Shipwreck Smallmouth

[Mass Bassin']

In most of the tournaments that I fish in the summer many boats run out and drop shot on rockpiles, humps, ect., and it works great and wins a lot of tournaments. Many of these spots are pounded and the fish have seen every technique in the book and thus are very leery. I have realized that there are an abundance of large wrecks in about forty foot of water, but I have never heard of anybody fishing any of these spots. I see no reason why they don't hold fish and thought that they may be a diamond in the rough. Do people not fish them for a reason or do they just not talk about them for fear of giving away a hotspot?  The main wreck I am looking to fish is 100+ foot wooden steamer few hours from my house so I haven't had a chance to try it out and see if I is any good. Are their any factors that make a particular wreck "better" than the wrest?

 

 

 

 

Thanks,

             Mass Bassin'

[PennBass]

My best guess would be that the older wrecks would be more productive. Animals would've had a longer time to establish themselves, making a mini-ecosystem. Just take a look at the artificial reefs in the ocean; the older the wreck, the more productive and diverse the area is.

[Mass Bassin']

5 hours ago, PennBass said:

My best guess would be that the older wrecks would be more productive. Animals would've had a longer time to establish themselves, making a mini-ecosystem. Just take a look at the artificial reefs in the ocean; the older the wreck, the more productive and diverse the area is.

I believe it has been on the bottom since the 1800's.

[Logan S]

I've caught smallies off a wreck on Lake Erie.  Saw the wreck icon on my GPS and it wasn't too far away from where I was fishing so I went and found it.  Caught a few but nothing crazy.... It's likely the wrecks in your lake could hold fish, but there could also be a reason no one fishes them.  It's possible that a 100+ year old wooden ship in a lake is nothing more than a silted-over pile of rubble by now.

We also fish barge 'wrecks' on the Potomac all the time.  They are good shallow cover for Largemouths, many of them are actually partially visable on lower tides.  The ballast rocks are also the source of many rockpiles that hold fish and eat lower units on the river.

In the ocean, a shipwreck creates an entire artificial reef ecosystem with tons of life.  In a lake, a shipwreck is more like a big piece of cover...Whether it holds bass or not probably has more to do with it's location/depth/bottom composition/lake structure/etc....Just like any other piece of cover.  

I would still go check it out, you never know .

[patred]

8 hours ago, Logan S said:

We also fish barge 'wrecks' on the Potomac all the time.

Can't help but think of Mallows Bay.  Never been there, but it seems creepy for some reason.

Pat

[flyfisher]

I have always wanted to fish that place.  I have heard that there are places you can get to in a kayak that those in regular boats can't. 

[slonezp]

There are some shipwrecks on the Great Lakes that have been declared a historical somethingorother and fishing them is against the law. I know of at least 2

[flyfisher]

20 minutes ago, slonezp said:

There are some shipwrecks on the Great Lakes that have been declared a historical somethingorother and fishing them is against the law. I know of at least 2

How do you know they are there?  are there buoys or something? 

[Logan S]

1 hour ago, patred said:

Can't help but think of Mallows Bay.  Never been there, but it seems creepy for some reason.

Pat

1 hour ago, flyfisher said:

I have always wanted to fish that place.  I have heard that there are places you can get to in a kayak that those in regular boats can't. 

Mallows Bay is cool, if you fish the Potomac you need to go by at least once just to check it out.  I would imagine a large percentage of that area could be accessed by kayak where a bass boat can't go.  There's plenty of bass around those old wrecks, but I typically like to fish more isolated stuff...It's hard to pick apart that huge fleet!  I've had some great days in Mallows though.  There are plenty of other barges all over the river too...Mostly just old wood by now, but many hold fish.  Some of the old barges used rocks as ballast so there's also bunch of rockpiles left where the wood has rotted away or been carried away by the tide.  

To me, these aren't 'shipwrecks' in the same sense as the ones the OP is talking about though...Since most of them are visible and you can flip/cast to them.  

[slonezp]

22 minutes ago, flyfisher said:

How do you know they are there?  are there buoys or something? 

Yes. Marked with buoys that say something along the lines of No Fishing within x amount of feet Historical Shipwreck. The ones I know of are in Door County http://www.maritimetrails.org/assets/pages/Wisconsins%20Historic%20Shipwrecks.pdf

[no39]

I've fished a demolished wreck that on rare occasions produces big smallmouth.  I have to weed through tons of rock bass to get bit though.  

[webertime]

They're just like any other structure.  They also have to have the right bottom composition, current, depth to produce enough to be worthwhile.  I've caught big smallies off old motorboats, while I got rock bass off of Benedict Arnold's scuttled fleet.