Super User Bird Posted January 8, 2020 Super User Posted January 8, 2020 I can't ever remember fishing a receding lake where it's being drained for boat ramp repairs. We've had a mild winter and the fishing has been respectable until my last trip. It was a beautiful day in upper 60's, no wind and I literally fished all day without a single bite.....Ned rigs, jigs, rattletrap, sinking jerkbaits, stuff I've been having success with all winter. The lake is down 6ft and dropping. Does this have an effect on fish you think? If so I'll fish elsewhere. Lol 1 Quote
BassNJake Posted January 8, 2020 Posted January 8, 2020 Looks like post frontal conditions and those are tougher no matter the time of year. They drop my lake every year 20+ feet. When they drop the water, the fish will also go deeper than what they were holding. So lets say I've been catching them in 12-15 feet of water, if they drop the water 5 feet. I'll usually find them 18-22 ft but usually not that far from what they were holding on to previously. I dont know if this is East TN specific but I have found this to be true fishing Cherokee, Douglas and Norris lakes where they drop the water 20 feet or more (most of the time as winter and draw down often affects catch rates) 1 Quote
NittyGrittyBoy Posted January 8, 2020 Posted January 8, 2020 Side note: Beautiful place to fish. 4 Quote
Super User WRB Posted January 8, 2020 Super User Posted January 8, 2020 Rule of thumb dropping water levels bass move down, rising water levels bass move up instinctively. Tom 2 1 Quote
TheRodFather Posted January 9, 2020 Posted January 9, 2020 My intuition says that the fish should be easier to find since they have less places to hide, simple supply and demand of structure and cover. But I have a buddy that guides and he says that when the water level is low, the fish scatter and they aren't as concentrated as they will be at full pool. That just doesn't make any sense to me, but the guy makes a living putting other people on the fish, sooo........I have to take his word for it. Quote
Craig P Posted January 9, 2020 Posted January 9, 2020 They drop my “home” lake if you will every year. It’s is a great time to go site seeing and mark the heck out of your finder. 2 Quote
Global Moderator TnRiver46 Posted January 9, 2020 Global Moderator Posted January 9, 2020 14 hours ago, NittyGrittyBoy said: Side note: Beautiful place to fish. That’s what I was thinking Quote
Jermination Posted January 9, 2020 Posted January 9, 2020 15 hours ago, BassNJake said: Looks like post frontal conditions and those are tougher no matter the time of year. They drop my lake every year 20+ feet. When they drop the water, the fish will also go deeper than what they were holding. So lets say I've been catching them in 12-15 feet of water, if they drop the water 5 feet. I'll usually find them 18-22 ft but usually not that far from what they were holding on to previously. I dont know if this is East TN specific but I have found this to be true fishing Cherokee, Douglas and Norris lakes where they drop the water 20 feet or more (most of the time as winter and draw down often affects catch rates) Thats specific to Douglas, cherokee & norris but is absolutely correct--there arent any fish in loudon & you can find fish shallow year round on chick 1 Quote
BassNJake Posted January 9, 2020 Posted January 9, 2020 31 minutes ago, Jermination said: --there arent any fish in loudon hahahahahahahaaaaa .... I've only fished there a couple of times.. not a favorite There are just better options close by Quote
Jermination Posted January 9, 2020 Posted January 9, 2020 2 minutes ago, BassNJake said: hahahahahahahaaaaa .... I've only fished there a couple of times.. not a favorite There are just better options close by no need to waste your time on that dump, unless you like getting swamped by wake boarders wearing wet suits in january ? Quote
schplurg Posted January 10, 2020 Posted January 10, 2020 On 1/8/2020 at 4:52 PM, TheRodFather said: My intuition says that the fish should be easier to find since they have less places to hide, simple supply and demand of structure and cover. But I have a buddy that guides and he says that when the water level is low, the fish scatter and they aren't as concentrated as they will be at full pool. That just doesn't make any sense to me, but the guy makes a living putting other people on the fish, sooo........I have to take his word for it. One of my local lakes has a lot less structure as the water goes down, so I assume that the fish are scattering in order to find the bits of structure that are there, mainly boulders. And maybe if they don't find it they hang out a little deeper instead. I'm a rookie so just my observations/guess. 1 Quote
TheRodFather Posted January 10, 2020 Posted January 10, 2020 5 hours ago, schplurg said: One of my local lakes has a lot less structure as the water goes down, so I assume that the fish are scattering in order to find the bits of structure that are there, mainly boulders. And maybe if they don't find it they hang out a little deeper instead. I'm a rookie so just my observations/guess. Yes, going deeper make perfect sense, why scattered though. If they group up with all the options they have at full water level, it stands to reason they would group up on some other deeper structure when the water is low. But according to my guy, they fan out and don't group up at all. Maybe since they don't have the structure they are comfortable with, they stay moving, who knows. Quote
schplurg Posted January 12, 2020 Posted January 12, 2020 All I have are maybes Maybe when the water is full most of the structure and cover is near shore. Docks, tree limbs, and a lot of vegetation. When the water goes down there's virtually no cover near shore. What cover is available is less and spread out, maybe smaller too. Less vegetation. And if the water doesn't recede this much every year the fish might not initially know where to go. The water drainage may screw up the whole eco system and short circuit the fishies little brains. Or maybe they don't actually scatter at all, I wouldn't know My local lake is low and it seems like the fish would all hang out near the dam where it's deeper. But I don't know. That lake sucks even when conditions are prefect so I haven't braved the elements this winter to find out. ------- Does anyone else have a problem with this forum where you're typing a post and your cursor keys suddenly stop working in the editing window? It only happens here. Weird. Whoops now they work again! 1 Quote
Super User WRB Posted January 13, 2020 Super User Posted January 13, 2020 Bass can't eat structure or cover they locate where the prey is. What happens when a lake drops water level the shallow cover is out of water leaving the deeper cover break as the new cover, that is where the prey moves to and bass follow. Dropping water levels also means current mixing the water column changing the temperature and that has a major impact on bass until they adjust to the changes. Where I fish our lakes can drop 50' in a few months and sometimes over 100' in depth not shoreline, they are water supply reserviors. The bass have adjusted to dropping and rising water levels it's normal. Tom 1 Quote
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