Silty bottoms

[Weedless]

When majority of the lake has a silty bottom, how much "disturbing" the silt via heavy weights for C-rig, etc. is ideal? I found I can't effectively fish any weight jig in it, but yet I know certain people use heavy weight C-rig and do ok which would disturb alot, while others including me use NEKO which is a minimal disturbance of the silt....I knownim comparing apples to cabbages, but I would think silt disturbance plays a part...thoughts?

[softwateronly]

 

2 hours ago, Weedless said:

When majority of the lake has a silty bottom, how much "disturbing" the silt via heavy weights for C-rig, etc. is ideal? I found I can't effectively fish any weight jig in it, but yet I know certain people use heavy weight C-rig and do ok which would disturb alot, while others including me use NEKO which is a minimal disturbance of the silt....I knownim comparing apples to cabbages, but I would think silt disturbance plays a part...thoughts?

 

I've seen fish rooting around silty bottoms in clear water.  They make a decent disturbance for sure.  So that makes me think it's an actual attractant for the bass.  Maybe your c-rig bait needs to get a bit off the bottom, fluke rigged where the nose helps it glide up on the pull, or shorten your leader so it's not as much in the large dispersed cloud, but closer to the actual muck raking.  Slow steady movement seems better than long pauses.  Possible a slight upgrade in the size of your bait can help it get found too. Powershot/tokyo rig, stroking a jig or cracking a tube are things I would try as well. 

 

scott

[Team9nine]

Around here, there are big differences in silt levels depending on the type of water involved. In the worst cases, nothing bottom oriented works well because anything with weight sinks right into the muck. Weightless, topwater, or anything retrieved off bottom is preferred in those instances. Even a digging crankbait can run under the muck and never be visible to a fish.
 

In waters with much less silt, I prefer things like jigs, Neds, T-rigs, etc., that create little tufts of silt plumes every time they lift or land. Just enough to attract. I’m not a fan of too much disturbance as you can create a large enough cloud to make it difficult for fish to find and isolate your bait.

 

The problem is it’s very hard to know just how much silt is actually on bottom where you’re fishing in most instances, and its probably pretty variable in most areas. Its kind of trial and error unless you’re fishing shallow. I tend to try and locate areas where firmer bottom is available if possible, either by using my depthfinder, or by just knowing certain environmental conditions (current, wind exposed, shell beds, drops, channel turns, etc.).

[Pat Brown]

Weightless plastics work exceptionally well when dealing with a silty bottom.  Flukes/senkos/the newer heavy scat style plastics all would work very well I would think.  Buzz toad also.

 

I like a 1/4 oz swim jig with a trailer that gives it good lift swam very low /parallel to cover and paused/banged into the hard cover when possible.  Basically just keep things moving.  

 

If you can find hard spots anywhere/places where wind and current beat on some stuff and keep it fairly clean, targeting those areas during feeding windows will serve you well.

 

Topwater is great if they will bite it.

 

Suspending jerkbaits/super shallow/lipless cranks can work very well.

 

Spinnerbait and chatterbait can be awesome.

 

Sometimes the fish key on things rooting around on the bottom and stirring up the stuff generates bites.  Times like this, a heavy jig or t rig dragged through  the silt very slowly will often catch very large fish.

 

Every body of water and population of fish is a little different so you're just gonna have to experiment!

 

I definitely think weightless soft plastics are a great place to start/build confidence with any new body of water.

[LrgmouthShad]

For some reason, and I really don’t know why this is… I do better with a light weight on softer bottom. When I have hard bottom somewhere, I’m likely avoiding the soft stuff. If I don’t have a choice, as in it’s a silted pond, I will almost certainly be using lighter weights