Raystown Lake, PA

[BigTerp]

Any tips, tricks or advice for fishing Raystown this time of year? Heading up next weekend with a buddy to fish for 2 days. Have never fished Raystown, so not sure what to expect. I'm more of a river fisherman chasing smallmouth, so still have a lot to learn about lake fishing. We plan to target bass. We are camping at the Lake Raystown Resort and will be launching from the campsite about a mile or two below the 994 bridge. Should would be heading up or down lake to chase bass? Any other advice would be greatly appreciated!!!

[Gundog]

Haven't fished Raystown in a while but here is some general advice. Keep in mind that the weather has been unseasonably warm. Highs in the low 80's. In the mornings I'd look for coves for smallmouths. Later I'd move out to main lake points that are close to deep water. By noon I'd be looking for lilypads and heavy weeds for largemouth. Later in the day I'd reverse the pattern. Back to points near deep water then back to coves. Just my opinion. Good luck. 

[BigTerp]

Thanks!!

[Gundog]

4 hours ago, BigTerp said:

Thanks!!

No problem and don't forget to take lots of pics and post them. 

[BigTerp]

You bet

[fishballer06]

Electronics can be your friend. If they're not around the weeds, there's a ton of underwater structure/cover in Raystown. Bridges, roads, houses, culverts, etc. If you have a Navionics chip, study it.

[Turkey sandwich]

Definitely post results!

[BigTerp]

16 hours ago, fishballer06 said:

Electronics can be your friend. If they're not around the weeds, there's a ton of underwater structure/cover in Raystown. Bridges, roads, houses, culverts, etc. If you have a Navionics chip, study it.

Thanks. No Navionics chip, but do have a Humminbird Helix SI/DI, so that will be helpful once we are on the water. Raystown became a last minute change of plans. Planned to hit the Susquehanna in my outboard jet, but it's too low to fool with right now. We went up last year at around the same levels and it was miserable. So we decided to hit a lake with my buddy's bass boat. Raystown won the toss up over Deep Creek. 

 

Should the bass be chasing shad this time of year? I'm thinking cranks, flukes and Keitech FAT swing impact swim baits might be the ticket if so.

[fishballer06]

37 minutes ago, BigTerp said:

Should the bass be chasing shad this time of year? I'm thinking cranks, flukes and Keitech FAT swing impact swim baits might be the ticket if so.

One would think that... But it's been over 80 degree's for the past week, so the water is still warm around here.

[BigTerp]

21 minutes ago, fishballer06 said:

One would think that... But it's been over 80 degree's for the past week, so the water is still warm around here.

Makes sense. Looks to be in the mid 70's water temp? Also looks like some cooler weather heading into next weekend up that way. Hoping that doesn't mess them up too much. But as long as it stays dry, I'll be happy.

[BigTerp]

Looks like a little cold front is going to take the air temperature from the mid 80's high/mid 50's low down into the 60's for a high and low 40's high 30's for a low by Friday. How do you guys expect that to effect the fishing?  

[Gundog]

Any quick change in temp like the one we are gonna experience later this week will give some bass a case of lock jaw. At least until they adjust to the lower water temps. You might want to try fishing finesse styles and finding areas where the water temp does not change as much. But I'm predicting tough fishing this weekend and that is a bummer cause I was hoping to get out Saturday or Sunday.

[BigTerp]

That's what I was thinking as well. Hoping we can get on a few at least. Will be fishing half the day Friday and all day Saturday. We'll see what happens.

[Gundog]

33 minutes ago, BigTerp said:

That's what I was thinking as well. Hoping we can get on a few at least. Will be fishing half the day Friday and all day Saturday. We'll see what happens.

Good luck

[BigTerp]

Weather was nice, but the fishing was SLOW. We fished for a few hours Friday afternoon, and then most of the day on Saturday. Ended up with a few small stripers, a couple largemouth (1 decent sized) and 1 smallmouth. All were caught on various size/color crankbaits. We threw a lot of different baits, but the crankbait was the only thing that was getting bit. Nothing in the shallows next to banks or weeds. Most all fish were caught in about 20 FOW.  We did stumble upon a few bait balls and even a boil or two, but no luck there. Definitely an interesting lake to fish. We fished from all the way up lake, down to James/Aitch creeks. Lowest surface temp I saw was 69. Most of the lake was low to mid 70's still. 

[SpellCaster]

I know this thread is years old at this point, but I'm heading to the same place (Raystown Resort cabins) next week for a company retreat. 

 

Our company does it every year at the same place and I've brought my travel rod for the last few years. Since it's a work function with meetings during the day all I'm able to do is bank fish along the cabins shoreline either at dawn for 30-60min or in the evenings. First couple of years I fished I couldn't get bit on anything, any time, at all. 

 

But last year I caught my first Raystown smallie (~2lb-2.5lb) on a soft swim bait with a beetlespin. I ended up catching 10 fish total (1 smallie, 8 largemouth, 1 perch) all along the shallows by the cabins. 9 were caught on weightless flukes. Spooked a 36" tiger musky while wading too.