Tips on fishing open water structure?

[Jerkbate]

I've almost always been strictly  a visible creek channel, cover, bank fisherman.  I live in North MS.  Most of the fish in the local lakes have spawned.  I was catching fish in the shallows and creek channels, but those areas have pretty much stopped producing; especially the shallow flats and cover.  I've been wanting to improve my structure fishing.  So I've challenged myselt to fish these types of areas almost exclusively the rest of the summer.  Therefore, I've been fishing on the main lake points, river & creek junctions, road beds, etc. out in more open & deeper water.  I know the fish should be moving out of the flats, creeks, & ditches into these areas for their summer pattern, but I'm having almost no success.  I've mostly fished with Carolina rigs & crankbaits.  Any of you guys who fish these types of areas have any tips?

[Low_Budget_Hooker]

When Imake the transition from post spawn tosummer patterning, Ilook for anything with 10-15 ft of water with deeper water nearby.

Jig/pig is my favorite way to learn deeper structure.  Gives you a good feel for what your graph is telling you is down there.

Change up the times you go.  Alot of our fish are just finishing the spawn and have moved off to deeper structure and tonight I'll be throwing a jig/pig combo, senko, Suspending jerkbait and topwater.  I'll start going now in the 3:30am-sunrise and 6pm to midnight time ranges.

[Guest ouachitabassangler]

I'm assuming you graduated from bank fishing to using a boat. Sonar is really now a piece of required equipment, especially in angler-pressured fisheries. At least locate balls of baitfish, preferably near any structure that breaks the lake bottom up. Ignore abyssal plains, those expanses of flat featureless bottom. A good topo map will help you avoid wasting time looking there. I follow creek channels, zig zagging past each bank, looking for something offerig shade and a hiding place for bass to rest  by waiting for food to swim by. It's important to pin-point those hideouts, sometimes hard to do with sonar alone, but you can learn to read the bottom once close using a jig or C-rig. If you are interested in a large stump on a small hump next to a creek with bank topping out 15 feet down, creek bottom at 25 feet, cast and drag until you contact the stump. It's harder than most think it should be, especially if you can't hold the boat still to mine an area methodically. Use markers to lay the area out and cast at 2-5 degree intervals, for instance, from the left-most marker to right-most.  When you have the stump located, keep fishing it, switching up using different lures that will reach it. Maybe a deep diving crankbait banging the stump and pausing will draw the strike. maybe a heavy spinnerbait will get the honors. Pull a jig bounced down to the creek edge and over it into the stump, then probe on deeper to the bottom. If you can kick the stump more than once on a cast, leave it there and keep thumping the wood. You might dangle a spoon up & down over the stump, held vertically, or use a drop shot to hold a whacky worm over it. The bites are fewer out there than in the shallow water, so patience is a virtue. Team up more than one bait to swim a pair of lures, matched or mis-matched, to really peak the interest of a wise old bass. I use a 3-way swivel a lot with a sinker to get flukes down deep. One ties on the end of the main line with the first 3-way swivel, a second fluke tied to the first 3-way, the sinker on the bottom 3-way. Use your imagination as to what kinds of lures to combine. You might use a heavy weedless jig for the sinker, a wighted jerbait above that, and a fluke above the jerbait.

Mid-day is when most mature bass will have already retreated to the deepest shadiest water they can stand, quite often suspended there digesting meals taken before dawn in shallower water where you were catching them earlier this year. It's possible to get them to go after your offering even though stuffed full. Those that prefer hanging around shallow thick cover will leave for deeper and safer water when fishing pressure removes their sense of security, not returning until all is quiet again, the next night if not by Monday after a heavy fishing weekend.

Jim

[Rattlinrogue]

Your taking a step in the right direction with the c-rig.A c-rig with a green pumpkinseed 3x lizard saved my butt yesterday.Managed to catch five 2-2 1/2 pounders.I would vary my retrieve if I were you.I started out dragging and taking long pauses before dragging again.Nothing.I then started dragging,reeling in the slack,and immediately dragging again.I started getting bites and caught 5 good bass in about 1 1/2 hours.I look for cover on the structure with my DF.When I'm dragging through wood and/or grass,I feel like I'll catch some bass.Vary the colors of your plastics and vary your plastics.I favor lizards,but finese worms,senkos,french fries,tubes,creature baits,and plain ole plastic worms will also catch 'em.As LBH said,a jig and trailer is also a good bait to use,and don't forget slow rolling spinnerbaits and the use of deep diving crankbaits.

[Chris]

What I look for is places where the deep water meets the shallow water. I try to find places that the transition close to the shore because this is the first place bass will use before they buckle down and seek out summer time locations. Some lakes many bass will stay shallow but move to a close by a drop or deep in cover. Bass love overhead cover like moss and in most lakes you can pick off fish all summer long. When you are looking for deep structure your high percentage places will always be where there is a highway to feeding areas and deep water. Most of the time a good deep structure is just an obstacle that funnels bait. Lure options really depend on depth of the water and your ability to feel the bait or the strike. I use a jigging spoon, heavy spinnerbait with small blades, crankbait, heavy jig, worm, Carolina rig, Carolina rig crankbait, dropshot, jighead worm.

[Jerkbate]

Thanks for the replies.

I went to Grenada Rez. today, fished a main lake rock point that drops quickly into 8 - 10 feet of water. I then fished a line of cedar trees that extend from 3 feet into 15+ feet of water. I also fished a creek channel that passes between two bluffs then into the river channel. I fished up into the creek, the points formed by the bluffs, and the junction of the river channel & the creek channel. I fished these areas with jigs, C-rigged stickbait, and crankbaits. I only had one strike with the fish running with the jig before coming off. However, I haven't caught many fish on Grenada the past couple of years using any technique. So, I wasn't expecting much. The biologist says the largemouth population is healthy, but no one is catching any. The lake experiences over 400,000 man hours of fishing for crappie with about 90% of those hours coming in March & April. I think the extremely intense crappie fishing pressure has hurt the bass fishing. I spoke with one crappie fisherman who said he had caught nearly 400 crappie, but could not recall catching one largemouth. Also, in a tournament a few weeks ago I was told that 28 of the 35 boats did not catch one fish. This is at a lake that used to produce a lot of 8 & 9 pound bass with daily catches of 10 - 15 fish being average.

I've caught most all of my fish this year at a few local forestry service lakes. These lakes range from 20 to 60 acres. I'm going to fish those lakes again this next week. I plan to try some ideas of my own and some of the things suggested here. Any other advice will still be appreciated.

[PressuredLakeFisherman]

On 6/9/2006 at 10:13 PM, Guest ouachitabassangler said:

I'm assuming you graduated from bank fishing to using a boat. Sonar is really now a piece of required equipment, especially in angler-pressured fisheries. At least locate balls of baitfish, preferably near any structure that breaks the lake bottom up. Ignore abyssal plains, those expanses of flat featureless bottom. A good topo map will help you avoid wasting time looking there. I follow creek channels, zig zagging past each bank, looking for something offerig shade and a hiding place for bass to rest  by waiting for food to swim by. It's important to pin-point those hideouts, sometimes hard to do with sonar alone, but you can learn to read the bottom once close using a jig or C-rig. If you are interested in a large stump on a small hump next to a creek with bank topping out 15 feet down, creek bottom at 25 feet, cast and drag until you contact the stump. It's harder than most think it should be, especially if you can't hold the boat still to mine an area methodically. Use markers to lay the area out and cast at 2-5 degree intervals, for instance, from the left-most marker to right-most.  When you have the stump located, keep fishing it, switching up using different lures that will reach it. Maybe a deep diving crankbait banging the stump and pausing will draw the strike. maybe a heavy spinnerbait will get the honors. Pull a jig bounced down to the creek edge and over it into the stump, then probe on deeper to the bottom. If you can kick the stump more than once on a cast, leave it there and keep thumping the wood. You might dangle a spoon up & down over the stump, held vertically, or use a drop shot to hold a whacky worm over it. The bites are fewer out there than in the shallow water, so patience is a virtue. Team up more than one bait to swim a pair of lures, matched or mis-matched, to really peak the interest of a wise old bass. I use a 3-way swivel a lot with a sinker to get flukes down deep. One ties on the end of the main line with the first 3-way swivel, a second fluke tied to the first 3-way, the sinker on the bottom 3-way. Use your imagination as to what kinds of lures to combine. You might use a heavy weedless jig for the sinker, a wighted jerbait above that, and a fluke above the jerbait.

Mid-day is when most mature bass will have already retreated to the deepest shadiest water they can stand, quite often suspended there digesting meals taken before dawn in shallower water where you were catching them earlier this year. It's possible to get them to go after your offering even though stuffed full. Those that prefer hanging around shallow thick cover will leave for deeper and safer water when fishing pressure removes their sense of security, not returning until all is quiet again, the next night if not by Monday after a heavy fishing weekend.

Jim

Yeah I was reading this and good fish finding equiptment and sonar has completley changed the game. Back in the 60's 70's and 80's when my grandfather fished he used to Tie a super heavy weight with no bait on his local lakes and feel the whole bottom of the whole lake every trip, and he didnt even fish. He mapped it out on paper and marked where rocks where, humps, weeds, and transitions. He was an amazing fisherman and I thought that was a really creative way to figure out where structure was before electronics where a thing. I dont have electronics and will use this method to this day in lakes. I should show you some of the cool maps he made sometime

[NittyGrittyBoy]

14yrs. Wow. Juicy

[RDB]

I would be surprised if the spawn is completely done in your area. We still have bass in all 3 phases in Texas.  Even if it is done, they should be in more of a post spawn phase than a summer phase.  I would look at areas between the spawning spots and the summer spots.

[Ski]

2 minutes ago, RDB said:

I would be surprised if the spawn is completely done in your area. We still have bass in all 3 phases in Texas. 

Same here in Fl.

 

[papajoe222]

The fish could very well be in the immediate post-spawn cycle where they move out from the spawning area and rest up.  They'll still eat, but bites are tough to come by.  One thing I'll suggest, only because you didn't mention, is to cover the entire water column.  I'll often find the females suspended during that period, but not in close proximity to that first structural element away from the spawning area. 50yrds. out toward deeper water is what I've regularly experienced.  The areas you've been targeting are good ones, you could be just fishing below where the fish are.