NATURAL LAKES

[Guest muddy]

Hey a lot of us who live up North fish NATURAL LAKES more than impoundments. These Lakes have different structure and cover, and I asked Matt Fly this in a PM, so let's see what else comes of this

In a lot of local lakes ( NOT THE FINGER OR GREAT LAKES) there are no balls of shad going around the lake with bass feeding off them. In a lot of lakes Bream,Perch,Frogs,Minnows and Craw Dads, make up the forage base. Other than IN Fisherman(Great resource) What else is around that adresses these kinds of enviornments? There seems to be an abundance of Bass and Baitfish biology for impoundments but I am not finding anything current or I trust that would help out for fishing natural lakes. In NY>Michigan and Mnnesota especially :-?

[cart7t]

Well, the old Fishing Facts magazine was great for teaching fishing on natural lakes, they're still in business. One of their writers/Editors, Spence Petros started up the North American Fishing Club. You might want to check them out as well as the Lindners Angling Edge TV show.  Of course the In-Fisherman still exists.  All of those (I'm not sure about the North American Fishing Club) are great learning media which do a great job of teaching, especially on Northern, natural bodies of water.  

[Guest muddy]

Thanks Cart7 8-)

[tyrius.]

You might want to check them out as well as the Lindners Angling Edge TV show.

Lindners is a good show.  I have it on series recording on TIVO.  My problem is that I primarily fish ponds from shore so taking their advice and boiling it down even more gets difficult.  I automatically delete the boat control show.

[tntitans21399]

Their might not be balls of shad going around, but their still might be bait fish grouped together.  Not like the balls of shad but you can still find some bait fish all together either by wind blowing them in a certain spot.  

You can try going to google videos or youtube and try to see if you can get some advice of other people or shows.

[Raul]

I 'm not what you can call a natural lake expert, never fished a natural lake with bass in it but what lures bass in man made lakes also lures them in natural lakes, in natural lakes what could be the most common source of cover would not be standing timber ( unless it 's washed into the lake or falls to the lake from the surrounding area ) but weeds and weeds grow on a specific type of bottom composition depending upon the weed type, and can oly grow to a certain depth.

Bottom composition to a certain point can be determined by looking at what 's under your feet, then the terrain surrounding the lake can help you determine the contour ( what you see above water level is most likely to be underwater ). If the terrain above water level is rough landslides occur, those landsides create new contour and a different shoreline.

Unless there 's a creek or river that feeds the lake and then exits it ( current ) the water from the lake has to come from somewhere, which most probably comes from rainfall, you may not have current but rainfall creates waterways as it drips from the higher ground, as it enters the lake it creates current specially if the terrain allows it create a larger waterway.

[Guest muddy]

Thanks Raul. There are lots of weeds and lots of rocks I seek out in Natural Lakes. The bass seem to relate to the weeds more in the late spring and summer, and the rocks all year long Figures because of the amount of sunlight needed to keep those beds vital!

In one man made lake here they spawn right on these huge flat boulders in 6 to 8 feet of water!!!!!! I wasn't sure if I was seeing right, but there were definitley beds in the indentations of these flat rocks, LBH verified that were indeed beds. If you got on em quiet enough you could see the males fanning on them!

[Raul]

Your assumption was right, the why is :

Rock provides shelter and provides heat, the rock acts like a heat trap, not strange that the fish nest right next to a boulder, the water temp around the rock is several degrees warmer. Down here water doesn 't get "cold" as in northern waters but where I live it gets cold enough to slow down a lot the action, if you want to find the fish find the rocks during the "winter", I do most of my fishing during the winter in my everyday lakes near the boulder covered dam or on the dam. While the fish in the rest of the lake are inactive ( let 's say less active ) the fish at the dam are very active.  

[Panamoka_Bassin]

Muddy, since you're from NY, you know that Long Island only has natural lakes, for the most part.  The lake I live on is a spring fed lake that was originally created during the last glacial retreat, but there are no "natural" rocks (a few cinder blocks here and there but no real rocks).  Its because of this that the bass spend so much time in the grass beds all over the lake.  This time of year, I find the bass holding the grass in the southern portion of the lake, not only around the grass, but litterally deep in the weeds.  I worked a couple different colors of 6" senkos with only a little luck, and the same with a 4" power worm.  Day before yesterday I switched up to a watermelon tube t-rigged (1/8th oz bullet) and started slamming the bass.  I guess the tube got into the deep grass better than the other plastics?  I thought about using a jig, but seeing as I am not too experienced with a jig, I decided to stick with the tube.

Other than that, I can only say that this time of year they are no longer in the few bushes along the shore, but in the deeper parts of the lake (if you consider 15 feet deep).

Hope this helps...

[Guest muddy]

You talking about RONKONKOMO I fished there as a kid for panfish 8-)

[Tin]

Ok in Rhodey most of our lakes with the exception of South County are man made, they have dams, old river channels, rock formations, and so on. But in most of the lakes you can find groups of baitfish, whether it be groups of 20-40 sunny's roaming the shallows or groups of dozens of yellow or white perch in the coontail.

This even goes for our natural lakes, even though most are really choked up with grass, if you can find the edge of the grass you will see groups of baitfish roaming around. There are not exactly "schooling" or in "balls" but they are in large groups shall we say. As for natural lakes that dont have much grass or dont have lots of baitfish. I will just try to find rocks and fish them hard with a jig or tube. Its really simple but it gets the job done.