PA Raystown State Team Tournament

[bass wrangler569]

Wow, what a slugfest... not. The dude in first place had a whopping 12lb 5-fish limit! Close to half of the field blanked. I managed to pull in a 1.45lb hog (I'm opting for a replica) so that helped my team. Oh, and as far as my team went, our 6 guys pulled in 4 bass for a total of 7lbs. The winning team had 33lbs for 6 guys so about a 5.5lb average bag. The winning team was made up entirely of locals so they gave everyone else a pretty good spanking. The tournament was supposed to be two days but it started thunderstorming in the morning so they canceled the second day. I can't wait to go there again  :.  Move over El Salto here comes Raystown!!!  ;D

[tolz]

Were the conditions that bad ?  I've been boating and camping there for a looong time.  Spent 7+ yrs in the Military and couldn't wait to get back on that lake.  We usually come out of Shy Beaver.  Where do you recommend for Bass ?

[SPEEDBEAD.]

For as big a lake as that place is, I really think it is lacking in the bass fishing department.

I know there are big fish there, but not enough of them to keep me coming back.

[m_lowlander]

I was there... the fish were not. Wish we had that second day.

Speedbead, what club do you fish with?

[SPEEDBEAD.]

I was there... the fish were not. Wish we had that second day.

Speedbead, what club do you fish with?

I dont.  I grew up an hour northwest of Raystown and now live an hour south of it.

I havent ever been in a club.  I dont have a boat with a gas motor and there really are no clubs around me.

[bass wrangler569]

Yeah, I'm with you speedbead. From what the local guys told me they think that the massive amount of stripers that are stocked in that lake every year are killing a lot of the smaller bass. We went down for practice wednesday and thursday. I managed 7 keepers and two dinks wednesday and two dink smallmouth thursday. Wednesday I was using a flick shake and dropshotting zoom finesse worms and that seemed to work well enough but the bite shut off thursday. My partner came in with 11.5lbs friday and he caught all of his flipping grass and using carolina rigs on the points.

Tolz, flip and pitch craws (paca, chigger, etc.) to the grass around shy beaver, or any grass you can find for that matter. Its a slow bite but if you're patient you'll get bit.

I'm going to pinchot in the next couple days to recover from raystown, I need to catch some bass over 15" lol.

[bass wrangler569]

I was there... the fish were not. Wish we had that second day.

Speedbead, what club do you fish with?

X2 We went out anyway saturday and the fishing was actually a little better, we landed a couple keepers. I'd be interested to know how the guys fishing the Jims Anchorage tournament there sunday did.

[tolz]

Tolz, flip and pitch craws (paca, chigger, etc.) to the grass around shy beaver, or any grass you can find for that matter. Its a slow bite but if you're patient you'll get bit.  

Speaking of Grass have you noticed the amount of (we call it seeweed) Grass that is cropping up all around the lake.  Some of the stuff is over 12 feet long.  Good Cover for fish but the Kids are scared of it plus get covers the intake on my outboard.  

[bass wrangler569]

Tolz, flip and pitch craws (paca, chigger, etc.) to the grass around shy beaver, or any grass you can find for that matter. Its a slow bite but if you're patient you'll get bit.

Speaking of Grass have you noticed the amount of (we call it seeweed) Grass that is cropping up all around the lake. Some of the stuff is over 12 feet long. Good Cover for fish but the Kids are scared of it plus get covers the intake on my outboard.

Yeah, from what the locals told me that only started popping up three or four years ago. Its getting pretty thick now.

[infiltwb]

we were out there from last monday to today, our total count was 2 crappies and 3 tiny smallies.

We were on a houseboat out of lake raystown resort with a jon boat to scout around and fish off of, our only hits came last night, in about a 2 hour window in the J's around MM 14 iirc.

This was our second year, and we are talking about giving it one more short in fall, however we are all pretty disappointed. The general  population of fish on the lake seems thin for all the talk. With the bait we tried this time, i thought for sure wed be tired of fishing after a few days.

3 days with a guide added up to getting our trolls run over a couple times by morons, sorry but 1 of em i could see as being our fault, the rest were pure idiocy on the other boaters part. But those 3 days ended up w/ blanks.

Shiners and flatheads produced zero hits, nightcrawlers were producing nothing until sunday night when we nailed a grand total of 5 fish.

We are giving it one more go, however I have to say based on the reputation of the lake, I am definately finding it to be a letdown.

[Zel]

I've fished several state team events at Raystown.  My very first state team, I found a spot by dumb luck.  

If the going is tough you might want to try something unconventional.  Regarding the map below, position your boat in 40 feet of water (yes... 40 feet).  And work a 4 Lunker City Fin'S Fish in alewife color (soft jerkbait) all around the area.  I really can't explain why this area is so productive with this technique, maybe it's a highway the bass use but I don't really know.  I've had bass attack the Fin-S fish 5 at a time there.  And it may sound odd, but it seems the bass travel in packs by their size, at different times through that area.  The only requirement I've found is there needs to be a slight chop on the water.