Wake from big boats and bass.

[Cant catch fish]

So I have found a riprap shoreline that's about 2 to 3 feet deep about 1/2 mile long and has about 5 docks as well.  I have caught a few bass here in about 2 hours fishing.   But during that time big boats pass by and throw 1 to 2 ft wake against the shore line.  I know I should probably fish it more but I wonder if these big wakes move the fish away.  It's the intercoastal waterway so these boats go by all the time everyday.  Are the fish use to it and stay put or do you guys think this water is too disturbed too frequently  for bass to hang out?

[Catt]

I have a dozen or so spots on Toledo Bend that are either in the boat lane or less than casting distance off a boat lane.

 

Todd Driscoll is doing radio telemetry study on Toledo Bend, results show 40% of the time when driving the boat directly over the bass it spooked them.

[MN Fisher]

9 minutes ago, Catt said:

I have a dozen or so spots on Toledo Bend that are either in the boat lane or less than casting distance off a boat lane.

Tonka is a very busy lake to begin with...but when the morons decide that the 'no wake zone' buoys are spaced just right for slaloming through...well...

[Jig Man]

If the boats aren’t close to the shoreline as they go by the waves action might help the fishing, wind sure can.

[Captain Phil]

Depends upon what the fish are doing.  I once fished a tournament in an area with a bunch of schooling bass.  Things were quiet until a boat went by.  Each time, the wake from the boat stirred up the bait fish and the bass started biting.  No one enjoys fishing in an area with a bunch of boat traffic.  I think it bothers the anglers more than the fish.

[jimmyjoe]

5 hours ago, Cant catch fish said:

  It's the intercoastal waterway so these boats go by all the time everyday. 

 

   What about people who live next to the train tracks? If they're eating breakfast, do they quit when a train goes by?  No. They're used to it.

   You said you caught bass there before, right? If so, then they're like those people living next to the train tracks; they're used to it.        jj

  

[Catt]

57 minutes ago, MN Fisher said:

Tonka is a very busy lake to begin with...but when the morons decide that the 'no wake zone' buoys are spaced just right for slaloming through...well...

 

If you look at the boy on the left & directly above the end of his rod you will see a white pole with a green top. That's a boat lane bouy marker, not a lot of skiing going on around here.

 

[MN Fisher]

11 minutes ago, Catt said:

That's a boat lane bouy marker, not a lot of skiing going on around here.

Unless they do beach-skiing

 

Thing is...these yahoos aren't pulling skiers...they're just out joy-riding.

[TnRiver46]

Waves smashing into riprap has been good to me for largemouth before. No monsters but lots of cookie cutter fish attacking 

[Bankc]

I've seen guys rev their engines and circle a spot with the intention of stirring up the fish before fishing an area.  Then again, I'll pull up to some spots in my kayak and shut off the trolling motor before I get there so I don't spook the fish.  It just depends.  Sometimes some noise and wake will help.  Sometimes, it'll hurt the fishing.  

[TOXIC]

The inter coastal is a whole different animal but on a freshwater lake I used to guide on, I took out an angler pre-fishing for a tournament on a busy weekend and showed him a pattern that ended up winning the tournament for him. On one of the busiest sections of the lake the boat traffic created a mud line from wakes that extended about 4 feet out from the shore.  I showed him how to fish a wide wobble crankbait parallel to the bank so that it weaved in and out of the outer mud line.  The bass were just outside the mud line ambushing bait.  Boat control was tough but it worked.  

[J Francho]

Boats stir up critters, critters attract bait, bait attracts active bass.

[BassNJake]

1 hour ago, TOXIC said:

The inter coastal is a whole different animal but on a freshwater lake I used to guide on, I took out an angler pre-fishing for a tournament on a busy weekend and showed him a pattern that ended up winning the tournament for him. On one of the busiest sections of the lake the boat traffic created a mud line from wakes that extended about 4 feet out from the shore.  I showed him how to fish a wide wobble crankbait parallel to the bank so that it weaved in and out of the outer mud line.  The bass were just outside the mud line ambushing bait.  Boat control was tough but it worked.  

A mudline off rocks is somewhere I'll always check out.

I have little to no success when the mud line is on a muddy shore unless I can find a rocks or an isolated hard target

[moguy1973]

I know when I'm river fishing in my kayak and a couple jet boats come buzzing by the fish get more active due to them stirring up the water.

 

[MN Fisher]

14 minutes ago, moguy1973 said:

I know when I'm river fishing in my kayak and a couple jet boats come buzzing by the fish get more active due to them stirring up the water.

 

When I was in the canoe, I was more concerned about not getting swamped by the wake than finding out what the fish were doing.

 

One reason I'm upgrading to a V-Hull.

[WRB]

The final day of the 2002 Classic Jay Yelas was fishing a current bank below a dam when a boat full of passengers drove passed Jay missing his boat about 10’ then turn next to bank driving over the bass.

Jay looks at the Cameraman and says can you believe that!

Then Jay calmly makes a cast in the boat wake and sticks a 6 lb bass to win the event from Aaron Martens who was leading.

We deal with wake boats all the time, pain in the arse but tend to create a surface mud line that can turn on a bass bite.

Tom

[T-Billy]

7 hours ago, J Francho said:

Boats stir up critters, critters attract bait, bait attracts active bass.

Sometimes critters stir up critters too. On one of my local lakes, I catch post spawn smallies from the mudballs created by carp rooting on the bottom. They follow the carp picking off crawdads their rooting stirs up. It only happens for a short time right after the spawn and before the weeds really get going. I've only been able to actually establish it as a pattern on this one lake. I've caught a few casting to rooting carp on other lakes, but only an occasional fish. Not enough to fish it as a pattern.

I always cast to snapping turtles I see cruising the shallows too. Once in awhile they'll have bass following them looking to pick off critters they stir up. I caught four LM on four consecutive casts to a cruising snapper last spring. It had more with it but I spooked the turtle with my fifth cast.

[scaleface]

When I was a kid fishing on the Mississippi river , the barge wakes against the riprap dislodged things game fish like to eat . I caught bass , walleye , and white bass immediately after   barges pass .

[OldManLure]

3 hours ago, T-Billy said:

Sometimes critters stir up critters too. On one of my local lakes, I catch post spawn smallies from the mudballs created by carp rooting on the bottom. They follow the carp picking off crawdads their rooting stirs up. It only happens for a short time right after the spawn and before the weeds really get going. I've only been able to actually establish it as a pattern on this one lake. I've caught a few casting to rooting carp on other lakes, but only an occasional fish. Not enough to fish it as a pattern.

I always cast to snapping turtles I see cruising the shallows too. Once in awhile they'll have bass following them looking to pick off critters they stir up. I caught four LM on four consecutive casts to a cruising snapper last spring. It had more with it but I spooked the turtle with my fifth cast.

Several years ago on the way to the Shenandoah River, I stopped and helped a fellow much older than me change a flat tire on his truck.  He saw my yak and rods in the back of my truck.  Grateful for my help, I guess, he told me he would share a secret…cast a craw lure around mud clouds caused by carp.   I had never heard this but I tried it, and it worked.  It’s a tactic that’s been pretty successful on many occasions since then.

[TnRiver46]

17 hours ago, T-Billy said:

Sometimes critters stir up critters too. On one of my local lakes, I catch post spawn smallies from the mudballs created by carp rooting on the bottom. They follow the carp picking off crawdads their rooting stirs up. It only happens for a short time right after the spawn and before the weeds really get going. I've only been able to actually establish it as a pattern on this one lake. I've caught a few casting to rooting carp on other lakes, but only an occasional fish. Not enough to fish it as a pattern.

I always cast to snapping turtles I see cruising the shallows too. Once in awhile they'll have bass following them looking to pick off critters they stir up. I caught four LM on four consecutive casts to a cruising snapper last spring. It had more with it but I spooked the turtle with my fifth cast.

 

13 hours ago, OldManLure said:

Several years ago on the way to the Shenandoah River, I stopped and helped a fellow much older than me change a flat tire on his truck.  He saw my yak and rods in the back of my truck.  Grateful for my help, I guess, he told me he would share a secret…cast a craw lure around mud clouds caused by carp.   I had never heard this but I tried it, and it worked.  It’s a tactic that’s been pretty successful on many occasions since then.

When I see carp in the river I have to try to snag them, it’s an addiction. It’s also not as easy as you think. Well I’ve usually got a grub on so I try it most of the time, reach for the quickest thing before the carp swims away. Some of the bigger smallmouth I have caught were while reeling a grub next to a carp. I call them wolves among sheep 

[N Florida Mike]

I once had a 8 pounder eat a shiner as skiers went by  closer to me than they should have.

I used to fish with an old man in our intracoastal  and all we did was troll grubs on a jighead. He didnt have a trolling motor. He just had the motor idling along at a low speed . You would think that the motor noise would have spooked the fish, but we tore up the seatrout and other fish nearly every time.

I think boat wakes help the fishing in general because it stirs up baitfish and other critters fish eat…

 

What I want to know is how you catch bass in the intracoastal. My part of it is way too salty to support any freshwater fish. 
 

I 

[gim]

While boat wakes may stir up critters and therefore stir up gamefish such as bass, the issue for me is safety.  Boat wakes from wake boats, barges, or other large watercraft are literally a safety hazard in an aluminum bass boat.  One coming by a distance away every few hours I can deal with, but constant barrage of large waves is just unsafe plus boat control becomes an issue as well so I'm outta there.

[T-Billy]

5 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

 

When I see carp in the river I have to try to snag them, it’s an addiction. It’s also not as easy as you think. Well I’ve usually got a grub on so I try it most of the time, reach for the quickest thing before the carp swims away. Some of the bigger smallmouth I have caught were while reeling a grub next to a carp. I call them wolves among sheep 

I've caught 4 carp now on a TRD bug. Threw it into the mud clouds trying to catch a smallie, and the carp ate it. Smallest was about 8#, biggest was over 13#. They're a handfull on 6# without a net. I figured out on the last one, they'll chill out like a smallie if you belly land 'em.

[scaleface]

10 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

 

When I see carp in the river I have to try to snag them, it’s an addiction. It’s also not as easy as you think. Well I’ve usually got a grub on so I try it most of the time, reach for the quickest thing before the carp swims away. Some of the bigger smallmouth I have caught were while reeling a grub next to a carp. I call them wolves among sheep 

One of the biggest bass I have caught   was when I was  ripping a Long A Minnow through a bunch of surface feeding carp , trying to snag into one .

[CrankFate]

Stirring up food = fish. Bass will come back when commotion stops. Some bass go right into the commotion because they aren’t targeted by predators when there is a commotion.