big bass frogs need big bass water, right?

[Low_Budget_Hooker]

All our lily pad areas are found on the large coves that are only 1-3 ft deep and do not have any deep water nearby. They have to cross appx a 500 yrd field of  coontail  before they are out of the coves and near deeper water.

These coves are a key place at ice out as they are the first to have drastically warmer water than anyplace else on the lake.

Now once the game gets rolling and the temps promote all the new growth,those coves get choked right off. As the water lowers thru the summer, they have as liitle as 6" of water in the back and 2-3 ft in the front.

Will big bass venture from deeper water to go in there and feed? I have big bass hopes with these frog baits but the only "muck" to fish them in shouldn't hold the larger class fish in warm water months. (illust below)

[flechero]

I certainly would try it. I understand your concerns but what we see as choked out, may just be the surface... they likely have paths and travel lanes under the surface.  Also, when we think it's too hot for them to be shallow, the lillies and weeds provide shade and water several degrees cooler.  If nothing else, at least fish the front areas that have 2-3 feet.  

The other option is to fish that area at night.  

Sounds like the only real drawback is the difficulty in keeping the trolling motor from bogging down.  

[Low_Budget_Hooker]

I've fished the outside edges for yrs.  nighttime also  Nothing over 3ish.  I can pole all the way to the rear (jon boats)

old creek channel runs down the right side about 1ft deeper than rest of cove

Very choked.  Outside is primarily large pad and the further in you go, it transitions to the dollar pads.  Algea blooms in there also.

I'm just wondering if I should make the effort this summer to pole into the "way back"

2 points-

-Tons of food in this entire area.

-would oxygen be plentiful (all the vegetation) or lacking due to the shallow stagnentness.

I'm gonna need one of those bug net hats,lol.

[flechero]

I can't imagine your water gets as hot as ours... we used to fish a place that sounds similar, even in the dead of summer when the surface temps were in the 90s, there were always fish there... but we only caught big ones at night or when the temps were down a little.  

I would pole in there, but I like to try new places enough that if it didn't pan out, I wouldn't be discouraged.  I'd be inclined to wait for a nice cloudy day or a cool day after a few warm ones.

The bug nets are cheap, and nice too keep around for night when the skeeters are hunting us!  (just don't let anyone see you in it!)  ...lol

[Guest avid]

Have your bass spawned yet?

It seems to me that the time to fish that area is now.

During the summer I would be pitching Florida rigs into that moss field.

If your having fun with the froggies (and who doesn't) I would think your best chances would be on an overcast or rainy day right along that little creek channel.

[KU_Bassmaster.]

Only one way to find out ..... give'r a go.  I would say if there is a food source, the bass will be there at one point or another.

[Low_Budget_Hooker]

They are dead in the middle of the spawn.  They don't spawn back there, mud bottom.

[RoLo]

If your shallow cove was electro-shocked, I think you'd be real surprised

by how many big bass live there throughout the spring and summer.

Only two things come to mind, that would drive bass off a protected flat:

1. Dead vegetation that reduces the dissolved-oxygen content (a fall affair)

2. Receding water level

A falling water level however, does not change the depth of bass, only their location.

Provided they've got green weedy cover, I believe that big bass will be found in 2 to 4 feet

of water throughout the spring and summer. I've found this to be true in Lake Huron, Ontario

which is farther north than Rhode Island, and it's certainly true in Florida.

The only season that might find the mother lode on the front lip of the cove is winter.

I really don't visualize the big bass as venturing into the shallow bay,  

but setting up camp right in the cove. Great question, by the way

Roger

[Low_Budget_Hooker]

Rolo-Well, you're dead on about the mouth.  At ice out when they first move back there, they move in in cycles.  You can go in there and get 8 right away and then nothing for 30 mins then all of a sudden, 1,2,3,4,5,6 and then dead again and so on, for as long as the sun is warming that water.  When you go to leave the cove, we mark a ton of fish at the mouth but they don't bite.  It's like they are out there waiting their turn to go in.  Very polite, I must say,lol.

[russ0101]

i fish a small cove similar to the one you are talking about - water is already in the mid 80s and as the bait fish are moving to that end of the lake (right on a creek channel = plenty of oxygen) so are the big boys.

yesterday we had big storms and probably the first rain in over a month. This morning was still raining but I still went out.  There was a guy already in my fishing spot when i got back there and he told me he had already caught 7 bass and the largest being a 10lb'r. That water last week had only been 8" and was near 90degrees. This morning it was around 1' and the temp was in the low-mid 70s. He said he caught that fish on a 4" curly tail green worm and all the other's on a straight junebug worm.

[BLUESKY]

I would definately fish the area, but also on the way I would be trying the coontail choked area, have caught many nice bass out of areas like that using weedless surface lures like the moss boss and scum frogs. Some times a fish will blow up on the lure knocking it up in the air, when that happens I quickly retrieve it and cast past the spot, and coming through the same spot, giving the fish another chance. I have had the bait knocked airborne 2 or 3 time before the fish broke through and got the lure, have caught some very impressive fish this way.

[senko_77]

russ, when you threw that 3:16 frog in there, and that thing exploded on it.  that looked like a big fish to me.  I would think big fish come in there to feed

[Mattlures]

Out west our bass definatly relate do deep water, however I read Doug Hannons big bass book and I believe he said that it is not an important factor out in FL.