pounded. Just one more reason to finesse fish.

 

I get skunked here and there, but in most cases the bass cant pass up a nice flickshake or dropshot 

[bonzai22]

The lakes I fish tournaments on in Illinois are really tough. We've had more than a few where 6lbs wins it. They are small lakes that get pounded and the weather around here is so screwed up the fish don't know what to do.

[Bluebasser86]

The lakes I fish tournaments on in Illinois are really tough. We've had more than a few where 6lbs wins it. They are small lakes that get pounded and the weather around here is so screwed up the fish don't know what to do.

We do weeknight tournaments here a lot on the local lakes. Lots of times there will be 10+ boats and not a single fish weighed in. My partner and I won one last summer with 3 fish (limit) that went 2.74 pounds 

[Fishes in trees]

I find the large, multi-thousand acre lakes harder than the smaller several hundred acre conservation lakes in my neighborhood.  All for different reasons.  Truman Lake is a 40,000 acre (+ or -) flooded forest.  Every place looks good, but every place isn't.  Navigation can be tricky.   Channel swings happen a lot and should you get out of the channel, there are lots of things to smack your boat into.

 

Lake of the Ozarks is bigger than Truman.  I'm not familiar with the upper end of the lake at all.  However, I have spend some time at the lower end ( closer to the dam).. Docks are the primary cover/structure and there are thousands of them.  If you can't pitch docks and boat slips, you won't catch fish consistently.  I generally think that I'm good at pitching, until I spend a day or two at LOZ, it is very humbling.  For every dock cable that you see, there is one that you don't.

 

I don't get to lakes farther south than Truman very often.  Stockton, maybe once a year or every other year.  Table Rock - same deal.  They are pretty lakes, but I don't get there often enough to figure them out.

 

Don't get me started on the lake just outside Kansas City - Smithville Lake.   One, I don't like paying the exorbitant boat sticker fees and launch permit fees.  Two - it is generally crowded.  There is a free ramp on the extreme northern end, but navigation in that area of the lake is challenging.  Water is generally muddy, secchi disc readings of foot and a half or two feet at most..  There are stone fences, large stumps, all kinds of stuff hidden in the water.  I don't go there very often.

[bonzai22]

We do weeknight tournaments here a lot on the local lakes. Lots of times there will be 10+ boats and not a single fish weighed in. My partner and I won one last summer with 3 fish (limit) that went 2.74 pounds 

Holy cow that's pretty helpless lol 

[geo g]

For me its the Big O and the Kissimmee River after a major cold front.

They just sit in one spot and shiver for a few days where you cant get to them or they just swim by and laugh at me.

Mike

Mike I agree 100% with you on that one. We planned a Feb trip to Buck Head on the North West Shore 20 years ago, there were 4 boats and 8 guys. We rented a great place close to the lock. We woke up to a 1/4 of an inch thick sheet of ice covering everything. We fished the Kissimmee river and Okeechobee for three days. A total of #1 fish was caught on a crankbait in the middle of the river. That's 8 guys for 3 days and one dam short fish, it never warmed up the entire trip. The Florida Stain Bass had lock jaw, and paralysis. I've never been that cold in North East Ohio, as that dam trip to Okeechobee!

[Slade House]

Lake Casitas in SoCal can be very tough for anyone who doesn't stay on top of the current bite. The bass at Casitas have a very short feeding period and you need to know the cycle or get skunked.

All our local SoCal lakes are a lot easier to consistently catch bass.

Tom

I totally agree with tom on this one. Lake casitas is just like Augusta golf course.  There is very light fishing pressure on the lake too (35 day mussel quarentene after passing inspection ensurees that)  When i first started fishing lake casitas a year ago, i went 37 days before i caught my first fish on my boat.  The place can crush your soul. but it forces you to become an amazing fisherman.  You have to be on top of the bite.  Pay attention to solar lunar, pressure, wind etc.  I know guys who fish there for years get skunked for weeks at a time because they haven't adapted to what the bass are feeding on, and at what depth. which changes every few days or so.    The smallest variable can mean catching a 22 lb bag or getting skunked.  The reward though is tremendous , because most fish aren't smaller than 3 lbs, and a 22lb bag of fish in a tournament is good for 5th place. 

[Brian6428]

I find the large, multi-thousand acre lakes harder than the smaller several hundred acre conservation lakes in my neighborhood.  All for different reasons.  Truman Lake is a 40,000 acre (+ or -) flooded forest.  Every place looks good, but every place isn't.  Navigation can be tricky.   Channel swings happen a lot and should you get out of the channel, there are lots of things to smack your boat into.

 

Lake of the Ozarks is bigger than Truman.  I'm not familiar with the upper end of the lake at all.  However, I have spend some time at the lower end ( closer to the dam).. Docks are the primary cover/structure and there are thousands of them.  If you can't pitch docks and boat slips, you won't catch fish consistently.  I generally think that I'm good at pitching, until I spend a day or two at LOZ, it is very humbling.  For every dock cable that you see, there is one that you don't.

 

I don't get to lakes farther south than Truman very often.  Stockton, maybe once a year or every other year.  Table Rock - same deal.  They are pretty lakes, but I don't get there often enough to figure them out.

 

Don't get me started on the lake just outside Kansas City - Smithville Lake.   One, I don't like paying the exorbitant boat sticker fees and launch permit fees.  Two - it is generally crowded.  There is a free ramp on the extreme northern end, but navigation in that area of the lake is challenging.  Water is generally muddy, secchi disc readings of foot and a half or two feet at most..  There are stone fences, large stumps, all kinds of stuff hidden in the water.  I don't go there very often.

Pretty solid breakdown of the Missouri lakes.

 

I quite like Smithville, but you're right, $15 to launch is ridiculous. Each time I've been there I've done very well, and I've stayed on the lower end by the dam so there were no areas difficult to navigate.

[Bluebasser86]

Holy cow that's pretty helpless lol 

The lake we won with 2.74lbs on has a 13-18 inch slot limit, not a single fish in the slot was caught out of 7 boats and everyone had a limit. The lake I used to fish the Wednesday night tournaments on a lot where nobody would weigh a fish for weeks at a time during the summer is the worse. It's a 15" lake and I've seen fish that were keepers that went 1 1/4 pounds they were so skinny, and guys would win with that occasionally. Taking a $300 prize with a 1 1/4lb fish is an valuable fish per pound   There's a reason no BASS or FLW tournaments come to Kansas.

[jitterbug127]

Indiana is hard. The river has treated me much better

[Bluebasser86]

Indiana is hard. The river has treated me much better

I had the misfortune of fishing Patoka in Indiana once. If I never see that lake again it wouldn't hurt my feelings. The 3 day winning weight for the coangler side was just over 10 pounds and I almost made the final day cut with a single 2.5 pound fish, which was one of the 3 fish I caught in 2 days of fishing 

[*Hank]

Santa margarita lake is for me very hard to fish I've had better luck with crappie there...

[everythingthatswims]

The lakes I fish tournaments on in Illinois are really tough. We've had more than a few where 6lbs wins it. They are small lakes that get pounded and the weather around here is so screwed up the fish don't know what to do.

March-April in VA...EVERY YEAR. 70 degrees and sunny one day, 45 degrees the next day, then a flood the day after that, but finally it will stabilize and the fish will start to bite. Then a huge cold front comes crashing in and you start all over again. 

[gobig]

One of the toughest lakes I have ever fished is Lake Mead. Can go from 115 deg to 90 deg and a monsoon with huge waves fast.

[bonzai22]

March-April in VA...EVERY YEAR. 70 degrees and sunny one day, 45 degrees the next day, then a flood the day after that, but finally it will stabilize and the fish will start to bite. Then a huge cold front comes crashing in and you start all over again. 

That sounds exactly like the weather around here lol. It always gets the most screwed up right before my tournaments too.

[Fish'N Impossible]

Lakes In western Ohio stretching through to Eastern Indiana are probably the toughest lakes around. Average depth is 6ft, water clarity is always murky, and a huge lake is 15000 acres with most averaging 5000. They are mainly old swamps that were converted to lakes so they get all their water by field run-off with temps that run in the high 80's from bottom to top from June on. Most of these lakes host 4 to 5 tournaments a weekend and 2 during the week, plus your local angler pressure.These conditions make crazy tough fishing after april till the freeze....oh yeah forgot to mention, that freeze limits all this pressure to 8 months.