New to Bass Fishing and would like some insight.

[DarrinW]

Hello everyone,

   So within this year I’ve got very in to Bass fishing, I generally fish one lake which is closest (Lake Wylie). I know this Lake is tough but I think it makes things challenging so I am ok with it. 

    So I primarily fish jigs finesse swim skipping etc. I fish around docks, skipping under docks and I can say on every outing I have caught atleast 1 bass mainly between 1 and 4. I am very comfortable with a jig. I can say the same thing about a worm because they are fished similar. Now my confusion is understanding how these bass operate within the lake. Water temps at the moment and within the last month 66 to 58 degrees and and all I have practiced is fishing docks and laydowns. I have thrown a few jerk baits on points also, throwing to the shallow and reeling in with some success. My understanding is that during the summer bass are deep. Now when they say deep so they mean 20’ 30’ ? This lake has spots up to 40+ and so they mean deep structure? Underwater points and timber?

 

    Now during the fall I’ve read Bass typically move from there deep habitats and tend to hang around more shallow areas. But what kind of areas? Just over the weekend on my outing I found a nice area of laydowns and I was probably throwing within a 50 yard area between 2’ and 3’ deep and caught 3. 1 spot and 2 large mouth. That was through out the day me starting there and returning in the evening. All caught in the same place. So why were these bass there? Is it that time for them to be that shallow? Or do bass stay around laydowns year around even if it’s shallow? 
 

   Another thing I noticed is a couple people have caught very large Bass in very deep water at this time of year. Atleast 3 to 7 lbs which is a good size for the lake. Most of mine are around 1 to 2 lbs with my lake PB at 3.4 on a jig. So why are these bigger bass so deep for at this time of year if it’s time for them to move up. I do notice bait balls on radar, deep large bait balls everywhere really. I never really know what to think of them if I should be fishing them or not. I do not have live scope only down scan and 2D sonar. I am really trying to get out of my comfort zone and start fishing my Deep Dives by Rapala. I just don’t know where to throw them. I feel like I’ve mastered the jig or atleast very comfortable with it. But I am far from understanding the bass them selves. 
 

So to brake down my questions. Where should I focus on fishing.

Why am I catching bass around docks and laydowns. And can I be catching more bass if I moved away from those things.

At this time of year what are the bass moving torward and are they still deep with temps around 58-66.

Id like to go out there and feel like I know what I’m doing instead of just fishing the obvious docks and laydowns and points. 
 

so if anyone could help a new angler out would be awesome give me some guidance and understanding. Thanks in advance. 
 

   

[Blue Raider Bob]

Welcome Darrin!  Excellent advice is on the way from anglers who can CATCH UM! me, I still drive the suck bus.   😶

[DarrinW]

53 minutes ago, Blue Raider Bob said:

Welcome Darrin!  Excellent advice is on the way from anglers who can CATCH UM! me, I still drive the suck bus.   😶

lol I sure hope so 

[Blue Raider Bob]

Ck out the forum on Smallmouth Bass and read AJ's Brown Bass Tools Questions and Answers. So much good info that will help you whatever color Bass you pursue. 

Otherwise, hang on the line and somebody will give you advise to get you going.

[Darren.]

I will welcome you aboard. Great name ! Have a gander at

the articles offered on this site. Some really great advice there.

[Swamp Girl]

21 hours ago, DarrinW said:

All caught in the same place. So why were these bass there?

 

Bass fishing reminds me of the stock market. When the bell rings to close the stock market each day, each pundit will make believe a reason for why the market went up or down. I wrote "make believe" because if they truly understood the whims of the market, they wouldn't need to be pundits. They'd be the world's first trillionaires.

 

So, whereas sometimes some of us might guess why bass were here or there, there are so many factors in play that bass are mysterious. They are always on the move, from day to day and even hour to hour. So, whereas I hit all the usual suspects when fishing, I.e. laydowns, weeds, shadow, etc., I also cast everywhere else too because bass are mysterious. 

[GRiver]

@Swamp Girl I couldn’t agree more… even the weather change your catch. Been fishing getting nothing, I felt the pressures drop like it was going to start raining. Wanted to stay outta of the wind. I fish back over the same spot, same bait, and started catching fish. 
Mysterious creatures indeed. 

[Swamp Girl]

1 hour ago, GRiver said:

@Swamp Girl I couldn’t agree more… even the weather change your catch. Been fishing getting nothing, I felt the pressures drop like it was going to start raining. Wanted to stay outta of the wind. I fish back over the same spot, same bait, and started catching fish. 
Mysterious creatures indeed. 

 

Whenever I'm working a weed line, I ALSO ALWAYS chuck my lure absolutely away from the weeds, where there's no apparent cover I.e. reason for them to be there. And it works often enough for me to keep chucking into the wild blue yonder.

[JHoss]

On 11/17/2024 at 10:22 PM, DarrinW said:

So to brake down my questions. Where should I focus on fishing.

Why am I catching bass around docks and laydowns. And can I be catching more bass if I moved away from those things.

At this time of year what are the bass moving torward and are they still deep with temps around 58-66.

Id like to go out there and feel like I know what I’m doing instead of just fishing the obvious docks and laydowns and points. 

I'll take a stab at these, though I'm sure there are more qualified folks on here.

 

Why am I catching bass around docks and laydowns.

There's two main reasons here: cover/hiding and temperature. A dock or log allows bass to get something over their head to hide them from birds of prey like Osprey. They allow them some protection from larger fish that could eat them. And maybe most importantly, it gives them a spot to hide and ambush prey. 

 

Another key factor is the ability to hold heat. A large piece of wood will hold onto heat way better than the water. So a dock or laydown that has the sun beating down on it all day may make the area around it slightly warmer which will attract fish. Conversely, in the heat of the summer, this wood can hold onto the coolness from the night longer than the water warming around it. 

 

There's also entire food chains living on and around this cover. The wood grows vegetation and algae that bugs and craws eat. The bigger fish come to feed on those organisms. 

 

Most of the time, there will always be some bass on some of these types of cover. The question to ask is, "Is the bulk of the population doing this or should I look for them elsewhere."

 

And can I be catching more bass if I moved away from those things.

Sometimes. Patterns are constantly changing. One moment the bulk of the population may be associating with boat docks, the next they may be offshore chasing shad. Have a plan to try different things and areas to get a feel for what the fish are doing that day before you commit to running one pattern. I often look for an area that has a wide mix of cover and structure where I can feel out a lot of patterns in a short time.

 

At this time of year what are the bass moving torward and are they still deep with temps around 58-66.

In my opinion that's a bit of a broad range for the waters I fish. At the high end, they're still very much in their fall patterns, chasing bait up shallow and feeding up for the winter. At the lower end, I expect my fish to start moving towards their winter haunts, which are often deeper. It's important to remember that there will always be some bass up shallow and always be some bass out deep. 

 

Id like to go out there and feel like I know what I’m doing instead of just fishing the obvious docks and laydowns and points. 

I'm not sure if you're fishing from a boat or kayak, but I'd suggest making a plan before you head out. As I mentioned earlier, you can really help cut down how long it takes to figure out what the fish are doing if you can find a small area that has a lot of different cover and structure. My favorite way to do this is find a shorter creek that checks a lot of boxes. Maybe it has a main lake point at the mouth and a couple secondary points within the creek. I want it to have manmade cover like docks and a blend of natural cover like laydowns, grass, stumps, cypress, etc. If I can find all of those things in a half mile to mile stretch, I can try a lot of patterns in a lot of areas to start to figure them out. Are they main lake, mouths of creeks, middle of creeks, back of creeks? Are they on docks, cypress, pads, etc? Then its a matter of refining bait selection. Hopefully you figure it out in the first area, but if not, I'll run to a different section of the lake and try it again. 

[DarrinW]

6 hours ago, JHoss said:

I'll take a stab at these, though I'm sure there are more qualified folks on here.

 

Why am I catching bass around docks and laydowns.

There's two main reasons here: cover/hiding and temperature. A dock or log allows bass to get something over their head to hide them from birds of prey like Osprey. They allow them some protection from larger fish that could eat them. And maybe most importantly, it gives them a spot to hide and ambush prey. 

 

Another key factor is the ability to hold heat. A large piece of wood will hold onto heat way better than the water. So a dock or laydown that has the sun beating down on it all day may make the area around it slightly warmer which will attract fish. Conversely, in the heat of the summer, this wood can hold onto the coolness from the night longer than the water warming around it. 

 

There's also entire food chains living on and around this cover. The wood grows vegetation and algae that bugs and craws eat. The bigger fish come to feed on those organisms. 

 

Most of the time, there will always be some bass on some of these types of cover. The question to ask is, "Is the bulk of the population doing this or should I look for them elsewhere."

 

And can I be catching more bass if I moved away from those things.

Sometimes. Patterns are constantly changing. One moment the bulk of the population may be associating with boat docks, the next they may be offshore chasing shad. Have a plan to try different things and areas to get a feel for what the fish are doing that day before you commit to running one pattern. I often look for an area that has a wide mix of cover and structure where I can feel out a lot of patterns in a short time.

 

At this time of year what are the bass moving torward and are they still deep with temps around 58-66.

In my opinion that's a bit of a broad range for the waters I fish. At the high end, they're still very much in their fall patterns, chasing bait up shallow and feeding up for the winter. At the lower end, I expect my fish to start moving towards their winter haunts, which are often deeper. It's important to remember that there will always be some bass up shallow and always be some bass out deep. 

 

Id like to go out there and feel like I know what I’m doing instead of just fishing the obvious docks and laydowns and points. 

I'm not sure if you're fishing from a boat or kayak, but I'd suggest making a plan before you head out. As I mentioned earlier, you can really help cut down how long it takes to figure out what the fish are doing if you can find a small area that has a lot of different cover and structure. My favorite way to do this is find a shorter creek that checks a lot of boxes. Maybe it has a main lake point at the mouth and a couple secondary points within the creek. I want it to have manmade cover like docks and a blend of natural cover like laydowns, grass, stumps, cypress, etc. If I can find all of those things in a half mile to mile stretch, I can try a lot of patterns in a lot of areas to start to figure them out. Are they main lake, mouths of creeks, middle of creeks, back of creeks? Are they on docks, cypress, pads, etc? Then its a matter of refining bait selection. Hopefully you figure it out in the first area, but if not, I'll run to a different section of the lake and try it again. 

Thanks that’s a lot of good information. When you said you would try to find a short creek that has all those things. Sometimes I feel like if there not biting there not there. But I know that can’t be true because people say they see bass on live scope and they just don’t bite. 

[DarrinW]

22 hours ago, Darren. said:

I will welcome you aboard. Great name ! Have a gander at

the articles offered on this site. Some really great advice there.

Haha thanks 

[JHoss]

17 hours ago, DarrinW said:

Thanks that’s a lot of good information. When you said you would try to find a short creek that has all those things. Sometimes I feel like if there not biting there not there. But I know that can’t be true because people say they see bass on live scope and they just don’t bite. 

Just like you, fish have certain periods where they're actively looking to eat and periods when they're not in the mood. You can trick an inactive fish into eating, but it's much harder than getting an actively feeding fish to take a bait.

 

If you know there's fish in the area but they aren't eating you have two options: stay and wait for them to turn on or run somewhere else and look for a different group of fish that are actively feeding. There's countless examples of successes and failures with both strategies at the highest levels of bass fishing. I, personally, don't have the patience to wait them out, so I'll run to a different part of the lake and try there. Often times I'll return to spot multiple times throughout a day if I think it will turn on at some point. Some times it does, some times it doesn't.

 

If you do choose to stay and try to convince those inactive fish to eat, you either want to attempt to trigger a reaction strike with a moving bait or go ultra finesse and subtle. I would warn you against believing everything a scoper tells you. A lot of those guys think they know what they're looking at, but have no clue. I've had it almost a year now and struggle mightily to differentiate a bass from other species- most guys aren't good enough to do that consistently. So a scoper may think he's looking at a creek full of big bass when in reality they're gar or some other trash fish. 

[Swamp Girl]

On 11/20/2024 at 9:53 AM, JHoss said:

I, personally, don't have the patience to wait them out, so I'll run to a different part of the lake and try there.

 

Me too. I rarely park. I fish on the fly. I'm looking for active bass and I want a line in the water at all times, so if I'm paddling from one spot to another, I'm trolling, which is one way I'm different than most bass anglers. 

[Pat Brown]

Generally - if you catch a bass - you're around a lot of bass.

 

Probably just need to cover more water and find similar depth and cover to fish until they decide to move somewhere else on the lake - usually when temps get lower or with a big weather shift - fish will move.

 

There are schools of bass often relating to every dock on a lake or pond that live under or around it all year long and where they are hanging out is usually dictated by water temps/sunlight angle and the location of their food.  Whether they are actively biting is dictated by the presence of baitfish and then the present conditions like wind and cloud cover and whether the bait is also actively feeding around them.

 

Laydowns are very similar but I find tend to be more 'ambush spots' that are used transiently rather than by resident fish - but not always - depends on how big the laydowns is and how close it is to important structure.

 

On my lakes - even though there may be 20 bass on a point or a laydown or near a dock - it's rare to get bit by more than one off the school before they realize what's happening and lock their mouths shut.

 

This is why catching a fish and then moving on and letting a spot rest can be very beneficial and oftentimes yield better numbers than 'working the school' which almost never works around here.

 

The old wisdom 'don't leave fish to find fish' only seems to apply when they're spawning IMHO - a time when they will not move no matter how much you pester them.

[Swamp Girl]

@DarrinW: I see you're new to the site, so here's a tip: @Pat Brown is a consistently successful angler who catches big bass and is a natural teacher who's generous with what he's learned. He whispers bass. Follow him and take notes.

 

Pat, again and again, I'm struck by the different ways we bass anglers catch bass. I do have success with laydowns and occasionally catch a bass on a frog, but I do NOT have success with docks. I cast to them and remember one bass out of thousands that I caught off a dock. I think I need to get better at skipping my lure under docks, but still, you'd think I'd have caught a few bass by laying a lure softly beside a dock. 

 

 

[Blue Raider Bob]

On 11/21/2024 at 10:26 AM, Swamp Girl said:

one way I'm different than most bass anglers. 

You're not a bass angler....You are a Bass LEGEND  !!!!!!!

I fish for Bass....You actually catch them!