Why am I not catching fish.

[Caiden24]

Hey everyone. I was fishing lake Washington today and I fish the spots marked in blue and I didn’t do good at all. I feel like I don’t fish bad spots but why can’t I catch fish. Where would you all fish on a lake like this and what would you use. Most of them are in pre spawn with water temp of 54 degrees. I am in a tournament and today was day one and tomorrow is the last day and I need to get some fish. Thanks

[geo g]

We all go through some tuff times now and then.  When this happens I try to find some areas with depth changes.  I down size my baits and drastically slow down.  I will fish the depth changes parallel and try to find if they staging at different levels.  I use tested plastics that I have confidence in, and fish them slowly changing depth as I work up to shallower levels.  

 

If that doesn't work I look for areas with current flowing and fish the slack areas close to the current.  These can be small creek flowing in, bridge pilings with water flowing through, or humps in the current waters.  Again I slow my offering with pauses along the way.  Bites often happen while sitting still. 

 

Good luck and let us know how it turns out.

[Caiden24]

33 minutes ago, geo g said:

We all go through some tuff times now and then.  When this happens I try to find some areas with depth changes.  I down size my baits and drastically slow down.  I will fish the depth changes parallel and try to find if they staging at different levels.  I use tested plastics that I have confidence in, and fish them slowly changing depth as I work up to shallower levels.  

 

If that doesn't work I look for areas with current flowing and fish the slack areas close to the current.  These can be small creek flowing in, bridge pilings with water flowing through, or humps in the current waters.  Again I slow my offering with pauses along the way.  Bites often happen while sitting still. 

 

Good luck and let us know how it turns out.

Ok thanks for the help! I will definitely let you know how it goes. When you say parallel you mean like cast down the area the depth change is? As opposed to just casting straight to shore and reeling in.

[geo g]

14 hours ago, Caiden24 said:

Ok thanks for the help! I will definitely let you know how it goes. When you say parallel you mean like cast down the area the depth change is? As opposed to just casting straight to shore and reeling in.

Yes, I will start shallow at 12:00 and then 1:00, then 2:00 work water at different depths, or I might start deep and parallel to the sloop.  A depth change close to cover is very important.  I try to work past the cover at different depths.  Sometimes staging deep before moving up to shallow water.  

[roadwarrior]

 

[BigAngus752]

18 hours ago, geo g said:

We all go through some tuff times now and then.  When this happens I try to find some areas with depth changes.  I down size my baits and drastically slow down.  I will fish the depth changes parallel and try to find if they staging at different levels.  I use tested plastics that I have confidence in, and fish them slowly changing depth as I work up to shallower levels.  

 

If that doesn't work I look for areas with current flowing and fish the slack areas close to the current.  These can be small creek flowing in, bridge pilings with water flowing through, or humps in the current waters.  Again I slow my offering with pauses along the way.  Bites often happen while sitting still. 

 

Good luck and let us know how it turns out.

Awesome advice right there ^^^.  All I would add is, if there's any wind try wind-blown points.  

[gulfcaptain]

#1 what's your weather conditions, wind, lake coming up? There's a lot more to it. 54 degree water temp, I'm looking at sunny rip rap north facing banks, wood, slightly dirtier water to warm first.  Jerkbait, dropshot standing timber. 

[Koz]

I was going to say fish the points, but looking at the depth map and your water temperature I'm not so sure. I'd move away from the banks and look for suspended fish along the ledges. I'd also look at fishing some of the underwater points that are near where the bass will spawn.

[Caiden24]

4 hours ago, BigAngus752 said:

Awesome advice right there ^^^.  All I would add is, if there's any wind try wind-blown points.  

What do you mean wind blown points?

3 hours ago, gulfcaptain said:

#1 what's your weather conditions, wind, lake coming up? There's a lot more to it. 54 degree water temp, I'm looking at sunny rip rap north facing banks, wood, slightly dirtier water to warm first.  Jerkbait, dropshot standing timber. 

Ok thanks. Yeah we threw drop shot all day only caught one fish. I threw a shaky head and wacky rig senko. I just fished docks and concrete walls inside a channel. It was windy and rainy and cold outside and a couple days ago it was warm so I bet they also were pressured. 

2 hours ago, Koz said:

I was going to say fish the points, but looking at the depth map and your water temperature I'm not so sure. I'd move away from the banks and look for suspended fish along the ledges. I'd also look at fishing some of the underwater points that are near where the bass will spawn.

Why aren’t you sure about points because of the water temp and depth? Just wondering. And why looking for suspended bass as well? Yeah we noticed that shore wasn’t working but we don’t really have any technology to look for points. We probably should have did more lake study before the tourney. We only caught one that was 1 pound.

7 hours ago, geo g said:

Yes, I will start shallow at 12:00 and then 1:00, then 2:00 work water at different depths, or I might start deep and parallel to the sloop.  A depth change close to cover is very important.  I try to work past the cover at different depths.  Sometimes staging deep before moving up to shallow water.  

When you say 12:00 1:00 and 2:00 do you mean like the times? Are you looking for dramatic depth changes also? Or how big of a depth change? We only caught one fish also. I hate that lake. I fished it last year and didn’t catch crap, only my brother caught the fish. I only caught 1 perch the trip. The bass must have been to pressured from the wind that came and the rain. That probably also spread the bass out because of the wind. Thanks for the help!

[geo g]

No fan casting!

[BigAngus752]

7 hours ago, Caiden24 said:

What do you mean wind blown points?

Look for anyplace that shallower water sticks out into deeper water and has the wind blowing across it.  Like at the turn where you go into a cove there is a point sticking out into the lake.  If the point sticks out to the north and the wind is blowing from the west, it's blowing across the point.  The bottom goes quickly from deep to shallow and back to deep again and sometimes the bass will stack up on that point hoping the wind will blow baitfish across it.  

Keep throwing!  You're gonna figure this lake out. 

[Caiden24]

12 hours ago, geo g said:

No fan casting!

Oh ok, I see. Is that just so you are able to see what depth the fish are at, or so you aren’t wasting time fan casting into shallow water when you know they aren’t there. Thanks!

7 hours ago, BigAngus752 said:

Look for anyplace that shallower water sticks out into deeper water and has the wind blowing across it.  Like at the turn where you go into a cove there is a point sticking out into the lake.  If the point sticks out to the north and the wind is blowing from the west, it's blowing across the point.  The bottom goes quickly from deep to shallow and back to deep again and sometimes the bass will stack up on that point hoping the wind will blow baitfish across it.  

Keep throwing!  You're gonna figure this lake out. 

Oh ok thank you! Don’t the points also allow the bass to change depth quickly when conditions are changing frequently? And for them to come up fast for spawn?

[BigAngus752]

3 hours ago, Caiden24 said:

Oh ok thank you! Don’t the points also allow the bass to change depth quickly when conditions are changing frequently? And for them to come up fast for spawn?

Exactly!  Weather and season plays a huge part this.  You just have to start hitting areas to find out if they are out near the main lake or further into the coves near shallow spawning areas.  It's like an interstate.  They follow the road in to spawn, they follow it back out when they are done.  And they don't all go at once.  

[Koz]

19 hours ago, Caiden24 said:

Why aren’t you sure about points because of the water temp and depth?

You mentioned the water temperature of 54 degrees and pre-spawn, so I suspect that since you didn't find bass in the shallows that they will be sitting on ledges near the shallower water, staging for the spawn.

 

A quick look at the depth map of that lake shows there aren't a lot of points so I would imagine they get a lot of pressure. Hence, I would look at the ledges and underwater points first, then move shallower later in the day.

 

You also have a lot of really deep water there and I'm not familiar with fishing that deep.

[Caiden24]

19 hours ago, Koz said:

You mentioned the water temperature of 54 degrees and pre-spawn, so I suspect that since you didn't find bass in the shallows that they will be sitting on ledges near the shallower water, staging for the spawn.

 

A quick look at the depth map of that lake shows there aren't a lot of points so I would imagine they get a lot of pressure. Hence, I would look at the ledges and underwater points first, then move shallower later in the day.

 

You also have a lot of really deep water there and I'm not familiar with fishing that deep.

Ok this makes sense. Thank you for the help! I also am not used to the depth there as well because my home lake has a max depth of 30 feet