Early season bank fishing

[Boomstick]

Hey guys,

Most of our lakes thawed out a couple weeks ago (I'm fairly sure they are all thawed out now). But due to cold weekends or busy weekends trying to find toilet paper I haven't made it out yet. I should be able to make it out on Saturday for a few hours.

 

The water is obviously still very cold, so I'm trying to figure out where to go to have the best chance to catch them. My options are limited to areas that fit the following:

 

a) Shallow water. One area is on the shallow half of the lake, and the other is in a generally shallow lake. Another is a little closer to the deeper side of the lake, but is a better spot in the hotter summer and a quick move to another spot on the shallow end of the lake with tons of room.

 

b) Deeper water, by a culvert. I have a couple areas where a culvert splits the end of the lake in deeper water I could try.

 

c) A pier over deeper water with a very deep drop off. I never really get bass at this spot, but I don't fish it all that often either and never tried it early in the season. It's on the deeper half of the lake, closer to where the fish are moving out from. There is a nearby point which I would expect fish to be holed up along as well but not a lot of casting room over there.

 

d) A dam which I can sit on. There are some pockets along the dam where my kid and myself caught a pretty decent smallie. There is also a culvert under railroad tracks near the dam, but there's a lot of dead but intact weeds over there so I would have to switch to a spinnerbait at least. Later in the year, there were too many weeds for a spinnerbait so I was using primarily buzzbaits to stay above the weeds, jigs, t-rigs and frogs.

 

I generally know their migration patterns and if I had a boat, I know where I would start but I'm not good at catching them from shore spots I generally have access to early in the season, partially due to limited access so I'm wondering where you guys would try.

[papajoe222]

As water temp. is such a big factor in determining early pre-spawn movement, I suggest starting where it will warm the quickest and not cool back down at night to the point where it started in the morning.  Two shallow areas come to mind. The first is a shallower, protected area of rock or rip rap, or a similar area with a dark, muck bottom.  Those areas will warm quick IF a day or two of sunshine and warm temps. proceed your outing. That shallower lake, especially if it has a dark bottom would be my first choice with an area similar to what I described that's close to known winter hang out in the other.

If not, I'd target the deep water, winter hang outs. If you observed ice fishermen in the same areas over the winter, any of those within casting distance of shore would be likely targets (Area C).

[frogflogger]

The culvert, the dam (if riprapped particularly), any nooks or drains - wherever you try do not exclude a t-rigged or shaky head worm. Years and years ago it was proven that a plastic worm works at ice out for bank anglers. We use to throw jig and pork in cold water and plastics in warm then a friend showed us all that a plastic worm works anytime there is open water.

[scaleface]

 B .   Culverts . I would say culverts are the most consistent  cover I have ever fished,   

[BigAngus752]

Definitely what @papajoe222 said. And don’t be afraid to throw moving baits. In the past eight days I have fished a heavily pressured small lake from shore three times. I started with slow stuff and had no luck. Then I switched to a lipless with rattle and I have been the only guy there with multiple fish every day.  Water temps were 46 and 47 according to the guys on the boats trolling over to ask me how I was catching. 

[Team9nine]

Culverts/drains, either in or out, can be very consistent. But, in the beginning, I suggest fishing everything to start until you establish the "patterns" that your fish use on your particular lake. Once you have that down, then you can shortcut and fish only specific spots under specific conditions. On the many ponds and small lakes I fish from the bank, some days the deepest water in the place is where they are all stacked up, yet at other times, they get active and all flood the windblown shallow pockets. My advice is don't skip the learning process in the beginning.

[Boomstick]

18 hours ago, papajoe222 said:

As water temp. is such a big factor in determining early pre-spawn movement, I suggest starting where it will warm the quickest and not cool back down at night to the point where it started in the morning.  Two shallow areas come to mind. The first is a shallower, protected area of rock or rip rap, or a similar area with a dark, muck bottom. 

Well I have an all-shallow lake but it was the last to thaw surprisingly. The other lake that is half thawed usually thaws on the shallow side up to a month before the deeper side though, and has a darker muck bottom. Tomorrow will be the third day to hit at least 50 in a row before it starts getting colder again.

4 hours ago, Team9nine said:

My advice is don't skip the learning process in the beginning.

Well I'm not really trying to skip the learning process, I'm just not sure where to start. This year is an oddity - it hardly ever thaws this early and also a large portion of the reason it thawed earlier than normal is simply that we didn't have much ice to begin with.

 

I'm thinking I might head north to Vermont simply because there's less likely to have anybody there.

[Bankbeater]

Have you had consistent days with warm weather?  If you have I would go shallow. If not, or you’ve had a cold snap in the middle of warm weather I would go deep. 

[Koz]

1) The eco system of ponds varies greatly so your best bet is to fish everywhere starting with end of winter baits like jerk baits and beetle spins.

2) If you’re looking for toilet paper be at Wal Mart when they open the doors. in the morning.

[Boomstick]

Well I went to Vermont because the rain was holding off a few more hours. I didn't get anything but some other guys who fished a spot that we decided to pass on got a 5.5 pounder on a chatterbait.