Ayudame With These Conditions

[dhami013]

I have found a Secret lake that I have been fishing for a couple months now. Low pressured in fishing. I rarely see anyone out there, and I'm out there all the time. Early in the spring the water level was up and I was nailing 3-4lb fish. Even caught my PB 9 lbs out there.

The water level has gone down and so I don't catch as many big fish but I do catch at least 1 3-4lb fish every time I go out. So the fishing is good. The only thing is I'm catching a lot more dinks now in those places I was catching bigger fish. I'm guessing with the heat and lower water level these fish are going deeper.

This is the problem I'm facing. There's a lot of water in the 10-15 foot range, and some depths that shoot down to 30ft. There's also a handful of lay down trees that stick up and out in the 10-15 foot water. I've never fished open deep water and I'm wondering how do I approach it? I've used my fish finder to locate ridges, drop offs, and deeper water structure but not too many fish have produced running cranks, and trying a t-rig.

C-rig? Drop shot dragged? I love fishing t-rigged plastics and jigs but I just don't feel confident in using them in deep open water like that.

What are your opinions?

[Grey Wolf]

I think you answered your own question.

[Catt]

I love fishing t-rigged plastics and jigs but I just don't feel confident in using them in deep open water like that.

What are your opinions?

Can’t gain confidence if you aint throwing em

[Jigfishn10]

From your OP you sound like you're a reaction lure type fisherman. I'd say run those t-rigs, c-rigs, jigs, drop shots etc until you get confidence in them. Heck, run a tube down there and see what happens.

Without knowing your conditions, it's a hard question to answer, but you need to get more confident at slowing down and fishing those lures. If you're dead set against it, slow roll a 1/2 oz to 3/4 oz spinnerbait along the edge, tree stumps or hop it down the drop off. Get the confidence in that presentation and then try it with the above (t-rigs, c-rigs etc). JMHO

[slonezp]

Jigs or T/Florida rigged ribbontail worms around the "stick-um-ups"(learned that word on Bull Shoals), unless you believe the fish may be suspended. If that's the case I would try to determine the depth of the thermocline on your fishfinder and start there, with a dropshot or crank. I'm still learning deep water fishing as most of the lakes I fish are primarily shallow with a few deep holes. Although frustrating at times it becomes more enjoyable once you figure them out.

[Jigfishn10]

Jigs or T/Florida rigged ribbontail worms around the "stick-um-ups"(learned that word on Bull Shoals), unless you believe the fish may be suspended. If that's the case I would try to determine the depth of the thermocline on your fishfinder and start there, with a dropshot or crank. I'm still learning deep water fishing as most of the lakes I fish are primarily shallow with a few deep holes. Although frustrating at times it becomes more enjoyable once you figure them out.

That's a bit profound...

[Sam]

YES!!!

Throw Texas rigged worms; shaky heads; drop shots; C-rigs, and wacky Senkos/trick worms.

You should drive them crazy with the above presentations.

I suggest going with the shaky heads first; wacky Senkos/trick worms second; and the Texas rigged worms third.

Use hooks with the wire guard if possible. You will need hooks with wire guards to fish the wood so get some to reduce the snags.

Light sinkers and weightless shaky heads should do the trick, too.

They will be in the wood so use line that is abrasive resistant and strong enough to pull them out. Be sure to check your line for knicks and cuts after three or four casts and each fish you catch. Retie as necessary.

Have extra baitcasters and spinning rigs ready to replace the ones you are using so you can change out easily if you have to cut a lot of line off your first set of reels due to the knicks and cuts.

I fish a double secret pond like you describe and it is fantastic. Hookingem on this site pulled a seven pound lady out the last trip using a jig.

I lost a five pound beauty in the wood.

We both caught two five pounders plus a lot of others.

In the early AM or late evening, go with your buzzbaits, poppers and frogs. Throw them to each side of the wood pike and hold on. The strikes are fantastic!!!!!

Good luck.

Post pics!!!!

[senile1]

The only thing I would add is that a c-rig might not be the way to go out of all the choices suggested. If there is a lot of brush on the bottom around your stick-ups you'll be hanging up quite often with a c-rig. If the bottom is fairly clean around the stick-ups, then add the c-rig to your list.

[RoLo]

Sounds to me like you've found yourself a little Eden.

What you've described is a very healthy pond, but I don't know whether it's natural or the result of impoundment.

You received good responses regarding lures and delivery, so there's no need to rehash any of that.

Location is at least as important as presentation, and a great place to put your emphasis.

With the exception of the bedding season, I'd be real interested in the 10 to 15 depth zone.

Spend a whole day with your depth sounder, and pinpoint all areas with the best woody &/or weedy cover in 10 to 15 ft of water.

Then save onsite waypoints at every spot where woody &/or weedy cover in the 10 to 15-ft depth range,

adjoins a sharp drop-off into 25 ft of water, the steepest slope in the area.

Roger

[dhami013]

Also I've heard that creeping into a spot to fish with your fish finder is a bad idea. I usually turn it off when I pull into a more shallow structured area but should I be cutting it off while fishing in the deeper water? Say 10-15ft do I need to turn it off then?

Thanks for all the responses. I had an incredible day yesterday. Didn't catch a thing for 3 hours, then soon enough wham I was nailing them left and right. Then a massive fish snapped my line with the last of my brush hogs. I must've went through 6 of those bad boys. I was catching them all in an area with heavy brush an hour before sunset.

Still no luck with deeper water, I tried though. I'll be back at it again tomorrow.

[RoLo]

Also I've heard that creeping into a spot to fish with your fish finder is a bad idea. I usually turn it off when I pull into a more shallow structured area but should I be cutting it off while fishing in the deeper water? Say 10-15ft do I need to turn it off then?

The wave-length of your sonar is too short to be perceived by bass. My sonar is switched 'On' when the boat is launched

and is not switched 'Off' until the boat is retrieved. On the other hand, your electric motor emits a perceptible wave-length.

Some hold that bass are alarmed by an electric motor, but it wouldn't surprise me if bass were attracted by the sound

Roger

[Catt]

The wave-length of your sonar is too short to be perceived by bass. My sonar is switched 'On' when the boat is launched

and is not switched 'Off' until the boat is retrieved. On the other hand, your electric motor emits a perceptible wave-length.

Some hold that bass are alarmed by an electric motor, but it wouldn't surprise me if bass were attracted by the sound

Roger

X2

[dhami013]

Right on, so I went out and hit those drop offs and was even seeing fish down there. We got one bite in deep water all day. I must have thrown almost my entire plastic arsenal. Nothing on the c-rig. But what these fish don't know is that I'm very determined and very stubborn.

They shall be mine, oh yes, they shall be mine.