What do you do when...?

[JCrzy4Bass]

Your home lake is low by a few feet or more and the weather is hot (like 90+).  

My lake is generally grass around the shoreline edges, with some sharp drop offs of 2-3 feet in some of the coves but a lot of them are fairly shallow (few feet max).  The water is generally pretty clear up to 2-3 feet deep sometimes more.  There are a lot of sticks and logs littering the bottom.  There are a some lay downs but this is a LARGE lake.  There is a path all the way around providing access.  The past few days the only place the fish have held is on points of grass near deep water, and in these areas by the laydowns.  They have been hard to catch.

What are your primary baits?  Do you fish slow or fast? Keep in mind this is shorefishing without a boat.  The fish in this lake are catfish (channels, tons of em'), blue gills, perch, other sunfish, walleye (hard to catch), largemouth bass and crappie.

There are some coves that are normally shady all day because of tree cover but those ones are normally harder to get to on foot because the ground is generally marshy (especially when the water is low like it is now).  

There is also a TON of pressure at this lake.  This lake is ranked close to the top as far as pressure in our state (Va).  If anyone is curious as to the name it is Burke Lake.

There is also a fishing pier that goes out 50+ feet into the lake.

[Catt]

Normal pool level for Toledo Bend is 172.0; on 10/16/2006 it was at 161.25 which is 10.75 feet low far a lake that is 190,000 acres. Low water conditions concentrate bait which in turn concentrates bass, shore line grass grows and when the lake level rises the baby bass have more places to hide.

[Guest avid]

I would rely most heavily on versatile softplastics like a horny toad or  swimming worm

you can work these thourght thich cover and also dedsitick them on the bottom.

good luck avid.

[JCrzy4Bass]

Thanks Avid.  I guess I need to invest in some different worms for when the swim senko isn't doing it's thing.  I swam and deadsticked today with senkos, I guess I just wasn't in the right spot at the right time.

Would you guys t-rig, carolina rig, or drop shot in these conditions?  How deep would you be working the plastics?

[J-Boogie]

Im having the same problem here in ky.The drought is very severe and the summer draw down is not looking to end anytime soon.The weather has been high 90's and the water temp 86.There are 4-5 tournys a week on this lake with 2 lbs winning.I hate it. The only 2 baits ive had luck with are motor oil 5'' and zoom pumpkin chartuse 7'' worms.IME this yr.ive caught more slow rolling the worms off rocky points in the shade and night.God i hope we get 2 foot of cold rain soon. Fishing has been awfull this year.

[Bankbeater]

Same thing here.  Earlier this year I was catching a ton on senko knock-offs but around the middle of June when it started heating up they quit hitting.  Lately I've been using jigs, crankbaits, and soft creature baits.