Suggestions on SM fishing this body of water

[chromedog]

I have a lake I will be fishing this weekend with my brother and father.  Now my brother and I grew up fishing and hunting.  We lived in the inner city and that is what my father did to keep us out of trouble.  Now he is about 3 hours away and we don't get to fish a whole lot together anymore so when we do.....it is war, the s#@t talking is non-stop.  I really want to pound him this time around, lmao.

Now I have fished the lake before, we are dealing with all small mouth.  The lake is extremely clear and clean and is very deep, depths up to 300 feet.  I believe it is the cleanest lake in the US...Skaneateles, in upstate NY.  I have a couple of spots where I have mapped big time drop offs as well as a couple of shallow shorelines that hold fish in the early morning hours.  I am usually throwing suspended stick bait the whole time I am out as that seems to keep me getting bit.

What else do you guys suggest....I have a great drop shot rig, 4" roboworms, gulp leeches; I have brush hogs and beavers.  Plenty of rat l traps and stick baits.  I know a lot of the smallies I catch on there are spitting up tons of crayfish.  How would you attack this besides throwing the suspended baits?

[grimlin]

I don't see Jigs or tubes in that group.If they are spitting up crayfish,it's almost a must to have these two baits with you.

I would start shallow and work deep.This time of the year where the baitfish is,is where the fish are going to be.Pay attention to what depth the fish are holding at.

[chromedog]

Actually forgot about those, I do have several booyah jigs and trailers I have used in the past and a pretty decent amount of tube baits (no real confidence in them yet).

So for the most part, drag those jigs and tube baits right along the bottom?

The majority of the bottom is rock/sand, very little weeds on this lake.  One of my major drop offs has some weeds, but nothing like largemouth habitat.

[roadwarrior]

Soft baits: Fat Ika, 3 1/2" tubes, GYCB Single Tail Grub and

Single Tail Hula Grub.

Hard baits: Lucky Craft Pointer 100, Rapala X-Rap (XR8), Zara

Spook and/or LC Sammy.

Lots of guys fish the 4" & 5" Senko and small hair jigs. I have

had some luck with Silver Buddies, too.

For deep ledges and humps, 3/4 oz Ledgebuster Single Willow

Blade Spinnerbait is a must.

Good luck!

8-)

[grimlin]

Tube baits can be worked in any way.Pop or twitch them off the bottom,drag them,dead stick them,let the current drag them around.I t-rig them with some kind of wide gap hook usually with a 3/0-4/0 hook(Depends on the size of tube you are using).Use the lightest weight you can get away with. Many of my bites come on the fall or the way to the bottom.So be prepared to set the hook. You can also use an inside tube jig with an exposed hook if you don't have a lot of snags,I rarely miss a fish on this. I also think the lighter the line you use the better for these baits.

Jigs are more of a slower bait for me.Crayfish move slowly with occasional burst of speed when frighten or threaten.I try to recreate that movement.Like tubes,the bite can come on the fall as well...if that jig isn't doing what it suppose to be doing set the hook.Jigs can be a little harder to detect the bite for some reason.  

[chromedog]

I assume you are saying the 5" grubs?  Rig them on a 1/4 or 3/8 oz shakey head or a jig head and drag/bounce them or swim them?  I am gonna go grab a few of the GYCB's tonight, I see there are only a couple of colors, so I will probably go with smoke.  If I can get some of the skirted ones I will grab some kind of brown/crawfish colored.

[chromedog]

I will be running 6lb yo-zuri.  

With the grubs and the tubes, can I use pegged bullet weights and a bead?

[roadwarrior]

I generally use jig heads with grubs and retrieve them without

bottom contact. With 3 1/2" tubes I use a 3/0 EWG Gamakatsu

Offset Worm Hook, Tex-posed and 1/8 oz barrel or bullet weight,

unpegged and no bead.

For a completely different presentation, 1/8 -1/4 oz inserted jig

head. Let the tube free fall to the bottom, then lift it as much as

possible, moving rod tip from water level to 12:00; free fall and

repeat.

8-)

[chromedog]

Thanks, I am going to give it a whirl.  Any color in particular of tubes?  I know I have everything from white to purples and perch colors.  Am I correct in assuming I am going to try and match the crayfish in color?

[roadwarrior]

Most people suggest that, but not me.

I like baby diaper yellow, green and white

for tubes; smoke or clear with silver & black

flakes for grubs.

8-)

[grimlin]

I use watermelon or Pumpkin color for tubes....Watermelon would be my choice for clearer water.I catch more on those two colors than any other color.

[chromedog]

Ok, I went out to my local little shop, they mostly are fly gear as it is the home of Cortland Line Co., but they do carry a small amount of bass gear.  I know these guys have a small, very small amount of GYCB and I was able to pick up a package of 5" grubs in Watermelon w/balck flake and pumpkin (motoroil color) w/ black flake.  Nice soft baits.  I looked it up on a few websites and $6.99 seems to be the going price.  I got them for $5.25 a pack.  Their senco's were the same price!

But anyways, what size jighead do you guys suggest for these grubs?  I found all I had was some 1/4oz heads in different colors.

[J Francho]

I'd be drop shotting 4" Roboworms (Aaron's Magic) or working a tube in 20-40 FOW there. Find bait on your graph, and the fish shouldn't be too far behind, and in fact you should see them on the graph as well.

[chromedog]

According to the local report stickbaits and tubes have been the trick the last week.  I do have my dropshot set-up ready to roll and I do have a full pack of Aaron's magic ready.  

The lake is huge and can be overwhelming but we have a few proven areas that usually allows us to get our limits.  But with the new moon being tomorrow and the massive temperature drop, I am hoping that they are hungry and we can pick up some really nice ones.  There has to be something said for the quality of SM in big, open, deep waters!

[Dwight Hottle]

You might want to consider some jigging spoons for deep water locations . If you mark bait deep they can be effective.