Suspended Bass in Open Water

[RHuff]

Will someone tell me how to catch these little you know whats.. 

 

Seems like these are the current conditions at every lake in my area and so far i've whiffed on senkos (texas and wacky), jerkbaits, deep jerkbaits, walk the dog, buzzbaits, squarebills, deep cranks, swimbaits, swimjigs, spinnerbaits, caffiene shads, and texas rigged worms.. i'm at my wits end LOL

 

water is 83-85 degrees, clear, 90 degree days.. 

[A-Jay]

Here's some info from a recent thread on the subject.

A-Jay

[scaleface]

I have caught  suspended bass that are relating to points .First I find the fish and bait with a depthfinder that are close to the point . Cast a crankbait that dives at that depth onto the point . It digs into the bottom until it reaches its maximum depth , leaves the point and thats when it gets hit . Its the only way I ever caught them . 

[Subaqua Adinterim]

Ned rig.  Never would have believed it until I tried it recently.  I am now a believer.

[Scarborough817]

jerkbaits, flukes, weightless senkos

[Chance_Taker4]

Growing up a rule of thumb I was taught was in the dog days of summer leave the suspended open water ones alone. They are the hardest to catch especially the ones you can physically see. With that being said I would suggest jerkbait, soft swim bait or chatterbait.

[CroakHunter]

Underspin with 4-5 inch swimbait?

[Bankbeater]

Lipless crankbait, and if that doesn't work I would move into some vegetation.

[gim]

Those suspended fish are a mystery aren't they.  Tough nuts to crack, that's for sure.  If I had to target them, which would not be preferred, I'd try a fluke or a jerk bait.  Something that stayed in the strike zone the longest and imitated the bait fish they are feeding on would be ideal.

[NHBull]

Struggling with this myself.

 

When AL, else fails I look for flats at the same depth that the fish are suspending at.....the worms and jigs

[WRB]

You can't catch inactive suspended bass that are sleeping.

If those are bass you see on your sonar and no baitfish are anywhere close by, no current break or physical structure break, ask yourself why are those fish suspended at a specific depth?

When you can answer that question, then use whatever those bass are looking for.

Tom

[RHuff]

Thread Update... hit the water at 7am. Caught 2 nice ones in the first 30 minutes on a Boyd Duckett Walking Popper using a walk the dog retrieve near small patches of isolated lilly pads... around 10am after the sun got hot I switched to a BX Minnow working a quick darting retrieve. Third cast another keeper hit it hard on a secondary point in about 10ft of water...When I unhooked and released him I noticed a small tail fin on my casting deck.. after investigating i came to the conclusion that the bass spit it up. It looked like a tiny bass tail.. 

 

switched to a weightless fluke in green baby bass color. Hammered them the rest of the day right from the bank all the way out to open water around 15 feet..

 

Most productive day I have had in a few weeks.... Don't feel like I solved the suspensed bass riddle but I took what was given and tried to adjust accordingly...

Appreciate the support..

[Dorado]

3 hours ago, RHuff said:

Thread Update... hit the water at 7am. Caught 2 nice ones in the first 30 minutes on a Boyd Duckett Walking Popper using a walk the dog retrieve near small patches of isolated lilly pads... around 10am after the sun got hot I switched to a BX Minnow working a quick darting retrieve. Third cast another keeper hit it hard on a secondary point in about 10ft of water...When I unhooked and released him I noticed a small tail fin on my casting deck.. after investigating i came to the conclusion that the bass spit it up. It looked like a tiny bass tail.. 

 

switched to a weightless fluke in green baby bass color. Hammered them the rest of the day right from the bank all the way out to open water around 15 feet..

 

Most productive day I have had in a few weeks.... Don't feel like I solved the suspensed bass riddle but I took what was given and tried to adjust accordingly...

Appreciate the support..

How did you work your fluke back ? Thanks! 

[smalljaw67]

I'll give you the same answer as CroakHunter, underspin with a small swimbait trailer. Those were developed for that very purpose and while I haven't set the world on fire catching suspended bass on them in warm water, I have been able to catch a few that normally would have had me going home with a big fat zero for the day so I do consider them to be effective on suspended fish.

[RHuff]

9 hours ago, Dorado said:

How did you work your fluke back ? Thanks! 

 

 

I let it sink about 3 or 4 seconds and gave it like 4 or 5 quick pops to make it dart then let it pause and sink another 3 or 4 seconds... and repeated..they seemed to either hit it as soon as it hit the water or on the first couple of twitches..

[fishballer06]

As stated, those suspended fish are the toughest one's to catch. I've pulled my hair out multiple times trying to get them to bite. 

 

My best producers for these fish have been fish head spins with a swimbait on them (remember to downsize when the bite is tough), and a silver buddy style blade bait. 

[bh91]

So anything that can go to the target depth works ?

[nighthawk25]

Would a spybait work?

 

I have caught decent bass while trolling for other species with crankbaits, but haven't figured out how to catch them while casting in open water.