Boulders?

[Swamp Girl]

@Glenn just posted an especially informative video about structure versus cover and in it, he said that bass can cluster near sudden depth changes. Now, you might not be able to relate to my question because there are few places in the U.S. as rocky as Maine, but we have boulders everywhere: in our soil, on our coast, and in our ponds. I'll be paddling along in 6' of water, look down, and realize that I'm suddenly over 12" of water because of a boulder, the size of a van or five vans. In northwestern Ontario, I caught smallmouth off similar boulders, but in Maine, I don't catch smallies or lmbs off of them even though I try. Any ideas as to whether they should hold bass and if so, what I should try? 

[Jar11591]

As someone who fishes and spends a lot of time in the Adirondack Mountains, I am very familiar with rocky everything. I’ve found that a boulder in otherwise featureless water is usually not enough to attract fish, but boulders that are part of or on structure like a drop off, shoal, island, milfoil bed, and the like can be THE SPOT within a spot.  Boulders that are emerging from the water are even better. I love throwing tubes, neds, and other finesse style presentations, as well as poppers around boulders. 

[GRiver]

This is just my 2 cents, probably not worth half, but this is just my speculation on it. I find that certain time of the year              (spring time) they would lay close to the boulders during the bright time of the day. I thought heat might be a factor, dark and emitting a little heat. They would not be there in the summer, I would find them deeper in the pools and scattered around. I only saw this when I lived in Nc smallie fishing. 

[Swamp Girl]

@GRiver: That makes so much sense. I used to live beside a cemetery and in the deepest winter with the deepest snowfall, the tombstones would gather solar energy and melt the snow around their bases. Come fall and next spring, I'll pound those boulders.

 

1 hour ago, Jar11591 said:

THE SPOT within a spot

 

I like this idea and will pay particular attention to boulders beside cover or structure. I also like the Ned idea. Thanks!

[Susky River Rat]

Current with boulders is key from what I see. Either making slack water, creating tunnel of water or just plan sitting behind one waiting for something to go overtop to eat. 

[jbmaine]

Most of the waters I fish have places like that. Great places for SM. In the spring and the fall I love to throw a paddle tail on 1/8-1/4 oz. swim bait hook. KVD Swim'n Caffeine Shad is my go to paddle tail. 

 In the summer ned rigs work for me.

[T-Billy]

5 hours ago, Jar11591 said:

As someone who fishes and spends a lot of time in the Adirondack Mountains, I am very familiar with rocky everything. I’ve found that a boulder in otherwise featureless water is usually not enough to attract fish, but boulders that are part of or on structure like a drop off, shoal, island, milfoil bed, and the like can be THE SPOT within a spot.  Boulders that are emerging from the water are even better. I love throwing tubes, neds, and other finesse style presentations, as well as poppers around boulders. 

 

3 hours ago, GRiver said:

I find that certain time of the year              (spring time) they would lay close to the boulders during the bright time of the day. I thought heat might be a factor, dark and emitting a little heat

☝️👍 Although most of us generally relate SM to boulders, my PB and #3 LM came off of large boulders in the spring on sunny afternoons.

 I catch both LM and SM off of them in the summer at night, but find them much less productive during the day this time of year. The crawdads are out at night, and the bass are there hunting them. 

[gim]

Individual or paired large boulders are magnets for the smallmouth I target in both lakes and rivers.  @Susky River Rat explained the river thing well in his post.  They create current seams.

 

In lakes, an area of sand with a couple large boulders attract smallmouth in the spring.  If there are more rocks nearby, even better.

[GRiver]

5 hours ago, ol'crickety said:

Come fall and next spring, I'll pound those boulders.

That’s what I did. Zoom finesse, green pumpkin. Cast past the boulder work it real slow over the rock.

[Susky River Rat]

@gimruis even a broken clock is right twice a day.

[Swamp Girl]

21 minutes ago, GRiver said:

That’s what I did. Zoom finesse, green pumpkin. Cast past the boulder work it real slow over the rock.

 

It's my new plan!

[WRB]

Lake Wolford in San Diego county has 2 big boulders (bus size) side by side creating a tight space between them.

These 2 boulders have always produced big bass for decades.

The bass sit tight up against boulder near the bottom.

Tom

[fishhugger]

1 hour ago, WRB said:

Lake Wolford in San Diego county has 2 big boulders (bus size) side by side creating a tight space between them.

These 2 boulders have always produced big bass for decades.

The bass sit tight up against boulder near the bottom.

Tom

what are the bass doing there - near the bottom? are they catching current, which i assume may bring food to them... or is there vegetation on or around the boulders?  where i fish, there's a bunch of large rock out croppings, and pretty deep water right facing them.. maybe 10' or more.  it just seems like there wouldn't be a great food source there....  i fish the aquatic plants in the shallows nearby....  

[WRB]

Very few aquatic plants in Wolford, the prey source was planted rainbow trout, Threadfin Shad and crawdads.

The boulders were isolated about 100 yards off shore I believe they offered an ambush site. The majority of bass caught off the boulders were by anglers using live crawdads.

Tom

[MassBass]

Maybe up in Maine 'boulders everywhere' is why they don't all hold fish. It's just another part of the underwater terrain and not really a valuable piece of structure. But like was mentioned, current; even in a lake, when a wind sets up the same for two days or more, that wind current could be pushing up against a boulder making it a useful piece of structure. Maybe on calm days that is a nothing boulder, but on the third day of a south wind there are two 4s and a 5 on it.

[Swamp Girl]

2 minutes ago, MassBass said:

Maybe up in Maine 'boulders everywhere' is why they don't all hold fish. It's just another part of the underwater terrain and not really a valuable piece of structure. But like was mentioned, current; even in a lake, when a wind sets up the same for two days or more, that wind current could be pushing up against a boulder making it a useful piece of structure. Maybe on calm days that is a nothing boulder, but on the third day of a south wind there are two 4s and a 5 on it.

 

Boulders everywhere negating their use as structure makes a lot of sense to me. I have caught bass on boulders, but not as many as I'd expected.

 

Your wind on boulders idea makes a LOT of sense to me. I'll be alert to that. Thanks!

[casts_by_fly]

On 5/27/2024 at 12:26 PM, Jar11591 said:

As someone who fishes and spends a lot of time in the Adirondack Mountains, I am very familiar with rocky everything. I’ve found that a boulder in otherwise featureless water is usually not enough to attract fish, but boulders that are part of or on structure like a drop off, shoal, island, milfoil bed, and the like can be THE SPOT within a spot.  Boulders that are emerging from the water are even better. I love throwing tubes, neds, and other finesse style presentations, as well as poppers around boulders. 

 

For me, this is the answer.  We have a bunch of lakes with big boulders.  A lot of my lakes are natural lakes, scoured out by glaciers a good few years ago and only the biggest boulders remained.  That said, I've never found boulders themselves to be the answer.  These lakes also have lot of vegetation and some of them have dropoffs/depth changes.  An isolated boulder isn't holding anything, but a boulder at the bottom of a dropoff or one with some milfoil/coontail/lily pads up against it is another story.  Show me a boulder in the middle of a grass bed and I'm not leaving it very quickly.  

 

[slonezp]

On 5/27/2024 at 11:26 AM, Jar11591 said:

As someone who fishes and spends a lot of time in the Adirondack Mountains, I am very familiar with rocky everything. I’ve found that a boulder in otherwise featureless water is usually not enough to attract fish, but boulders that are part of or on structure like a drop off, shoal, island, milfoil bed, and the like can be THE SPOT within a spot.  Boulders that are emerging from the water are even better. I love throwing tubes, neds, and other finesse style presentations, as well as poppers around boulders. 

This is similar to Sturgeon Bay. 

[Swamp Girl]

@slonezp: I've fished Sturgeon Bay and I agree.

[slonezp]

7 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

@slonezp: I've fished Sturgeon Bay and I agree.

That's all they got. Sturgeon Bay is boulder after boulder.

[TnRiver46]

Life is boulders in Appalachia. I even have friends that go bouldering. If fish didn’t like them, they would have to skip town 

[Functional]

I fish a 260 acre pond when I got o NY that has some really good sized boulders. There is a weed line that comes from the shore to about 15ft off shore and in the last 5 ft it starts getting boulders mixed in and then continues about 50ft beyond the weed line. Big ole round and square boulders, some the size of a VW Bug. The pond has some other boulders around but I've noticed I also needed weeds or a blow down /overhang to get any fish out of them.

 

My best tactic for this particular pond has been to start about 5ft from the edge of the weed line (sitting in the weeds) and casing out past the boulders and drawing it in to the weeds. I use a zoom paddle tail with 1/16-1/8oz belly weight (id use heavier if it was deep but its only 5-7fow). If they need coaxing I'll switch to a zoom fluke with no weight and twitch it back or just go T-rig. 

[geo g]

In south Florida we have hundreds of miles of canal cut out of limestone rock to control the flow of water from okeechobee south to the ocean.  These cut canals leave lots of large boulders especially close to the banks.  These boulders have always provided ambush areas for large black bass, but the last twenty years it is a favorite hiding place for peacock.  They love large standing boulders and a group will hang out looking for bait fish to swim bye.  When I see this structure, I start an irratic fast motion with whatever I’m throwing to pick off some real beauties!

A female, and a male!

[geo g]

41 minutes ago, geo g said:

In south Florida we have hundreds of miles of canal cut out of limestone rock to control the flow of water from okeechobee south to the ocean.  These cut canals leave lots of large boulders especially close to the banks.  These boulders have always provided ambush areas for large black bass, but the last twenty years it is a favorite hiding place for peacock.  They love large standing boulders and a group will hang out looking for bait fish to swim bye.  When I see this structure, I start an irratic fast motion with whatever I’m throwing to pick off some real beauties!

A female, and a male!

I have caught them here up to 7.5 lbs.  when hooked you would bet it was a big snook on your line.  The pit bulls of fresh water!

[Fishing_Rod]

Greetings All,

 

I'm hoping each of you are well. Boulders, yes, rocks of all sizes and shapes out here in Arizona's water impoundments. Depending on which one you are at there may or may not be much in the way of vegetation. In my region of Southern, central and eastern, Arizona the fish in and about the "boulders", rocks, rubble, are usually willing to play.

 

Knowledge of the area is helpful for picking and avoiding loss of lures / baits. I've had good success using faster moving baits occasionally. Usually when the coast is clear as those six treble hooks can really latch on to the rocks. More often I'll be scuffing the rocks using slower baits, mostly rigged weedless. Hopping or dragging are both productive. Choosing style for me depends on how much coffee for the day is involved. All kidding aside, slow and easy works wonders if you're able and willing. It appears to provide maximum opportunity for a strike.

 

I'm usually not probing too deep. I generally fish 30 feet or less. I can make a reasonable cast either from shore or kayak and I don't have to wait too long for the light bait, 1/64 to 1/16 oz, to flutter down and eventually be able to work along the bottom. When in the yak, conditions may not allow for using the lighter configurations so it is more the 1/16 oz.

 

The advantage is when things do bind up usually a position adjustment in the yak is all that is needed to pop free and continue searching.

 

Using the lightest weight from the shore also minimizes the snag hazard too. Here is AZ it is a "Rock On!" theme for angling success. Be well and Cheers!