Fishing deep open water

[Davis]

There is a small lake that I go too. The outer rims are pretty much full of weeds and such. Been hitting the weed beds for the past couple of weeks and pulling out some LM but nothing of size. In the middle of the lake (almost like a big pond) it hits around 25 feet or so. Some of it is open water with no weeds. I have a feeling that there may be a few big boys down there with the water being low on the rims and the heat of the day. What should I run down there when I take my raft out? Thinking of tossing a spinnerbait down there or maybe even an X-rap. The only crank type bait that I have is a silver rattletrap and a fire tiger rattletrap. I'm mostly a plastics fisherman so any advice would be great!

On a sidenote: I did catch my first non-plastics fish of the year on a spinnerbait at another lake near the shore. Man that felt good as I have had no confidence at all on the spinnerbaits. I was pretty siked. Felt good to catch a nice LM on something besides a tube or worm.

[Catt]

If you're gonna go deep you gotta go with plastics or jigs  

[Davis]

I guess I just am so used to fishing plastics weightless that I never gave it a thought to fish them in the open deep. Time to put them bullet sinkers to use I guess.

[Jig Man]

Deep open water is about all I get to fish.  I use a lot of jigs from 1/4 - 3/4 oz tipped with various plastics and tubes rigged with 1/8, 1/4 and 3/8 oz weedless inserts.  

[Davis]

Are you swimming your jigs or bouncing them off the bottom. I have a good amount of jigs and I do also have some tubes from YUM and Berkley. I believe I have the 1/4 tube jigheads to go with them.

Thanks guys. I have to learn to be more universal I guess you could say when fishing plastics.

[T-rig]

I also would give the Lucky Craft LV-500 Max a try. Let it sink a few feet and retrieve slowly.

[Jig Man]

Are you swimming your jigs or bouncing them off the bottom. I have a good amount of jigs and I do also have some tubes from YUM and Berkley. I believe I have the 1/4 tube jigheads to go with them.

Thanks guys. I have to learn to be more universal I guess you could say when fishing plastics.

I normally let the craw jigs fall to the bottom and give them a little twitch like a craw moving.  Then I let them drop to the next rock or ledge expecting a strike as the jig settles.  Occasionally, I cast to a spot let the jig settle and then drag it off with the boat, especially if I am seeing fish on the depth finder.

In brush piles, I cast over them let the jig settle then slowly raise it to the first limb.  I then move it over the limb and let it settle back into the pile.  I keep working it from limb to limb until I get bit or clear the brush.  For brush fishing I use a much smaller jig hook so the life expectancy is more than 1 cast.

[Catt]

I fish jigs with the same hopping motion of a Texas Rig just with smaller slower hops.  

[Davis]

Thanks guys. I guess I will give my bass jigs a try. Haven't used them much this year but when I have, I pulled out a couple nice 18 inchers. They were both in less than 5 foot of water though.

[bubbler]

if the fish are crusing or something like that than a rattle trap

if they are slow than definetly plastics or jigs

[WRB]

The term pond means diffiernt things to people, how many acres is this "pond" and does it have a dam or is it natural? Consider ponds to be like a small natural lake, unless there is a dam.

Bass will roam the the shore line along the inside weed line during low light hours and tend to position temselves to ambush prey fish like bream; pumpkin seeds, bluegill, crappie etc., so the outside weed line pockets become a good location. Crawdads are a good prey source and any rocky, wood or clay area that gives the crawdad a place to hide is a good location.

The deep water basin area will hold bass during the colder water periods and may hold bass during the summer warmer water periods if the DO levels are good and/or some type of structure or cover is available. The ponds food source is primarily around the edges, so thats where the majotity of the bass should be, unless they must relocate due to hot water or low DO levels. Keep in mind that adult bass have spent their entire lifetime in that small ecosystem and know everything that is going on in and around it. You must be very quite and keep a low profile so you don't alarm these fish.

The basin bottom is more than likely muck or very soft mud and decayed vegeation, so any lure that is on the bottom works poorly. If you want to explore the basin bottom , I would suggest you do that with a slip shot rig and a high floation curl tail worm like a 6" Roboworm in Aarons Magic or Bold Bluegill. You could also drop shot the same worms in a straight tail.

The big girls should be around the springs, if this is a spring feed pond.

WRB

[Crestliner2008]

Find something the baitfish are relating to in the deeper sections, i.e.: trees, humps, or depressions.  If you find the bait out there then put a drop shot down and work each spot. If that doesn't do it, suspend a wacking rigged Senko under a slip bobber (use an ice fishing "sonar" weight to adjust the depth on your hook).  With one or the other techniques, you'll get your share of LM bass - if you find the bait.

[Davis]

Well I started this thread not long ago while I was in a slump.

Finally found what they wanted.

Flukes....flukes.....flukes.....weightless.

[WRB]

Thanks for responding. It's not what I wanted to read after spending several minutes trying to resolve your initial question and educate you a little on the pond bass habitate. You are happy with the fluke solution, so good luck and good fishing.

WRB

[Davis]

Thanks for responding. It's not what I wanted to read after spending several minutes trying to resolve your initial question and educate you a little on the pond bass habitate. You are happy with the fluke solution, so good luck and good fishing.

WRB

Its more of a small lake that has a natural dam at one end.

It does have a mucky soft bottom and it is filled with weeds.

So far like I said.........spinnerbaits, buzzbaits, and flukes have been hot since I started this thread.

As far as acres go its around 45 acres according to our DEC.

[WRB]

You are located in NY, the small lake is a little less than 3/4 mile long with a natural dam, beaver dam? or some type of non man structure?

Your successful lures are targeting active bass and bass are only active less than 20% of the time. The flukes can be slowed way down to target less active bass, but still a reaction bite type lure. The weeds should be dying back as the day light hours reduce and water cools. You may need to down size and go to the soft plastics and presentations recommended to continue catching those bass unitl the lake freezes. After the lake reopens the same soft plastics work well, rattle traps, small crankbaits and inline spinners should be a little better then spinnerbaits until the weeds reappear. Buzzers will always work if the bass are up and active. I would think a 5" swimbait that runs from the surface down to about 5' in bluegill pattern should be a good choice.

WRB

[Crestliner2008]

WRB - some fine information!

[RobDar]

If you're gonna go deep you gotta go with plastics or jigs

This would be my first choice as well

[Davis]

You are located in NY, the small lake is a little less than 3/4 mile long with a natural dam, beaver dam? or some type of non man structure?

Your successful lures are targeting active bass and bass are only active less than 20% of the time. The flukes can be slowed way down to target less active bass, but still a reaction bite type lure. The weeds should be dying back as the day light hours reduce and water cools. You may need to down size and go to the soft plastics and presentations recommended to continue catching those bass unitl the lake freezes. After the lake reopens the same soft plastics work well, rattle traps, small crankbaits and inline spinners should be a little better then spinnerbaits until the weeds reappear. Buzzers will always work if the bass are up and active. I would think a 5" swimbait that runs from the surface down to about 5' in bluegill pattern should be a good choice.

WRB

Thanks for the tips. I misspoke. I meant to say that the d**n is not natural. It's a man made earth dam.

I have been killing them with the soft plastics this year and then I hit the funk. Thats when I broke out the spinnerbaits. But they didn't work last night. Been trying to try my hand at different styles since I was strictly a plastics man before this late summer. I am ordering a Bandit 100 craw/bluegill pattern before I even saw this thread. So I will check that out. Don't think I have the gear to fish a swimbait but maybe I can find a lighter one. Thanks for your recommendations. Definately will be throwing the silver rattletrap, bandit 100, and my Mepps in the spring. Guess its back to my plastics worms and trick sticks for now.

[bassmaster8100]

in deep water id go with, jigs, carolina rig and crankbaits(norman dd22 is my fav)

[WRB]

Ok, we don't have a pond or a natural small lake, it's a small hill-land reservoir with a dam. This makes a lot of difference how you fish or what you can fish with. Before this little valley or revine was damed, there was a stream meandering through it. The dam was built at the deepest point, unless there was a pond before the dam was made, then the pond area may be a little deeper. What is important to you as a bass fisherman is the water enters this lake at the stream end and exits at the dam. This indicates that a creek channel of some type exits and structure along this creek channel may be there; rocks or boulders, undercut banks, tree stumps or trees, humps, and a few points. The dam area or the lower 1/3 rd of the lake will hold the majority of the bass as the water cools below 55 degrees.

I would concentrate my efforts by the dam area. and any point nearby or structure. Black 1/8 oz hair jigs or Skinny Bear jig with size 101 black pork trailer should be very effective. You can use a slip bobber set at various depths to cast further out into the channel area from shore. You should be trying the slip shot rig or the Texas rig down sized with 1/8 oz weight, 1/0 size hook and 6" curl tail worms. Avoid the larger lures until the pre-spawn period.

WRB

[Davis]

Ok, we don't have a pond or a natural small lake, it's a small hill-land reservoir with a dam. This makes a lot of difference how you fish or what you can fish with. Before this little valley or revine was damed, there was a stream meandering through it. The dam was built at the deepest point, unless there was a pond before the dam was made, then the pond area may be a little deeper. What is important to you as a bass fisherman is the water enters this lake at the stream end and exits at the dam. This indicates that a creek channel of some type exits and structure along this creek channel may be there; rocks or boulders, undercut banks, tree stumps or trees, humps, and a few points. The dam area or the lower 1/3 rd of the lake will hold the majority of the bass as the water cools below 55 degrees.

I would concentrate my efforts by the dam area. and any point nearby or structure. Black 1/8 oz hair jigs or Skinny Bear jig with size 101 black pork trailer should be very effective. You can use a slip bobber set at various depths to cast further out into the channel area from shore. You should be trying the slip shot rig or the Texas rig down sized with 1/8 oz weight, 1/0 size hook and 6" curl tail worms. Avoid the larger lures until the pre-spawn period.

WRB

Your good lol. That is where I have been catching the majority of my fish. The deepest spots are right on the dam. Around 18 feet I think as of right now. However the other end where the water enters is very very very weedy. You know the "bassy" look. Been more active there as of late hitting the edges of the cover. The water does exit by the d**n out of a cement landing that goes under the earth d**n out the other side to a small creek with only small blue gill/shiners in there. Good to find bait though. A lot of the time I stand on this cement outlet during the evening times and cast parallel down the bank with a buzzbait. But during the day I'm going to try what you suggested because the sun beats down big time there. So topwater doesn't do anything during the day.

[WRB]

Thank you for the positive response, it makes taking the time to help worthwhile.

Basic bass behavior is the same regardless where they are regionally located. It's just important to know what the lake or river classification is to focus on specific locations determined by the prey source availble and seasonal period.

You might want to look into a topo map in 5 foot elevations and locate where the creek channel made turns and any ledges or structural elements that big bass would hold on. The structure by the dam holds big bass with the prey fish around it.

WRB