Pressured waters.

[BassChump]

Being relatively new to bass fishing, I have no idea what a "pressured" lake really is. My favorite lake that I have had good luck fishing is about 2000 acres in size. It's actually 2 lakes in one connected by a manmade canal that is about a 1/2 mile long. I usually fish the south lake. I have been successful enough that I haven't  found a need to check out the north lake as of yet.

Anyway, they had a large tournament there this last weekend. I had great fishing last Friday and I am getting the itch to go fishing again there. The tournament had 75 boats plus the regular weekend fisherman. A 75 boat tournament is the largest the state allows on that lake and it was a full tournament.

With that many anglers fishing hard all weekend, I'm assuming the fishing will be pretty poor for a while. With that kind of pressure, should I wait a while to fish these waters again or does it really matter that much?????

The lake is a 2000 acre lake with lots of arms. Over 100 miles of shoreline. The surface temps are around 70 and the water clarity is around 4 feet.

             Thanks in advance for your advice.

[Grey Wolf]

Fish it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That's a pretty big lake.

[George Welcome]

The best thing that you can do is discard the word pressured and go fishing. Just because there were a bunch of people throwing lures it doesn't mean that the fish were pressured at all.

[Raul]

Being relatively new to bass fishing, I have no idea what a "pressured" lake really is.

Pressured may mean, like in my case, having a guy fishing every 30 yards all along the shoreline plus 10 boats in a 500 acre lake every weekend, add to that crystal clear water and you have yourself a neat place to really learn how to catch fish, after that every lake without that kind of pressure is a piece of cake.

So here we start for by the principle of not trying to locate the fish cuz most probably the most likely places have either being banged all day long by the guys on the boats or the place is already taken by the guys who got there earlier, we part from the principle that the fish are there and it 's a matter of making them bite, now you know how I developed a bag of diry tricks and bad luck charms throughout the years.

The key when faced under such circumstances is non-conventional presentations and rigging methods that nobody else knows about or fishes with and forget that there were other guys there.

[B-o-b]

Yeah, i agree with these guys, just go fishing because thats a big lake and i doubt you'll get nothing because of a tournament

[fishfordollars]

Fish have short memories. Just go fishing and forget about all the boats that have been on the water.

[NewScreenNameAdvised]

In pressured waters, I downsize and slow down.

Pressured to me though, on that size lake is a tourny on Saturday and Sunday with 100+ boats for each.  Pus add in a bunch of recreational boats and PWCs.

[BassChump]

Well, it sounds like I'm going fishing in the morning and at least on Friday and if tomorrow is good, I'll probably go another day during the week as well.

In any case, fish or no fish, I like the lake, the weather is supposed to be good and it's my solitude. On a beautiful coastal lake, lots of sunshine and just me and my thoughts. Sounds like a good day to me.

One other question I have for you fine people. The bite is good until usually around 10:30 am. After that, I usually don't catch anything until about 5:30 pm. Should I fish differently during the middle of the day and if so, what would you folks recommend????

[Bass XL]

In the middle of the day, I like doing one of two things. I will either flip/pitch the heaviest stuff I can find with jigs or soft plastics, or I go deep and fish a deep diving crankbait or a big texas rigged worm.

[JShrock07]

BassChump,

I would recommend that you go fishing anyways regardless of the pressure. I fish a very difficult body of water and I thought I would never catch a fish. but then when I finally was able to understand the fish I was hauling them in the boat.

When you say that the fish just stop biting in the middle of the day is probably because they moved out of the area that you are fishing to find heavy cover or deep water. I like to fish heavy grassmats in the high heat of the middle of the day. I will also go out to the deeper part of the river and find deep water structure and good drop-offs. Then I will throw deep cranks and jigs and large worms. I will fish it very slowly. During the hot weather that is where the big'ens will hold. But you have to slow down your presentation. 8-)

[Crankhead]

Try fishing at night. The lake has settled down, no jet/water  skiers...pleasure boaters...very few guys fishing. And it's a great time to find the big ones.

[BassChump]

Well, I did go fishing yesterday (Tuesday) and it was a fine day. I caught a few fish, the wind didn't pick up as is so common on the coast and the boat ran fine. The only thing that could have made it a better day was if I had a lady chump in the back seat. lol. I'm "fishing" for more than just fish lately!!!!!

Anyway, I caught 9 total. 8 bass and one yellow perch. All the bass were caught on Senko's and all were over 2 pounds with 3 of them over 4 pounds. All in all, a good day.

I caught everything before 11:00 am and after 4:00 pm. Still can't find 'em in the middle of the day but I'm working on that.

I throw other stuff but with little or no luck so far and it's kind of bothering me. I haven't figured out how to catch bass on anything else. Any suggestions???

I am going out on Thursday and Friday as well and I'll let you guys know how I do and thanks again for everybodys help.

The picture below is of one of them I caught yesterday. Sorry the picture so dark. It was taken with my cell phone. My scale said it was 4 1/2 pounds but the scale is one of those cheap spring scales so I can't say for sure. I've weighed other stuff on it to check the weight and it seem accurate but I really don't know. That fish measured 20 1/2 inches. Unfortunately I didn't measure it's girth so if you had to guess, what would you guys estimate it weighed????

[Grey Wolf]

I would say your scale is darn close. Nice fish!!