Looking to learn from this

[Swest18x]

I'm relatively new to bass fishing and looking to learn from this situation. Please respond with any thoughts:

Western NY small reservoir, April 22, weather's been cold this Spring. I've never fished this place before, taking my 7 year old out for the first time in our new canoe, we coast into a short branch of the lake about 100 yards long no more than 40 feet wide. Real shallow, laydowns and brush hanging in the water, a small 10 foot diameter island. I wasn't expecting much action but it was a warm day and we realize the water here in the shallows is close to 60 degrees, start to see blowups, fish jumping near the brush and lay downs but some right out in the open water. I had a Keitech with an Owner underspin tied on, a second pole with a craw colored chatterbait. I cast awhile with both no luck, my son a small paddletail, seeing all the action on the top of the water and not being prepared with any surface lures I decided to tie on a 4 inch fluke weedless. I spent a lot of casts that way, right next to the brush, all over really, zero bites. Switched to a hair jig on the second pole and lost it right away, stayed with the fluke till the very end, when I switched to a lighter color chatterbait no trailer. In the middle of all this scrambling my son had to pee so we ended up standing on the island casting from there staring bass in the face 15 feet away and in the end all I had to show for it was a foul hooked sucker.

 

The water was real dirty, my thinking going back to the chatterbait was low visibility let the noise attract them. As for the fluke, I kept it near the surface fishing it like a slow jerkbait. It looked great in the water, cant figure out what it would have taken to get these fish to bite. The baitfish jumping looked like small 1 -2  inch minnows, I had some smaller flukes but no small hooks to rig weedless. It was all happening so fast I didnt want to waste time swapping colors but i had some darker flukes (i was using white) i could have tried. I'm no good at flipping/pitching and didnt want to waste time on snags so that's why i didnt jig the brush. I had all the gear to drop shot but in low vis I was thinking that's not the way to go either, and drop shot is new to me it would have been the first time doing it. I had crankbaits too but in places the water wasn't 2 feet and I think I would have lost anything with trebles right away.

 

So what do you think? Was my fluke too big? Wrong color? Any chance the bass weren't actually feeding? What should I have done different? I feel like we should have walked out of there with 5 fish easy. Tell me how you would have played it, I'm looking to learn.

 

Thanks for any advice!

[Swest18x]

Just want to add, it was a muddy bottom but zero weeds in this area, lots of sticks to snag was the problem but no vegetation for cover

[Swest18x]

Forgot time of day: 5 - 730 PM. Dusk when we left.

[Basser2021]

There is a pond down the road from me where I also have the same problem of seeing bass but not being able to catch them and also hearing them blow up. I honestly just give up and try to find some on bed this time of year. The only advice I could give you is try a little jerkbait or just try some type of moving bait to try and get a reaction strike out of them.

[CrashVector]

Sometimes you gotta annoy them into biting.

 

A ned rig is really good for that.  

 

Throw it out and just bounce it right in front of em til they bite.

 

[softwateronly]

6 hours ago, Swest18x said:

I'm relatively new to bass fishing and looking to learn from this situation. Please respond with any thoughts:

Western NY small reservoir, April 22, weather's been cold this Spring. I've never fished this place before, taking my 7 year old out for the first time in our new canoe, we coast into a short branch of the lake about 100 yards long no more than 40 feet wide. Real shallow, laydowns and brush hanging in the water, a small 10 foot diameter island. I wasn't expecting much action but it was a warm day and we realize the water here in the shallows is close to 60 degrees, start to see blowups, fish jumping near the brush and lay downs but some right out in the open water. I had a Keitech with an Owner underspin tied on, a second pole with a craw colored chatterbait. I cast awhile with both no luck, my son a small paddletail, seeing all the action on the top of the water and not being prepared with any surface lures I decided to tie on a 4 inch fluke weedless. I spent a lot of casts that way, right next to the brush, all over really, zero bites. Switched to a hair jig on the second pole and lost it right away, stayed with the fluke till the very end, when I switched to a lighter color chatterbait no trailer. In the middle of all this scrambling my son had to pee so we ended up standing on the island casting from there staring bass in the face 15 feet away and in the end all I had to show for it was a foul hooked sucker.

 

The water was real dirty, my thinking going back to the chatterbait was low visibility let the noise attract them. As for the fluke, I kept it near the surface fishing it like a slow jerkbait. It looked great in the water, cant figure out what it would have taken to get these fish to bite. The baitfish jumping looked like small 1 -2  inch minnows, I had some smaller flukes but no small hooks to rig weedless. It was all happening so fast I didnt want to waste time swapping colors but i had some darker flukes (i was using white) i could have tried. I'm no good at flipping/pitching and didnt want to waste time on snags so that's why i didnt jig the brush. I had all the gear to drop shot but in low vis I was thinking that's not the way to go either, and drop shot is new to me it would have been the first time doing it. I had crankbaits too but in places the water wasn't 2 feet and I think I would have lost anything with trebles right away.

 

So what do you think? Was my fluke too big? Wrong color? Any chance the bass weren't actually feeding? What should I have done different? I feel like we should have walked out of there with 5 fish easy. Tell me how you would have played it, I'm looking to learn.

 

Thanks for any advice!

 

I think the keitech underspin, especially if 3.8" or less, was a good choice.  I would have stuck with that for awhile using various retrieves.  Slow bottom bouncing, mid water slow and steady, and reeled as close to the surface as possible.  I also think flipping a finesse jig and compact spinnerbait would have been appropriate.  Flukes seem more like visual baits to me and water clarity might have been the issue.  Personally, it seems like your lures couldn't compete or stand out from the real thing and size and location in the water column sound like possible culprits.  One thing that's gotten me over the years is fish busting the surface doesn't always mean topwater is the ticket.  A lot of times the baitfish are being followed from deeper, trying to escape, so I like to work below the surface and in your case all the way to the bottom, in case that's where the hunting starts.  Overall, it sounds like you and your son had some bad luck.

 

scott

[Catt]

Bill Lewis Tiny Trap ?

[PhishLI]

Sometimes when they're really keyed in on an abundance of the real thing during a frenzy you simply have little chance, especially with an artificial.

[BigAngus752]

I've had some luck ignoring the active fish in the middle of the feeding fray and targeting nearby cover.  The bass that are lurking in nearby cover will be there waiting to ambush.  The bass out in the middle of the water hitting the center of the bait balls I've rarely been able to catch.  This only works if the bait is staying in the area for a decent period of time.  Those bait balls in the middle of a lake that are moving or getting blown around won't have bass set up to ambush.  

 

Look for cover or a weed line or even a shadow line.  Pick a mover that matches the hatch and run it parellel to the weed or shadow line.  

[dodgeguy]

Wacky rig senkos .

[Sphynx]

Fluke on the surface works very well as a topwater, and I have caught them on a fluke at the surface in Louisiana in spring with the chocolate milk water that is common this time of year down there, so I'm not sure visibility matters if your creating a commotion on the surface, they'll find it, but I definitely agree if you have really small bait visibly being fed upon that the Bill Lewis Rat-L-Trap in the small sizes is a killer, I'm sure other companies make comparable options, but I'm pretty sold personally on the Bill Lewis ones and haven't really found a huge need to explore them.

[WRB]

When the bass are looking up use a surface lure.

Hollow body frog, Pop-R type lure or buzz bait comes to mind.

Tom

[T-Billy]

I was in a similar situation last week. Water in the high 40's low 50's and clear. Found a shallow cove full of small LM soaking up the sun in 2' or less of water. They were super spooky and short striking my speed craw and beaver. Pulling the claws off. Switched to a 4" zoom worm and a TRD bug, and wore them out alternating between the two. Nothing over 2# but it was fast and furious with the dinks.

[Catt]

8 hours ago, Sphynx said:

in Louisiana in spring with the chocolate milk water that is common this time of year down there, so I'm not sure visibility matters

 

But that goes against everything we were taught. 

 

I live in southwest Louisiana & a lot of what's taught about fishing offcolored water makes me scratch my head!

 

 

[Sphynx]

3 hours ago, Catt said:

 

But that goes against everything we were taught. 

 

I live in southwest Louisiana & a lot of what's taught about fishing offcolored water makes me scratch my head!

 

 

A lot of the "common knowledge" about fishing in water like Toledo Bend in the spring kept me from catching a lot of bass, for a little while there I was hell bent and convinced it was a deliberate attempt to keep me out of some good old boys network  or something. These days I'm thinking it's just that most folk haven't seemed to realize that if your seeing as many fish in that chocolate milk water getting caught off jigs as you do (and BIG fish too) then they must not have as much trouble seeing as we would expect. 

[Swest18x]

Thanks for the replies, I lost the post for a bit since it got moved. I've since got to thinking, what if some of what I was seeing were carp? I only got a good look at one jumper,  looked like  bass to me, but I read somewhere active carp can mimic bass.

 

[J.Bass]

On 5/2/2022 at 8:25 PM, Swest18x said:

Thanks for the replies, I lost the post for a bit since it got moved. I've since got to thinking, what if some of what I was seeing were carp? I only got a good look at one jumper,  looked like  bass to me, but I read somewhere active carp can mimic bass.

 

It could very well be carp. Most of the time they look like they’re in a frenzy feeding when they are spawning. It could be another fish. I don’t know what’s in that water. As @Catt has said using a lure to mimic the baitfish profile would be my choice such as a rat-L-trap. If they don’t hit that move on might not be bass there.

[Woody B]

Carp are bottom feeders.  They're basically vacuum cleaners.  While feeding they get mud and other debris stuck in their gills.  They jump to clean their gills out.  I guess going back into the water is what does it.  They were more than likely in their pre spawn feeding frenzy.  When they spawn, at least around here you'll see clumps of grass and stuff rising to/floating on the surface.  I think they do this making/shaping/digging their beds.   You're not likely to catch a carp on any kind of artificial lure,  except by snagging one.   I've been told they don't actually feed during spawning.   

 

 

If any of you like to catch bluegill find some spawning carp.  Carp eggs are one of bluegills favorite foods.   Occasionally NC Wildlife will stock bluegill to control Carp populations.   

[LrgmouthShad]

On 4/24/2022 at 11:18 AM, Sphynx said:

that if your seeing as many fish in that chocolate milk water getting caught off jigs as you do (and BIG fish too) then they must not have as much trouble seeing as we would expect

YES! I first started to fish truly dirty water at the pond in my profile pic. It can get absolutely nasty. The best lure in that pond, regardless of water clarity, is a senko. I have tried many, a senko catches them best there. Or some type of weightless worm. Throw a double colorado spinnerbait in there and they will not touch it. Throw a Texas rigged bait in there with a lot of commotion and they won’t often touch it. They will track down a senko that has no weight hitting bottom, seemingly hardly anything to attract them.

 

The underwater world is quiet

 

A bass knows its way around

 

I read somewhere that a bass can track down a plastic worm in pitch black darkness. A foreign angler once beat KVD fishing in muddy water using transparent plastics.

 

Alright, that’s all I got

 

[J.Bass]

1 hour ago, Woody B said:

Carp are bottom feeders.  They're basically vacuum cleaners.  While feeding they get mud and other debris stuck in their gills.  They jump to clean their gills out.  I guess going back into the water is what does it.  They were more than likely in their pre spawn feeding frenzy.  When they spawn, at least around here you'll see clumps of grass and stuff rising to/floating on the surface.  I think they do this making/shaping/digging their beds.   You're not likely to catch a carp on any kind of artificial lure,  except by snagging one.   I've been told they don't actually feed during spawning.   

 

 

If any of you like to catch bluegill find some spawning carp.  Carp eggs are one of bluegills favorite foods.   Occasionally NC Wildlife will stock bluegill to control Carp populations.   

This is well said. They’re in pre-spawn frenzy. They do the same where I live. They make bass fishing hard for atleast a week. They won’t hit any lures. Like woody said you gotta snag them.

[Functional]

western and norther NY my best luck has come from a weightless white paddle tail fished like a jerk bait, chug bug popper with white belly walked. Once spawn was done dark colored ribbon tails pegged texas rig and tan lizards carolina rigged.