Would love some advice.

[Logan Bozeman]

I’ve been prefishing this tiny little 100 or so acre lake for a kayak tournament for about three days so far, I have a tournament on saturday, and I just can’t figure the little thing out. I’m watch guys consistently catch massive fish, but I can’t seem to find them. It’s called Lee County Lake in AL, and I would love if someone with more experience than I were to help me break it down or give me some insight.

[NittyGrittyBoy]

What have you tried?

 

And do you have a depth finder?

[Logan Bozeman]

@NittyGrittyBoyI’ve beat the banks with a spinnerbait, a weighted four inch swimbait, and flipped every bit of visible cover I could find, drug a ten inch worm out deep and caught one, but that’s all I’ve caught in three days, but I’ve seen a 6+ come out everyday. I own one but it’s installed on my boat not my kayak, and I can’t get my boat to the lake due to vehicle constraints. 

[NittyGrittyBoy]

Ok, so you caught one out deep. That's a start.

 

Beat the banks and no avail? Ok, so sounds like the bass haven't committed to moving up yet. Have you noticed any beds? 

 

When your out fishing, where are the majority of other boaters fishing? Are there very many points on this lake? 

http://fishing-app.gpsnauticalcharts.com/i-boating-fishing-web-app/fishing-marine-charts-navigation.html?title=Lee+County+Public+Fishing+Lake+boating+app#14.6/32.5522/-85.3154/-15.4

[Logan Bozeman]

@NittyGrittyBoy I say deep, deep for this “lake” is about 8 ft, I checked shallow for beds and didn’t spot any which prompted me to move deeper, There’s one or two major points, but I’m still fairly new to structure fishing so I’m not sure how to cover a point efficiently  because of the varying depth, and most of the boaters are beating the banks as well as far as I could tell.

[NittyGrittyBoy]

Awesome, since you dont have a depth finder, I did find a map and I see some juicy spots already!! 

[Logan Bozeman]

8 minutes ago, NittyGrittyBoy said:

Awesome, since you dont have a depth finder, I did find a map and I see some juicy spots already!! 

@NittyGrittyBoyI see that one mainlake point that might be good for staging but other than that I’m pretty lost in a topo map.

[Grim_Reaver]

This where I would start first if they are staging right before the move up. Some obvious points and some minor ones.

[NittyGrittyBoy]

https://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-forums/topic/76460-need-help-reading-topo-maps/

[Logan Bozeman]

7 minutes ago, Grim_Reaver said:

This where I would start first if they are staging right before the move up. Some obvious points and some minor ones.

Okay, so that’s how I’ll start, and of they aren’t concentrated there, I should move up into secondary points? Or deeper structure? To find what stage they’re in? 

[Grim_Reaver]

Can you clarify what you meant by deep? Along the dam deep or out in the creek channel deep?

[WRB]

17 minutes ago, Logan Bozeman said:

Okay, so that’s how I’ll start, and of they aren’t concentrated there, I should move up into secondary points? Or deeper structure? To find what stage they’re in? 

Let's start with the top circled spot on the round point west shore concentrating at the 8' depth you are confortable with. Any flats at the 8' depth where the depth is changing quickly then a small flat area about 10' wide X 20'-30' long with deeper water continuing around the small flat into the main lake and shallower water adjacent toward shore are staging areas when located near wind protected areas. 

The bay near the dam on the west side has these structure areas, the larger bay further up on the west side had some and the east side main lake point also has the similar structure areas for staging bass, i.e.; the lower circle toward the dam. These are classic big bass locations.

4 areas to target using jigs and T-rigged soft plastics.

Tom

[Logan Bozeman]

11 minutes ago, Grim_Reaver said:

Can you clarify what you meant by deep? Along the dam deep or out in the creek channel deep?

I say deep relatively, I was offshore which looking at this map wasn’t very deep, It’s too the left of leftmost circle, in the middle, I was fishing a marked manmade sunken christmas tree. Looks to be in a flat.

[Born 2 fish]

You try a jerkbait? 

[Logan Bozeman]

@WRB @Grim_Reaver @NittyGrittyBoy Thanks so much for the abundance of good advice guys. I’ll prefish more this week and update you guys on the results.

5 minutes ago, Born 2 fish said:

You try a jerkbait? 

I did not. I was thinking that after going through some prespawn bait ideas. 

[Born 2 fish]

6 minutes ago, Logan Bozeman said:

@WRB @Grim_Reaver @NittyGrittyBoy Thanks so much for the abundance of good advice guys. I’ll prefish more this week and update you guys on the results.

I did not. I was thinking that after going through some prespawn bait ideas. 

I would throw a jerkbait and a lipless crankbait and a jig

[WRB]

This small lake will see high pressure and getting onto a obvious good spot will be tough during a tournament. My advice is thoroughly study the spots for isolated cover, large size rocks and any clay to gravel areas where Crawdads may be burrowed into the mud.

Big bass feed on Crawdads during pre spawn and most bass anglers will be using prey fish lures like smaller swimbaits, jerk bait baits, crankbaits and spinnerbaits the bass are very use seeing. Watch Glenn's latest video on spring big bass, very good advice.

Tom

PS, don't forget the angles; work uphill, up and over, across  and traditional down hill lure presentations.

[txchaser]

Echoing Tom's comments on baits, the difference between craw presentation and colors and not has been like fishing a different lake for me. I checked your weather and latitude and it is very similar to how it's been in north texas. Color is not supposed to matter very often, but Feb/March it sure has mattered a lot for me. 

[BubbaBassin’]

There we go. Finally got back into my actual account. This is Logan. I will update you guys from this one. Thanks again for the advice.

[Ogandrews]

If I was going to the lake for the first time I would start my efforts picking apart the bay to the south of the dam, looks like there is a lot of fish holding structure. Another thing to think of is that the water in the upper end of the reservoir could be warming up quicker due to it being shallower and most likely a mud/ silt bottom. Warmer water could easily attract bait and bass. This can be especially true if you have high/ rising water. Give fishing the shallower flats a try, if I was there I would probably cover water with a 3.8 keitech or shallow squarebill. Let us know how it goes 

[Catt]

9 hours ago, Logan Bozeman said:

@NittyGrittyBoyI see that one mainlake point that might be good for staging but other than that I’m pretty lost in a topo map.

 

Just a dumb Cajun's observation but I see no less than 25 ?

[FishinBuck07]

I would also say try some finesse if it sees that much pressure.  I know it isn't everyone's favorite thing to do but if everyone else is throwing big stuff at them, finesse may get you the bites you need.  Just my thoughts!

[Jermination]

9 hours ago, BubbaBassin’ said:

There we go. Finally got back into my actual account. This is Logan. I will update you guys from this one. Thanks again for the advice.

Mainly stocked with Florida strain....tie on an alabama rig and reel it over the manmade brush piles. chatterbait will also get chomped. zman basic chatterbait sexy shad with a strike king 3.75 rage swimmer. cover as much shallow water as possible. jerkbait & lipless should also get bit, they can be more of a pain working around trees than the prior mentioned though

[Catt]

When looking at structure the less obvious areas are often key.

 

On @NittyGrittyBoy contour map most anglers only see one obvious point.

 

On @Jermination map you will notice an insignificant point where the lower fish icon is. Above the waterline not much showing but below the waterline it extends will out into the lake.

[Jermination]

11 minutes ago, Catt said:

When looking at structure the less obvious areas are often key.

 

On @NittyGrittyBoy contour map most anglers only see one obvious point.

 

On @Jermination map you will notice an insignificant point where the lower fish icon is. Above the waterline not much showing but below the waterline it extends will out into the lake.

catt i love me some "do nothing" banks, a lot of money have been won off of those kinda holes! Never been to that lake but i put those marks on there after a quick 30 second scan and that would be the first hole i'd check