Lake with only one type of cover?

[Scott804]

I have a kayak tournament on a very small reservoir this weekend. I have gone to practice, but I quickly came to a realization that it was going to be pretty difficult. Not in terms of finding fish, but moreso in finding size. Virginia DWR lists the reservoir as "Excellent fishing" with the caveat of large majority of the bass being 10-13 inches. The other issue being there is practically no other cover outside of wood. I graphed off shore, didn't come up with anything. Tried to find something more structure oriented and caught a few off points, but really majority of my fish were from just fishing the wood that littered the entirety of every bank and there felt like little rhyme or reason when catching fish. Currently the gameplan is just to play a numbers game and limit with a wacky rig early and then fish a jig and a whopper plopper for the rest of the day to keep it simple and try to find a slightly bigger bite as those bigger fish will be worth even more than they normally would be. 

 

Is there anything more that I could do? How would you approach this? 

[Bird]

Can't think of better structure than wood.

Spinnerbaits and Keitechs on an underspin might be how I'd approach active fish first.

I've fished almost every sizable lake in VA, this sounds like Briery creek. ?

[WRB]

Couple of questions;

1. Smallmouth or Largemouth?

2. minimum tournament length?

3. Reservoir or natural lake?

4. Seasonal period?

Tom

[flyfisher]

34 minutes ago, Bird said:

Can't think of better structure than wood.

Spinnerbaits and Keitechs on an underspin might be how I'd approach active fish first.

I've fished almost every sizable lake in VA, this sounds like Briery creek. ?

Briery has a ton of different types of cover though and when I learned the primary cover to look for isn't the standing timber, I started doing way better out there.
 

 

1 hour ago, Scott804 said:

I have a kayak tournament on a very small reservoir this weekend. I have gone to practice, but I quickly came to a realization that it was going to be pretty difficult. Not in terms of finding fish, but moreso in finding size. Virginia DWR lists the reservoir as "Excellent fishing" with the caveat of large majority of the bass being 10-13 inches. The other issue being there is practically no other cover outside of wood. I graphed off shore, didn't come up with anything. Tried to find something more structure oriented and caught a few off points, but really majority of my fish were from just fishing the wood that littered the entirety of every bank and there felt like little rhyme or reason when catching fish. Currently the gameplan is just to play a numbers game and limit with a wacky rig early and then fish a jig and a whopper plopper for the rest of the day to keep it simple and try to find a slightly bigger bite as those bigger fish will be worth even more than they normally would be. 

 

Is there anything more that I could do? How would you approach this? 

What lake?

[Scott804]

49 minutes ago, WRB said:

Couple of questions;

1. Smallmouth or Largemouth?

2. minimum tournament length?

3. Reservoir or natural lake?

4. Seasonal period?

Tom

Largemouth, 10in minimum, reservoir, & they should be fully post spawn, maybe a few late spawners

 

15 minutes ago, flyfisher said:

What lake?

Beaver Creek Reservoir, Central Virginia Kayak Trail event # 2 

[TriStateBassin106]

Jig fished between the laydowns and in them, start closest to the bank and work your way towards the submerged branches. Usually a fish or two hanging out in them, spinnerbaits work good. 

[papajoe222]

Nothing wrong with that strategy of catching a limit of legal sized fish. What I would change is what you do after you've accomplished that.  If you continue with the same bait in the same places, you can expect your results to be the same. True, you could possibly hook into something bigger,. but your time would be better spent targeting bigger fish.  Three suggestions; buzzbaits, jig/trailer and target wood cover that's not visible to the naked eye. With bigger fish baits and bigger fish cover, you have a much better chance of upsizing your bag and possibly culling all those smaller fish.

[WRB]

10” minimum, wow!

I would use the following.

4.8 Flick Shake watermelon candy worms, #1 mosquito hook wacky, 1/8 oz drop shot, 8” to 10” leader length, 7# FC.

1’ to 5’ 2”,square Bill in Shad color.

Tiny Torpedo or Zip n Ziggy* in baby bass.

Ned rig.

Tom

* Owner Cultiva lure

[Sasquatch]

We have a group of small lakes similar to this. These were old tailing ponds so a lot of the bottom is very muddy and doesn’t appear to be  much structure. Best bet if you want to go offshore is find something different. There will mostly always be something that’s just a little bit different that the fish prefer at different stages of the year you just have to search for it. 

[Susky River Rat]

I wouldn’t go after the big fish bite first. Get a bag limit then worry about big ones. If it’s combined inches of all fish I’d just try to catch as many legal fish as you could. 

You could also go to the breaks after you get your limit to try and find some bigger ones.
 

@papajoe222 pretty much nailed it.

[DaubsNU1]

Sounds like my home lake here in Nebraska...lots of wood. Relatively new lake, lots of 10-13" bass. 

 

I always have a spinner bait and weightless Senko tied on. Found good success with drop shot right in the timber last year...actually landed some 2-3 lb bass that way. 

 

Square bill and jerk-bait were producing this weekend. 

 

I love pitching a jig-n-trailer. Good luck!

 

 

 

[flyfisher]

16 hours ago, Scott804 said:

Beaver Creek Reservoir, Central Virginia Kayak Trail event # 2 

That lake definitely has more than wood the last time i was there a few years ago.  I remember some grassbeds that were kind of deep up one of the arms.  

I am assuming you don't have a very large turnout because that is a pretty small lake really.

[Scott804]

18 hours ago, flyfisher said:

That lake definitely has more than wood the last time i was there a few years ago.  I remember some grassbeds that were kind of deep up one of the arms.  

I am assuming you don't have a very large turnout because that is a pretty small lake really.

Yeah, we limited it at 20 anglers and it filled IMMEDIATELY. It was pretty shocking, we honestly set it at 20 thinking there’s no way we would hit that! It’s definitely gonna be a little crowded.

[Bankbeater]

Any standing timber? I'd be running a crankbait through the standing timber or the timber that is just below the surface.

[Scott804]

Forgot to update. I got my limit real fast and early on a white rico lobina popper, they were smoking it but absolutely no size to them. Pulled out of the creek I was fishing in and headed up lake and pulled off where I suspected to find my size. I found it, with a bunch of finicky spawners. I saw one in the 19-21" range cruising a bank pushed off a few feet and then there was 16-18" class fish on a bed. I fished blind a little pushed off hidden behind some brush with a jig trying to see if I could get the bigger one I spotted to play ball. Ended up with nothing after a good portion of time so I tried a few casts with a wacky rig and dropshot and then opted to roll over to where he could see me (and he continued to cruise as if I was not there) and I began to mess with the spawner. I got a little bit of interaction by putting a senko on the bed but after 2 hours of messing with the fish I just could not get it to bite. On my way back to the ramp I made a cast with the popper on a shallow but not visible fallen tree and caught one a tiny bit bigger and that pushed me into 3rd. Someone in the same creek I got my limit in informed me that I rolled right past an 18" sitting on bed that ate immediately but they broke off. Wish I had seen that fish, but just goes to show you have to take in as much info as you possibly can about your surroundings at all times. 3rd was not bad at all though, just wish I hadn't committed to the bed fishing.