the bonus round

[Shad_Master]

Okay, here's your bonus questio -- and remember your points count double in this round!  You are fishing a lake that gets some ya-hoo boater traffic.  The air temp is 82 at blast off (5:30 AM) and the water surface temp is 90.  The humidity is about 1500% and there is just enough of a breeze to keep you from getting a good sweat going, not enough to ripple the water.  The sky is "blue bird" clear and it has been hot and stagnant for about 1 12/ weeks.  The lake doesn't have much in the way of grassy banks, but there are lots of brush piles in about 10-12 feet of water scattered around the lake, stake beds on two points out to about 15' of water and rock jetties near a silt dam on the lower end of the lake.  The main dam is rip rap with a spill way running off the side to hold the lake level.  Fish (big fish) were holding tight on wood at various brush piles the week before and the main forage in this lake is blue gill.

Where will the fish be and how will you catch them?  Post any other questions you need about the lake or the conditions.

[playmaker47]

i would pitch tubes and creatures around the brushpiles. i would also run spinnerbaits along the grass

[Chris]

I would take my boat and buzz the riprap 2 or 3 times then about 20 minutes later fish it. On the areas that have the brush piles I would troll around with my depth finder and find the fish or those bluegills. The bass may not be holding to the brush pile but around it or up on the points. I would also look around for suspended fish.

[Chris]

Plain B run circles around the planted structure to drive the fish back into it and then fish it.

[el_jewapo]

I would take my boat and buzz the riprap 2 or 3 times then about 20 minutes later fish it. On the areas that have the brush piles I would troll around with my depth finder and find the fish or those bluegills. The bass may not be holding to the brush pile but around it or up on the points. I would also look around for suspended fish.

what does that do? stir up the plankton and such and attract fish?

[Chris]

When you throw a boat wake on riprap it forces the fish around it to move and become active it also changes the clarity of the water and will move any fish suspended out away for the rock to the rock. Any bait fish become dissorianted and the bass put their feed bag on. This also give the bass an artificial current. The same deal for the deeper planted structure your basically pushing the bait and bass back into the cover where they are easier to catch.

[Max-in-Mn]

I would fish by the dam with tube jigs, leadhead jigs and crankbaits.

[Grubber]

I would pitch a tube at the brush piles center and doodle it

[Chris]

Ok whats the answer?

[Shad_Master]

The answer was that fish were scattered in all locations.  Big fish were hanging in the brush piles, but limits were caugt along shore lines (remember I said that there were very little, if any grassy banks).  There were fish on the rip-rap as well.  For a tournament with 26 anglers, the three big fish were caught: #1 on rip-rap, #2 on a "do nothing bank" and 3# off of a brush pile with a top water.  Limits were caught by putting together a fish here and one there.  I got my fifth fish with 20 minutes to go in the tournament (from a brush pile) and had the smallest limit, beating out only those with less than a limit and those who blanked (I think I finished 19th :-[).  The most interesting thing is that none of the fish had been where they were the week earlier and there was no "pattern" that produced consistent results.  This was one of the most frustrating tournaments I have fished and just wondered what you guys would have done.  Thanks for the input, I will ponder this one for a long time.